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 disagree aero

The menu is basically mince cheese and bread and potatoes.

And it's not one part if their overall diet children there will be there all day. So it's all meals that child will have for up to 5 days a week.

I will agree to disagree Giles, its fine to me: cottage pie, beef stew, fish pie, spag bol, all fine, seems like a varied diet to me. Meat, carbs and veggies.

Looks like nutricious substantial food, what do you expect them to live off, rabbit food!

The menu is basically mince cheese and bread and potatoes

I don't think you;re reading the rigth menu.

Looks pretty average for a nursery - not what you would serve at home because they're not at home. Nutrition is not their sole concern, they have the price in mind, therefore, pizza, potatoes, pasta etc is a good staple to bulk this out.

At 1-4 excessive carbs are not going to hurt, they're babies and they need that sustenance to help them grow. Feeding any child a low carb diet is an extreme red flag. A toddler will not be full off a salad, nor do the nursery have time to prepare 50+ individual balanced, nutritious and plant based whole food meals. It won't happen, you already know that before you send them there though.

The excessive amount of Quorn is ridiculous though, it's blatantly obvious this is a menu designed for meat eating children and vegetarians have just been thrown in. As a Vegan, I strongly thought about raising my son with no meat but decided against it. I find the use of Quorn just as a replacement really disappointing.

Exactly user, I think your reading the wrong menu, there's fish, roast beef and chicken, and mince beef there. Yes I do cook these types of foods at home from scratch. I see nothing wrong with fish pie, roast beef stew, chilli con carne, chicken curry or whatever it is. Fine imho

Roast chicken, chicken and veggies casserole. Looks lovely to me

I've found a nursery menu that I think is a bit better. At the end of the day - we'll visit each nursery and see if it seems like a good fit for our son.

To clarify, I don't think low carb is good nor do I intend to have my child eat foods that revolves around his carbohydrate intake. I do think they should be less refined and processed. Foods high in carbohydrates can also be nutritionally diverse and not refined. Pumpkin, potatoes, seed breads, variety of legumes and beans, as well as squash and sweet potatoes are all great high-carbohydrate foods without sacrificing nutrition.

Yes that menu is nice op, but sorry I don't find the food in your initial op appalling.

You really aren't getting it. Pumpkins and sweet potatoes are not enough for growing toddlers!

And that menu is faddy and aimed at exactly your type...quorn nuggets and free from foods....I wouldn't feed that to my dog.

Riight, well I don't think your going to find that kind of menu in a standard nursery. But the food in your initial op, was not highly processed.

Wait until your child starts school, and out come the pizzas, fish fingers, cottage pie. Which is what my reception age son hss.

aeroflotgirl I now agree - I think I overreacted because both myself and my partner were shocked. As well as my family. It's not what we would ever choose at home but it's far from terrible, I'm sure my son won't have any issues

No it is similar to what I cook at home, that menu is great, compared to the options I have to choose for my son at school. Think you might be needing a packed lunch 😉

I'm shocked that there is a vegan opinion for children ... and that people choose a vegan diet for growing children!

Looks like normal nursery food to me and pretty well balanced.
You can balance it out with your clean eating stuff at weekends/breakfast.
I would be delighted if my son ate all that stuff. Following illness and due to sensory issues we live on toast, houmous sandwiches and tortellini here. Really limited and carb heavy.

My two were both weaned on veggie purees, then carrot batons, cucumber, and a variety of other veg but my eldest had issues with textures and tastes and now only eats 2 kinds of raw veg, has done for years. Its not guarenteed that weaning on veggies will ensure that they will always eat loads of veggies.

And as I said I have had very few kids through the door who actually would eat veggies, no matter how often I would offer them, no matter what varieties I tried. So few that they stand out over the years!

If your shocked by that perfectly reasonable menu, you will be shocked at what some families eat. My Daughter 10 has ASD and has sensory processing issues, so therefore has a restricted diet of Macdonalds, steak and home made chips(only eaten with Macdonalds BBQ sauce, beef and vegetable stew and roast dinners, no Potatoe, just the meat, veggies and yourskshire pudding with gravey. It is so limiting, so I woukd be very happy if she ate that menu.

Dietitian here. Looks fine to me. Please don't carb-bash - they are such an important part of the diet for both children and adults. Don't believe all you read online about them. The science shows that they are a necessary part of the diet. Squash etc would count as a veg I'm afraid not a carb. I'd be more concerned about the high salt content of marmite than anything else on that menu x

And nurseries in particular can't use too high fibre carbs - too much fibre is actually detrimental to little ones. It fills them up too much without them getting adequate energy for growth. Used to be known as the muesli belt kids (or something similar) x

I don't know why the theory that weaning your child on 'good' and 'healthy' foods means they will carry on eating them persists tbh.
Every first-time mum I know genuinely believes that their pumpkin and quinoa eating one-year-old will continue to love those things and that they have completely cracked it when it comes to feeding a child. Their child is NOT fussy - hurrah!
How distraught parents are when at two, the child suddenly realises they have options when it comes to food and they start refusing to even consider foods they troughed happily only a couple of weeks ago.
It was ever thus, although probably without quite the angst there is now, as parenting has become quite a performance art.

It seems the same sort of stuff they get in Reception so time to get used to it! Actually school dinners put my dd off junk food!

Yes you will be able to take a packed lunch but i think that menu looks absolutely fine - there are no chips etc...

If your not happy with the menu then simply don't send your child to that nursery, each and everyone is different in their approach, find a reliable childminder and ask to send your own food, trust me they won't mind at all