horrified by nursery food ..............what should i say to them ?

[lunachic]

took ds to visit nursrey today and i was pretty horrified by some of the items on the menu.i want to send him to this nursery because it is next door to the primary he and most of the children there will be going to -so he can make friends etc

the worst offender on the menu was jam tarts closely followed by corned beef stew and jelly

at home he eats food that is mainly healthy and wholesome with the odd tin of 'bob' pasta
i allow him to have pudding like crumble and custard but he does have a problem mainly with concentrated sugar(like some dried fruit snacks/cordial) and colourings and chocolate

i dont like him to have monosodium glutamate (im allergic he is not - yet ) which will be in the stock cubes they use but i feel too fussy if i mention this and the corned beef /processed meat??

will have to say he cant have some of the puddings he ll have fruit instead and ill maybe take in some healthy snack bars

would really appreciate some feed back from other mums as to the food at their nurserys and what you told them your child wasnt to eat- and if they stuck to that ?

tia
lunachic

ps have these people heard of jamie oliver -should i ask them ?!

We had a parent at the Nursery that my children attend complain that the food was too healthy!!! Apparently children don't eat fruit and vegetables. Luckily she was out voted.

just chucking in my tuppence worth here.... Personally, I wouldn't have aproblem with jam tarts - expecially if they're homemade - it's not like they are going to be eating loads every day is it? One jam tart once or twice a week is not going to rot their teeth.
I think the main thing, to be honest, is that when you make the choice to send your child to nursery or even when they go to school - whatever - it is never going to be exactly the same as what you would ideally do for them. It's part of letting go I suppose.

But Tommy, look at the crap served up in school dinners! Surely we shouldn't accept it?

Not saying a jam tart is the end of the world btw!

out of interest (and I am being very nosey) how much are you paying for the nursery and how long is the session? and do you have to pay extra for lunch?

I only ask because with my ds's nursery the food does on occassion leave alot to be desired but I only have to pay 1.50 for it and that includes a WHOLE EXTRA HOUR all for 1.50, i dont see I could even begin to moan. plus they eat a bit of rubbish at home too

I also do the same as triceretops - told the school dd is veggie. She isn't, we don't eat beef, and certain times we don't eat meat at all, but not veggie. It took the school a month of feeding her meat before I found out and she started having vegetarian. Anyway, the vegetarian menu looked a lot more healthy, but dd was still consistantly sick on it.

She is very sensitive to certain processed food, additives, and bacteria. no idea why, but if somethign is even gettign close to its use by date I can't risk it for her. So school dinners were a disaster, and she is on packed lunches. ds is fine, btu I still wouldn't touch school dinners again.

I'm not overlly heath conscious neither, dd does get macdonalds occasionally and chicken nuggets etc. But she can't eat school dinners.

Sorry, returned to this thread and re-read my throwaway comment about food facism. Honestly I didn't mean you! Hope I haven't put my foot in my mouth. Should have left my post at "It's all about balance"

totally agree handlemecarefully he started yesterday (only for one session but building up too more)
decided not to be aa 'food facist' and just said to them that he wasnt too have anything too sugary or with too many sweetners in and that id prefer him to have plain crisps
think the jam tarts are prob homemade its just bound to be cheap jam and i hate that coloured stuff with hardly any fruit him
they have the odd choccie bicci and i couldnt stop him having this cause he loves them and i could see him pinching someone elses or moaning till they gave him one !

thanks for all replies i was probably being ott with 'horrified' must have watched jamie o s school dinners once to often

was impressed that they give water and milk not cordial and that the majority of the food is homemade

Hi I haven't read all this thread, so apologies if this has moved on. I was very disappointed with the food served at my DS first nursery and this combined with several other issues meant that we moved him.

However, on the food front there and at the new nursery I did just put a blanket - no deserts fruit only restriction in place, because at home he doesn't have deserts only fruit or yoghurt. They have stuck to this except for when the children have birthday cake and one person decided that I was too mean and that he should have some (was very very ) but glad they have admitted it at least. So now have said that he can have sponge cake - no icing and fruit too if the kids have cake. He usually doesn't like the texture any way.

Hope things are going well for you all with the nursery, I feel that as a parent you need to feel comfortable with the decisions that are being made and that they are along the lines of what you would do if you were at home yourself at that time

Hope this helps

H x

Hi Harriet,

Why isnt he allowed puddings and stuff? Just wondering if he has allergies or if its a personal decision

((((((((hugs))))))))

I'm not entirely happy about the food at ds's nursery either. Was really healthy for weaning foods - but they are easy. As soon as he went into toddler room it started to deteroriate (spaghetti hoops? why not beans, at least htey have some nutritional value...) and little walkers is even worse. Processed ham sarnies - full of additives, yuck. Strawberry mousse - its Angel Delight by any other name! Yet at home he'll happily eat fruit for pudding... I don't want to be overly fussy but I do want him to have a healthy diet with fruit, veg, protein, carbohydrate, iron, omega-3 fat, etc etc.

Fine, they can give him crisps and choc and cake if they are having a special birthday tea very occasionally, but why deliberately make the kids eat crap several times a week? This is a day nursery so for most kids this is the major part of their diet.... I did actually insist over the spaghetti hoops but haven't made a fuss about anything else as apart from that it's a very good nursery. But relieved he's now only 3 days a week so I can get some goodness down him!

I really am amazed at this thread, how did we all survive? I for one used to love going out for coffee with my mum as I used to be allowed to eat the sugar cubes!! Not allowing your child to have birthday cake

My ds1 went to nursery when he was 5 months old, his didn't provide food so I did my own, bu I remember being angry that he was being given cordial at the christmas party when I had always sent water in. Then I came back to the real world.

My son now has school lunches, and has things there which he does get at home, but I'm not worried, he is well balanced does not gorge on sweets etc, and knows what a healthy diet is (he's 5)

Yes we all should do the best for our children, but really, what are you going to do send your child with a packed lunch all the time even to a friends for a play?

that sounds quite reassuring then lunachic - that the majority if stuff is homemade. Jamie would probably be quite impressed!

Ooh deegward that brings back memories - it was my Gran who used to let me eat sugar lumps. Yum.
Know what you mean re not getting too hung up on this, but when you are paying good money to a nursery which is actually responsible for feeding your child most of his diet, I think you are entitled to expect a healthy, balanced diet, not just a load of processed (and therefore cheap) rubbish. Of course ds is allowed birthday cake, I meant birthday tea as in party food like crisps, snacks etc. should be an occasional thing rather than once a week.

Did you know that spaghetti hoops have more tomato in them than spaghetti and more tomato than a can of beans (47% v 20%)? They also have less sugar, fat and sodium compared to baked beans (Heinz Hoops v Tesco's beans).

And my grandma used to feed us sugar lumps too. Bliss

actually I think I used to nick the lumps from her sugar basin... but I'm sure she was turning a blind eye!

i remember loving sugar lumps too !! but i would be horrified lol if i caught my kids eating them

thankgoodness we know more about nutrition than our parents !

why would you be horrified lunachic? it's jsut sugar!

yes, it'd be bad if a child was fed sugar cubes for every meal. but i fail to see how the odd sugar cube will do any harm! as long as they brush their teeth morning and night and the rest of their diet is balanced what's the problem?

I did wonder if I needed to duck after posting. That makes it sound as though I was being deliberately controversial - I'm not.

HappyHuggy - no he's not allergic to anything, I would just rather be the person that decides if and when chocolate, cakes, biscuits etc are introduced into his diet and in what quantities.

He hasn't had chocolate yet (that I am aware of) we do make home made biscuits that he has, but he enjoys making them more than wanting to eat them afterwards.

I know that this is (as with everything to do with parenting) a very personal choice, but for me I wanted to set up a pattern of healthy unfussy eating from the start - he will eat all meat, fish, veg and fruit including some that I had never had before he was born, which makes going out to friends/family/restaurants so much easier which was important as we do this a lot - it's cheaper for him to share a meal than having to buy extra kids meals, at the moment.

The difficulty at nursery is that they plan meals to suit the majority, but as we didn't fit into the majority mould it was easier all round to just say - not this, and be able to have a little control over something we had started at home.

The birthday cake thing, yes it sounds harsh -but in his room there are 12 children all with birthdays within a very short space of time of each other and so going from no cake at all to cake every week for me was too much, espcially as they are making biscuits, cake, flapjacks etc as part of messy activities that they are doing as well.

As he gets older we are introducing other things into his diet in what we consider reasonable quantities, and also so that he isn't at a friends party and feels that he has to say can't eat this that and the other, but also so that he realises that they are party treats and not every day food.

It is nice to hear that I am not quite as out of the ordinary as I thought

H x

white sugar arghhhhh !! the devils food
says me whose just had coffee with an enrmoose teaspoon full (borrowed from neighbour cause weve ran out of brown !)

harrizeb your kids diet sounds good (better than mine) there is such a small period to catch them where they like lots of different things then they start getting fussy - realised this with my ds (nearly 3) i have to disguise broccoli in pesto and cheese sauce-think you have the right idea because we totally shape our kids preferances and tastes

err sorry i mean enormoose

Haven't had time to read all the replies, but my DD is at a private nursery and they are fab with her food needs. We're Veggie, so they have to cook her entirely separate foods from the other children, but they happily do that and they give her a darned good diet (I know, I supplied the recipies ;-)) But just wanted to say that I don't see why you can't say that you want to be wary of a food intolernace to MSG. and to ask for some special requests - Most nurseries are good at working round that sort of thing!

But there is also give and take, I know at nursery she does get given chocolate pud, which I would never give her, but then you can't expect everyone to have your high standards can you?

and they will enjoy that sneaky choco pud so much !! which has to make up for the downside !!

the nurseries can be a bit fussy when you take in food thou, i took in juice for ds as didnt want him drinking their stuff, the next day they told me they cant keep it in the fridge as it contamination!!! what planet are they on!
I also complained to the nursery after watching Jamie Oliver as they have smiley faces, wos told they oven cook them, not fry them - i should hope not! they were really on the defensive and said the twizzlers were taken off the menu.