CM's: catering to lifestyle diets

[thisgirlrides]

I'm getting more and more children coming to me with a long list of 'mustn't eats' and at the stage where I'm considering stopping food altogether. Anyone else finding this and is there an answer?

I'm obviously not talking allergies or even intolerances but parent's own dietary wishes such as one child is totally sugar free & another (age 1 - absolutely no sign of intolerance to date) gluten & diary free.

I cook from scratch, only offer water or milk for drink, pudding is natural yogurt / fruit etc, lunch is soup or something 'less healthy' such as beans on toast or ham sandwich but otherwise I'm pretty good with their food intake. That said, I do allow the odd ice lolly, make cakes sometimes, the older ones might share some crisps with the little ones in the holidays etc.

I'm really not sure I can be bothered to keep such a regimented & restrictive menu for no solid reason so in these cases would I be unreasonable to ask parents to provide packed lunch & tea? I can provide fruit snacks.

Weekly meal plan. They don't like it, they can send in food with their kid. They may well be cheeky and try for a price reduction to reflect that. Nope. They can find a new CM then.

drspouse I don't know any childcare professional who would provide that kind of poor diet. Luckily the families I work with have more faith in me than you obviously do with your minder and they trust me.

And none of the "can't tolerate milk, but butter is fine" silliness: an allergy or intolerance is exactly that, no matter what the medium!

I know it's already been pointed out, but this is completely incorrect.

The milk protein breaks down depending on how it's been processed. My 2yo can tolerate small amounts of cheese/ butter, but reacts to yoghurt/milk/ ice cream.

But I do blame the 'faddy' people for making life harder for people dealing with very real, life treating allergies.

Yes, I do have plenty of experience with dairy allergies. I've also had training on this.

If you are allergic to milk, you don't stop being allergic to milk because it's in another medium. That's why it must be labelled in the ingredients lists.

I get very tired of the "he's allergic to cows milk, but it's fine for him to have yoghurt". I get even more tired when I've forked out for expensive dairy alternatives only to be informed that the child happily eats milk chocolate!

A genuinely allergic or intolerant child will be under professional guidance. Anything else is parental preference.

What about a vegetarian diet, which in a lot of cases is a lifestyle choice? Or is it just the choices you don't agree with?

Coeliac disease isn't that rare, it affects 1 in 100 people in the UK. I know 5 people with it. The NHS website even describes it as common.

I know the OP said intolerances excepted but others were lumping gluten free in with sugar free. It really irritates me that people don't take it as seriously as other allergies.

Tanith
If you are allergic to milk, you don't stop being allergic to milk because it's in another medium. That's why it must be labelled in the ingredients lists.

It's an allergy to the protein, which gets broken down as its processed. My son also has an allergy to eggs (all confirmed with tests) but can eat cakes etc containing cooked egg.

I'd get some more training because you have no clue.

The ladders give a rough guide, but it depends on the individual.

Wow lots of replies. I would assume a diet based on religion or something like religion would have been made clear from the start and of course is acceptable. My gripe however, is purely lifestyle choices that the parents have decided are appropriate for their child (as is absolutely within their rights as parent) but then expecting a childcare provider to simply slot-in with that change in diet without a thought to how it might affect the other children, the cm or the food budget!
Now the reality is, a 1 year old is unlikely to be having much sugar anyway (no I don't have Nutella or jam on toast) but occasionally might offer a shop bought yogurt if I haven't made a fresh batch of plain; in the holidays I might buy a lolly if we go out for a picnic; I always make a cake if there's a birthday etc. Not impossible but given the limited amount they have with me, to say zero sugar is rather restrictive & imo a bit unnecessary

Yes, I do have plenty of experience with dairy allergies. I've also had training on this.,,,,If you are allergic to milk, you don't stop being allergic to milk because it's in another medium. That's why it must be labelled in the ingredients lists

You obviously need more training then. Milk allergy is not the only issue. My DC is severely lactose intolerant, but the lactose level in hard cheese is much much less than in milk, so some cheese can be consumed, whereas milk itself makes them violently ill.

So is it more about the difficulty for you, or your general disapproval of the dietary choice that parents have made for their child. Again, does this extend to vegetarians / vegans?

Just to echo that the information on the milk allergy is incorrect. You can have an allergy to milk but be able to tolerate it in different mediums due to how long it is cooked for and at what temperature. Thats why doctors advise a milk ladder, starting with foods such as biscuits with tiny amounts of powdered milk cooked in them.

The milk ladder ends with actual milk, but there are loads of things in between such as cheese sauce, scotch pancakes, milk chocolate and yoghurt - each person varies as to how far they can go (if at all)

thisgirl I'm glad you don't but our CM said that many parents tell her their child's standard diet and include biscuits every day, for example, including the nutella tantrum child. Or that the only thing their DC eats on bread is jam. We never said no sugar. Just that we'd prefer the following alternatives.

No but I wouldn't class vegan or vegetarian as a fad diet and again, likely to know about it up front.

Vegetarian diets were classed as fad diets not so long ago, perhaps you need to move with the times and support the parents that you are working with rather than dismissing their choices.

I am not an expert and I don't claim to be.
Neither are most parents. That's why I insist on written confirmation from a qualified professional.

On receipt of that, I will follow their instructions to the letter.

What I will not do is restrict a child's diet on the sole instructions of a parent unless there is a very good reason (religious grounds, for example).

I really don't see why there is so much fuss about this policy. It's common sense.

You claim to know lots about something that you clearly don't.

Tanith so if you were caring for my child and I instructed you not to give them meat, you would ignore that and do it anyway?

I'm one of those parents so I just wanted to put my POV across.

I have twins, one of whom I am quite happy to eat anything. The other has an ongoing cows milk protein intolerance for which he is under consultant care. We are tiny bit of the way up the milk ladder (he can tolerate butter, but that's all so far).

He also has chronic constipation and encopresis which he is also being treated for by the same consultant. He was tested negative for coeliac, BUT we keep him mostly gluten free because any exposure to gluten makes his constipation worse. He's on a really restrictive (but healthy) diet - it's basically paleo. I hate it. But any time we veer off plan (e.g. Parties) we have a week of problems afterwards. It's having a massive impact on our family life but it's the only way to manage him. He's also on magnesium supplements, some hardcore probiotics and daily flax oil. It's taken us over a year to get this far (i.e. Pooing every day, no longer soiling pants a few times a day) - it's not a fad and I hate being classed as one of "those" parents.

Simplest option is to do a meal plan and if the parents want something different, they provide it.

feesh would you provide food for your child who eats a paleo diet or expect the childminder to?

I'd provide my own, it would give me peace of mind

That's actually what I was going to go on to say. The idea of providing food for children with acute problems if they eat the wrong type of food worries me. I don't even know what paleo entails.

Nor do I really :D We are still learning. And it's definitely not a way of eating I subscribe to myself! All I know is, the more processed food he eats, the worse he gets. Am REALLY hoping he grows out of it eventually....

@JigglyTuff the report was published by the National Osteoporosis Society, whose partner is Yoplait. The article is very biased towards to dairy industry - don't take it at face value.

Being dairy-free does NOT put your bone health at risk - calcium is found in plenty of plant-based foods.

Also, research shows that countries with a high dairy consumption have higher rates of osteoporosis than countries with a lower intake. Don't be taken in by scaremongering.