Nursery not providing meals - dealbreaker?

[Bbbfurever]

We are considering a nursery that we like however it doesn’t provide meals for under 2s and my DD is 1. Im thinking this is a bit of a dealbreaker considering the prep time I’ll need to put into her meals and the little amount she eats… I asked the nursery why they don’t offer meals and their response was that under 2s all have different routines and they’ll adjust to each individual child’s routine but won’t they still need to have lunch and snacks anyway? I feel it’s an excuse more than anything. Thoughts?

@Bbbfurever

Have you looked at other nurseries? I know of some nurseries in the wider area here that are absolutely dire and no amount of food provided would have me send my child there.

If you really like this nursery then it's easy to get into the swing of packing lunches. I'd send her with one lunchbox with compartments you can fill with sandwiches, fruit, veg, snacks etc, and one thermos with last night's leftovers in. I batch cook soup as easy thermos lunches for my son.

I’d talk to them to see what the other parents usually send - maybe they are just reheating pouches or jars?

We provide the same main meal to our babies and just blend/chop for smaller babies. If parents don’t want our food we will heat up what parents provide. If a baby is sleeping over lunchtime they just get their meal reheated when they wake up.

It is a bit of a faff, however it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me.
If I had found somewhere that I was otherwise happy and confident leaving my child I would just suck it up until they were two.
There are honestly so many nurseries that I wouldn’t leave my child and I think if you’ve found somewhere that you’re happy with, I would take it.
shouldn’t be too difficult to manage, leftovers, pasta or soup in a hot flask for lunch and then a sandwich, fruit yoghurt type tea or something for the nursery to reheat.
I would be really interested to know how they manage this though, in terms of logistics, food storage, supervision when eating etc. is it a fairly small provision?

You can get flasks that keep food warm, Sho is good

Thanks everyone for your opinions. We’ve decided to go with the one that doesn’t provide meals because I got a better feel of it as a nursery and it’s backed by good ratings elsewhere. My only concern at this point is tea - my DD will be in 8.30/9am till 5.30pm. She will have breakfast at home but wondering whether she’ll be having dinner at home too? Or should I be send that with her to have at nursery?

Depends whether she naps there and what time she goes to bed. My son is 2 and a half and he doesn't nap at nursery so he's in bed by 6pm which means dinner is around 4.

Until you've got her settled and sussed out her routine you could send something extra in to keep her going. You might find she continues to need it or she might have dinner at home. You'll get into a routine soon enough and know how much food to send. Our nursery sends everything home so you can see exactly what was eaten which is helpful. So if he only eats half a banana then the other half is put back in his lunchbox.

My son is always shattered after nursery and wouldn't last any longer than 4 waiting for his dinner, but like I say he's in bed at 6.

@Yourethebeerthief Thank you, I will wait and see how she gets on!

No guarantee that the food is heated to be correct temperature and all the way through. So don't do this

Baby lead weaning?

We provided lunch and snacks from 3 yo. Only allowed cold food. We managed. Our oldest were servere lunch - so much easier.