To expect more from nursery food?

[mylittlesandwich]

DS is my first child so I have no experience in this area. I have previously posted about the nursery but I'm satisfied with their care for the moment and this isn't about the pros and cons of young children in nursery.

DS is 10 months and is in 2 full days. I'm just not sure if I'm expecting too much of the food. So far he's been fed things like corned beef hash, spaghetti hoops and beans. I contacted them to ask for more info on salt content etc and they have said that they'll get back to me with it. He feeds himself too at home and I know he is often spoon fed at nursery because of the kinds of foods they give him. I offered to provide food myself that I feel would better for him but they won't allow it as other children may have allergies.

Basically what is your experience of nursery food for babies and AIBU in expecting it to be better?

It's considered good practice to provide a rotating menu and to feedback to parents what/how much their child ate whilst there so that you have an indication of what additional nutrition is required at home.

You need to press them on this, OP. They're being awfully lazy.

I wouldn't be too troubled by the spoon feeding thing though, my youngest is ten months old too and for the first few dats they did try to spoon feed her but soon realised that she will literally spit the food at them if they do. Now they leave her to it. Babies will soon let people know if they aren't happy about something

Being ignored for half an hour at that age is terrible though, my daughter can crawl and walk round furniture - in half an hour she could get herself into some proper trouble.

We pay £50 a day which is average for the area. I'm in central Scotland.

We do get feedback on what he's eaten at handover but we aren't told what he'll be having in advance.

Being ignored for half an hour at that age is terrible though, my daughter can crawl and walk round furniture - in half an hour she could get herself into some proper trouble.

It was even worse than that if I remember rightly he isn't mobile and was sat ignored in the middle of the room with no toys nearby to interact with for 30 minutes.

It's particularly unusual not to make menus available id have thought? Every nursery I've looked around was desperate to show me their menu!

I'd be really unhappy at the spoon feeding. Have you spoken to them about it? I assume by 10 months he's able to feed himself pretty much anything.

At that age I wouldn't be happy with things like spaghetti hoops. My DD's previous nursery did occasionally have things like hoops on toast - I think their commitment was to have processed foods no more than twice a week. They also used to have a corned beef pie one day during the three week cycle...she never ate that lol.

The food in her current nursery sounds amazing - chicken chow mein, curry, chicken and mushroom carbonara. The other day they had bread rolls with pate to start, followed by steak in peppercorn sauce. Absolutely wasted on my 3 year old though, she had a banana instead 🙄

That’s terrible. How hard is it to cook some penne with a basic home made tomato sauce? Or some chicken strips and broccoli.

I’d be concerned that they aren’t providing a menu. I think at 10 months old it’s reasonable to expect to know what your child will be eating.

I'm £50 a day in Scotland too, so it's about average. It's not the bottom end though by any means, out of my friends my nursery is the most expensive (it's also the best in my opinion so I pay it).

Anything you're not happy about then raise it, this is your child. We had a couple of issues with one particular member of staff with my middle child and the nursery were very swift to respond and rectify things. We never felt like we were being a problem or anything.

What other food is he having? You’ve only named 3 things so far.

I am also however aware that food is a big one for me. I have weight issues and it's a constant battle so I'm doing my upmost to start healthy habits with DS and not let history repeat itself. At home we offer a range of healthy foods and let him feed himself. He'll have things like lasagne or yesterday we had meatballs but DH is helping me make things from scratch so we can avoid added sugar and salt and it's improving my diet too

This is what I find worrying. Because of your issues towards food don’t make them issues for your ds but in reverse. I have a friend who is similar but is very underweight her food issues are pushed on to her Dds diet.

It seems like your not happy there so move him bit don’t be too controlling with what he eats as a way to feel better about your weight issues.

You don’t lose weight just by cutting out sugar and salt by the way - you need a calorie deficit and a noticeable one at that too.

@Codexdivinchi like most fat people I am well aware how to lose weight. However cutting down on sugar and salt is hardly a bad thing. I don't control what he eats. He's offered a range of healthy age appropriate foods, what he eats or doesn't eat is up to him. He isn't denied anything.

In my experience (of working in nurseries) often even when the menus look amazing on paper, the reality is cheap/low quality stuff. Frozen value sausages/chicken pieces, and so on, tiny portions. Probably not what you would choose to feed your children at home.

That's not to say that some nurseries don't have organic, home made menus prepared fresh by an onsite chef, I'm sure some do.

Profit margins are tight in nurseries, and certainly will be on £50 a day. There are legal minimum numbers of staff so although nurseries will try to keep staff costs as low as possible (young apprentices can be paid less than minimum wage for example) food is one area where it's possible to keep costs low.

If food was a big issue to you and they wouldn’t tell you what the meals were, why would you sign him up?

@MintyMabel

If food was a big issue to you and they wouldn’t tell you what the meals were, why would you sign him up?

Maybe the OP didn't have a huge amount of choice in local nurserys or maybe this nursery is the only one who did early drop off for example. Even if food is high on someone's list unfortunately many things are often much higher.

Is it actually spaghetti hoops or is it cooked to look like it. My sons nursery often have what is called baked beans but they are home made baked beans and not out of a can or similar. It might be useful to check

I had no experience of childcare. I assumed that nutrition would be important wherever I chose. I was obviously naive.

I had this issue, meals and snacks provided were poor quality and pure stodge, fibre was nowhere to be seen and any goodness was boiled out of the frozen beans that had become grey and sloppy. They were taken over after about six months and the food vastly improved.

I sent my son in with his own food everyday, despite this the nursery always kept me up to date with the menu like they would other parents. The food was a downside, but the nursery was fantastic apart from that and had several staff who were very experienced in my sons language needs.

Not sharing the menu is very unusual surely?

I know you said you had weight/ food issues but you must understand that it’s the overall food in a week that matters and no child gets fat due to baked beans. The nursery more than likely meets the requirements for a healthy diet overall with the meals of the weeks menu.

All this talk of low salt, sugar, child nutrition. It’s not hard to feed a child an overall healthy diet, you really don’t need to be over the top about it. Obviously don’t stuff a child with chocolate or crisps but don’t be over the top about healthy appropriate food ( what even is appropriate food? It’s all just food)

The OP as I recall from the other thread has limited choice in nurseries.
I think if they responded to your other concerns they'll respond to these.
It us an anxious time leaving your child in the care of others and they won't be you, or do everything you would, but the people who recommended the nursery trust them and ultimately you have to trust them. If you don't or can't then he's in the wrong childcare setting and you need to look elsewhere

This is the menu this week for my sons nursery. Everything made fresh on site.

Corned beef hash is yummy and packed with nutrition. There's nothing wrong with baked beans or spaghetti either. As long as you give him something decent to eat at home, why worry?

At our nursery it seems to be a bit of a mixed bag. Lots of fruit and 'organic snacks' which are those low fat biscuit things. I dont give her those at home. Nreakfast is porridge or weetabix, lunches seem to be okish, so for example last week she had lasagne and garlic bread, shepherds bean pie, and beans mash and sausage. The thing that bugs me is pudding every day, so sometimes yoghurt, sometimes banana and custard, sometimes cake. I did have them on strict orders that she couldn't have sugary puddings while she was in the baby room, so up to 14ish months.

She does eat healthier at home just because we are big on cooking from scratch, but there should be some decent food with health benefits in nursery. They should be doing better at your nursery.

I work in a nursery and we provide fresh hot cooked meals on site. Typical meals are;
Cottage Pie
Macaroni cheese with veg
Roast chicken with all the trimmings
Sausage casserole

Having said that we’ve got one tricky parent who is demanding we provide a variety of sandwiches instead for her fussy dd.

This was key for me when choosing a Nursery. Did you ask? Has it changed due to Covid? If this isn’t a cheap nursery I’d be complaining. Dc might eat this at home sometimes but nursery is for nutritious food!

I don’t think that’s great. Our nursery’s food isn’t perfect but to my knowledge there’s nothing out of a tin, it is also prepared from scratch on site. They also display the weekly menu so that you don’t feed them the same thing for dinner.

I chose our nursery in part because its Ofsted report described the food as ‘extremely healthy’. It is good, but personally I wouldn’t describe it as ‘extremely’ healthy. They often have toast or weetabix for breakfast and I think healthier choices would be porridge or eggs. They also give them fromage frais most days. And they often have cheese on toast or sandwiches for tea. That said, there’s lots of fruit and veg and lunches are things like fish cakes, shepherds pie, roast chicken and mash, etc.

I also wasn’t thrilled about spoon feeding but I was told a lot of nurseries do it in baby rooms for safety. No idea if that’s true though.

What did Ofsted (or the Scottish equivalent, sorry if I’m being ignorant) say about your son’s nursery and the food?