Is it unreasonable to expect childminders / nurseries to avoid food stains on clothes?

[UnsureIsMyMiddleName]

My baby comes home most days with food stains on her clothes, and it’s often things like turmeric which are really hard (if not impossible!) to get out.

I completely understand that babies get messy and I’m not expecting her to come home spotless – general dirt and mess is fine and washes out. But food stains feel a bit different, especially when they’re permanent and ruin outfits.

I’m wondering if this is just something that comes with nursery/childminders and I should accept it, or whether it’s reasonable to expect a bit more care in this regard?

Would you say something?

Of course not are bibs not "in fashion" anymore?

Babies are messy eaters.

Is this a nursery or childminder?

Send a little bib if you want but not a big one that attaches to anything. How old is your baby? Are they in a high chair or a low chair at a table?

I've never seen a bib that attaches to a highchair, when was that in fashion?

Re wiping the mouth between every mouthful - my mum used to do that with my (now grown up) son at every meal when we visited, when he was a baby/toddler.
It used to make me cringe, and took the enjoyment out of eating for him.

I would have thought sending babies to nursery with bibs attached or not was normal.

Hahahahaha. 😂That is funny. Avoiding food mess and stains at nursery?! YABU.

Just buy some really cheap clothes from Poundland or Primark and accept they won't be reused once they're grown out of them. Save the nice cared for stuff for home.

@marcyhermit Now, my niece has one, it's great. I wish I'd thought of it when my DD were young, saves a lot of wiping down, you just scoop up the mess in the bib😁

YABU

We always had two sets of clothes, kept on different shelves - "nursery clothes" that we didn’t mind getting stained (cheap or secondhand) and "home clothes".

For nursery I just bought a bundle of clothes from vinted then sent DD back in them with stains on. When she got older she didn't like to mess up clothes she loves so it helped her enjoy her time at nursery rather than avoiding messy play.

Your cousin’s kids might just be less messy eaters. I would send your DC in old or less nice or dark clothes. I think YABU to mention it as they have lots of kids to supervise and YABU to send in an extra overall because they can’t dress all the children differently for every meal

Just don't do that.

This was my mum's approach, (it seemed that) her biggest worry was that we might stain and ruin our clothes.

It's just clothes, it's ok to stain it and "ruin" it. Much better than teaching your children to be anxious and self-limite as " I can't do that, it might stain my clothes".

What are they doing to stay spotless? No playing with playdo, painting, messy food activities, water activities, gardening (in mud!)?

I’ve not had any permanent stains so far (been going for just over a year) but my son is quite tidy and not a lover of messy play so that might factor into it.
I do have a seperate bunch of nursery clothes that are older/ second hand/ dark and I wouldn’t care if they did get a stain ok them.

Completely over the top. Just buy some cheap or 2nd hand nursery clothes. You sound like "that" mum.

That’s why you send them to nursery in clothes you bought in a bundle off Facebook marketplace for a fiver

Same!

YABU

I used to make a point to school staff that they were in old clothes so feel free to get as messy as they like.

The more messy my DC came home, the more fun I knew they’d had.

Just put her in her already stained clothes and then you don’t have to worry.

Nursery teacher here. So I am making an assumption that baby is older than 7/8 m if they are eating things with turmeric in and not just plain fruit/veg puree, doesn't sound like they are crawling yet either (dirty knees/socks).

TU/Tesco/supermarkets/vinted for leggings/tops that mix and match for nursery so if one gets completely trashed then it won't impact a singular set.

Things that are hard to remove are blue/red poster paint, red food colouring in water and tomato and turmeric based foods. Nurseries know this, so are generally more careful around these things, but children are unpredictable!

Ace bleach for whites and also the one for coloured fabrics is your friend, together with vanish soap (good for food colouring stains on hands for adults too). Mud wait until dry, brush off with old nailbrush, then wash as normal.

So basically the overall verdict is to stay quiet and accept it. I'm glad I posted anyway because I've had some great tips on how to successfully remove the stains!

I think maybe you could reframe your thinking, just because some is stained doesn’t mean it is ruined. I wash nursery clothes and send them in with clean stained clothes. They will get paint etc on them anyway

Babies over 6 months don't need plain purees.

No, the verdict is that stains on clothes are an inevitable part of nursery. Keep your child home if you don’t like it!

I always just brought cheap items for the kids at nursery - I wasn't bothered if they were stained, I'd just wash them so they were clean, they'd wear them to nursery again and end up with more stains on!

My DC wear white polos for school they've got a range of stains in them from tomato soup to white board marker. I couldn't care less.

Maybe have a nursery only wardrobe. I always had this saved a lot of hassle

As the OP didn't say how old the baby was, I had to make a really rough assumption to gauge what sort of stains apart from turmeric they might have on them. I've worked in Early Years 25 years, so current weaning recommendations are my daily life 😂
I was trying to support the op with her question on stains in nursery, not the weaning process 🤷🏻‍♀️