Nursery keep giving 2yo DS Haribo... AIBU

[Zara87]

It's really bloody annoying me. I don't mind him having treats. Chocolate is a treat, ice cream etc. His puddings at home are fruit and yoghurt with the occasional proper treat, but if I give him the choice he'll mostly ask for an apple or pear etc anyway.
I've raised with nursery since he was there at 10mo about some of the shit they were feeding him (frosted shreddies in the baby room!) Etc.
Now the latest thing is giving him Haribo. Haribo for pudding, Haribo in his bag when he comes home also as they had left over bags.
When I bought it up they seemed shocked like it wasn't a big thing, and maybe it isn't? But for £46 a day I expect him to be fed better than Haribo.
I know that I could pull him out but he's been there 2 years now and he absolutely loves it. It's also the only nursery on my way to work. It's really good and has an excellent Ofsted rating. It's just the food issue! AIBU

I’m quite surprised as my nursery had a long consent form of the foods/drinks they are allowed when they joined. There was a special section for parties so there is an option to opt in or out of treats for special occasions. Quite a few of the kids in the baby room were no refined sugar and they seem to manage that. They are shit hot on allergies so any parental preferences are absolutely listened to. I’ve never seen haribo or sweet- for birthdays there does tend to be cake. Snacks in general tend to be fruit, veg, cheese etc.

Listening to all this makes me realise how shit my nursery is I have often thought that I wouldnt feel confident should he have a food allergy.
I think I'll give it one last ditch attempt to raise it as a serious issue, and if no big changes are made I'll move. It does make me wonder what the other parents think? I've spent 2 years thinking I'm just a grumpy, irrational over-protective parent but there doesn't seem to be a single person others that thinks this is acceptable!?

Wow where are you getting nursery for £46 a day?! (Misses the point completely)

If you don’t get any joy complaining to the manager I’d certainly consider escalating it (though I’m not sure how - is food something OFSTED look at in nurseries?). I’d also look at moving, but then I’d be worrying about all the other kids there too.

half grapes on a kebab would be fine! I'm shocked they're allowed to get away with it, there are strict guidelines. dd1 is 4.5 and she only gets cheerios at most as a treat cereal, usually porridge or cornflakes.

@Mrsstrowman- east mids, most nurseries here are £40-50 a day.
Got 2 of them in 5 days a week though :(

That’s disgusting! I wouldn’t be sending him back. My 4 year old isn’t even allowed haribo.

YANBU. My daughter's nursery would not do that. They get cake on birthdays, otherwise it's all healthy stuff. They've never had sweets as far as I know.

DS first nursery did a few things like this, but they were lovely and he was very attached to the staff.

I'm suprised they are as bad, we have cakes they make themselves, when it's a birthday sometimes the birthday child brings a cake but that's fairly rare.

If you are otherwise happy I would try and work through the food with them, if it's a symptom of other issues maybe not.

School don't allow birthday sweets or cake, which I actually think it a bit miserable as it wouldn't happen all that often.

@Zara87 we're South East, I'm going to have to register as soon as baby is born to get a space for when I finish my year of mat leave and our locals are £75-£85 a day. No haribo or chips on the menu though.
Back to your original AIBU , definitely complain, that's outrageous the essentially pumping them full of refined carbs and sugar, chocolate biscuits, haribo, chips , squash 😲

Id be more concerned at the choking risk than the sugar content! Crazy they would think it's ok

I've never heard of Haribo for pudding!

Are you sure the ones in his bag are not from other kid's birthdays as they always take in Haribo's to give out to the class.

I'd be really peed off if not.

This is awful! I’d move if they served DD so much crap and repeatedly ignored my wishes.

Sounds like they need a good rehaul of their menu and practices, I'm a lot more relaxed about it than a lot of people (on here) and mine would have been allowed sweets from parties, party bag sweets at 2 etc.

But it's a bit of a shocker to have them given out at nursery. I recall once a kid left and the mum brought in the mini bags for each child, they discreetly placed them into their bags for the parents to make the call wether they would give them or not.

They have water only at ours and most as well.

I'd forgotten about frosted shreddies, might have to buy some tomorrow for my post dinner cravings!

There is something wrong with the food at the nursery. I'm not massively impressed with the amount of cake they seem to serve up at ours (always someone's birthday!) but I certainly wouldn't be happy if haribo was being given regularly as a pudding. It's a v v rare treat and it should be you deciding if he has them, not nursery. Sounds like they might need a new chef!

How strange - our nursery used to be very heavy-handed with the healthy eating. Only water allowed, no sweets, cakes, biscuits or crisps. We consider ourselves to be pretty healthy, but had a few occasions when packed lunches had items confiscated and we were reprimanded! I thought that was pretty standard these days - I absolutely would not be happy with Haribo being given - my son wouldn't have been able to eat those when he was two. It would definitely have been a choking hazard. YANBU.

I am a manager of a nursery and I am totally shocked. Firstly children die every year choking on grapes so that is totally unacceptable. Secondly squash being given in cups can completely rot a young child's teeth. We only give water or milk through the whole nursery and are a healthy eating nursery so definitely would not be giving sweets for any reason.

Choking hazard would be the biggie for me.

£46 PER DAY?

It gets better :

we're South East, I'm going to have to register as soon as baby is born to get a space for when I finish my year of mat leave and our locals are £75-£85 a d

Mind boggling

I have never heard of a nursery allowing this stuff! The grapes thing is really worrying. Seriously, this is a massive safeguarding issue... "half grapes wouldn't have worked on the kebabs" WTAF?!!

When you have your meeting with them discuss this:

Children’s early years provide an important foundation for their future health and strongly influence many aspects of well-being.1 Children’s food preferences and eating habits are also formed early in life with consequences for a range of health and development outcomes in later life.2 It is therefore important that the food provided in early years settings provides appropriate amounts of energy and nutrients and supports development of healthy eating habits in young children, both to support individual children’s growth and development, and as part of national priorities to reduce childhood obesity and ensure every child has the best start in life.3

which is taken from Government guidance on food in early years England.

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/658870/Early_years_menus_part_1_guidance.pdf

If they do not agree to address this issue as a matter of urgency I'd be reporting them to Ofsted and moving my child to another nursery.

Absolutely agree, YANBU, that's appalling and I'd be talking to the manager.

But why on earth are PPs suggesting changing nursery when you're happy with it otherwise?!! How to make life difficult for yourself! Even if you offered to write a healthy eating policy for them and train all the staff, that would be an easier option than shifting your DC somewhere else

We also pay £46 a day, we're in Scotland though. Shocked to read about £75+!!

Gosh, that's terrible. Most nurseries give apple slices etc. They used to give dried fruit but that's considered too sugary, let alone Haribo.

Frosted shreddies
Squash
Haribo

...no way. It’s completely unnecessary.

Healthier breakfast.
Water/milk...easy to solve the issue of everyone having the same, they ALL have water. Job done.
Why do they even have Haribo there? I’d have NO objection to cake or chocolate buttons on another child’s birthday or even Friday’s or whatever, I wouldn’t even care if they had a biscuit every day at morning break, but NOT sweets every day and absolutely NOT Haribo.

Whole grapes...god give me strength. Are ANY of them qualified to look after children?

They wouldn’t be looking after mine.

I'm a nursery manager. Someone bought in bags with sweets for Halloween for her daughter and all her friends and we had to put them in the children's bags to take home. This isn't ok that they're getting sweets this often.

I would ask to see the nursery's healthy eating policy as well as their menus and ask the manager, or even area manager if it's a chain, if they're aware of what is going on.