Unhealthy snacks at CM - advise please!

[LittleOnePlusBun]

Hi, haven't posted before but I need some advice on how to tackle a food issue with CM...

We are generally happy with her & the way she cares for DS (3.5yrs)but are worried about the amount of treats that she seems to be giving him. We try to eat healthily at home & don't have biscuits, choc, sweets or crisps in the house.

After a recent day with CM I asked DS what he'd had to eat for lunch and he said "choc swiss roll, crisps, apple & a cake" . I asked if he'd had a sandwich & he was adament that's what he'd had.

I know children this age can get mixed up but we've asked a few times & had the same answer.

I would never eat all this myself in one day let alone give it to him! How can I bring this up with CM as she obviously thinks this is OK. I don't want to offend her, she & her DH are quite overweight so may think this is normal?

Thanks

Some CM's keep a child's food diary. Ask if she has one and if not ask if she can do one for your LO. Keep it nice and light and friendly.

Thanks, good idea.

DS very happy & settled there so don't want to rock the boat but I've been a bit concerned for a while about portion size & frequency of biscuits etc but thought I was just being uptight. DH very unimpressed when he heard the above though!

I think that a food diary is one of the things that they recommend CM's can do when they do their course (not a CM but mine told me this). It is good so you can see what they are eating and IF they are eating. I find it amazing some of the foods my DD eats at the CM's that she will not eat at home. [env] I would not know this without the food diary.

Will be interesting what the diary says he ate and what your son says he ate.

Treats are not so bad. I wasn't allowed to eat as a child so have food issues and have been pretty strict with the crap my kids eat but it is so nice when you say yes to them having a packet of crisps or some biscuits as really they are brilliant eaters.

Wow, I thought the food diary thing was compulsory.

Without it I wouldn't know if I was giving DD the same thing for tea that she'd been given for lunch.

If you want to approach it subtely I'd ask for it for that reason.

We haven't used food diary as DS been there ages and literally eats anything (not fussy & happily eat carrot/ cucumber sticks etc).

He doesn't have main meal there and usually reports that he's had a sandwich & yog for lunch with fruit snacks but quite often will report cakes, biscuits, teacakes as well.

I'm not anti these foods as part of normal diet, we have cakes etc when we make them together at home - it's the frequency, portion size & the fact she didn't tell me everything he'd had that day that bothers me.

Our CM doesn't provide meals (she does give them fruit and milk or water though) so we send food with DS - a packed lunch which includes snacky things.

You could suggest you do the same because [insert random excuse].

send him with a packed lunch?

Thanks, will have a think about that

I'd definitely tackle it. Could you make something up along the lines of, We are rather worried about his teeth at the moment, there may be a cavity appearing, we have decided not to give him cakes, biscuits, teacakes etc. at home, could you do the same please? Thanks.

You should bring it up with your CM just to make sure, but there have been a couple of threads recently with the same sort of issue and a lot of people have said how their mindees or children say they've had 'x' when actually they've had nothing of the sort, or they have had it but with a load of other things that haven't stuck in their mind. For instance, one of my mindees when I asked him what he'd had for lunch said 'chocolate spread', I asked him what else and he said nothing! So I asked how come he'd gone to school with a packed lunch instead of having school dinners and all of a sudden he remembered everything that he had which was actually a full hot meal and the choc spread was how he was describing the pudding - chocolate custard!!

My cm writes everything he's eaten on the daily diary page. It's right next to his photo of the day at the top so I see both first thing straight away. I pack a lunch and send it with ds(19 months), just because it's what I wanted when he started with her (mostly because I thought cm rates were so low that I couldn't possibly expect her to provide food for my ds as well, also because I'm a bit anxious about him getting enough of everything he needs). She still writes down what of that he's eaten.

Is it possible your ds is only remembering the sweets? Also, my cm lets ds have cakes/treats when there are birthdays (I'm fine with it obviously, I trust her judgment completely - if I didn't, I wouldn't leave ds with her). Maybe there have been a lot of birthdays recently at hers or at playgroups...etc.?

I'd ask her about it, tbh. I guess there are some bad cms out there, but I can't imagine with all they have to do for ofsted...etc that any cm would consistently provide unhealthy food. Maybe I'm naive, though

xpost with lollipopmother - I agree about that. I teach primary aged children and a 6 year old in my class used to regularly report back the pudding that day to his mother when she asked what he had for hot lunch at school. She was fuming and let it build inside over a few weeks before writing an irate letter to the head, asking why aren't the lunch teachers making sure he's eating proper food and not just pudding (it was a really long letter)... She was so when she realised the reality of the situation.