erm.. chocolate finger for 10 month old at nursery?

[DuelingFanjo]

I didn't put anything on his form saying that I didn't want him to have cakes/biscuits/chocolate so maybe I am being unreasonable but I was a bit to be told that the nursery had given DS a chocolate finger today. I said 'oh, really?' but now I am home I think that actually I am stupid for not saying something and now I feel annoyed with them and annoyed with myself.

What to do ? I have to say something. I was told that they feed the babies healthy food, no juice and so on so I thought they might know that chocoloate fingers for a baby that old is not normal? Or is it? Am I the weird one?

It's a good nursery, highly recommended and they haven't done anything I don't like before.

Oh ok, hang on then.

That ok, DF?

I think them knowing what chocolate is, what it tastes like and that they can have it occasionally is a good thing myself ReshapeWhilstDamp. Everything has to be in moderation, even the much adored fruit of middle England needs restrion!

A quick google shows that a choc finger has 31 calories and although these are 'empty' calories it's hardly tipping the scales towards childhood obesity is it? A rice cake also has 30 empty calories but more carbs than the finger which has more fat.

I'd much rather my child be able to have a healthy attitude and stop at one biscuit than battle like I do with eating the whole packet!

I don't think the point is that one single finger is going to make him more prone to obesity. It's just that if the OP chooses to feed her baby nutritious food and to avoid chocolate, then that's not an unreasonable thing to want. And while perhaps she could have let the nursery know, I wouldn't have expected them to dole out chocolate biscuits to babies myself. There's plenty of time for her child to learn about sweet treats when he's a toddler and is raiding the cupboards and wrestling biscuits from older children at toddler groups.

surely it depends on the rice cake, an average adult one has 30calories but i feed my little ones the baby organix ones or boots own brand, ihave a packet it says 170 calories in a 50g bag of rice cakes, you get quite a lot of rice cakes in the packet 30 maybe? so they arent 30 calories each. not that i can be arsed doing the maths!

one chocolate finger isnt much for adult, but for a baby with a tiny tummy it is much more, ditto crisps, when my kids get them at parties etc, they dont get a whole packet, the guildlines/recomended amounts on the packet are for an adult, my children arent adults, they dont need the same amounts of fat, salt, sugars etc, in general their portion sizes need to be smaller, and the op has said she thinks her baby had 'a few' chocolate fingers, which for a 10mth old is a lot really, at 10mths old they are still learning about food and their digestive system is getting used to having diff things, i think its perfectly reasonable to control what they eat at this age and give them the healthier option rather than chocolate, there is plenty of time for them to have a bit of a chocolate in a balanced diet when they are older.

DF, without for one moment wanting to come across as patronising because this is your first baby, I was just as determined that DS1 shouldn't know what chocolate was until he was at least 1 (chocolate cake was his birthday cake and he was underwhelmed by it), DS2 is another matter... In fact, he was weaned by his big brother with a vanilla ice cream cone! He's definitely had his sweet treat experiences a lot earlier than DS1. (Tries hard to forget passing him those Spanish rollitos with chocolate-flavoured filling, during a horrible car-ride where we were stuck in traffic. It stopped him crying.)

I've said it before, but rice cakes are shit.

Why on earth is it presented as a Good Thing to fill children up with crap that isn't up to much nutritionally and doesn't even have much energy in it?

rice cakes are shit! If I was peckish and someone gave me a plain rice cake I would not be impressed!

they arent all plain, thoe organix ones does fruit flavoured ones, i eat them with a pure pear spread ( its a bit like jam only no sugar and its thicker texture, from the health food shop) or with honey as a snack, but obv you canta give under ones honey.

breadsticks, rice cakes, fruit, oat cakes, crackers etc are all perfectly reasonably snacks, my kids love crackers with cheese.

Ok, I am not obsessive about this, nor am I overly upset. I was shocked and a bit upset at the time because in a strange way I also felt a bit sad about the fact that he had never had any chocolate and someone else had chosen to give it to him. That someone else being the nursery and me thinking 10 months is rather young for something like chocolate just made it all seem a bit worse than it maybe really was.

I am guessing the nursery assumed I had already given him chocolate, or that they bellieve it's fine for a 10 month old to have some. I think, if I was a nursery nurse I would have checked with the parent first partiularly for a small baby of 10 months but as we have already established I am some kind of chocolate stealing nazi who is going to give my child an eating disorder and is denying him a balanced diet by not introducing sugary foodstuffs into his diet early enough

DS will always be my PFB and my Precious Only child so it looks like I will be fucking him up by default! Poor little bugger. Fany having a mum who cares to look out for him and worry about what he's eating. Here's hoping he never has any kids because no doubt I will be the granny from hell, or perhaps I will just keep my nose out and let him get on with raising his children as he sees fit. Maybe I can influence his choices now while he's young enough not to answer back

Totally agree about the rice cakes :) Thought they were something people only ate when starving and on low calorie diets until I joined mumsnet & it appears that they are a healthy food?!

oh, and I eat rice cakes and Oat cakes for fun! I love them. If DS doesn't like them I won't make him eat them but it doesn't mean I will automatically give him chocolate fingers instead!

As the mother of an only, you have years of bizarre, rude and thoughtless comments ahead of you

I mean directed at you, sorry

I like oat cakes Dueling so I'll let you off

By the way, I said you were not being unreasonable further up the thread

But oatcakes are not empty calories as they contain oats with all their inherent oaty goodness :) Although an oatcake has more fat than a choc finger...

Is it the chocolate? If it had been a plain cake or a unchoc-ed hobnob would you feel the same?

I'm interested because I haven't had pfb yet & can't relate at all to the rice cake/breadstick/diet I could never stick to myself school of thought. Not because I don't care about the health of my baby or think you don't care about the health of yours but because I just don't see it being realistic in the long term, particularly if we have to rely on others to look after our children when we're not there. It seems to be such an emotive topic and I wonder if that's because food is linked with nurturing and love and emotion in so many aspects.

I think that rice cakes are dire-why give a DC something like cardboard? The only excuse is if you really enjoy them and eat them as snacks, but I don't think it is a good thing to give to a baby while you have something that isn't like eating cardboard!

Of course YANBU. I'd be cross if a nursery gave my baby a chocolate biscuit - totally unnecessary. With my first child I kept her away from chocolate and biscuits for as long as possible - it's harder to do with subsequent children but really, if a child is happy with fruit/savoury biscuits etc, why give them stuff wth no nutritutional value that's bad for their teeth?

It's not that big a deal but I'd ask the nursery to not give chocolate biscuits. 10 month old babies don't need sugary 'treats'.

My DS loves rice cakes and oatcakes. Although I try to spread something nutrious on the ricecake as they aren't that nutrious themselves...white rice is a low nutrient food anyway and rice cakes are just mostly air! But they are better than nothing though I guess.

Oatcakes are lovely with a bit of cheese. You wouldn't ruin a nice bit of Stilton with a ricecake though.

That'd be madness.

But why choceyes is a rice cake better than nowt if it has no nutritional value? A choc finger, has no nutritional value either but if I stick it in a bit of no sugar fruit puree it is serving the same purpose isn't it? I just don't understand why some nutritionally useless foods are seen as good - rice cakes, breadsticks and some are seen as bad - choc finger, a non-goodie cheesy wotsit. At the end of the day they're all mainly refined carbohydrates aren't they? I'm genuinely trying to understand the reasoning behind it.

Well it's better than them going hungry!
Also the ricecake doesn't taste sweet (and I don't spread sweet stuff on it, I do hummous or nut butter) so it won't be a sugary snack like the chocolate finger would be. And a rice cake is not really processed food is it? just puffed up rice, unlike cheesy whotsits or choc fingers.
Nor does is it bad for their teeth.

I hate rice cakes BTW.

I do at when people talk about giving babies a sweet tooth though. As fruit is sweet and also breastmilk is soooo sweet!!

This fascinates me too. Why is a chocolate finger ok but a slug of coke awful? Why is an oatcake and jam better than a biscuit? It's so interesting. Why is unlimited fruit with tons of sugar ok but a small ice cream not, in the context of a basically good diet?

Breadsticks and rice cakes are nutritionally empty too. Why give them at all?