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

East Midlands- eek I hope it's not my nursery! It doesn't sound good OP. The grapes especially is very worrying

There is just no need! My dc’s nursery didn’t serve grapes at all. They would never use sugar coated cereal and never had chips. They gave out the wee bags of haribos after the Xmas nativity - that was the only time. I would be fuming too, it’s just lazy and even worse that you’ve raised it before.

Are you in touch with any of the other parents? They would surely be as shocked as you at this, so if you can collectively raise your concerns it may carry more weight?

If not, then as a PP said, it's an Ofsted concern so raise it with them.

£46 is cheapnforvfull day nursery, but they are endangering children’s health.

@Yura surely that depends what area you live in? Mine is £44 and that's average for my area.

I work in a nursery. Only drinks are water and milk. No sweets ever. The worst it gets is jelly for dessert. This sounds horrendous. Yes, they'll poetically eat rubbish when they go to secondary school, but at least give them a good foundation while you can control their food choices.

YANBU I would go fucking MENTAL!

Haribo?! Loaded with sugar and a dangerous choking risk. The grapes are terrible too. There's been enough information put out about the dangers. I honestly wouldn't want my child back at nursery until this was sorted out.

@Yura it isn't cheap for a full day nursery actually, it's one of the more expensive ones around here. Most are around ££40-£42, the highest cost I've seen is a bit further out of town and that's £52 but is very swanky.
I'm not sending my kids to a shit hole

The managers office is in reception so I actually managed to speak to her this morning during drop off.
She categorically denied that they are being given Haribo, but when I told her that his key worker yesterday said that he was and that it wasn't the first time either as they've often said stuff like 'we had extra bags left over so we have put some in his bag' she did seem genuinely baffled as she said she is the one who approves the food shop list etc and they would never even be on there.
She is going to speak to the girls in the room. I did say though, that this will just be yet another thing in a long line of food issues we have had. She said she was under the impression that all problems such as sugary cereals and grapes have been resolved now. I said that although that may be the case, the fact as a parent I have to raise it anyway isn't really okay. Plus the fact I know he still has squash, biscuits and caramel rice cakes a lot there. She said that the biscuits and rice cakes are served maybe once a week, But i feel like I Definately see him with them more than this.
Where do I go from here... like I said, pulling him out will be really difficult due to there being no other nurseries on my way to work, if I pulled them it would mean travelling 10 mins the other way and so is have to change my work hours too. Not to mention the fact he absolutely loves going there and has some reqlly nice little friends, plus dc2 is currently settling really well.
Should i reiterate my concerns in writing?

To add - This nursery is not a chain either so nobody above the manager. She actually founded it too, so I get the impression when i complain she really takes it personally!

YANBU! Haribo for pudding? WTF?!! If the nursery is part of a chain then go direct to Head Office. That will get a result. If not part of a chain put your complaint in writing to the Manager. I see that you've spoken to her already but I would ask for a written reply to your letter and for her to outline a strategy to improve the food situation within the next 4 weeks.

I'm pretty easy going about food but I'm horrified at frosted cereals for breakfast...why on earth would you do that?!

Sweets for pudding is so lazy too..

I do feel like they won't want to lose me as a customer, as I am sending the 2 dc there full time which is costing me approx £1700 a month. Have never been late paying and dc2 has only just started so will be there another almost 3 years! So hopefully I can get this sorted once and for all

You’ll have to keep a note of what you see him with over two weeks and of it doesn’t improve go to her again with the list.

That is completely shocking. You need to keep a diary of incidents.

If you put your concerns into writing, I would keep a copy for reference. She needs to know what her staff are up to and take control. Sounds like her staff could do with a LOT of extra training.

I'm fairly relaxed with ds 4 food but even I think why do they do puddings at school.It isn't a necessity to provide one everyday and yet they do 🤷‍♀️

@kaytee87 around here (southeast) its £65-£70 per day. cheap isn’t necessarily bad, and expensive isn’t necessarily good though.
it is absolutely unforgivable to give kids cheap easy food and don’t train staff appropriately , no matter if expensive or cheap

that catalogue of crap that they are feeding the children is pretty atrocious.

Are they Oftsed inspected? Because I would be tempted to flag this up with Ofsted.

I would almost threaten to withhold payment until this is sorted. There is no need for any of this kind of food except on birthdays at this age.

I'm actually really appalled that nursery staff would be that ignorant about food.

No, some nice fruit far better. It's sugary crap that they don't need.

Now that you’ve spoken to the manager I’d put it in an email as well, along the lines of “thank you for speaking with me this morning, just to confirm as we discussed.... and then as you’ve said you will discuss this with his key workers I hope this won’t happen again” and then keep a log if it does. If she’s controlling the food orders, maybe the staff have brought in themselves from home, but I’d be emailing every time it happened so the manager can follow up straight away.

@Yura where I am in Scotland the most expensive nursery I can think of is £50 per day. So whether it's cheap or expensive is in relation to where you live

Definitely put it in writing. Something like "Following our informal chat this is clarify my complaint regarding food I'd like clarification of what action will be taken....." Ask for confirmation of the action that's been taken and what measures are now in place to make sure it's not going happen again and sugary drinks and snacks aren't being given, even informally by staff without parental consent.

My sons pre-school did sometimes have little 'parties' with cakes and sweets or unusual foods for world celebrations and that sort of thing from time to time, but there'd always be a sheet to sign at drop off so we knew and had chance to check what it was being given and opt out for any reason. Even if a parent brought in cakes or sweets for a child's birthday they were always handed to the parent at the end of the day at pick up - not directly to the child during the day!

Try and keep it positive - saying you really like the nursery, but this one issue of children being given sweets and sugary food is causing real concern as you're not confident will be consistently offering a healthy diet. Once resolved you will be extremely happy etc....

Check their website/ welcome pack for complaints policy. Make sure it's actually logged as a complaint and they follow that process, not just a little informal gripe. You're, quiet rightly, still not satisfied with their response so far so just want make sure it's fully resolved amicably.

They should have a clear procedure - which normally would be something like stage 1 informal (your chat with manager), then if not (like how you're not confident that your child won't still be given squash, sugary food etc) then it goes to stage 2 with a written complaint to manager. This complaint would usually have to be officially recorded and available to inspectors. So it's really in the nursery's interest to show what practical changes they've made to resolve the issue at that point as Ofsted would probably be interested in knowing that the nursery reacted well to complaint rather than just swept it under the carpet!

When I first read this thread a few days ago I was shocked and thought no way would I be ok with this.

My sister then took my 2 year old DS to a party on Saturday and came back with a party bag with 2 small packs of haribo inside. I said ooo I don't think he'll eat those, he won't eat sweets, me and DP will have to eat them. DP overhead and was like oh well when I picked him up from nursery the other day he was eating a bag of haribo. I was like wtf!!?? I'm so pissed off, but hoping it was a one off or from someone's birthday or something, am making sure DP asks at drop off tomorrow.

I then thought back to this thread and wondered if it is the same nursery. However, looks like you are east mids and I am west mids. Shocked that there's more than one nursery doing this.