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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:
Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:55

Ok, I am going to ask how they are cooked. If they're baked, I will be fine with it ... just potatoes in a chippy shape!

If deep fried, I'll simply ask that he doesn't have them.

It's not so much the food ... I know and accept that DS will eat junk. I ate junk from the age of 9 - 17, and ONLY junk. But at 7 months old, it makes me uncomfortable, and makes me feel guilty. I will learn to live with it, and if the food is cooked in a decent way then I won't mind - I just want him to be healthy.

OP posts:
MmeLindor. · 05/09/2011 20:57

Bibbity
But at 7 mths, from my experience, most of the chips will be squashed in his little hands and smeared around the table.

Mspontipine · 05/09/2011 20:57

Is he actually eating much of it in reality anyway? At that age DS was managing a small tin ( Blush ) of Heinz bacon and beans.

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 20:58

Northernlurkerr I will have to respectfully ask you not to be so silly by posting that. It's like telling a child to eat their broccolli because 'children are starving in Africa'.

As someone who used to have an eating disorder, I don't think that my attitude is hysterical. I simply want what is best for my baby and am not about to go charging in on a great white steed to save him from the evils of transfats.

OP posts:
dreamingbohemian · 05/09/2011 20:59

Yes I'd be wondering if at 7 months he's even actually eating much of the chips anyway

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 21:01

Mspontipine - I've not seen him eat at nursery, but at home DS is an extremely efficient self-feeder and eats 'properly' 90% of the time.

Nursery have already expressed surprise at how much he puts away. I suggested they take the food away after the amount he was eating veered into, 'good god I think that child is about to rupture his stomach lining' territory. But generally I let him eat as much as he is happy with, on the assumption that babies that young don't generally grossly over-eat.

OP posts:
Iggly · 05/09/2011 21:01

I gave DS chips at 6 months. He ate plenty of sweet potato, veg, decent meat etc. If they're oven chips, how is that worse than baked tats with fat cheese or mash with butter?

DS doesn't eat pizza, fish fingers or processed meats at 2 so maybe that's why I'm so relaxed about the chips.

MmeLindor. · 05/09/2011 21:03

Cubiksrube
I don't think that you have to worry about him being healthy, just because of a few chips.

Yes, if you are unhappy about this then talk to the nursery, but as long as he has a healthy balanced diet then he will be healthy.

Balanced means a few treats now and again are absolutely allowed.

bibbitybobbityhat · 05/09/2011 21:04

MmeLindor
Then I would hope a 7 year old would be given something they might actually eat.

bibbitybobbityhat · 05/09/2011 21:04

7 month old, sorry! I am posting about my 7 year old on another thread.

Tyrionlovingyourwork · 05/09/2011 21:07

I don't think chips should on the menu at nursery school. I wouldn't expect menu changes every few months. I would ask about preparation and for menu to be displayed.

My DC ate his main hot meal at nursery and the healthy menu two weekly menu looked fab. This was a source of comfort even when he was occasionally fussy and wouldn't eat it. They had a policy of allowing pudding even if meal had not been eaten - my DC understood we have a different rule at home.

At DS's nursery party bags came from other children as birthday treats. I think nursery send them hope specifically for you to eat.

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 21:08

MmeLindor, I assure you we do give him a healthy and extremely balanced diet! I'm aware children need plenty of fat and am not some sort of vegetable fascist who only wants her DS to eat green things. Grin

I just don't see any need to feed a 7-month-old baby chips. I simply don't. Maybe I'm a snob but something inside me rebels against that.

THAT SAID, I have sent my son to nursery and can't control everything they do there. As people have suggested, such as Iggly (thank you, you're right) baked chips aren't worst than potatoes. So I'll politely ask how the chips are cooked and if they're cooked in any way that is vaguely healthy, I'll leave them to it and shut up.

OP posts:
Northernlurkerr · 05/09/2011 21:09

OP - did you even read it? Of course you want your baby to be healthy. Occasional chips aren't going to cause a problem for that.

You are over-reacting to your child being fed potatoes - you don't even know how they were prepared, just that they came in a certain shape.

I would not expect a nursery to prepare different food for babies who are old enough to feed themselves something with their hands as well as being helped.

MmeLindor. · 05/09/2011 21:09

bibbity
the OP has now posted that he is a good eater - something my DC weren't at that age - so the point is moot. My experience of food at that age, was messier.

Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 21:09

Not 'plenty' of fat, argh, you know what I mean. facepalm

OP posts:
Original poster
CubiksRube · 05/09/2011 21:12

Northernlurkerr I did indeed read it. Perhaps I interpreted your intentions in posting it wrongly. In which case, I was wrong.

Maybe you're right. As I've said, I'm going to go and politely ask how they're prepared. If the answer is that they aren't deep-fried, I'll leave it and in future, be a little less hasty to jump to conclusions.

If they ARE deep-fried, I shall set my pet zombie on them.

OP posts:
Iggly · 05/09/2011 21:15

Grin maybe when you think of chips you think of those from the fish and chip shop?

Kids do need more fat, plenty compared to how much an adult has I suspect! When does the need for more fat diminish?

AitchTwoOh · 05/09/2011 21:18

you're not being unreasonable to question it, OP, you just aren't. if you were flying into a complete panic about it, which you emphatically aren't, then you might be being unreasonable. but you aren't. you are asking is it okay to query this, which it is. Grin

storminabuttercup · 05/09/2011 21:21

My ds's nursery uses the school dinner supplier, (it's within a college) he's been having nursery dinners since he was around 8 months and they sometimes gave them chips, but also some other great stuff, I've never worried tbh, even chips once a week won't hurt, they are only potatoes. Also my health visitor recommended chips as first finger foods...! But your child, your choice!

skybluepearl · 05/09/2011 21:22

URNBU.

why give him chips when babe can have better food?

Northernlurkerr · 05/09/2011 21:23

My intention in posting it was to point out that it's issues with food that really harm our kids not individual food choices as part of a generally balanced diet. That 'healthy' may not always = 'good' and sugar and fat not always equate to the end of civilisation as we know it.

I believe far too much of our consciousness as a society is invested in food, in appearences and in judgements based on food and I think it's really bad for pretty much all of us. So I get v tetchy when babies and toddlers and chips and sugar come up. I read that article today and I was horrified that 200 children between 5 and 9 have been hospitalised for eating disorders. That will obviously include over-eating as well as under-eating. How does a 6 year old develop an eating disorder?

Glad you are investigating to put your mind at rest and then hopefully will be able to step back. That's not easy, I do know that. Using a nursery will mean some compromises as you are obviously aware.

AitchTwoOh · 05/09/2011 21:24

but a 7 month old is not a toddler, and he is unlikely to be in the same room as toddlers.

RitaMorgan · 05/09/2011 21:26

I am really curious as to whether the burger and chips was pureed/mashed/spoonfed/finger food.

CheerfulYank · 05/09/2011 21:26

OP I don't think you're being hysterical, FWIW. There's nothing wrong with asking.

NorthenLurker she doesn't know how they're prepared and she's been completely reasonable. The workers have written out "chips" in his book so that's what she's assuming he's been fed, naturally.

Also, given the hours he is at nursery I'd assume he's eating quite a lot of food there, so I think it's reasonable of the OP to want to know what it's in it.

CheerfulYank · 05/09/2011 21:28

And I am horrified by the number of little children developing eating disorders but in my country (maybe not in yours) a far, far greater number of children are being harmed by obesity.