Quorn the only veggie option at nursery!?

[SassyPants87]

My 9 month old is starting nursery next week and we've chosen a nursery that is so fab! However when I asked to be sent the menu for the week every single meal was meat based but the veggie option was replacing the meat with quorn

DD is being raised vegetarian but at home I'm mindful of giving her nutritious meals with great veggie protein options e.g ground seeds, nut butters, beans and pulses, eggs, tofu, quinoa etc.

Is it unreasonable of me to ask the nursery to not give her quorn all the time and give her some really great high calorie good fatty proteins instead?

I also read quorn isn't recommended for under 2 year olds on a regular basis and DD will be going to nursery 3x a week

Any advice would be great!

@TheUnexpectedPickle

It's fair that you didn't ask for my opinion. However it is unfair that you are expecting the nursery to cater for your dietary choice. They will have multiple children so will cater for the majority. Her specialist diet is your choice, so you either need to provide food for her or accept the nursery's vegetarian option.

There are plenty of families who use the vegetarian option to avoid worrying about whether something is halal / kosher etc. I don't think quorn should be served more than once a week; it's not difficult to come up with kid friendly veggie options. Toddlers shouldn't be taught that eating meat for every meal is essential either.

I think If she's only there 3x a week it's not worth getting het up about, as long as you continue to give her varied protein sources at home.

I think it's a bit much to expect nursery to amend the meal plans when they are on a very strict budget and will have likely consulted a nutritionist when the menu was put together.

Lots of the meals my DS has at nursery are naturally veggie e.g. jacket potato/risotto/orzo so I wouldn't worry too much that there going to be loads of quorn!

Hi all thank you for your responses and some really great advice as to how I can approach the topic with nursery. I'll let you know what they say but I'll be surprised if they can't really accommodate this due to the vast number of iteration of meals they need to do anyway due to allergies, preferences etc

Can you maybe bring her own lunch in?
That’s what we used to do (DS was allergic to eggs).

@Rosiiiiie yes as a last resort I will send her lunch in if they push for quorn to be served for all of her meals. Slightly annoying though given how much nursery costs

@TheUnexpectedPickle

IMHO you shouldn't be raising a baby as a vegetarian. It's a lifestyle choice and one she is too young to make.

It is unreasonable to expect the nursery to cater for dietary requirements you have decided on, unless you are willing to provide food yourself. It would be different if this was a food allergy, but it isn't. Either send her in with food or suck it up.

So it's ok to assume they're ok with the slaughter of millions of animals a year then? Don't be a dick.. oh too late

Op you're not being unreasonable to ask at all

Was going to mention but allergies too but that’s already been covered.

I think it depends on the number of vegetarian children attending. If yours is the only one I think it is unreasonable to expect the same choice you provide at home.

Could you come to an arrangement whereby you take in home-cooked lunch, batch cook and freeze, and the cost is deducted?

I would agree with maybe bringing meals in, but I will say some nurseries are reluctant to serve food from home and prefer if it is packaged from a shop - so they can check the ingredients in case if allergies.

Regarding the vegetarianism, you are aware that babies are too young to make ANY lifestyle choices, and we as parents make all of them? Eating meat is also a lifestyle choice you make for your baby. I don’t stand over my child making sure they don’t play with any toys as they’re too young to express whether they agree with plastic or would prefer wooden Montessori toys for environmental reasons.

I think go with a suggested list of alternatives (that aren't nuts) rather than just say you don't want quorn all the time, we have lots of vegetarians in our family so I'm very familiar with alternatives but plenty of people won't be. More likely to be a positive outcome if you go with a constructive suggestion list rather than a flat no quorn stance

@SassyPants87 it might be worth chatting to the head of nursery. Ours was really accomodating and adjusted pricing accordingly.

@TheUnexpectedPickle

IMHO you shouldn't be raising a baby as a vegetarian. It's a lifestyle choice and one she is too young to make.

It is unreasonable to expect the nursery to cater for dietary requirements you have decided on, unless you are willing to provide food yourself. It would be different if this was a food allergy, but it isn't. Either send her in with food or suck it up.

Lol Shhhh

YABU
I raised DS veggie and he was the only one at nursery. They often gave him quorn as it's easy for them to swap it out for the meat. The menu was meat heavy, they were lovely but they did get a lot of 'substitutes' like fake ham which DS was about but the cook was old school and had no clue really about how to feed a veggie child. I was just grateful they tried and he would fill up on fruit and veggies if he didn't like it as they always offered plenty of those.
It's really not worth making a fuss about.

YABU

It's 5 out of 21 meals.

You can make up the difference at breakfast and dinner etc

I think you’re being unreasonable. They have provided a veggie option. If you don’t like it provide your own food. It’s the same as sending kids with packed lunch instead of school dinners where they don’t like/want/agree with the options. You’re not being forced to have your dc eat it.

Have you actually spoken to the nursery yet? Maybe you need to talk to them first?

I have a 9mo and I’m a vegetarian who loves quorn, but I wouldn’t feed it to him (although I’m not raising him vegetarian and wouldn’t). I don’t think I’d be happy with him eating quorn at this age, it can cause dietary issues in adults...

My DD (now a teen) was raised veggie and still is. When she was in nursery they needed to follow nutrition rules for under 3s from the local health authority (not in the U.K.) and highly processed foods were not permitted, so no fake meat (or even processed meat products for the omnivores). We also don’t do fake meat at home, we don’t see the point and most is excessively processed.

She got given pulses, dairy products and eggs when the other kids had meat. Most of the time the other kids ate the same as DD as it was easier, with an extra bit of fish or chicken in the side. So something like lentil and vegetable soup instead of just vegetable soup for first course with DD getting an omelette for second course while the others had fish. If anything everyone else’s consumption of pulses increased when DD was there!

This is a country where at the time vegetarianism was fairly rare yet it was easily accommodated. I really don’t get why it’s such a huge effort in the U.K., do they buy their meals in from a caterer? Even so surely it is more costly buying in fake meat than a few pulses?

I'm not sure where the information on not feeding Quorn to young children has come from but all NHS feeding guidelines say it's fine <a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.lnds.nhs.uk/Library/FeedingtheVegetarianBabySept17LNDS052.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjN_dnI6dXxAhViQkEAHU0uDO8QFjAKegQIHRAC&usg=AOvVaw2bB68TZ8HMXOcRu-ZrV_Vc" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=www.lnds.nhs.uk/Library/FeedingtheVegetarianBabySept17LNDS052.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjN_dnI6dXxAhViQkEAHU0uDO8QFjAKegQIHRAC&usg=AOvVaw2bB68TZ8HMXOcRu-ZrV_Vc (obviously the more variety the better but as far as I can tell through the NHS there's nothing wrong with Quorn/vegetarian mince for young children...)

@T0rt0ise

You're 100% correct.

The guidelines/advice is that quorn should not be the only form of ingredient, and that it should be eaten alongside a varied diet.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with quorn for under 3's.

@T0rt0ise I'm not saying she can't have any quorn as that's totally unrealistic but at her nursery they give quorn everyday. All I want is for her to have a varied protein source that isn't highly processed

I would imagine nuts are a no no

[quote SassyPants87]@T0rt0ise I'm not saying she can't have any quorn as that's totally unrealistic but at her nursery they give quorn everyday. All I want is for her to have a varied protein source that isn't highly processed [/quote]
But she will have a varied source of protein from the other 18 meals a week that she has.

Nearly 90% of her meals during the week are up to you.

Also, if you're planning on a state school, I think you're going to get a big shock at the average lunches they produce

@TheUnexpectedPickle

It's fair that you didn't ask for my opinion. However it is unfair that you are expecting the nursery to cater for your dietary choice. They will have multiple children so will cater for the majority. Her specialist diet is your choice, so you either need to provide food for her or accept the nursery's vegetarian option.

Do you say the same for religious reasons? Should all children eat meat / pork / non halal?

@TheUnexpectedPickle

IMHO you shouldn't be raising a baby as a vegetarian. It's a lifestyle choice and one she is too young to make.

It is unreasonable to expect the nursery to cater for dietary requirements you have decided on, unless you are willing to provide food yourself. It would be different if this was a food allergy, but it isn't. Either send her in with food or suck it up.

How very narrow minded and uneducated.

Just to let you all know that nursery were fantastic and said there was no problem with giving DD other natural protein sources such as beans, pulses, tofu etc!!

So pleased!! They actually said most nurseries produces a vast amount of varied dishes to accommodate all dietary requirements and preferences and actually a lot of the vegetarian kids don't eat quorn anyway

All that worry for nothing! I'm hoping anyone else in the same situation as me is also able to get the same results from their nurseries

[Post edited my MNHQ to remove child's name]

Great update OP. Glad it’s sorted.