To think I should have control over what my son eats at nursery?

[booomy]

My 9 month old started nursery this week. There has been a few issues but the food has shocked me! It's a sure start centre with all 1's from ofsted.

The first day I went in, the babies (15 of them) were being spoon fed smushed up chips and pizza! I was really shocked, and the next day had a bit of a to-do with the senior leader about DS not having chips. Pizza is fine as long as its home-made bread with tomato sauce cheese and veggies. No harm in that. But in my mind it's weird to be feeding babies as young as 5months chips, even if they are oven baked!

I also said I didn't want DS having dessert. He soon learnt that after dinner was dessert and started refusing his food, so we cut it out. They made a big fuss about it (example is fruit crumble & custard/ice cream). But after speaking to the head teacher, they just give him bits of fruit from snack time (melon, strawberries etc) that he's fine with!

Fast forward to today (jubilee party). The babies were baking (if you can call it that) when we arrived. I plonked DS in the music area, which he loves and he sat there occupying himself. One of the staff asked if he could make a biscuit with icing and I said no! They were really annoyed at me :( they said before lunch they were having milk and biscuits, and DS would feel left out. I said I really didn't want him to have one. If he felt left out then he could have a small bit of a plain one. DS has never had anything with refined sugar before. if he ate a biscuit with icing then i think he'd either have a headache or be bouncing off the walls!

Would you let a 9 month old have a icing biscuit? An odd treat is okay, but not for babies. If he was 3 or 4 and wanted one its different. Do you think i'm within my rights to ask for him to have fruit instead of a dessert?

Veggie sauce yep counters all bad foods.

(thanks to this tgread I had wedges with my tea)

When I worked in the baby room, in the days where you weaned at 16 weeks. The owner used to Annabel Karmel style puréed for my babies then they would get more solid food when they were ready. The menu was nutritious with home made chicken goujons with noodles and steamed veg, home made fish pie. Puddings varied from home made to yogurts. Snacks were home baking such as plain scones or banana bread with fruit in the morning and veggie sticks with dips in the afternoon.

It's been that long with my children that I know Ds was on what we ate sooner than dd was.

not read all the thread but imo yab a bit u, whats wrong with pizza? bread, water, tomatoes and cheese? nothing wrong with that, chips = potatoes, nowt wrong with that, what i dont get is the need to spoon feed mush i have a just turned 8 month old without teeth who could self feed that meal

as for biscuits yabu everything in moderation and all that

But he's 9 months - a baby - barely weaned. The only bit I would be happy with is the chip as that's just potato (hopefully no salt).

I'm in a minority clearly, but I would not expect a baby to be given icing and a biscuit - a baby doesn't understand a Jubilee 'treat' and definitely doesn't need it. And pizza and chips are finger food - why mash them? Are the staff in a hurry to feed the babies?

Here's an idea: Don't put your baby in nursery, then You can decide what goes in his mouth .

Franca
Italians eat pizza with chips?

The OP is clearly bonkers about the biscuit. But if somebody came on here and said that their mil had fed their 5 month old baby mushed up pizza and chips, the air would be incandescent blue!

5 mths is too young to eat pizza and chips, mashed up or not. Even 9 mths is young.

Oven chips are just potatoes and sunflower oil. Pizza is just flour, yeast, cheese and tomato sauce if home made. Would you be happy with a cheese and tomato sandwich? It's not really any different. Kids need a certain amount of fat in their diet it's not good for them to be fed a low fat diet.

YABPFB

I do think it's odd to double up the starches like that, though...chips AND pizza crust.

Surely the chips were covering the veg, gotta get your 5 a day [gein]

What is intrinsically wrong with pizza?

OP - if you want your child to be fed an organic Annabel karmel menu, you need to pay for the nose for a private one. Sure start centres aren't the right place

CheerfulYank, they seem to do that a lot here, chips with/on absolutely everything, even starchy stuff. 10 years on, I still don't get it (even though I love the chips!).

The best is a chip barm, or as we'd call it 'french fries on a hamburger bun'. I had no idea how absolutely yummy that could be until DH got me one to try!

Chip cob? Yum yum, have you tried putting cheese in it?

5 mths is too young to eat pizza and chips, mashed up or not. Even 9 mths is young

why exactly as long as baby is of weaning age their is no reason they cant be given pretty much anything, my just turned 8 month old has had pizza and chips, homemade and as finger food nothing wrong with it at all, its storebought pizzas that are usally laden with salts and fats. Dont see the problem with a small iced biscuit either for a special occasion, everything in moderation is the key, this obsession with good and bad foods is destined to create a generation of eating disorders imo

"Pizza is fine as long as its home-made bread"

Like my bread, you mean? Made by using a breadmaker which has a booklet of precise ingredients and quantities or it won't work properly? Where the basic bread ingredients include - wait for it, are you sitting down - refined sugar? If I gave some to your kid and told you just that it was home-made bread you'd know no different, your child wouldn't self-combust and the world would carry on turning as usual.

FGS unclench, provide your own food or employ a nanny or you'll give yourself an ulcer!

White crusty roll lashings of proper butter and hot chips so the butter goes all melty. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

In a few years time you'll be worrying about drink, drugs, sex and rock and roll and wish desparately that you were just getting your knickers in a twist about your child eating pizza and chips and decorating a biscuit. FFS.

OP, I was like you in that my eldest DS went to nursery 3 full days a week from about 11 months. His first nursery was mostly quite 'worthy' with the food - weetabix for breakfast, baked potatoes etc for lunch, lots of fruit and veg. However, I moved him from that nursery because most of the staff didn't seem that interested, babies were being 'told off' for mouthing toys, and there was a new SureStart nursery opening within 20 minutes' walk of my house.
His 2nd nursery had staff that seemed warmer, lots of fun experiences and cuddles and staff that seemed genuinely caring. However, the food was abysmal at times. Lots of jam sandwiches, jam on toast, grapes given whole in baby room until I explained on ds's first day that I wanted them halved because of choking hazards (they asked if I wanted 16-month old DS's grapes pureed then ). One day, when I had complained about jam sandwiches for tea every night for 3 nights, they panicked on the 4th night and gave him rusks - my DS had been BLW'd and had never had rusks - this was dinner - and they mixed them up with milk all mushed up and spoonfed them . He was ravenous by the time he came home and I was so . I did complain that time and the member of staff involved I believe was spoken to. The next day they had hurridly cobbled together a different menu consisting of canned soup, cheese sandwiches, beans on toast etc for tea.
Now, what you are describing sounds slightly less awful compared to the above, perhaps?
I did stick with them as DS was happy there and it was the only convenient nursery. When we moved house though I was glad to move him (by then aged 3) to a much better nursery with nicer food - still lots of 'refined sugar' though, but loads of veg in the food and very much better chef there.

I don't think you are being precious about the mushed up pizza and chips, in that your DS is still tiny and surely should be either given this as finger food or if given puree should be given more appropriate mixtures (Mushed up bread?! Yak!). I don't particularly agree that pizza fingers and unsalted chips are that bad for a 9 month old occasionally, although I would hope for veg in the tomato sauce on the pizza or on the side, and I would think so much starch might give some babies constipation. I would not have a problem with a biscuit as you describe for the over ones on occasion, but I would agree that it should be given at hometime for the parents to decide, particularly for babies. I had no problem with giving my DS an occasional blob of a costa cake when I bought one for me, or a piece of doughnut, or a little bit of my ice-cream or custard, but the difference here is that you are paying the nursery to look after your children and therefore they should not be getting arsey with you about not wanting to give your baby something. It is not for them to decide at this age, and they should respect your opinion more. I would let it go, but if this is symptomatic of a wider cause for concern then yes, look for childcare that suits you better.

OP did you know that lasagne has more carbs than pizza and chips?

As a parent of more than one child I can honestly say that I have become less hung up on food with each child. By nine months my youngest DC was eating the same as everyone else,just mashed up.
You need to chill out or your going to pass your obsession with food onto your child.

Oh and heres my first ever for your DC

I spoke to our nursery a out the food, had an adult conversation about my concerns : high salt or sugar content in some foods. Menu was changed for everyone to more home made from scratch. Why don't you try it?

And for those saying sugar highs are a myth? Maybe in some kids, but my DS is very easily affected by sugar and colours, we have to be careful - eg ice cream fine as long as vanilla.

I was told to give my DS at 6 months lashings of butter because he needed the fat.
Babies do need sugar and fat, just as much as they need fibre, vitamins, minerals etc.
Also, by restricting them to no sugary foods, you may well end up with a rebellious teenager who's sneaking chocolate and crisps behind your back by the kg. I was one of those. Because they were never in the house, it became 'naughty', so I hid it from my Mum. Whole world of problems.
Little now and then does no harm, and doesn't make them 'treats' and therefore not so craved.

i think they have plenty of time to get used to sugar when they are older and for now the focus should be on health. i think pizza and chips are ok for treats but not as part of a staple of the diet for young babies.