Is this standard at nurseries?

[otterbaby]

FTM here starting to look around at nurseries...we will be sending our daughter to nursery full time when she's around 9-10 months old.

It appears as though in our area, the standard age group for her would be 6 months - 2 years.

What I have noticed and is bothering me a bit, is that most of them seem to advertise a 2-course lunch, with the second course being dessert. Is this normal? It's not just fruit, it's things like chocolate cake, ice cream, jelly, bananas and custard, etc. I'm not really keen on my baby having dessert after lunch on a daily basis. If I want her to have something sweet, I'd like to do it on my own terms. And having it every day (for lunch, no less) takes away from the idea of it being a "treat".

This then begs the question, does that make me the witchy mother who has to stipulate that I don't want her to be given these desserts and instead she can have fruit or yogurt? And cue meltdowns when her friends get chocolate cake and she gets an apple?

What is everyone else's experiences?

Usually you can request no sweet puddings (they’d have yoghurt or fruit instead)

I was of your opinion with dd1 but totally chilled with dd2&3. Dd1 has eating issues but dd2&3 are healthy but eat everything in moderation. My advice would be to chill.

It is pretty standard.

You can either request fruit at the nursery, take in a packed lunch if the food doesn't suit, or maybe a childminder would suit your family better?

My experience of nurseries is that the food is really well balanced, and this wouldnt concern me at all.

@m0therofdragons that's my point though, everything in moderation! I'm not trying to withhold sweets from her, but everyday for lunch seems excessive for a 9 month old.

At 9 months she is hardly likely to eat it all. It's very normal of nurseries and school, fruit as snack then main meal with a sweet treat afterwards. If the nursery cook it on site it's likely to be reasonably low in sugar.

The portion sizes are tiny, it's not like she's going to be getting a slab of cake or a whole bowl of custard or anything. But it's your prerogative to say you don't want her to have them if you are uneasy with it.

I wouldn't stress about it myself.

My 2 went to nursery with a similar set up now one will eat his body weight in cake given half a chance and the other has no sweet tooth whatsoever

Just ask them to only give fruit or yoghurt, at that age she won't be fussed about what everybody else is having. A lot of the time the puddings are changed for baby rooms though and they only have tiny portions. They should be putting fruit or yoghurt on the menu really for puddings a couple of days so it's varied through the week

@Rover83 @Bezzi those are good points. Maybe 2 days dessert and 3 days fruit would be a compromise of sorts...

Anyway, nice to know it's fairly normal. Thanks for the advice.

At 9 months doesn't most of it still end up round their face and on the floor?

I think dessert as part of a balanced meal is probably better for them than dessert because their sad, dessert because they did well, dessert because they peed in the potty which builds up an emotional link to eating certain foods

And having it every day (for lunch, no less) takes away from the idea of it being a "treat".

Not keen on the idea that dessert should be seen as a treat.

As others have said portions will be small, and nutritionally balanced. Of course you can ask nursery to provide something else, but it's pretty normal for nursery to try and offer a wider selection of food.

It’s probably got hardly any sugar in and won’t be that interesting, like school puddings. Maybe ask them about the nutritional content.

It's up to you ultimately, but if it's anything like the nursery here the portion is tiny, and it's not dessert as we know it, it's pretty tasteless compared to adult super sugary desserts.

They mix it up with fruit at our nursery and as others have said portions are very small.

With regards to having it at lunch, ours do their main hot meal at lunch and then something lighter, sandwiches etc later on

@otterbaby I feel exactly the same about the sweet foods. I feel that they are a not necessary addition to a child's diet. For a number of reasons but this being one of them I originally chose a childminder who didn't provide food. It worked well for us as I was able to control what my DS was eating. However, due to circumstances beyond my control I had to find new childcare urgently and chose a nursery instead. I made sure that I put on the information sheet that I didn't want DS to have sugary foods every day but they could give it on one day. They were really good and always give him yogurt or fruit instead. My DS will always choose these over cake because I don't offer him cake at home very often. I have needed to remind them occasionally that he isn't to have too much sugar but it's usually when his keyworker isn't working. I wouldn't let it put you off choosing a nursery just make it clear to them.
With regards to the age groups, its quite normal to have up to 2 years in one room. My DS nursery then have different activities for the different ages so they cater for the levels of development.

Ours mainly give yoghurt or fruit for pudding,
occasionally a cookie.

I wouldn’t want me 9 month old having a sweet pudding like that at all personally. It’s harder when they get older and see all the others eating it but for now I would say no.

My younger 18 month old will still happily eat fruit while his older brother has some cake or something- he hasn’t realised yet!

I teach in a prep school. I would really advise you to relax about it. Give her less cake etc at home. It will be nutritionally balanced, low sugar and small portions.
We get parents making a huge fuss about this at the school and it creates really unhealthy eating habits - children hiding and hoarding food, sneaking things they 'aren't allowed' etc.

And having it every day (for lunch, no less) takes away from the idea of it being a "treat".

It’s not a treat. Move away from the idea that food is a treat. That’s the way you store up problems.

I don’t think you can compare prep school with a 9 month old?

Our nursery offers a dessert for every lunch, but it's sometimes fruit or yoghurt, not always a proper pudding.

At her age, I'd be really surprised if she eats it all anyway.

But I think you're overreacting and should just let her eat like the others.

And having it every day (for lunch, no less) takes away from the idea of it being a "treat".
It’s not a treat. It not healthy to have reward or treat foods. It’s all just food, and is fine in the appropriate amounts.

As others have said, you can ask them to give her just the savoury course while she’s tiny. I agree with you that babies that age don’t need to normalise having sweet stuff every day.

My son started nursery at a similar age and didn’t start having the puddings until about 18 months (and only then because he’d started swiping it off other kids’ plates...)

Our nursery provide us with ingredients lists for all the food.

The cake has no sugar in it - it's sweetened with things like apple juice and beetroot.

They hardly use any salt or sugar.

Each meal has a traffic light rating - green, amber, red depending on how healthy it is. Over a typical week there will be 0-1 red meals (out of 10 meals - they do lunch and dinner), plus 1-2 amber ones. So, on average 7-9 are rated green.

We chose a nursery which cooked the food onsite and the chef (employed directly by the nursery) has been trained in baby/toddler/ pre school nutrition.

Posted too soon - what I'm trying to say is, ask them about their ingredients and how they choose what is on the menu. You might be pleasantly surprised or it might confirm it's not the nursery for you.

Some nurseries are using the Eat Better Start Better guidelines, it might be worth looking at that and suggesting it to your nursery or find one that follows it if it suits you more and means you don't have to worry. You are free to tell your nursery no sugar puddings - your child will know what their normal pudding is at nursery when they are old enough and won't question it.

I'm a bit curious about this too because I've never considered desert every day to be particularly normal. We have fruit and yoghurts at home and sometimes might have one after a meal, but dessert is "treat" food to me in so far as we'd normally only provide it or have it at a dinner party or something.

DD does have chocolate and crisps etc sometimes as I do buy them but it's not something we'd have every day and I didn't think that was especially unusual as it doesn't add anything nutritionally so to my mind it's sole purpose really is as a "treat"

I can see the value in low sugar puddings etc being given regularly sweetened by beetroot or whatever as mentioned above though because I suppose it does reduce the allure by making it run of the mill