to question nursery as to why they are serving jam sandwiches to babies?

[choceyes]

My DD is 14 months old and goes to nursery 3 days a week.

I won't know whether I am being precious or not, but it annoys me that occassionally she gets given jam sandwiches and also tinned spaghetti hoops on toast for her afternoon snack. I would never give these things to her at home. She always has healthy stuff, no treats at all, cos she is not a big eater, so I don't want to fill her up with junk.

My DS, 3yrs, is also at the same nursery, but there's nothing much I can do to stop him eating jam sarnies, as he would want to eat what his friends eat. and as he eats fairly well most of the time he can afford to have the occassional junk.

The nursery lunches are fine, and they also do fruit, chesse, crackers, tuna sandwiches for afternoon snack , so this probably happens about once a week I guess (i mean she gets either jam sarnies or hoops on toast maybe once a week, the rest of the meals are fine).

I dunno really. I was talking to a friend about it at the weekend and she was appalled at the jam sarnies, so got me thinking maybe I should say something to the manager.

I'm not in anyway a health freak, and against giving kids sugar, but not at 14 months, it's too young for me. And the nursery serves them to kids above 12 months I think.

It's just there is NO nutritional value in jam sarnies. I@d rather they gave her a flapjack or something (and they sometimes for the older ones dessert), which although has sugar, has got good things in it too.

Excellent, in that case I will go out, stuff myself silly on sausages rolls and go for a walk afterwards

Greggs, of course - washed down with a frootshoot :o

But yes, that would be far better than eating only superfoods and sitting on the sofa.

No exercise is a problem, but then not helped by a seven year old child having cooked dinner (not eating any veg), two bowls of ice cream, a bowl of custard, a packet of biscuits, and a 200g bar of chocolate in the space of a few hours

But it was that last Jam Samwidge wot done the damage :o

Thanks for your all your helpful replies.

I myself had a cracker with butter and jam on it last night as a snack, and I gave one to DS before bedtime too.

Now I know I said this many many times on this thread.........I AM TALKING ABOUT A 14 MONTH OLD BABY. Not that I don't give jam to my 3yr old nor would I refuse them sugar when they are older. I am talking about a my DD who is still eating small amounts of solids and in her diet I am not happy for somebody to give her junk (and I am sorry for those who have claimed jam sandwiches aren't junk - they are according to all the baby nutrional books I@ve read).

MrBloomsNursery - I am NOT calorie counting my childrens food intake and setting a bad exmaple to my baby daughter - what a lot of rubbish. It's not the flippin calories I was concerned about it is the poor quality of the food FGS. You are really out of order there.

I am actually quite shocked the amount of people who thing it is acceptable to give a baby even an occassional jam sandwich, when it is not necessary and the child would be none the wise with a cheese or fish sandwich.

And I agree with the mass produced bread, white and wholemeal. I read recently that only a very few bakers do proper bread in the country anymore, and there was only one outlet in Manchester that sells proper bread. And the article was saying all supermarket bread it just processed, nutrionally deficient stuff. They can legally say they add "flour treatment agent" but, this can include anything, and it often includes things you would never want to consume.

and flapjacks contains oats, which are good for you the last time I checked. And it is homemade by the nursery with no added crap.

Ffs my 8 year old ds is obsessed with the nutritional value of food after being taught about it at school over the last two years

He eats a healthy balanced diet and IMO should not be worrying so much at his age about what he's eating

We may have a problem with childhood obesity at the moment but I wonder what problems all the obsessions schools and parents have with food are going to cause children over the next 10 20 years

AMKD, but there is no need to "stuff yourself silly".

One sausage roll is not death sentence... nor will it lead to a lifetime of obesity.

Seriously, this is what makes me laugh. In moderation, a pie, sausage roll, or jam sandwich will not cause any health issues, so long as it is balanced with a healthy diet.

Nothing was "banned" from my diet when I was growing up.. but I was not allowed to just help myself to food any time I felt like it (something that many children seem to do these days), and we had set meal times, with very few snacks in between. We had a pudding every night, and bread with most meals, but portion size was not big.

Yabu - nothing wrong with a jam sarnie or spagetti hoops!

Also to say that as a family we do not eat much processed food either. We have healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinner, either homecooked or cafe/restaurant bought. When we have treats we always chare with DS................BUT NOT WITH DD who is too young still IMO. In a few months, when she is eating more solids, yes we will include her in our treats too occassionally.

I'd forgotten, we used to give crisps -the cheapest oiliest saltiest multi-flavoured crisps -as snack at nursery to 1-2s, (not under 1 year), and it was everyones favourite. Much more popular even than the white bread toast with marg and jam - the cheapest sugariest jam. Our manager did all the snack food shopping.

"Treat" I meant a sugary snack. Although for me a "treat" is something expensive like an exotic fruit or scallops or sea bass, something like that.

I am actually quite shocked the amount of people who thing it is acceptable to give a baby even an occassional jam sandwich, when it is not necessary and the child would be none the wise with a cheese or fish sandwich

Shocked? At bluddy Jam Sandwiches? And jam and bread are junk foods in your book?

Who would run a nursery.....

BuntyPenfold - your nursery sounds delightful

I don't work there any more choceyes. It was 4 years ago - that is what was bought for us to serve to under 2s.
I know, I can hardly believe it looking back.

yes whatmeworry, sugary jam and crappy white bread is junk food in my book. Even I won't eat it.

Yes I am shocked actually. Mildly shocked I'd say though. Although I guess judging by what I've seen people giving kids recently when out and about, I guess I shouldn't be that shocked.

I meant I won't eat jam and white bread on a regular basis like once a week.

Actually as well as a rise in child obesity ,there is also a rise in children with eating disorders

squeaky I agree with you, but saying that the junk that a sizeable minority of the UK's population stuff themselves with with no moderation whatsoever has nothing to do with the obesity crisis is just silly. Have you seen the size of the portions at restaurants in the USA? Flippin' heck. That amount of food, even if it isn't positively dripping with grease and corn syrup, consumed on a regular basis will make you fat even if you're an Olympic athlete.

It's quite the thing here to give toddlers in a stroller a pasty - a thing as big as their head almost - but more lands in their laps than is eaten I think.

bunty - I don't know how some nurseries don't get marked down for such food choices.
Like someone said earlier in the thread, her DD's childminder was marked down by Ofsted for serving jam sandwiches...so surely even they know that it is not an acceptable food to serve to small kids.

I don't know how a lot of things are got away with; we once had no running water for 2 full days at nursery and had to carry buckets down 3 flights of steps to flush the children's loos. They would not close though, I used to pray for a surprise Ofsted.

I hope you dont take this the wrong way, I am genuinely trying to be helpful...

You said upthread that your DD is very small for her age. And you said that you are happy for her to have "treats" once she is eating more food.
Perhaps she would eat more if you offered her more "treat" food? Not necessarily crap btw!
My DS is younger than her, and eats like a horse. I couldnt possibly say I'm saving anything for "when he eats more" as most days he eats more than me!

usualsuspect I suspect that the rise in childhood eating disorders has more to do with the premature sexualisation of both girls and boys than a tiny minority of crazy parents who monitor their child's every calorie and faint at the sight of ice cream. Also perhaps more to do with ignorant and/or lazy parents feeding their children beige for every meal so that they get fat, then get bullied?

Actually I think the constant bombardment of healthy eating plays quite a large part tbh

squeaky I agree with you, but saying that the junk that a sizeable minority of the UK's population stuff themselves with with no moderation whatsoever has nothing to do with the obesity crisis is just silly. Have you seen the size of the portions at restaurants in the USA?

Not sure what relevance USA portion size has to do with the UK, and I wont deny that there is an obesity problem in the USA in some states (not all). However one thing that is prevalent in the USA, but not in the UK is that many people who eat out will take home what they do not eat in a doggy bag, rather than try to shovel it all down in one go.

Obesity amongst children is what we are talking about here though, as they have little control over what they are given to eat by their parents. Thirty years ago children ate breakfast which was usually sugary cereal, had a school dinner, went home and had an evening meal, and probably had supper too, but there were a lot less overweight children back then. However the diet was counterbalanced by much more physical exercise because we did not have computer games, or facebook to sit in front of from the minute we got picked up at the school gates.

The school "run" back then was much more of a run, because we walked to school, and home again. We also went out to play straight after school too, and were not banned from playing games in the school playground either.

Good point. I do think that 'healthy eating' education has been terribly badly managed and that teachers haven't been trained properly on it. The message that fats and sugars are necessary components of a healthy diet seems to have been lost in more than one school.

BeyondLimitsOfTheLivingDead - what food would you suggest that are "treat" and also not crap? I can't think of many. Maybe you have some ideas? I try to give her high fat food like avocado, oily fish, nut butters etc to up her calorie intake.
Percentile wise she is fine really..in the 25th percentile she was born on. I am only 5'2 and weighs about 8 stone, so she is never going to that big is she?!