Choosing your meal via C-meal
For each meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner), your child can choose in advance between different options.
You or your child submit the choices for the next day via the C-MEAL programme, available on the interactive screen (Octopuz screen) at the bedside.
If your child is on a diet, an adapted choice list is provided automatically. If needed, a dietitian will visit to discuss the diet with you.
Mealtimes
Breakfast is served around 08:00, lunch around 12:00 and dinner around 17:15.
After the meal, place the trays yourself on the ward’s distribution trolley. Do this no later than two hours after serving. This helps us keep the rooms tidy.
Is your child in isolation?
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Then the trays are cleared from the room. Parents are not allowed to place them back on the distribution trolley themselves. We do ask you to place the tray by the door (on the washbasin).
Leftovers from meals?
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Do not store them in the room fridge. It is only for drinks and small snacks in sealed packaging.
Food and drink options for parents
On the ward
- Chilled water at the water fountains
- Coffee and tea
- Microwave oven
In the hospital
- Coffee bar (reception hall, Toegang Oost)
- Visitors' restaurant De Vier (Groene straat, poort 1, niveau 2)
- Take-out (near Toegang West, at the end of the Groene straat)
- Various vending machines (including in the reception hall)
Meals for the rooming-in parent
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Via C-MEAL, the parent who stays overnight (rooming-in) can also order meals for themselves. The parent pays for both the lodging and the meals.
Hygiene guidelines for infant feeding
Bottle feeding
Milk and mineral water are not sterile. The preparation is kept chilled (< 5 °C) until just before warming. The maximum storage time for a prepared bottle is 30 hours. Bottles are prepared under strict conditions in the milk kitchen for the next 24 hours.
- The milk is always kept in the special fridge on the ward, never in the room.
- Always disinfect your hands with an alcohol hand rub before starting to warm and give the bottle.
- Warming is done in a hot-air bottle warmer (37 °C) located at the nurses’ station. This takes about ± 30 minutes. If possible, let us know in time when your child wants to drink.
- You can warm the bottle in the microwave at your own responsibility. Always check the temperature on the back of your hand before administering, to avoid burning your child’s oesophagus.
- The bottle must be given within half an hour after warming. Never offer it for longer than half an hour.
- Never keep leftovers.
Breast milk
When expressing milk, careful hygiene is important to prevent contamination. Always ask the nurses for new expressing kits.
Expressed breast milk must always be kept chilled (< 5 °C) for a maximum of 48 hours. Within those 48 hours, it may still be frozen (-18 °C).
- The milk is always kept in the special fridge on the ward, never in the room.
- Warming is done in a hot-air bottle warmer (37 °C) located at the nurses’ station. This takes about ± 30 minutes. If possible, let us know in time when your child wants to drink.
- Never warm breast milk in the microwave.
- If your child drinks slowly, have the milk divided into two bottles. The milk must be given within half an hour.
- Never keep leftovers.
Mashed lunch or vegetable purée – fruit purée
The mashed lunch and fruit purée are kept in the ward fridge until feeding time.
The lunch is available from 11:00. Heat the food for 1 minute in the microwave. Then stir well to distribute the heat. The lunch may be offered to your child for a maximum of 1 hour and must not be reheated afterwards.
If the fruit purée is too cold, you can let it sit for a moment. Note: you may only offer the fruit purée to your child for a maximum of 1 hour.