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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask nursery to Cease and Desist feeding DS chips?

101 replies

CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:20

DS has been at nursery for a couple of weeks; he is 7 months old.

Once per week - according to his activity book - DS has been feed 'fish and chips' or 'burger, chips and beans' for lunch.

I appreciate he is PFB and nobody but me would want to spend an hour baking mackeral fillet with herbs, and braising savoy cabbage for a baby who will, inevitably, tip half of it on the floor.

However. Fish and chips? For a 7-month-old? At some point, he was going to eat these things but I didn't imagine it would be now. I want to tell them to stop ... or to offer to bring in some baked sweet potato wedges ... but am I being one of Those Mummies?!

DS is also already rather, erm, large. 95th centile or thereabouts, and does tend towards gluttony. He has gotten larger since nursery started, and I do wonder if the diet has anything to do with it.

So. AIBU?

OP posts:
hairylights · 05/09/2011 20:21

Yanbu.

StrandedBear · 05/09/2011 20:22

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

JetLi · 05/09/2011 20:22

Give it 10 months and you will be grateful if he eats anything

Seriously though I don't think our nursery even serves chips.

LemonDifficult · 05/09/2011 20:23

I think YAprobBU but you should talk it over with nursery. Chips are potatoes and a burger is mince and bread. Baked beans are quite nutrious. Just check they aren't deep frying it.

ruletheworld · 05/09/2011 20:24

I wouldn't like it.

My DDs are 3.1 and 14 months and I'm very relaxed about food when we eat out and would let DD1 have chips with her meal then, and DD2 have some off her plate.

But once a week, not on your nelly. I am a glutton and I don't eat chips anywhere near once a week!

CheerfulYank · 05/09/2011 20:25

More detail needed on the chips. :) Are they greasy fried crappy ones, or just roasted potato chunks?

whackamole · 05/09/2011 20:25

Depends what sort of chips they are IMO. If they are chip-shop style, ie deep fat fried, then YANBU. However if they are made at nursery, and more akin to oven-roasted wedges than YABU.

Ask nursery. Ours is very good, they do have chips and pizza and things like that, but they are all freshly made by a cook in the kitchen.

ruletheworld · 05/09/2011 20:25

Burger wouldn't bother me though, as lemon says it's just mince and bread and given I don't/won't cook red meat they wouldn't have it regularly.

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:26

Yes, I did wonder if they might be making 'home-made' chips that are actually just potatoes in a chippy sort of shape.

I do hope so. I want to check up on it, but don't want to come across as the neurotic, hemp-weaving mother who can't bear her child to eat what the other children happy eat.

JetLi I completely appreciate that at some point I'll be BEGGING him to eat anything, and offering up chips on a silver platter ! Grin

OP posts:
muffinflop · 05/09/2011 20:26

Depends on what sort of fish/burger/chips they are. I make my own chips, burgers and fish fingers. If it's processed crap then YANBU

ruletheworld · 05/09/2011 20:27

I don't think I would be happy with roasted chips once a week either.

Hmmm...I think I MAY have a stick up my arse.

Pfriend · 05/09/2011 20:27

I wouldn't like it. I'd say something or change nursery or both!

Sidge · 05/09/2011 20:29

It's fish on Fridays isn't it? That's what all the school dinner menus have!

On the rare occasions DD3s nursery did chips they were oven chips, so just potato and sunflower oil. Just like roast potatoes but a different shape!

But you can always ask them to give him an alternative if you're not happy.

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:29

CheerfulYank - I have not seen the chips. I have seen the kitchen and no evidence of a method of deep-frying anything. Or indeed boxes and boxes of MacDonalds wrappers! However, their 'chef' is not a chef, just a nursery worker with a diploma I think.

Also (this is not stealth, I just recalled!) they did send him home with a 'goody bag' that included party rings, haribo and a fluorescent drink. So they are not averse to feeding junk, which makes me slightly more suspicious.

They do seem very competent in all other ways however, and DS seems happy there. If he was 2, chips once a week wouldn't be SO bad. But he's so blardy young for them.

OP posts:
Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:30

Pfriend - we categorically won't be changing nurseries. This nursery is literally 30 seconds away from our house, in the direction of work. We will make it work with this nursery.

Based on responses ... yes, I'll go and have a chat with them, and if the chips are the softcore, baked kind, I'm happy for him to have them.

OP posts:
Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:31

Pfriend, apologies, that sounded rude! I meant to convey the desperation with which we need this nursery to work out! Blush

OP posts:
RitaMorgan · 05/09/2011 20:32

Er, didn't you check out the menu before you sent him there??

Is the nursery fairly cheap? They have to keep the costs down somewhere.

SmethwickBelle · 05/09/2011 20:33

YANBU, I thought you were going to say he was 2 or 3. 7 months I'd be expecting mostly fruit and veg with or in lumpy purees, the odd casserole and some pasta or rice not meals that require teeth and not burger and not chips

Although I suppose a chip is finger food. Shock

AnaisB · 05/09/2011 20:34

Is your doctor concerned about your child's weight? I don't think chips once a week is that bad - if they're oven chips then they're probably less fatty than roasted veg and definitely less fatty than cheese.

I would be uptight about the goody bag though!

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:35

Rita, we did check the menu - it changes every month and we checked it about 2 months before DS started there. It looked fine. Standard fare - fruit for snacks (which he does get), lasagne, meat and veg etc. Absolutely fine.

Perhaps, in that month, no children were fed chips ... but this month they are. Hmm

OP posts:
Iggly · 05/09/2011 20:36

Am I the only one who thinks yabu?

Chips - if oven baked - are like roast potatoes. Or even mashed potatoes with butter in. Once a week? Does he eat dairy? If he has loads of cheese, yoghurt etc that'll have more impact than weekly chips.

There is a big growth spurt around 6-7 months anyway which could explain the extra weight gain.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 05/09/2011 20:37

I don't have an issue with either fish and chips or burger and chips (in moderation etc etc) but at 7 months? Seriously? Maybe I'm misremembering, but I don't recall mine being quite that advanced at that age (and I pretty much let mine feed themselves as soon as they were capable of picking up and aiming vaguely in the direction of their mouths!) 10/11 months maybe.

To be fair to them though perhaps the food itself is slightly more baby friendly than it sounds, the only way you'll know is to ask.

Northernlurkerr · 05/09/2011 20:37

I think feeding dc spuds in the form of chips is very low on my scale of things to get irate about tbh.

Your ds is happy at nursery. Nursery are obviously communicating well - hence you knowing about the devils food in the first place - and their menu has variety.

Yes they will think you are one of those mummies if you ask about it - and rightly so.

FootprintsOnTheMoon · 05/09/2011 20:38

Goody bag would surely have been provided by one of the parents for a birthday?

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:38

AnaisB, I sort of let the goody bag go because they had the sense not to give him any of it, but to send it home with me. The HV hasn't been concerned about DS' weight - he's a very happy baby and is obviously healthy. However he is visibly a very round child and is also 'lazy' i.e. capable of rolling, sitting etc but simply doesn't bother. DP and I are both slim people so I worry that his roundness is due to diet.

Oh, Rita, sorry, no the nursery isn't that cheap. We are London Zone 2. All nurseries are disgustingly expensive!

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