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Paid childcare

Discuss everything related to paid childcare here, including childminders, nannies, nurseries and au pairs.

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Original poster

A question about mindees eating habits ??

9 replies

happyfaceschildcare · 28/10/2008 18:04

Hi there,
I have recently met with a prospective mindee and parents and the only problem I am thinking of is this LO only eats sausages, chicken nuggets, coke and chocolate puddings, none of which I serve up to my own children or other mindees ! the parents have said they will supply the food but I think it is unfair to let this LO have this kind of food when the others can't have it ? any advice ??

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soapbox · 28/10/2008 18:14

Square peg...round hole.

This child will be unhappy if you mind him on your terms and you will be unhappy if you mind him on his terms.

There will be a better fit of a child minder for him out there so let this family go and find them.

KatyMac · 28/10/2008 18:14

I agree

It is not going to work

BoysAreLikeZombies · 28/10/2008 18:22

Hmmm tricky one.

The balance is between meeting the child's needs, working in accordance with the parents wishes and the needs of your own family.

One the one hand, OFSTED would not be happy with the diet as it stands if you did not offer any other options to the child.

On the other hand, I have a child with a self-limited diet and understand the parents' point of view.

In my own practice I serve only milk or water, and offer 'healthy' snacks - bread and butter or toast/fruit/carrot and cucumber sticks/cheese, and the families that I work with provide the child's meals. So the children I look after as well as my own are used to seeing different meals for each child IYSWIM.

What I am wittering on about is - NO to coke, yes to the food provided by the parent as long as they agree that you may also offer snacks as detailed above.

You can advise the parents to access HV/dietician to get professional help with the child's eating.

AbbaFan · 28/10/2008 18:45

I wouldn't take on the child if the parent was going to provide coke and chicken nuggets for you to feed the child.

I make my own chicken nuggets and buy organic good quality sausages. So if it were me I would say to the parent, I would include these on occasions. However the rest of the time, the child eats what I make.

This is a great chance for the child to try some new things and expand their diet. I mean surely the parent can't be happy with the child eating junk all the time.

missymoo2411 · 28/10/2008 20:12

id take him on a 4 week try out to see how u both work together and sit down with the family and discuss introducing new foods and with drawing the nuggets or add salad with them but i would deff say no to coke ...

lindseyfox · 28/10/2008 20:16

maybe say no to the coke and get the children making fruit smoothies on his first day so he is encouraged to drink something else.

also you could make chicken nuggets, pork patties and make good quality choc puddings get the children involved.

slowly introduce new foods maybe some mini corn on the cobs and potato wedges.

most junk type foods can be homemade so therefore heathier

SammyK · 28/10/2008 22:43

I think that if you were to g forward with this family, you would need to communicate fully with each other about food.

You could explain what you have here, and explain that the child may well be encouraged to try new food.

I have a very fussy eater mindee, who I always ensure has at least one thing on her plate I know she will eat, so we all know she will never leave a meal hungry. Sometimes this means a strange combination but kids don't care about that!

DS however is on the Autistic Spectrum, and like most AS kids, has a very limited (but balanced) diet and probably always will. Some kids just don't do food.!

I would try them though. As another poster said surely they genuinely don't want this!? Is child just given into? I can't understand why otherwise that would be all a child eats!

elkiedee · 28/10/2008 23:19

How old is the child and would this be a full time or part time mindee? What hours? I can't see it working with that diet but if you were to see if you could offer better versions of some of those things sometimes would this be all the child's meals on those days or just one? It makes a difference to how much of a problem if child doesn't eat.

I was and still am a dreadfully fussy eater whereas ds is a gannet at 18 months.

Original poster

happyfaceschildcare · 29/10/2008 08:35

Thank for all your comments, the parents seem quite happy that this is all he eats as long as he's eating something, I do understand that not all children eat well and every night I cook for a wide range of diets I have vegetarians and no pork religions and just general dislikes my main concern was that it's not fair on my other mindees, it is only a few hours care and I had him for a trial last night, I wont give him coke as I don't even have it in the house he had water like the others and the other children seemed ok about him having just sausages as they are used to seeing different meals on plates at dinner time it was the chocolate puddings they didn't like to see him eating so think I will tell mum and dad that if he doesn't want what the other children are having then he can have his chocolate puddings when he gets home, I did try and introduce some healthy home made potatoe wedges but he wasn't interested. I think I will just do it for a trial period and see how we get on.
Thanks

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