Ds' nursery is serving junk food, does this happen at yours, and how to tackle it.

[paow]

Hi ya,
My Ds (who is 13 months) started nursery a few weeks back, and I wrote a list of foods I didn't want him to have (I'm an Annabel Karmel follower)
They were surprised when I said no sausages, processed meats and cheese, etc.
Not sure if they are following my guidelines but have got the weekly menu, and although it does offer some fairly healthy foods, but it's also offering:
-spaghetti hoops
-sausage rolls
-angel delight
-potato waffles n beans
-swiss roll
-ice cream cones

And other bad sugary foods, is this a norm in your nursery? Surely, after Jamie's dinners everyone should know this is bad for the kids and it makes them hyper??
I am writing a letter to the principal, but what to say without sounding rude?

Thanks!

It's still OMG. Scary.

hey meeely, makes you glad to have twins doesn't it?!

the nursery my Dts go to serves some rubbish, angel delight (shaving foam as the DTs call it!) being the worst offender, but the main meals are freshly prepared and over all the food is good. I don't see any harm in the occasional lapse, but would be worried if it happened on a daily basis

Just thinking about what my DTS have. Typically for home cooked lunch they have chicken risotto, vegetable risotto, shepherds pie, spaghetti bolognese, lamb stew, chicken curry etc.

Junk once a week would be fishfingers or sausages or battered cod.

Everyday they have vegetables with their meals plus fruit or home made pudding. They also have fruit as a mid-morning snack.

They also have lots of birthdays so plenty of cakes/biscuits/icecream.

I personally think that is pretty good.

However, yesterday, one anal mother was making a big brouha about the fact that her little precious could only eat a certain texture of bread and cakes.

My son's last nursery was over a grand a month@Brangelina. Private nurseries in London definitely charge 'OMG' prices! (and this was a 'normal' nursery in Hackney - it wasn't a posh prep or anything)

I pay nearly £1000 a month for my DTS for 3 days a week!

jaysus spoke! IAMF - so glad i have twins yeah! holding my breath for january when we get some funded places!

Thank you everyone for your interesting posts!
OMG £1000!
I pay £43 a day in Blackheath SE London and that is one of the cheapest ones, Teddies charges loads more. There aren't many nurseries in the area, I put unborn ds' name when I was 6 months pregnant and there was still a waiting list. Shocking...

I've started a thread for a Homemade chocolate pudding recipe - as I don't have one

If it's a nice recipe I'll use it when I open my nursery

we provide home cooked food.
NO processed food eg fishfingers, potato products etc
we serve 3 vegetables with every meal
we have a pudding after lunch sometimes ice cream sometimes a cheese and cracker sometimes a bun
fruit always follows

healthy snacks
carrot.cucumber. sticks
breadsticks
fruit
etc

most of our parents serve processed food at home but I choose not to.

sorry but lol at "cheese and crackers" for dessert

Did you check the menu before they started?

? Change nurseries

Did you check the menu before they started?

? Change nurseries

There's no need for them to be serving processed convenience foods to babies, it is just shoddy

I take the point of people saying it won't kill them, but the care they are getting should be the best, including the food, not something that is mediocre or just about passes as acceptable

I would advise going elsewhere but you have said you can't - if there is really no alternative you may have to lump it, but if you write a reasonably sane letter they may at least consider altering some of the food I suppose.

It's a shame that the nursery uses "treat" food as staple food. I wouldn't be too happy either.

god what is a treat about spaghetti hoops?

Nurseryvocie: you should come and set up a nursery near me!!

Franny, also don't see what's with treats and hoops.
I generally don't like processed foods and as I don't eat them, don't see why DS should.

If they were having all of those in the space of one week I would not be happy. A couple of things I wouldn't want DS to be having at all; the others not so much of an issue but if that much junky stuff features in one week there can't be much room left for healthy stuff.

Looking at random at what DS had at nursery yesterday...

Breakfast: Rice Krispies (no sugar)
Morning snack: Fruit (apple, grapes, melon, plum) and carrots
Lunch: Beef moussaka with steamed carrots, then fruit (strawberries, melon and pineapple)
Tea: Tuna and cheese potato bake, then banana and custard
Afternoon snack: rice cakes

I'm much happier with that kind of menu.

Our kindergarten offers reasonably healthy food. About once a week they might get fish fingers but most of the time it is pasta (not out of a tin, yuk, only students eat spaghetti out of a tin here in Germany) potatoes, meat and veg. Sometimes they will have a "sweet" lunch, ie. crepes or dumplings with custard (common here in Germany).

I would not be happy if they were having loads of processed food, but as it is they offer a balanced menu.

Snacks are rice cakes, fruit, ryvita... No cakes/biscuits unless one of the children is celebrating their birthday. They only have water and decent juice to drink, no diluting orange (thank God, that is not available here, disgusting stuff.)

I will never ever complain about the cost of my Kindergarten again, it seems like a real bargain in comparison to some of the London nurseries. We pay 320euros for both children, full day including lunch.

Bambino1andbump, I disagree: "Not all private nurseries are out to make profit! "
Every company should be trying to make a profit. Or else whats the point ?

Ds's nursery has a great menu. We eat healthily at home. But we also eat processed - Ham, pork pies and copious amounts of beaked beans and spaghetti. Ds loves it. And he loves everything I cook, spag bol, shep pie, anything.
I think OP is, as EricL says "I think you are being a bit precious".
But although she struggled to find childcare, if she is not happy, she must change nursery.

It depends on the quality of those items to an extent. Nasty bargain basement sausage rolls I wouldn't be happy with, and angel delight isn't ideal. But if this is just part of a generally healthier menu, I wouldn't mind too much. My DS goes to nursery 3 days a week and has a mixture of healthy home-made stuff, ready-made stuff like fish fingers, and some less healthy stuff like chocolate buttons and cakes. But I reckon they have to strike a balance between making it super-healthy, cost, and getting kids to eat it. I feed him pretty healthily at home (though bob the builder pasta shapes and ice cream aren't unheard of) so I'm not worried. I think giving the nursery a list of banned foods is a bit extreme (unless it's do do with allergies or religion etc) - it will just isolate your child and help to make him fussy instead of enjoying tucking in with everyone else.

You say that you have sent your ds to the cheapest nursery, then comment on the qaulity of the food. Perhaps the food is one of the reasons the other nurseries are more expensive? Don't whinge about it without being prepared to pay for it.

oblomov - We are a private not for profit commitee run nursery in a local community centre. The childrens fees pay our wages and any extra goes straight back into the business for equipment etc. No one gains more from it except the children.

I think you are being a little over the top.

The nursery my dd attends offers spaghetti Bolognese rather than spaghetti hoops. Good old plain sausages with boiled mash potatoes, rather than sausage rolls, jelly instead of angel delight, beans with potatoes (mashed, roast, chipped or boiled) not potato waffles and ice cream without the cones. I'm surprised with Swiss rolls - even the cheapest Swiss rolls is not necessarily a cheap pudding option. Admittedly, my daughter's nursery has its own cook who prepares the food fresh on the premises - perhaps that's why.

If I were to write to the principal, I would suggest the healthier and cheaper options (as described above) as a win-win solution.