Am I being precious re nursery or?

[NurseryT]

My son goes to a local nursery, it's not the cheapest but it had really good reviews online and also from a couple of parents I know personally. One of the main things they focus on is how they have a really good in house chef who cooks healthy nutritious food for the children.

We have an online portal where we can see what our DC have had to eat that day, when their nappies were changed, when they napped and what they've been doing during the day.

Probably about 2-3 of the 5 days my son will have something like 'sandwiches and crisps' for tea or something equivalent.

I don't know if I'm being precious and ridiculous or not and quite willing to be told I am but AIBU for thinking this isn't really a great tea and to not really have expected this from a nursery who 1. I pay a lot of money to and 2. Goes on about the quality of the food they serve.

Our nursery does hot food at lunch time like spaghetti bolognase or something. Then the 'tea' at 4pm is just a substantial snack really, sandwiches or crumpet.

I always give my son a proper hot meal at 6pm at home. I dont think the portion sizes for lunch or the snacks are very big at nursery.

I've been looking at a few nurseries in the area we are looking to move to and some call the last snack of the day 'high tea'.

My DC have school dinners and are usually not too hungry by 5.30 and will have soup/sandwich/beans on toast

My dentist told me crisps are one of the biggest causes of tooth decay as little bits get stuck in teeth.

I would not be happy if my child was being given crisps and biscuits daily.

Sandwiches fine, with fruit, salad, yoghurt etc as a balanced meal.

Yeah, nurseries always give pudding, if a child doesn't eat the savoury there is something that will fill them up. The chocolate mousse at dds nursery was avocado based! They definitely aren't scoffing jam doughnuts after every meal!

I would raise it if you are concerned about the variety of what your ds is eating though. Just ask if the meal entries are correct for each day and what he has alongside the sandwiches.

Tea is pretty much always like this at nursery ime. It's an afternoon snack. Mine have a meal when they get home.

Nursery cake won't be the kind of cake you're thinking of, it'll be low salt, low sugar, low fat, low-flavour cake

This. And be careful not impose adult diet on children. Children need more carbs than adults. Things like home made rice pudding, semolina, fruit crumbles etc often don't contain a lot of sugar and can be a good way to get plenty of carbs, eggs, dairy, fruit etc into children. My children get a dessert like this every single day. Both are among the thinnest children in their classes & have good teeth.

I think it's normal for nurseries to give sweet things for pudding to be honest
Ours doesn't do pudding at all, they might get a homemade biscuit a few times a year if they have baked it as an activity.

Teas tend to be warm but simpler than lunch so things like jacket potatoes or crumpets, sometimes they have cold wraps though with vegetable sticks.

Typically the lunches are the main meal, and tea is sandwiches, a bagel etc. However, I wouldn't be happy about crisps and biscuits every day. You might find it's something like veggie straws and one of those sugar-free toddler biscotti things though. Why not just ask?

My children’s nursery served 2 hot meals every day.

Sandwiches are normal for tea in a nursery. But ours never served crisps

tbh crisps/sandwiches isn’t my experience with nursery meals. It’s always a hot lunch and a hot tea, made fresh on site. I just checked the menu for what my older two ate today and it was:

breakfast: porridge
Lunch: Beef and Vegetables in Sauce served with Crunchy Potato (Vegetarian option: Chickpeas with Cannellini beans, Sauce), Salad
Tea: Chickpeas and Vegetables served with Herby Couscous

there are also snacks of fruit and veggies twice a day. We are in London, if that helps - and apparently the kids eat it all up (I’m not convinced however as they’d never touch that food at home!)

My older (didn't go to nursery) isn't allowed anything like that in his packed lunch for school so just surprised me as I assumed nursery would be similar.

it’s very common in schools for stuff like that do be banned from packed lunches, but there be a low sugar/low salt/low flavour pudding offered with school dinners.

DD’s school is very OTT on packed lunches which does confuse the kids who don’t realise the “chocolate cake” the dinner kids have is mostly made of beetroot.

Ours would have their snack in morning, fruit and yogurt, dinner at lunchtime (healthy full dinner curry, meat and veg etc.) and afternoon snack is crackers and cheese/brioche/fruit etc but crisps would never be given and I wouldn't be happy if they were. They are older now so bring their morning snack with them and on Fridays we are allowed make that snack a treat i.e. crisps or small biscuit or bar

So it’s tea not dinner which is normal for a nursery .You are giving him dinner at home aren’t you?

I disagree with previous messages. Our nursery in London did 2 hot meals per day. I would never be happy with crisps being served. And I would question the menu/amount of salt/sugar. Not sounding great tbh

Ours today was
Toast
Cheese pie and beans
Fruit
Cucumber sticks
Tortellini
Fruit

Milk served with breakfast and tea.
No cakes or sweet stuff. Either yoghurt or fruit

I work in a nursery and we will occasionally give the kids cake but if you think it's too often you could always say no more than once a week. We don't do teas only a snack in the afternoon but we wouldn't be giving them crisps. They only get that at party's.

It sounds very similar to our nursery. They do a proper home cooked meal for lunch and then a snacky meal at dinner time. My DS always eats his proper lunch and sometimes has the snackier meal as he knows he gets another proper home cooked meal when he gets home! 😂

I wouldn't be happy with daycare that gives crisps and biscuits everyday.
When mine were small in daycare it was always home cook style meal for lunch followed by yogurt or fruit. Dinner was sandwich with veg sticks. Crisps never featured though there was homemade cake once ir twice a week with veg hidden in it.

Hi op I work in a nursery, and we would tend to do a heavier meal for lunch and a light afternoon snack. So lunches would include things like chicken curry and rice, pork and bean casserole, tuna pasta bake ect and a pudding of either fruit, yogurt, cake (once a week) jelly etc.

For afternoon snack it would be things like ham and cheese sandwiches, dairylea muffin and fruit, cheese and crackers. Just something to tide them over until they go home and get their dinner.

So things like sandwiches would be normal and acceptable to me, plus its quick and easy for the staff to clean up. That said however, crisps sandwiches a few times a week isn't very healthy and I would bring it up with the manager and ask for it only once a week and something healthier the other days.

No, we only get sandwiches and organix crisps on Friday!

Tea was always lighter than lunch but never sandwiches and crisps.

Lunch was usually cooked and quite hearty - spag bol, lasagne, cottage pie, roast dinner, curry and rice etc.

Tea was then lighter but still a proper meal - fish fingers and mash, macaroni cheese/tomato/tuna pasta, pizza etc.

My nursery would only give crisps at parties or special occasions. It would never be for a standard meal. They tend to have a bigger meal like a roast, stew at lunch and always have a pudding. Dinner tends to be lighter like others have said. I think a lot of people find all the puddings at nursery odd but at ours there is a lot of yogurt, cheese and crackers etc. they’re not having chocolate fudge cake. I’ve looked at our menu and they deliberately stack it so lunch forms a higher percentage of the calories than the tea.

Puddings at our nursery are mostly yoghurt and fruit, home made vanilla sponge and custard and a lot of old fashioned milky puddings like semolina, rice pudding etc. Definitely all very low in taste sugar.

Crisps and biscuits are rare, but would be things like the eat real veggie straws and a rich tea.

But there's no harm in asking - you're paying for it!

Our nursery serves two hot home cooked meals a day. There’s also an option for children to have fruit/yoghurt instead of pudding, which many parents take.