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 ?!

Hi Just a word of caution from a mother whose two children have been to nursery with DS I chose nurseries specifically for the diet, the first one was even chosen because it had real nappies. Three nurseries later I ended up sending DS to the nursery I rejected because of the diet simply because he was not happy with the other two. The standard of care for the child's general well being was not there. The food was all part of the image. The one DS finally went to is the one he stayed at and DD is there now and both have been very happy. The diet was not great at first but the survey has changed this. Now the only thing that concerns me about a nursery is how happy the children are. I have found the smaller independent nurseries to be more flexible with parental views and not the chains. It is a personal opinion but just something to bear in mind on selection. Diet is a big part but only part of the overall standards of care at nurseries. Get the right one and you can go to work leaving your child with a big smile on their face. I did not have that with the other two nurseries and it used to break my heart.

I agree lunachic. I am shocked that they are serving such unhealthy food, imo corned beef is not healthy. If he has not started yet, is it possible to look at other nurseries in your area? It does not sound like standard nursery food to me. When I looked into placing my ds in nursery all of the nurseries served wholesome organic food only.

Hi You are very lucky. It depends on the area you live in. There is not many in my area which is a large city.

At birthday parties I have to relaz my attitude .... but as nursery school lunch is usually one of three daily meals, it represents about a third of total food consumtion on weekdays. I think it's REALLY important to make sure it's healthy.

I would hate my child to have a sugary pudding five days a week at lunchtime. Unrefined sugar IS bad. It's also addictive. So what if it makes them happy? They'd be happy watching cartoons all day but we know better than to let them do this. Also if you give kids nutrition free energy (sugar) they're obiously less likely to want to eat other foods.

Sorry 'relax' not 'relaz'.

ds starts first half day at nursery tommorow -with his first nursery lunch -hes only starting one day but building uo to 5 half days next year before he starts school

ive decided not to be too fussy about what he eats because i dont want him feeling left out -i have decided that corned beef is ok because we dont have it at home and he doesnt have red meat much either
the jam tarts -well he can have one but if he comes home hyped up then it may be his last one (suspect they wont put a lot of jam in) same for jelly

im still not happy that this is acceptable food for children when i could think of lots of healthier meals/ sweets to replace these-
the problem is obviously the nurseries cost cutting and i think the other problem is that the lead is taken from the kids who wont eat the healthier food when it should be the other way round

one good thing is that the food at the nursery is all homecooked -no turkey twizzlers (thankgod )!

there is a nursery near(ish) here that has better food but its just a bit to far (about 6/7 miles) when i can walk to this one -also the nursery i have choosen is next door to the primary he will attend -(will ring the other nursery with the 'good' food to see how the prices compare though- just to be nosey !)

the only compensation for the unhealthy and unwholesome food is that ds will love it and will love going to nursery

thanks everyone for posting !

well dropped him off didnt look at menu will find out soon what he's had for lunch

first day menu was chilli and rice and a plain cookie not too bad ..................

We run two nurseries and focus seriously on providing top quality meals, nutritionally balanced and varied to develop varied tastes. We have recently taken on a chef who previously worked for a large chain nursery. I'm afraid to say that quite often the quality of produce used was poor and often innapropriate. Lasagne on the menu and frozen turkey mince provided to cook it with, for example. His last nursery also implemented a 'no beef' policy after BSE. All well and good, but the ban is still in place and has been extended to no red meat at all. He says that this is down to cost, rather than any health issues. We make a loss on our food. All of our meat, dairy and most of our veg is certified organic and we buy our ingredients from Waitrose (more expensive but always top quality). Our bank manager may not be pleased but I could not serve a turkey twizzler to a child in our care (even if they eat them at home.)