To ask what they feed your child at nursery?

[Amazona24]

My DS is 2.5 and has attended nursery for a year and a half. For the past few months I feel like what they give him doesn't fill him up enough as he comes home and says how hungry he is. He has woke a few times in the night saying he is hungry and can hear his stomach rumbling!
They do breakfast consisting on wheaties, a snack mid morning of fruit. Lunch is a cooked meal normally something like lasagne, not sure if they have a afternoon snack and tea is a bagel or bit of toast.
What do your kids get fed?

I've just pulled 2 year old DD out of nursery but she had
B: toast and cereal
S: Cracker and milk
L: hot food like fish pie etc
T:something like cheese sandwiches cucumber sticks and a yogurt (I think the other kids would have cake but DD has egg allergy)

They would always offer seconds and the portions were huge.

I never gave her dinner at home. They had tea at 4 and she usually has dinner at 4.30 anyway. Just offered a fruit snack and milk about an hour before bed. The way I saw it she would usually have something like her tea at lunch at home so it was just the same food but swapped times.

Just toast of a bagel isn't a lot though.

My DS is 10 months and has breakfast at nursery, mid morning snack, dinner, afternoon snack and then 'tea' around 4pm, I collect him about 5pm then he has his evening meal at 6pm with us then he has milk before bed

Yeah Op, I think if the children are there till 6 then they should be fed a proper dinner. We spent a long time finding our nursery they’re brilliant. They have a chef that comes in everyday and cooks everything fresh too.

I agree, in an ideal world, that they should get a proper dinner if there until 6pm. Unfortunately, it's rarely a practical proposition.

The reality is that many parents are hugely reluctant to even cover the cost-price of such a meal. They gripe at paying as little as £1.50 to a childcare setting for a meal that would cost them four times as much anywhere else. This sort of charge is regularly cited on message boards as being just one of the ways in which mums are "ripped off" by childcare providers.

The result is they opt out of the meal...... or arrange for granny to pick them up earlier and whisk them off to soft play or some junk food paradise where they spend far more money on something far less nutritious.

This leaves a mere handful of nursery children sitting down to a good, healthy cooked tea, while the cost spirals because the chef has to be paid for their hours regardless of the number of diners. So the meal price rises, more mums drop out, and a vicious circle ensues.

I’ve never found a setting that fed a hot dinner - I can see the advantage but I don’t think it’s the Norns and clearly your current nursery doesn’t do it.

My DS’s nursery has fab food. Breakfast - cereal or porridge, followed by toast if they want it (I tell them not to give ds toast as he already has some at home before we leave). Mid morning snack - veg sticks or something similar.
Two course lunch - always something hearty and filling. Portions are not huge but seconds are on offer if they want it.
Tea is at 4pm and is a lighter meal - sandwiches, wraps, beans on toast, tomato pasta, jacket potato.

I’m perfectly happy with this and don’t feed ds another tea when we get home - no time to apart from anything else - but he does have something else to eat when we get home because of how early tea is. Usually something like a banana or half a pack of Pom bears or a piece of bread and butter. He’s 2.8 and proclaims to be “very hungry” constantly so I don’t actually believe him. He has more than enough food throughout the day!

Ours get breakfast if they start before 8.30, usually cereal, sometimes toast, occasionally pancakes or similar if they have a special occasion day. Morning snack is fruit and biscuit. Lunch is the bigger meal at 11.30, pasta bakes, roast dinners, stir fry type things etc with pudding. Tea is at 3.30 and is soup, sandwiches, fish fingers or similar with fruit for pudding. Portions for DS aren't too big because he gets silly if you give him too much but he'll have seconds of something about half the time and there's always plenty for that. He usually has dinner at home too because I'm feeding the other 4 of us so I give him some when we all sit down but he doesn't eat loads most of the time. If I wasn't feeding us all, he'd have toast or something for supper before bed.

Mine has breakfast often refused as he has double breakfast at home! No snacks there at all, lunch is early cooked meal n pudding seconds available if wanted then early tea at 3.30pm (beans on toast plus fruit or cake, or sandwiches for example). We then give him dinner when we eat at 5.30/6pm he used to be starving from 18mths up until 3yrs old and we used to have something ready to go like scrambled rggd or a pre made meal but now in pre school room and he found his voice he asks for more.

Could you ask them to serve him larger portions pur nursery does small portions to avoid waste but know the children who eat more (mine) and give them extra.

We do:

Breakfast 8-8:45ish cereal

Morning snack 9:30: fresh fruit

Lunch 11:15: hot meal, casserole, pasta etc

Afternoon snack 15:00: usually something bready like toast, crumpets or chips and dip, wraps and salad etc

Tea 17:00: usually something hot like a pasta dish, soup, fish fingers etc

Children have access to cups and a water machine all day, they serve themselves.

DS is not quite 2. He's in nursery 8am-5pm.
He has...
breakfast in the car on the way (we leave the house at 7am) - toast, cheese, sausages/chicken, fruit
Breakfast at nursery - 8.30am, rye bread, cream cheese, veggies
Snack - fruit pouch, cheese, boiled egg, sausages, crackers, etc. (I send in a box)
Lunch - cooked 2-course meal, he'll usually have 2 or 3 portions
Snack - whatever is in his box
Tea - rye bread, cold meat
Snack (In the car on the way back) - whatever is left in his box, usually fruit or crackers
Dinner (at home) - cooked dinner, whatever we're having anyway

He's not usually hungry at night and he doesn't usually have much for dinner. He's 98th centile for both height and weight.