To send my toddler to nursery with takeaway curry?!

[Mooey89]

I send my 3 year old DS to nursery with lunch and tea. Usually a sandwich/something on toast and then leftovers from the night before, spaghetti bolognaise, shepherds pie etc.
Tonight DP and I are having curry (takeaway) - non spicy vegetable based.
There's bloody shitloads left over!
He eats anything and everything, loves curry when I make one, very confident he will eat it.

DP said it would be an 'epic parenting fail' to send him with it, I think it's fine as a one off...

AIBU?

It's fine as a one off. Get a grip people. You are not crap. I think it's a credit to you, having a child that eats all foods.

If he'll eat it, definitely send the curry along with another carb - maybe pasta to be re-heated? I'm also a no no for the rice. Rice food poisoning is evil and if you re-heat and not had it, you've just been lucky. If I were the nursery, I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole. Way too risky. DH is a chef and has food safety quals etc - he
never re-heats rice and is quite anal about it.
If not pasta then maybe naan bread?

But I am really surprised at nurseries asking parents to send food it! I assume these are school nurseries not private ones? There's no way I would have had the time to send a small child in nappies with their own food!! Bit different once they're in school.

We paid a lot of money for DD and DS to attend private nursery and they received breakfast, a hot 2 course lunch and a substantial afternoon tea from the on-site kitchen, prepared by 2 full time chefs. There was always a veggie option every day and if a child really didn't like the lunch they would offer beans on toast or something. Amazingly, with between 100-150 children every day to cater for, most ate what they were given - even food they would not usually touch at home. Peer power at its best!!

I would (and I'd ignore the salt police too).

Love the fact he eats veg curry too, plus it will make everyone hungry when they heat it.

Dd is having leftover korma for dinner tonight. It'll be fine. YANBU op.

You're not crap at all.
Veg curry sounds lovely, it's not like you're sending him with a Greggs sausage roll and a packet of crisps every day.

I give my 4 year old chinese takeaway occasionally (about once every couple of months) and she loves it. It's fine! I really wish my kids would eat curry! You are not crap. People get a bit hysterical about salt. As long as their overall salt intake is low then it will balance out.

You're doing great to have a toddler that eats anything, send it in with your home cooked rice or some bread 😊

Send it in, you are doing great having a toddler that eats anything, you'll balance things out at the next meal 😊

Sounds lovely op , beats boring old sandwiches .
I'm surprised at the nursery doing this though.
So they microwave each individual lunch?
Are they absolved of legal responsibly for illness due to food poisoning or an allergic reaction to hidden nuts in a sauce ?
I've never heard of a nursery offering to do this.

YABU to not be constantly having the rage with your nursery. Two meals to go with him every time he goes to nursery.

YANBU on the curry - there's veg in it too!

I wouldn't send it with rice I would send it with a chunk of nan bread.
I would also keep it cool in a cool bag and instruct it to be eaten cold.
Other than that I think it's fine. If it is high in salt just make sure he has plenty to drink with it and keep him off alcohol in the evening to let his kidneys and liver rest (joke).

I want leftover curry now!

It'll be fine. But I am with others on the rice. Any spare chapati or naan?

God yes it's fine. One salty meal once won't kill him.

But not the rice. I have a stomach of iron. I've had food poisoning twice and once was from reheated rice.

However if you fry the rice in very hot butter it is ok (and completely delicious). Reheated risotto is also fine.

Think of it this way, if your 3 year old was going to a party, they would eat a load of salt in little sausages, sandwiches, pizza, crisps etc. It's not going to kill him as a one off. Obviously eating over the recommended daily allowance every day would be terrible, but it's not every day you are giving him this.

I think reheating any leftover takeaway is a risk - not just the rice. As already pointed out, you don't know whether it has already been reheated, or how long it was sitting around before you got it. It might have MSG in it which causes big problems when reheated (bloody awful headaches for one). It's common in some takeaways.

I might take the risk myself but I wouldn't risk my kids.

Send it into nursery with him. I wouldn't worry about the salt intake ........ It's no different to licking the homemade play dough which of course my son never did whilst he attended nursery

What a load of hassle, for you and the nursery, to send in hot food that then needs to be reheated. Not only the risk of it not being re-hearted adequately, but what an inefficient use of time, reheating all those individual portions of food.

Why don't they ask parents just to send in sandwiches, nice and simple?

I wouldn't have a problem with it.

I do wonder if people would enthuse as much about a child being send in with a leftover kebab or Chinese though. Are some takeaway foods more acceptable than others?

I would. I wouldn't bat an eyelid. Send him in with a bag of microwave rice too, OP.

I would be delighted if my toddler would eat veg curry, from the takeaway or anywhere else!

The salt is a complete non-issue, probably more salt in a ham sandwich. As long as his diet is mostly low in salt absolutely fine.

I wouldn't re-heat takeaway curry rice for myself, and definitely not for a toddler. Poisoning from reheated rice is not common but it can be very severe.

Toddlers in India seem to manage OK with Indian food.

I send DS in to school with a microwavable korma in a thermos fairly often. I know he'll actually eat and enjoy it, and there are literally about five things my son is willing to eat, so I just go with what works. The funny thing is that I can cook well, and make cakes for the school quite often so staff know it, so when one of the staff commented a couple of times on how lovely it looked and smelled I cheerfully agreed that yes it was lovely, and yes the saffron rice was full of spices you have to pick out before serving (all of this is true; it's a mini Waitrose frozen one and really nice, however unhealthy). Eventually I realised she thought I was cooking the things, which made my agreeing how lovely they were embarrassing as hell.

If your child has a varied and balanced diet you are doing a great job, and send in what is most convenient. And if you send in a takeaway curry they'll probably think you are this cosmopolitan chef extraordinaire, if my own experience is any guide.

"That's pretty crap" is pretty bloody rude!

Jeez.

OP, I reckon you should do what you like, he's your son. So long as he's not having it all the time I can't see the harm whatsoever.

MN is weird sometimes. Regularly giving your toddler a giant sausage roll and a Fruit Shoot for lunch, fine. Processed fishsticks and chips for dinner, fine. Only drinks squash, fine. But a one-off takeaway veg curry, how terrible.