Junk food in nurseries

[RamblingRosa]

I don't know if I'm just being uptight but I'm really annoyed that twice I've been to pick up my DD (16mo) from nursery to find all the other kids eating cheesy wotsits that one of the mums had brought in "as a treat" while my DD is sat in the corner on her own with a cream cracker because the nursery staff know that I don't like her to eat junk food.

I just feel that they shouldn't really let any of the kids eat junk food in the room because it's too hard to then not allow some kids to eat it. I don't want my DD to feel left out or excluded but I really don't want her to eat cheesy wotsits either! Am I being too uptight or should there be a policy to not allow outside junk food into the baby and toddler rooms?

[ScottishMummy]

i dont want my LO sat next to some wotsit munching wean,thats my style of parenting

i abide by the no external food, no junk food in nursery rule,as hopefully it means all children are eating healthy snacks.i wouldnt give wotsists at home so certainly dont want them at nursery

but as i said my nursery has no pop,crisps,no external food.except fresh fruit

[BonsoirAnna]

rubyslippers - any normal 16 month old is quite, quite capable of understanding that the children around him/her have got something nice to eat and he/she hasn't. And to feel aggrieved about it.

[rubyslippers]

i stand corrected

my DS has always had different food at his nursery because of allergies/vegetarian diet so clearly i am used to him eating differently from other children, as is he

[RamblingRosa]

Rubyslippers, my DD is definitely aware enough to know that other kids are having something and she's not. She was when she was under one yr old too as apparently she got upset that the other kids were eating the wotsits and she wasn't (which made me feel awful and I told the nursery staff she could have them on that occasion because apparently she was crying).

I suspect the nursery manager doesn't know it's happening. Maybe I'll say something. Maybe I'll just let it go. Can't believe I've turned into someone who gets this vexed about a bag of wotsits

[RamblingRosa]

Rubyslippers, DD is vegetarian too so I guess she must be a bit used to eating different food but her veggie meals tend to look identical to the meat meals (eg. they'll do a veggie lasagne and a meat lasagne) and they all sit around the table together.
In this instance, DD was sitting in a corner eating a cream cracker while all the other kids cuddled up to nursery staff tucking into a bag of crisps. She looked pretty excluded and I'm sure she would have realised that she was being left out of something.

[ScottishMummy]

vexed about wotsits!i'd be apoplectic.they contain tons of salt.evil

[RamblingRosa]

Not just salt Scottishmummy, I think they have some other nasties too. I think there was a boy in my class when I was at school who wasn't allowed wotsits because the additives in them made him really hyper or something.
Mind you, I used to love wotsits when I was a kid . Not at 16mo though! I don't think I started eating crisps regularly until I was a teenager and had pocket money to buy them myself.

[rubyslippers]

they tucked her away in the corner - now that is utterly unecessary

why couldn't they all sit together?

you should certainly speak to the manager about that

[RamblingRosa]

I don't know how she got in the corner TBH. It's possible she chose to sit in the corner but I find that hard to believe...if all the other kids were getting excited about their 'treat' and clambering onto nursery assistant's knee to get stuck in, I can't imagine she volutarily wandered off to sit in the corner. Maybe she did. Or maybe they told her to sit in the corner. I don't know. All I know is it made me feel uncomfortable when I came in and found her in the corner with her cracker and all the other kids going crazy for crisps on the other side of the room!

[rubyslippers]

if it made you uncomfortable then mention it ...

[Maria2007]

Yes, I don't think you're unreasonable at all. I think I would be a bit upset / annoyed by this too. I also (like you) am not obsessed with healthy eating. Crisps & chocolate etc are fine once in a while. But not in this kind of setting, not at the nursery, it just doesn't seem right.

[Snooch]

Honestly, I would not let it go. You have every right to bring up the subject with the nursery, regardless of whether someone will "get into trouble" or not. I let DS (nearly two) have a small treat once a week or so, so am not totally against junk food, but I would still not be happy with the situation at the nursery. As a childminder I would NEVER give my DS treats in front of the other children, some of whom are allowed junk food and others not - extremely insensitive and in my personal experience as a little girl, terribly hurtful for the left out child, even at 16 months!

They MUST have a policy about outside food being brought in, surely?? If not, I think I'd be inclined challenge it.

[Snooch]

inclined to challenge it rather.

[RamblingRosa]

I checked their policy book yesterday and couldn't find anything on outside food, just policies about how their food is prepared on the premises. Maybe I'll just ask the manager about it this evening without making a big deal about it...

[gladders]

dear me - all this over a pack of crisps? it's completely unrealistic to expect children to sale through life without coming up against unhealthy food every so often. as a regular little treat now they'll be part of the background. ban them completely and they'll become hugely desirable in about - ooh say 3/4 years time.

[HSMM]

Keep it simple. Any junk food brought in by parents goes back home with them.

[spokette]

Since when does someone have the right to dictate to others what they can and cannot feed their own children?

If the nursery has a policy on outside food, then they should enforce it. If they don't have a policy, then tough. Focus on your own child or move to another nursery.

When my DTS were at nursery, I told the staff in writing and verbally my preferences for what they could and could not eat and I took no notice of what the other children ate because it was none of my business.

[cestlavie]

Boy, am I the only other person going the other way on this?

Firstly, of course nurseries have policies on food, but these relate to providing staple healthy meals, 5-a-day and dealing with allergies - at DD's nursery parents can't bring anything in that has egg, milk, nuts etc. in. I would not thought many nurseries have an outright ban on anything that is perceived to be "junk".

Secondly, this has happened twice, right? They are one-off occurrences. It's not as though the kids are being fed a steady diet of 'junk' food and your daughter is being repeatedly left out of the fun. I presume that on the same day they had things to eat other than just Wotsits?

People absolutely have the right to expect that their children have what they want them to eat - that is your choice. What they absolutely do not have the right to is to enforce that choice on all other parents (which presumably since all other kids were happily munching away would have been the case).

[cestlavie]

Sorry, oops but allowing "junk" food into the nursery (occasionally) absolutely does not take away the element of choice for those parents who wish to avoid. It may make it harder for them and harder for the child but it certainly doesn't take away that choice. And hey, that's what making choices is all about - making your decision because you think it's the right thing and living with it rather than expecting the world change around you.

What absolutely does take away the element of choice is imposing an absolute (minority) view on the majority of people who clearly aren't that bothered about it.

Fair play to the OP for standing by this, but, let's face it, there are going to be many many times in our kids' lives where we take decisions that make their lives ostensibly more hard, be it restricting sweets at 2 or enforcing curfews at 16. We make the choices because we think they're right, and get on with it.

[spokette]

"I just don't see why is is so absolutely necessary for some parents to briing in junk and then act all offended when that isn't what other people want for their kids..."

Well I just don't see why it is so absolutely necessary for some parents to act all offended with other parents when they raise their children differently and expect to impose their ideals on an institution that caters for a cross section of society.

"Othwersie the "choice" that you talk about is actually taken from the more health concious parents."

Well, I am sure a lot of parents who give their children junk food now and again are also quite health conscience - they are just not anal about it.

[LibrasJusticeLeagueofBiscuits]

Somehow I don't think wotsits are actually going to kill you, even if you dropped the packet on someones head I doubt it would even elicit an ouch. Personally I think that every parent has the right to decide what to feed their child, if that includes wotsits/crisps/biscuits then that is their choice just as it's your choice to ask the nursery not to allow your child to have junk food.

It's weird on the other thread some people are saying a teacher should be allowed to hand out party invites to a class even if not all the class are invited but here wotsits shouldn't be handed out if any of the children aren't suppose to have any.

[cestlavie]

Oops: not sure where to start with that last post. Suffice to say that (a) respect for other people's choices probably does not mean imposing your choice on them but rather being mature enough to understand that different people have different views on what to feed their children (b) if I had decided that for my child shouldn't have junk food for whatever reason at whatever time, I'd decide and live with - what I wouldn't do is require that everyone else falls into line with me.