the nursery fed my 11 month old baked beans and rich tea biscuits?

[muttermal]

Trying to find day care for my 11 month old is so hard! Not only the cost but also the availability - we are 200th on one waiting list so our little one will be 14 before she gets a place!
So, having found a place (and with my boss wanting me back fulltime asap) how "selective" should and can I be?
Are biscuits and baked beans ok as part of their "healthy meals" policy?
Is it ok that the planning, activities and resources seem to be lacking?
Should I just put her in for now and then keep looking for somewhere else?

at my dc nursery they have beans every week, but the menu is varied and appropiate for small children.
no big deal, as the others say as long as it is not only beans and bisquits.

My dd gets beans and biscuits at nursery. But only every couple of weeks. She gets mostly fruit for snack, with a biscuity/bread/pastry type option as well (she quite often has naan bread with her fruit, but that's coz I tend to send her on the same day each week!). Then she has a hot lunch, which may include baked beans, but has ranged from chicken and rice with veg through to soup and sarnies, or cottage pie. She has tried some foods for the first time there -stuff we don't normally have at home. I'm just pleased that she's learning that eating a range of food is good (reinforces what I try to teach at home but I am not an adventurous or particularly great cook, and neither do I enjoy it especially, so it's nice to have someone else offering her different things without me having to worry about it!), and that you can have treats, just not gorge on them. They do have cake, but only on a child's birthday. Again, I like that she is learning that some food is for special occasions. Ask to see their menus and make your decision from there. I also know that the kids at my dd's nursery (she's been going there since 18 mo) are involved as far as possible in food prep, so little ones might be encouraged to spread butter on bread, or put out plates, or place food on to plates to take to the table, and the older they get, the more they might do (eg 'helping' to cut a piece of fruit). I'm really happy with this and if it means that sometimes the job is laying out the biccies on a plate, so be it!

I want a fluffy rhinocerous!

Hmmm - I wouldn;t be worries about the baked beans and the biscuits, I would be worried abou tputting my child - particularly a non-verbal baby - into childcare I wasn;t happy with becauae "my boss wanted me back full time."

some good packed lunch ideas here

My DS is 8 months. THey have baked beans on toast for tea (not lunch) once every 3 weeks. It is reduced salt baked beans on wholemeal toast and only a very small portion. It does not bother me at all. The nursery has a very nice menu which is freely available to the parents to review and opt in and out of certain things (like crisps and biscuits etc which are given very infrequently) and tea is snacky while lunch is a more time consuming effort. If your nursery has not discussed meals etc with you to this extent then I would be more worried about that than the beans per se.

I would not have left my child at any nursery that I was not happy with. I was very selective (spreadsheets and everything). A few minor things I let go of (you have to give on some things when you choose not to look after your child yourself) but it was very important to me that I be happy with the feel and ethos of the nursery and that my child would be stimulated and well looked after. If I had not found that I would not have gone back to work until such time as I did. End of. I started looking at nurseries when DS was 4 weeks old with a view to taking as much time as needed to find the right one.

at fluffy rhinos