Nursery Meals - appalling?

[TheBlushBaby]

I have been looking at nurseries and the meals provided. I plan to raise my son plant-based with white meats occasionally, and with no processed foods. I like to cook everything from scratch and can happily make extras. I make all sauces, seed loaf, and everything else I can.

Of course this works under our roof as it's how we eat, but this isn't the way for everyone.

I was very shocked reading the meal plan for the nursery. Can I send my son with packed lunch? Does their menu seem very carb heavy to anyone else? It's all cheese, breads, pastas, potatoes! Am I overthinking this?

'I plan to feed my child..." famous last words!!!

YABextremelyU to be 'shocked', unless 'magic pasta' involves cannabis which I doubt. (The margins in childcare just wouldn't cover it.)

I plan to raise my son plant-based with white meats occasionally, and with no processed foods best laugh I've had all day. Please report back when your kid is 17 (I assume he/she is a baby or still in utero?) and living on fried chicken and Haribo.

As you have given me such a good laugh this morning I will forgive the horrendous snobbery ('is this how ordinary people really eat?' - yup, sure is, baby!) and level of privilege (international school in Surrey... not a state school am I right?).

If you REALLY want to be shocked read the cold baked beans thread. I think you'd enjoy it.

It looks fine. Beware of making him feel excluded by not eating as the others and also if potential backlash in terms of him craving junk food

Why would he feel excluded. Dd went to pre school at a nursery. Some took packed lunches others had the food. Between veges and allergies it's quite easy to get used to people having different things. Same with at school. And in fact half of mn seems to feed their kids separate food to what they have.

And carbs may not be the enemy but they also shouldn't be to bulk out a meal when the protein content should perhaps be higher in in a form other than mince or cheese

Not a good menu. Children need to be presented with a lot more vegetables, fruit and pulses than that, in a recognizable state.

I have dipped in and out of this thread thinking "ah well, OP being a tad over the top, but then I remember being over the top with PFB's diet, and some nurseries do have menus that are not ideal". But not invested enough to read the menu until now - I was surprised at how incredibly normal it is! As others have said wait until you see the infant school menu. Baked potato, pizza, "all day breakfast", fishfingers and chips, roast, would be a typical week at ours.

Look lovely to me op, in would be happy with my child eating that.

Haven't RTWT but does the OP realise carbs come from plants?
Our nursery used to have pudding or fruit every day - a few words about this and now it's fruit or yoghurt daily and an added sugar pudding once or twice a week.

The vegetarian menu is poor.

. Children need to be presented with a lot more vegetables, fruit and pulses than that, in a recognizable state

Recognisable state. That's exactly it. Even the cheese is spreadable or melted. The only day that the food may actually recognisable is roast day. And that's of it's actual roast joint/crown not the reformed roll stuff you can get. The casserole and the Monday also mean taht you can get away with very little meat/fish per person as there is either a load of veg in it or it's saucy so it's hit and miss with how much you actually get and it's "hidden" amongst sauce or other stuff.

Some kids will be eating breakfast there too so cereal and or toast. Then garlic bread with the Bolognese then sandwich. Bread bread bread. Not good.

Monday?

Mornay

Appalling? It looks great and like normal British food . You can feed them organic lentils and pumpkin seeds on an evening and weekend and they will be just fine

I would question the marmite sandwhich though; I didn't realise people still ate that and surely most children would find it vile

There's a middle ground between "normal British food" (which im.sure British people eat more than mince, cheese and potatoes btw)and organic seeds and lentils.

Carrots (which thrive in English soil) are loved by many DC. Cheap, nutritious, ecological - DC need to have them on the menu several times a week, roast, puréed, grated, in sticks...

The veggie options are terrible! We're a vegetarian family, DS is 3 and has never turned up his nose at a vegetable yet. He's also never not eaten with us, DH and my diets didn't change, apart from eliminating salt until recently. I'm not stealth boasting, just saying to the op that unfussy children do exist! DS is less fussy than I am. My niece is a fab eater, and before weaning DS I asked SIL if she had any tips. She said no/minimal veg pouches (they're incredibly sweet), and wean onto only veg for a couple of months (so delay fruit for a bit). I did exactly what she said, and ended up with DS. Who will always go for veg before fruit, and eats (relishes) everything.
It's not really my concern what DS does with his diet as a teen - because he's 3. I don't get this attitude I see so often on here, that the likelihood of fags behind the bike shed and chip sarnies when they're 16, or haribo parties when they're 5, justifies the mocking of parents who encourage their preschoolers to eat a whole food based diet. I don't allow DS to go to bed whenever he wants, just because he might adopt shit sleeping habits in 10 years time.
My young nephew suffers chronic constipation, my DM has had most of her large intestine removed due to chronic diverticular disease, my aunt has severe Crohns - bowel disease is rampant in my family. My DM was raised on a cheap carb and boiled veg diet, with nightly sugary puddings - and was already experiencing symptoms of bowel disease as a young child. Mock all you want - this stealth boaster (vegetarian child eats loads of vegetables - when the fuck did this become a badge of unspeakable honor??) is trying to avoid this familial legacy for my DS.

Here here ginger!

I'm sure you and your SIL are right about weaning onto vegetables, ginger. It's what the French do. I used to turn my nose up at babies being given bottles of green soup. I wish I had been more open-minded! It took me years to get DD to eat vegetables properly.

Ginger - if the OP had a child who ate a lot of veggies and she was worried about the nursery menu it would be a very different thread.

A lot of people, myself included, are smiling at the 'I plan to' part of the OP. It happens a lot on here, prospective parents come on go tell parents they are going in wrong.

I agree with ginger. Feeding your kids well seems to be treated with scorn on MN. Children are not always fussy, I work with children who eat healthier lunches than I can even imagine (and yes, they do eat them.)

But I do think you need to be realistic, and not pass food issues on to children. This nursery menu is fine.

Sorry i am failing to see what the hell is wrong with that menu, looks varied and healthy, veggies included the the meals. That meal that they get at nursery, is 1 part of their overal daily diet. Sorry op, you are being VVVV, its not Falfel, and Quinoa. or misosoup.

The only gripe I would have is the excessive use of Quorn for the Vegetarian option, but that's about it.

Just re reading your op, on other thoughts, mabey you should make a packed lunch, as no nursery will be making a menu specifically tailored to your sons plant and white meant based diet.

I don't understand the snobbery behind this meal plan? They need to cater for a large number of children, with differing levels of fussiness. They have picked a safe, recognisable menu that lots of veg can be hidden in.

Ginger, I totally agree with you and I hate the mumsnet attitude that feeding your children well is either over the top virtue signalling or guaranteed to backfire.

In my experience the kids/adults the best diets and healthiest approach to food have been fed well from the start.

But that is a good nutritious menu, it looks very well rounded, with proteins, carbs, veggies. Sorry don't see anything wrong with it. I would agree if it was pizza, burgers, nuggets, hot dogs etc. But that looks not dissimilar to what a lot of parents make at home themselves.