To blame nursery for this?

[gggal]

And to be annoyed about it?

dd is in nursery Monday to Wednesday. Without fail her nappies are terrible on those days. It then takes a day or so with me to get them to firm up again. Then she has normal nappies. Only for the same thing to happen again come Monday. She’s 18 months.

They keep food diaries for all toddlers. She isn’t having anything different at home but I assume the quality of food must be pretty bad for this to be happening? It’s honestly awful and I am sick of changing multiple nappies on days she has come back from nursery!!!!

YANBU to think it might be related to nursery.

YABU to blame the quality of their food.

Have an actual discussion with them about what’s going on and try to pin a cause together. Maybe it’s different milk, maybe she’s having more fibre at nursery, maybe they give more dairy… Toddler diarrhoea is incredibly common.

I doubt they are giving her shit quality food. It could be something simple like a particular brand has a different ingredient. Just speak to them. I had to do this and finally got to the bottom of it being their orange juice.

“Blame” them for what?
If you’re that upset, send her in with her own food.

Yes why are you blaming them?

It’s possible that she’s drinking more? That’s a possibility

I’d be more concerned about the hygiene than the quality of the food if she’s having diarrhoea every week personally.

More fiber at nursery would be my bet, played havoc with DS's bowls if he ever had more than 1 portion of fruit, right up until he was 5

Nurseries do generally use the cheapest possible ingredients, but if the food is good it shouldn't cause an upset tummy. Cheap chicken may be ethically questionable and might not taste great, but I don't think it would cause diarrhea.

Well I suppose they could provide better quality food

Nursery fees will rise to cover that though...

If it’s a private nursery it’s unlikely to be worse quality food, they’re usually in house chefs cooking all meals. They have to adhere to certain specifications like very low sugar and high benumbed of fruit and veg a day. Could it be that if she’s used to less fruit and veg at home?

Fibre difference, fluid difference or emotional difference between home and nursery. I would highly doubt it's anything to do with quality.

She’s probably eating and drinking better at nursery (bigger portions, more veg etc, more water). Get them to monitor her water intake and give you recipes so you can replicate them. Eg DS used to often have his 6 a day in his lunch at nursery with little meat / fish. He was fine as we ate that way at home. But some of the kids who didn’t often went to the loo loads.

do they use food with artificial sweeteners at nursery? They can bowel cause problems for some people.

I worked in nurseries for years.
The in-house ‘chefs’ have just usually done a basic course in food hygiene.
They reheat cheap food and make very basic meals.
Private nurseries are focused on making a profit, not providing the most nourishing food for children.

The chefs are usually only in to make lunch. Tea is put together by other staff and will be pretty basic.

I’m not saying this will cause bad nappies. Merely pointing out the incorrect belief that chefs dedicated to creating delicious, nourishing meals create the food.

Many nurseries now have all food cooked off-site by a commercial provider that is delivered ready to heat up for meal time.

Of course, this won’t be highlighted by the setting or the menu and they all talk about the ‘chefs’ on their website.

Does the food diary include all snacks? All drinks? Quantities? It could be that she’s having more fruit during the day.

Depends on the nursery and the area. All of the ones in our city have chefs on-site because the cheapest nurseries are run by Hindu temples and market home made food.

The hot meals at many nurseries are brought in by an outside company. These meals are packed with extra hidden veggies. And they do love using pulses and lentils! These can cause looser more frequent bowel movements, trust me no one wants to be on the afternoon nappies after a pulse heavy meal!!! If you think this is an issue you can ask for their meals to be pulse free.

Fruit/veg will be offered with every meal or snack. So at our nursery that would be breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, tea and evening snack. Milk is also given at all but lunch and tea time. This could also be a factor, my daughter could and still can't tolerate more than 2/3 Fruit portions a day and could only have a small amount of milk.

It could be any number of factors. If you truly think its the food quality then perhaps you should consider providing a packed lunch with ample snacks.

Mmmm sounds like it could be a reaction to an ingredient… My daughter always got diahhroea from foods that she was allergic/Intolerant too.
Do they have a different brand of milk to you? Some powdered milks have fish oil in them which my daughter reacted to.
id look through the detailed ingredient lists of their menu for those days (often on repeat by days of week) and see if there’s anything she doesn’t usually have at home.

Well my daughter’s nursery has a chef, I see him daily. The food is delicious.

Id speak to the GP and the make a meeting with the manager to discuss. Discuss the issue and how to resolve, not blame!

You might be surprised but a difference in water quality can cause the shits. It may be nothing to do with solid food.

Yes, my kids' nursery has a chef too. He's worked there for over 5 years and is soon leaving for a new (better paid!) career. I have seen the job advert for his role and it's essential for candidates to have kitchen experience as well as the required food hygiene quals etc. The chef also works every day until after the last meal is sorted, the hours are on the advert, so it's not just lunch they're making. Although usually the lunch is the bigger affair. I've always been very happy with the food there and it's all cooked from scratch on site.

I also worked in nurseries for years and this isn’t my experience at all. Children had two hot meals a day prepared by staff with actual qualifications.

@MrsBigTed it could be that actually as always seems there’s loads of fruit on the list everyday

This

When ds2 was in nursery they produced a lovely menu of the foods (beef, lamb etc.). It then transpired that he was being fed Quorn mince and cream crackers and jam at each visit. We complained.