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 ?!

Yes they can be a bit funny about it, at a different nursery I took in home made jelly one day because he was teething and it was all he would eat and they made me sign a form to say that I had given it to him before and he'd never had any reaction to it etc etc..!

I now have a new fight on my hands DS is moving to a different room from Monday and they give reward stickers if the child eats everything on their plate - something we have never pushed with him, he'll eat what he wants at meal times and I don't want to encourage him with stickers to finish everything on his plate once he's full. they are really going to hate me at his nursery.

I am what some might call a 'food fascist' and would be very concerned about my little one eating crap every day. It sets up bad patterns. Of course it's a great help if they're eating healthily at home. Surely it's worth mentioning your concerns. If no parents register concern or even interest, there'll be absolutely no benchmark and they'll be able to serve up nutrition-free food unfettered.

honeypot.. unfortunately they are right!

if they had a health and safety inspection and there was something wrong with the juice you supplied (ie, high levels of bacteria or something) then it would be the nursery that got fined. can be tens of thousands!

not that i am saying your juice is full of bacteria or anything! but unfortunately that's just the way it works!

At dd's nursery (she's 15mths) they put reminders in the newsletter about birthday cakes, no icing, minimal sugar, no nuts, no chocolate.
I made banana cake but they have tried to put a few regulations in place around birthday cakes.

How about this for hardcore health. I made jelly for my kids party with agar agar (gelatin-like seaweed) and real fruit juice. I must admit, only my kids and four others ate it.
That said they all lapped up the parsnip cake with cream cheese icing.
Uh Oh! I sound like Viz's Modern Parents.

Oh god this thread is making me feel all tense! I am very healthy food conscious but in reality I tend to chill out, my dd (nearly 2 yo) does like her biscuits, crisps etc, though I don't give them every day, and I have my backup quick meals too, spag hoops, oven chips etc. But, I am feeling very nervous about sending her off to nursery now. We want to be in control of everything our kids eat but that's not possible in reality...

Re what we grew up on, i think that's precisely WHY i worry about transferring my own crap diet onto my dd! I can see now that i totally got my sweet tooth from my mum and what she gave me as i was growing up, and I can feel physically that it's not good for me, and I can see that I am handing it straight down to my own dd though i'd rather she didn't grow up the same way. I mainly mean chocolate or biscuits here...

Don't nusery schools cater for packed lunches? If so, how many kids take them up on it?

If you give your child a packed lunch you run the risk that your child will turn round and ask for you to stop it. At this age they like to be like everybody else. My DS went through a funny eating faze at nursery, then the nursery did give them bickies but also encourage healthy fruit and vegs. He tried a lot more because the other children were eating them too. Now he is at school and has just been laughed at for taking a banana in so is going back to being fuzzy. Incidentally I have studied nutrition and am very fussy but I just encourage mine to eat good things and say nothing if they have the odd treat. This makes it less of an issue in the long-term.

Any decent parent will respect the parents wishes and follow your instructions on what your child can and can't have.

I have only flicked thru this thread very quickly. But i find it really difficult to understand why people wish to stop their child eating any puddings/cakes at all when they are attending a nursery full of other children who will be eating these things.
Yes we shape our children's diets, but at some point they start interacting in the real world and work out what is on offer themselves, and decide what they do and don't like. You can not wrap them in cotton wool forever. You can simply continue good habits within the home and hope they stay with them elsewhere.

I only like giving my dd water to drink, but i have told her pre-school, if and when she realises other children are drinking juice, if she requests it she can have it. Otherwise what will my dd think when they turn round and say no to her, but yes to everyone else?

We have a healthy diet at home, but dd also has her fair share of chocolate and sweets. I believe my being laid back about these foods, doesn't give her any reason to think they are better than her favourite veg and fruits. When we are in the supermarket dd runs to the brocolli and grabs two for the trolley ( i have to stop her taking more). And her delight at dinner time is to find out we have peas on our plate, or corn on the cob, or brocolli and cauliflower, these are all her favourite items and i have not forced this upon her.

I clearly remember being told i was not allowed chocolate as a kid, and it going on so long, that i became obsessed with raiding the kitchen secretly, hoping to find a crumb of chocolate. All because it was something forbidden.

And yes i am now a chocoholic!

duh thats meant to read any decent nursery!!

only skimmed this thread but think that sweet food has a place in every child's diet, so long as served alongside freshly-prepared`healthy wholesome foods.
how can you not let your child have boirthday cake when all his/her friends are tucking in?

Harrizeb i agree with your opinion about the sticker giving for finishing off plates. My dd eats what she wants and thats that also.

But do you really want a fight on your hands and for them to hate you? ( i know you don't mean literally) But its not good to break barriers over things like this, as it can impact on the way they deal with you in future, such as not necessarily telling you the whole truth. ( i've been there and seen it happen)

If they are a decent nursery they will be giving stickers to children who have eaten well (and taking into account each individual diet) not literally to those who have polished off an entire plate and more.
Still not the ideal way but not so bad?

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But don't you feel that denying children to explore all food types and at least enjoy sweet foods sometimes can also cause dietary problems?

I can just envisage the "jamie oliver" generation of children as teenagers all rushing out with their first pocket money to buy all the food their parents have hidden so long and deciding thats the way to go now.

Far more sensible imo to allow them to experience everything so there is no unknown out there they feel the need to go investigate (except alcohol and drugs but that comes later )

BTW i do agree with jamie oliver and have never fed my child ready made crap, but bet his kids have some sweets/chocolate etc

Message withdrawn

I know thats extremely annoying, but it is extremely hard to keep tabs on what each child is eating when there is a large group.

I must ask though, why d'you feel the quavers were to blame for he being full? Wouldn't the breadstick or fruit have had the same effect?

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Hi I just wanted to state that I did not mean to cause offence by my comment (unusual for me). My point really was that the more you look at what people can't have, it can distort the way food is viewed. For instance you see corned beef as being bad but in fact is high in zinc. So if you could ensure that your child has less sodium for the rest of the day, he is actually eating well. Look at the positive in every bit of food. Even if the child has a sweet, one sweet is not going to bring down his diet overall and if they are not allowed these things when they do have them, they may want to eat more. A good book is 'The food bible' by Judith Wills. I swear by it. It gives the nutritional value of everything. It means that there will be no guilt with food.

Sorry to hijack, but I read a recent article by Jools Oliver saying that the only chocolate in their house is hers and not the children. That smacks of a lack of synergy between their diet and the kids, which I would suggest is not right but that is only me so please Jools do not take offence

D'you reckon she just says that because otherwise her husband will get a slating?

I have to admit to stashing my own chocolate though! secret nibbles when dd is not around

There's lots of different ideas on here, but I think the answer so depends on the age of the child. If the child is older and more aware of what others are eating, then I guess you will probably be less fussy (certainly I intend to be) as you won't want to make an issue out of it.

However, if your child is younger (mine is 19 months) then I think you probably want to be stricter... as you're wanting to instill good habits before the big bad world gets to them! Thus, I would never give my child chocolate (yet) we call raisins and grapes sweets ... and she loves them. When she's old enough to know what chocolate is, and to want it... then she can have it ... Because I wouldn't deny her food, but that's not the same as encouraging it either. So like Jools, the only chocolate in my house is mine (but I never eat it in front of DD, and she has no concept of its existence!) When she's worked out what chocolate is, and how darned nice it is, then she can have moderate amounts.... until then, its mine, all mine!!!

My nursery recently carried out a food survey as everyone had started demanding healthier food and they have changed the diet accordingly - perhaps that is something you could suggest on a positive point without making too big a fuss and then you will probably get the backing of other parents.

Hi it's been really interesting reading everyone's points of view about this. So many good ideas and some food for thought (if you'll excuse the pun - groan) of ideas that I will be taking on board. At the moment we are also of the 'only choc in the house is mine school' DS is 2 so can still guide his diet without it causing too many conflicts for him feeling 'different' to other children.

DH spoke to nursery asking if we could change the emphasis of meals times for DS away from the quantity of food and to reward him for helping clear the table, saying please and thank you, for using his cutlery rather than fingers, etc giving them 3 or 4 different things to focus on instead. The director ended up getting herself in an awful tangle trying to explain that the rewards weren't to emphasis how much children eat (and then said that they were) and got quite cross with DH for ringing about it I do feel for her having demanding parents like me to deal with but we are paying for a service and as they are influencing DS I would like to ensure that the very important ground rules are at least similar between nursery and us.

Take care
H x

I've been reading this with interest as a childminder and as a mum.

I don't reward the children in my care for eating all their dinner - but if they aren't hungry enough to eat all their main meal - they won't be hungry enough to eat any pudding. (Whether fruit, yoghurt or ice cream)

But I do reward sitting nicely at the teble, waiting for everyone else to finish patiently, using a knife and fork (or more usually a spoon and maybe a fork) well

If a child doesn't like what I'm serving (and mum hasn't confirmed this in advance) then they can have some bread and butter then a peice of fruit (as otherwise I could end up cooking 4 or 5 different meals) If mum has said "J doesn't like potatoes" then we generally don't have them when he is coming. Tho' it causes chaos if he arrives unexpectadly on a cheese & potatoe pie day....scrambled eggs coming up.

I would like my parents to be more interested in the food that thier children eat - but often they don't comment or make any suggestions for meals (even when asked)

I think it's a matter of give and take. DD has been to two nurseries in the last 6 months. A major factor in choosing which one she went to was the quality of the food they offered. I rejected one place whose menu on the day we visited was waffles and pizza.

I think as a parent you have to appreciate the nursery is trying to cater for a large number of children and try not to make unreasonable demands, however, given that these places are private and we're paying for the services provided I also expect them to adhere to the requests I do make.

I'm veggie but I'm not bringing dd up that way, although I have asked the nursery not to give her processed meat. Fortunately, all their food is home cooked from scratch so it's not been an issue.