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Original poster

Wotsits/Quavers at nursery for under ones?

158 replies

JeniN · 21/06/2004 21:15

Dd's new nursery have crisps on the menu for one of their snacks once a week, I think the older kids usually get tortilla chips, and they give the babies wotsits or quavers.

OK, once a week isn't a very big deal, but I really can't see the logic in giving babies (she's 9 months) a high salt snack when general advice is to aim for a low salt diet. Is this a normal thing at nurseries? Should it be so?

BTW we've chosen to take alternative snacks in for her on that day - she hasn't had crisps yet and I don't see why she needs to start just yet. Genuinely interested in other people's views, whatever they are, on this.

OP posts:
Tinker · 22/06/2004 15:36
bundle · 22/06/2004 15:37

overheard a conversation between boy & his mother:
MUM "Behave yourself & you can have a burger later"
BOY: BEAMS

my dd1: "Mummy, what's a burger?"

bonniej · 22/06/2004 15:47

I agree that the wotsits thing is terrible. I try and feed dd (1year old) as healthily as poss but am really stuck for ideas sometimes. She's getting fed up with broccolli and baby sweetcorns. What do you do for a meat type thing as she doesn't like meat or fish?? Any recipe ideas anyone? (must be quick to prepare

Toothache · 22/06/2004 15:48

Bundle - Homemade burgers are very healthy though.

bundle · 22/06/2004 15:52

absolutely, toothache - I made some the other night, with minced steak, mushrooms & worcestershire sauce...mmmmm. she has had them, just not v often.

CountessDracula · 22/06/2004 16:26

bonnie
Cauliflower cheese?

A good one is veggie burger type things, grate some courgette and potato, squeeze out the water. Chop up some mushrooms and bung in anything else like peas/sweetcorn you have handy. Grate in some cheese too if you want. Lob in an egg, mix up, make into cakes, dip in flour, fry in a little olive oil.

Pasta with spinach and ricotta

Pasta with creamy primavera sauce (basically bung in any green veggies you have + some cream!)

M&S do good veggie cakes that are like fishcakes. Prob high in salt?

Omelette/fritatta - you can bung anything in

Dippy egg and soldiers

Potato wedges with beans/cheese or anything else (slice an old spud into wedges, put in a plastic bag with a spoon of olive oil and some mixed dried herbs, shake it up and cook in oven 200/400 ish for about 25 mins)

errr that's all for nwo must do some work!

CountessDracula · 22/06/2004 16:27

I love homemade burgers too yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Heathcliffscathy · 22/06/2004 17:35

macd's always makes me feel really awful afterwards, sicky and headachey...cause of all the crap in it and the karma of having given my money to evil global corp of doom...which is why i haven't had one for two years

CountessDracula · 22/06/2004 17:37

I haven't had one for about 12!! and that was burger king

Tinker · 22/06/2004 20:16

sophable - I know. I was wrong. I'm bad. Bad.

Hulababy · 22/06/2004 20:28

Ooh, some of us on MN must be really bad - we had lunch after a MN meet --- in MDs!!!!!!

Heathcliffscathy · 22/06/2004 20:39

tinker, you are officially excused...

Paula71 · 22/06/2004 21:20

My ds twins have been getting Quavers for about 6 months now - but they are 2 1/2. I wouldn't dream of giving any child under 18 months a bag of crisps. I used to give them rice cakes (can't remember at what age I started now!) and they loved them, still do. I am surprised that a nursery hasn't the imagination to offer something else.

WideWebWitch · 22/06/2004 22:21

I know I'll probably kill the thread but I was thinking about this as I shopped this evening (saddo that I am) and actually, what I object to is not each food item, just the crap that's put in some of them to increase profits. I looked at some of the ingredients of burgers tonight and some of them were fine (beef, onions, herbs,salt) and others were terrible. The cheaper the product, the longer the ingredient list and the lower the percentage of meat. The same's true for biscuits and all sorts of food. So I do care about what's in each food item, not just about what each item is iyswim. There's a lot of difference between a cake that's made of sugar, flour, eggs and butter and one that's full of hydrogenated fats, flavourings, fillers, colours etc.

Heathcliffscathy · 23/06/2004 09:32

It's so crap isn't it www. the thing that gets me is that in real terms it isn't expensive to make food stuffs from good ingredients...the profit margins on ready made foods are enormous, but they still make damn sure that only the well off can afford good food.

clary · 23/06/2004 09:43

I am an avid label reader too like Piffle ad actually have noticed that eg Asda own-brand digestives have no hydrogenated veg oils in while McVities do! Why would this be?? So buy the Asda ones as they're cheaper anyway. I try to elimiated hydrogenated oils from our house but of course cannot remove from diet entirely as others are saying. I think Jenin's original point that the wotsits were actually timetabled as a weekly thing is the worry.

Overheard by DH
"Don't eat any more sweets, you'll spoil your McDonald's"

zebra · 23/06/2004 09:45

Am I the only one, then, who doesn't understand what this thread is on-about?
And I thought I was a food-militant, too.

I looked at the Walker's website, and the listed earlier in this thread. Tartrazine wasn't on the list? Other than MSG (and whether that has any negative health effects is debateable), I couldn't see anything so bad in the list of ingredients. A relatively high salt content, but only per 100g -- per pack the total salt in a pack of Quavers isn't that high.

No, I wouldn't probably buy them for my under 1yo, either. But as a once a week snack at Nursery... I don't know. I have too many other things to worry about.

Like the widespread offer of squash/sugar-free aspartame/sodium benzoate/colouring-full drinks to children, including under 1yo's. It's insideous, and (I find) very difficult to avoid.

zebra · 23/06/2004 09:50

Buy biscuits labeled "all-butter", Clary. That's my new strategy for avoiding hydrog. fats in sweet bickies. Otherwise I'd spend my life reading fine print on labels. Am 99.9% sure McVites Cheddar bites are made without hydrog. oil, thankfully, too -- I buy them in bulk, now.

littlerach · 23/06/2004 09:58

Must admit I have stayed out of this, more so as I work in a nursery!!! But agree with you, Zebra, that I thought it was natural colouring in wotsits, paprika maybe. But not positive!!! And also with regards to squash, that is just as bad, if not worse, IMO.

crunchie · 23/06/2004 10:00

OK I'm going to put a spanner in the works too My kids eat crisps so there. They are 5 and 3. I would say my kids have a treat of some sort every day when I get in from work. It might be crisps or sweets or ice-cream, but unless they have been a pain this is their treat time.

They also go to McD's about once a month or so (perhaps more in holidays as we are out and about).

Also my nephew has a real problem with food - he is alergic to almost everything - but the one thing he can eat happily is a McD's burger (no bun). In fact he has just been to Aystrailia for 3 weeks and he had McD's every day and put on a 1 1/2lbs !! But that is what they wanted as he loses weight at an alarming rate usually. It was more to do with not being sick than the McD's that put the weight on.

Anyhow I am joining the crew of bad mothers I know exactly what I do wrong, but I will live with it as dd1 knows what is and isn't healthy and does prefer 'healthy' food (except her daily treat )

Hulababy · 23/06/2004 10:02

As I saud from beginning my 2yo DD also has treats and naughty stuff. But she also eats loads of the good stuff too. IMO a bit of everything in moderation is just fine by me. DD is healthy and happy in every way

JulieF · 23/06/2004 11:07

Yes Crunchie, but what you feed a 3 and 5 year old is completley different to a nursery feeding a 9 month old. At age 3 as part of a general balanced diet they can tolerate more salt than a baby.

My dd is now almost 3 and she does have the occasional junk food but not before the age of 18 months.

I think the reason many parents give their babies wotsits is becasue they are soft and sort of melt. I don't think they are appropriate at that age though.

bonniej · 23/06/2004 11:16

Just caught up with this thread and wanted to say thanks to you CountessDracula for your recipe ideas. They are great and I'm sure dd will be pleased to finally get some variety in her diet

Twinkie · 23/06/2004 11:17

Ooohh nutcracker - thats the only reason I don;t like DD having wotsits either!! (messy handprints everywhere!!)

Have never really ever stopped DD having anything at all - she eats everything that we give her - loves fruit and veg just as much as she loves crisps and biscuits - in fact she'd rather a pear than a bag of crisps and always chose raisins over crisps when she was younger!!

I have this thing in my mind that stopping her having stuff is onyl going to see her going on a huge 'bad food' binge later in life if she is not allowed to dabble in it now!!

Fio2 · 23/06/2004 11:19

Crunchie we had to see a dietician with my daughter when she was 2 years old and she recommended I feed her most the stuff that everyone hates on here to get her to PUT on weight! most prob like your nephew

McD's are advertising on MSN messanger now and I keep feeling hungry. Not keen on McD's much prefer burger king