To ask you to help me with something that's stressing me out a lot... please?

[toddlermealideasplease]

I'm getting unnecessarily stressed about this and I need some ideas, please.

My 20 month old will be starting a new nursery tomorrow thar does not provide meals. I need to take a packed lunch and also something for tea since she will be there until 5pm and not getting home until 5.30 (her usual tea time is 4-4.30pm so she will be starving by then). Only issue is that this place doesn't have a proper kitchen - they have a fridge, kettle and microwave and thats all. Lunch will have to be sandwiches most days. What can I take for her tea, though? With there only being a microwave and no hob pasta will be no good. So I'm thinking i have to take something like tinned beans and sausages / spaghetti hoops etc, and maybe some crackers with cheese spread to go with it. But she can't eat that for tea every time she's there (4 times a week).

Any other ideas, please??

Dolmio do microwave pasta both with and without sauce, it’s about £1.25 a pack in b&m, we always have a pack in the cupboard for when DD is hangry and we need a meal fast!!

Oh of course they do! I forgot about those. Thanks 😊

I wouldn’t imagine they’ll want each child to bring their own electrical appliance in with them each day though!

I'd seriously look at other options. Life is hard enough when you're working and juggling everything else, that this is an unnecessary extra burden when you're already paying someone to look after your child.

By the time you get home in the evening, get your child settled, get washing done etc, get yourself organised for the next day, the last thing you're going to want to be doing is thinking about this and preparing food for the next day.

@confusedlots
I know 😭 it's not great and it's causing me a lot of stress. The only reason I'm staying for now is that DD has such a lovely bond with the childminder I'd feel awful moving her. But maybe I need to think about it a bit more as you're right, I really don't need the stress of thinking of meals on top of an already really long working week.

If you’re happy with the idea of tinned beans and sausages or Dolmio adults ready meals, then why are you not thinking of the many foods that can be heated up in a microwave that are designed for children and babies?

Either the ones just in the baby food section which can just be kept in a cupboard, or if going more premium, the fresh refrigerated meals like the Annabelle Karmel or Little Dish? (Or whatever there is these days - I don’t have babies any more!)

As I said before though, I’d just move mealtime to when you get home.

Id move mealtimes too and just send a snack. Four days is too many to be eating tinned stuff.

Are these any good??

I could send a snack and move meal time but realistically it's going to be late having tea. I get in for 5.30, then by the time I've made something fresh for her it's going to be 6-6.30 ish. That's her usual bath time. Then bedtime is 7pm. All just feels a bit rushed. And she will be overtired at tea time. I don't know ... just feels like it adds in an alternative type of stress rather than removing any.

It will be worth it in the long run though. She’ll have such a limited diet otherwise.

I should add that partner works away during the week too, so I do everything solo mid week as well as working 4 days myself.

My DN has hot pasta in tomato sauce, chicken casserole, stew, soup and even entire roast dinners with gravy in his lunch time food flask in school. My sister reheats it at 7am and it's still roasting hot when he toss it out into his bowl at 12.15. If you don't want to do that then batch cook and make up meals into plastic tubs with lids. Then they can be refrigerated and microwaved .

I was going to suggest a food flask also. We use them a lot for picnics and things and they work pretty well. You can put all sorts in them such as pasta, soup, even potato wedges and goujons have worked for us.

You could make it less stressful and rushed by not giving her a bath every night - it’s really not necessary!

Would pizza work? I always make them fresh for her using my own base and sauce etc. just thinking if I did that would it be alright reheated in the microwave? Or I suppose she could eat it cold....

If you’re worried about a thermos staying hot, it might help to give her the hot meal for lunch and then something lighter for dinner. My DD (although older) had a hot meal at school for lunch, and some nights she just gets sandwiches or a wrap in the evening. As long as her tummy is full it shouldn’t matter.

@UnsolicitedOpinions

I could skip out one bath a week maybe. It's always been part of her bedtime routine, it helps her to wind down etc.

I'd also be considering a different nursery. My sons nursery gives them breakfast, hot meal at lunchtime with pudding, high tea with fruit. I would hate the idea of him not having a hot meal.
I think your child minder is taking the piss frankly. If it was a pre-school I would understand the bring your own lunch but they also finish more like 3pm for the child to have a proper meal at home.
Your child will create a new bond elsewhere - they're very adaptable.
I to like my son to have a bath every day before bed so this set up just wouldn't sit well with me ☺️

I'd do as pp suggested and just pack an after snack box and give her dinner at home, otherwise it will be loads of work for you

Whilst the mealnthing isn't ideal.....to have a happy child might make it worth it.

I would batch cook then defrost and take in for reheating or in the food flask. Chilli con carne, shepherds pie, chicken in sauce - apricot and tomato, spinach and potato, beef stew, bean casserole. Thick soups - lentil and veg.

I send hot foods with my kids to school - they are hot at lunch time. So maybe you can do that and then have the cold snacks for tea.

I think the nursery will soon sort food as heating up separate things for all the kids is more difficult.

I'd find a nursery that serves hot meals.

It sounds like your childminder is just running a playgroup with other childminders. Is it a proper and fully equipped nursery with small enclosed outside spaces, locked doors and proper policies and procedures etc?

@AbreathofFrenchair

Yes it's all properly equipped and secure etc, and Ofsted registered etc. I've been to visit. They just don't have any means of cooking meals. It's not something I'd heard of before either tbh.

I used to have this issue with our nursery when our girls were small. I used to do various cold packed lunches (in fact, I still do, now they're teens!) and I'd stick something in the slow cooker on the way out the door in the morning. I worked fairly near home, so was able to pop home at lunch time to give it a stir and prepare some fresh veg/peel potatoes etc. if I needed to, but it was usually just a case of scoop the girls up from nursery then they could eat almost the minute we were home. We did bath time every night back then too - it really helped with their bed time routine as it calmed them down ready to sleep. DH wouldn't get home from work till around 7pm in those days, so we'd eat whatever was in the slow cooker once the girls were in bed.

If you mix it with the sauce and then microwave it, it works fine.

If it's nursery I would have thought it has to be ready to eat food and that they can't be warming and cooking everyone's individual food. But I am a novice at this parenting malarkey so probably wrong