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.

Religion is a lifestyle choice isn't it? I think it is easier to say a child needs to be sugar free if there is a chance that a carer will be giving too many sweet treats. I know my granddaughter's nursery seem very fond of puddings, cakes and biscuits.

I think providing a menu of what's available and saying please pack a lunch if you would like your child to have something else is the best idea.

@ThisNight you really do seem determined to find someone who hates vegetarians . I'm sure neither I, nor any other childcare provider (or decent human being for that matter) would knowingly give a vegetarian child meat or meat products. Why would they?

And poster (sorry I can't remember your name) with twins one of who has a restrictive and changing diet I would have no problem with this but as you say, would expect parents to provide food.

If you'd read my post properly Shakespeare, you would have seen that I mentioned two children I know who are malnourished. Dairy-free diets can of course provide adequate nutrition but cutting out dairy without understanding that calcium is important can affect bone health.

In my nursery we have 3 lists on the wall
The red list is for life threatening allergies that would require medical attention if consumed IE allergies
The amber list is for children who have to avoid foods because of medical issues, ie an intolerance
The green list is parental wishes, and includes, religious reasons, vegans, vegetarians as well as things like, no bananas, no rice, no bread etc
And we always follow parents wishes

Even if we have to provide an alternative
Its not good business sense to turn children away from your setting because you can't provide, say a gluten free slice of bread

If your child has lactose intolerance, you will be receiving advice from a qualified dietician. If you've just decided to cut out food groups from your children's duet, you're risking their health.

It is possible to make informed decisions about a child's diet, without consulting a qualified dietician. Humans are the only mammal that consume milk past infancy.

Referring back to the OP, no child needs sugar in their diet. And dairy and gluten free diets are not that unusual anymore. What are the nutritional benefits of gluten that cannot be got from other foods?

Why would you cut out gluten? Why cut out any food group?

No, no child needs sugar (although breast milk is of course full of it) but equally no CM is going to find it 'refreshing' to feed a child a restrictive diet.

Surely we're trying to raise our children to have a healthy relationship with food?

We loved our CM providing food: what she made was often hot and a lot better taste and nutrition wise than what we had at home. DC ate more foods, eg veg, for her too.

So OP I think that for the DC of parents with no specific food wishes it'd be a real shame to withdraw your food completely!

Gluten isn't a food group.

No, no child needs sugar (although breast milk is of course full of it)

Yes, of course .

No, no child needs sugar (although breast milk is of course full of it

If you cut out all foods with natural sugars from a young childs diet, they would die.

Yes I know Nabobs. People are determined to inflict their food fads onto children though.

Jiggly I would have thought that it was obvious that parents are choosing to avoid refined sugar, however as your nutritional knowledge is laughable I can see where you are getting confused.

ThisNight - I don't think it's a laughing matter that children are being malnourished by ill-informed parents who think that cutting gluten, dairy and sugar out of their diet but if you find that amusing, knock yourself out.

Out of their diet is a good idea ...