To be peed off with the nursery 'lunch policy'

[incacat]

DD3 has always been fussy with food. I have always tried to be fairly relaxed about it with her/not make a huge issue of it etc. Twice inthe last month she has come home from nursery with afull lunch bag. If she refused to eat her sandwich she was not allowed to progress onto her crisps, grapes or biscuit. Part of me thought 'fair enough, she should at least try to eat some of her sandwich.' Therefore, I didn't mention it at the nursery.
Today she came out in tears.Rather than a sandwich, I had given her a box of cold pizza and tomatoes, which she loves. She ate every bit of these. She then did not want to eat her Cheddars (so what, I think to myself),so because of this was not allowed to eat her biscuits. she was made to sit at the table staring at her choccy bics, not allowed to touch them, all because she had not eaten her Cheddars. On the way home I let her eat her biscuits. She's quite underweight and all I really want to do is get the calories into her. AIBU to think that the nursery is making too much of an issue of food? Or is it me?

Yes I would be cross too. My son's nursery has the policy that if a child doesn't eat any of their main they are not allowed a pudding, but they HAVE to check that it's ok with the parents before they do it. Are you going to speak to them about it?

Sounds as if the nursery are being rather hardline about healthy eating advice.

How about having a quiet word with them and saying that as long as she has a go at eating her sandwich/whatever then you are happy for her to eat the rest of her lunch in whatever order she chooses.

YANBU

Perhaps you could have a word with them and let them know that you're happy for her not to have the mini cheddars.

Or train her to say that the cheese and biscuits always comes after pudding at home

Speak to them and tell them your feelings. I'm sure they are doing it from best intentions and probably have another set of parents who complain about their lo's being able to eat whatever they like at lunch!

YANBU

Were you aware of that policy before Your DD started?

FWIW that is an awful policy and will only make issues arround food even trickier for your DD.

YANBU. I think the nursery is being too inflexible. Maybe they've got Ofsted coming up and are getting in a flounce about their healthy eating policy.

Our nursery just asks us to refrain from sending crisps and suchlike in their lunches 'as invariably the children will want to eat those before anything else'.

Hands up for common sense I say.

I would definitely raise this with the nursery, I personally think it is very wrong to be too hard line about food for little ones as it can only make the situation worse. My DD2 went through a phase of being a very fussy eater and it has taken a lot of praise and encouragement to get her through it but all the with holding of nice things would not have made her eat anything she didn't want!

I would be ever so cross if this happened to my dd.

I would have a polite word and explain that your dd is to be allowed to eat whatever she wishes from her lunch, and in any order.

YANBU

Ask the nursery how they can justify letting a small child go without food because they have decided on some stupid rule.

And at the meeting I think you should eat a packet of triple chocolate biscuits in front of her and not let her have any.

Then give the packet to the kids to share.

so your dd was not allowed to eat her biscuits becuase she didn't eat her other ummm... well, biscuits? Very odd.

Lol Fab. Might just do that. Thanks. I am going to make an appointment. Eating issues are new to me. DD1 and DD2, who went to the same nursrey are amazing eaters and DD4 who will go there in 3 years is like the first two. I never really had a need to know their lunch policy before now. I will prepare my speech tonight with DH .

What are their criteria to decide in which order the food has to be eaten? After reading Kewcumbers post I feel it is a case of "not letting her eat what she chose because she might like/enjoy it more" Maybe they think that actually enjoying the food you eat is a bad thing? I don't know really but stupid all the same!

I'm a bit puzzled over eating everything in order. If I give DS a lunch of sandwich, grapes, and cheese crackers, he will go back and forth between all of them, eating a little of each, but eventually finish them all. He doesn't necessarily eat one thing then the next.

"she was made to sit at the table staring at her choccy bics, not allowed to touch them, all because she had not eaten her Cheddars."

That sounds horribly cruel to me. No one should be tormented in such a way, especially not over food/feeding.
Being told to get down from the table fine(ish) but this just seems very cruel

yanbu
how very odd, I could understand if she wanted to eat the sweet stuff first, but.......

YANBU It sounds like a very cruel and unnecessary thing to do.

At the nursery my DS attends, they are supposed to come home with anything they didn't eat - very sensible IMO but I went to pick him up the other day and saw a bin with loads of bits of sandwich in (sometimes whole sandwiches) and I was a bit the policy states they are meant to bring this stuff home - so why is it in the bin??

I am a wet flannel though and of course didn't challenge. Plus it doesn't really apply to me as my DS is a good eater and tells us what he did and didn't eat anyway.

Sorry about the irrelevant ramble - obviously needed to rant.

All over some Cheddars?! Surely Cheddars and biscuits are much of a muchness when it comes to fat content etc...hardly a healthy eating arguement?! Very odd.