Need some reassurance with regards to ds feeding at nursery

[BouncingTurtle]

Ds is 8 months, and starts full time nursery next week.
He has 4 settling in sessions, and apart from a few tears (mainly when I come to get him ) he has been very happy and content.
But his keyworker (who is lovely btw) is a bit worried that he is getting hungry while he is there, as he will not drink any of my EBM.
As I have mentioned here about umpteen times he will not take a bottle, and is not that interested in cups.
He was in nursery for 6 hours today, and ate some fruit at snack time, but very little lunch. He ate his tea which I made for him when I got home.
Now I've only really got him eating breakfast and dinner, he doesn't tend to eat lunch as he tends to feed fairly regularly and also tends to have a nap when I have my lunch.
I've been asked to take food in for him to have a lunch, but thinking about it, I don't think it is necessary - if he is hungry he will eat, and I think eventually he will start drinking more EBM. He'll be at nursery nearly 10 hours a day, but I plan to feed him just before I take him and when I pick him up.
My gut feeling is that he'll be ok, he won't starve himself and he will make up feeds during the evening/nighttime, and hasn't been feeding a great deal during the day anyway. When I picked him up to day, he was very happy and content (after a short bout of crying, I think it was the shock of seeing me lol).
Has anyone got any previous experiences like this they could share so I could give the nursery some ideas of what to do with him?

no real experience BT....but bumping for you

Cheers Daisy! Oh I have a mild ear infection, got some spray, much less painful but hearing is starting to return!

One of my friends went back to work when her ds was 6 months old, and he refused any kind of milk from a bottle or cup. She just had to feed him when she could and made sure he ate lots of cheese and yogurt in his meals.

He was fine. Your ds will be too, even if he doesn't start taking EBM.

Yes, he'll be OK. DS wouldn't take anything from a bottle or cup when he started at nursery. He reverse-cycled and fed like mad in the evenings and at night for a couple of weeks, then adjusted and started to take more milk at nursery.

Hi My dd was formula fed and also the problem was that she wouldn't eat much at nursery rather than not having any milk. so not quite the same situation but thought this might be useful.

When she first went to nursery at nine months old she barely ate any of the meals she was offered. She survived on her bottles of milk and not alot else.

However after a couple of months of offering her food at every snack/mealtime she was pretty much eating every time. Even now she has the odd day when she won't eat her dinner at nursery so barely eats anything until she gets home, and then of course there are days when she won't eat at home either but she always seems fine.

My philosophy was that she wouldn't starve and she eats when she is hungry, and that it would take a little while for her to settle in and get used to eating there. I guess it will probably be the same for your ds.

Also sometimes babies will do different things at nursery from at home - for example my dd drinks milk from a beaker at nursery but point blank refuses to at home, she also feeds herself with a spoon there but barely gives it a second glance at home! so maybe on his nursery days he doesn't have much of your EBM but has plenty when he's with you.

My advice would be to get them to keep trying your DS with your EBM in a cup, to offer him water in a cup during the day and to just keep offering him food at snack and meal times.

Not sure why they're asking you to take lunch in for your ds though - do the nursery not provide him with a lunch?

Hope this helps and sorry for long post!

Thanks for your help everyone and reassurance. Maxie - they do provide lunch, I think she thought he just didn't like what was being offered!

DS is the same although quite a bit older, I also felt he wouldn't starve and in fact he has got a bit better and eats more at nursery than he ever does at home.
Is there anything your DS will eat without question? For mine it's bananas, raisins and sweetcorn. Just wondering if you can send him in with enough of this stuff so he won;t be hungry?

ouch on the ear infection and I hope you get Ds feeding sorted

meant to also say that he will probably settle down once the nursery becomes more routine and he becomes both familiar with his carers and with what's going on. It must be a wee bitty confusing at first

SPB - yes, that's what I'm thinking, though they do already offer bananas as a snack and he loves them. I ought to send in some broccoli too!
Anyway must go to bed now!

The only thing about bananas is that they can be constipating, particularly for a child that won't drink fluids. At least that was my experience with ds3.
He was a very, very reluctant bottle drinker and if he was given food first he wouldn't drink the EBM. I had to tell the lady looking after him to give him the EBM first or it would come home untouched and he would be constipated.

I didn't realise that, thanks. (DS has 'explosive' and 'slightly less explosive' nappies)

Actually, my SIL told me that. She explained that if her children had diarrhoea she would give them bananas to "bind them up" so they could still go to nursery!

lol yes SPB......Bananas Bung and Oranges Open

All I'd say is I would make the staff record exactly what he's drinking in that time - ten hours a day 5 days a week is a LONG time if he's not drinking. As you say he won't starve in that time but I would think he NEEDS to be drinking, and I'd want to know exactly what he's doing in that department while he's settling in.

I've had some success getting him to drink from a doidy cup! So will be sending it into nursery and ask them offer him water in the doidy cup after his meals, I've already asked them to offer milk in a cup before meals & snacks, so hopefully he'll be ok.
They already make notes about what he has eaten and drunk, so we can monitor the situation.