Nursery meal times and baked beans!

[Portlypenguin]

Hi,
My 9mo old has just started nursery as I am going back to work next week (bah). They have 'tea' at 3.30pm - this seems ridiculously early! Admittedly I am guilty of not feeding ds until we eat at about 7pm which I know has really been a bit late for him, but we had developed a dinner-bath-milk-bed routine leading to bed at 8-8.30pm.

I'm not sure whether to feed him again in the evening, just do some finger foods or what. He still wakes 2-4x per night and I really don't want him to be extra hungry and wake up more! Its going to be tough enough back at work as it is. But I don't want to overfeed him either.

Anyone else come up with a strategy for this (what seems like a common) nursery schedule?

Baked beans...I hadn't given them yet due to sugar/salt content but the nursery gives them and apparently ds loved them? Okay do you think?

Thanks

3.30 is a bit too early, I would probably give him some toast and yoghurt later on.

I think baked beans are ok as part of a balanced diet.

I would hope that the beans are reduced salt ones - I would check this - but as long as they are I would think it would be fine as part of a balanced diet.

As for teatime - My children tended to have 4 meals a day when they were little anyway- - breakfast, lunch, tea and supper not long before bed. So something to eat at £:£0 and then something again before bed sounds fine to me.

There's thing wrong with beans- everythingin moderation.
The teatime is early as they will probably have had their lunch at about 11.30.
I doubt it will be a big tea- just enough to tide him over till he gets home and eats with you.

At my DDs nursery they have tea at around 3.45pm. It's fairly standard for nurseries to have tea this early. Until DD turn 1yo, I just give her a bf when we get home. She's usually tired and in no mood for food. But I've started now to give me some solids to eat. We have only been doing it for a week or two. Have tried rice cakes, fruit, goodies savoury tomato bar and cheese (combination of them do she has a choice). I might also try making an extra sandwich in the morning so she can have it for tea.

Thanks everyone.

I'll check about the type of beans with the nursery tomorrow. My husband thought I was being ridiculous worrying about it!!

Think I'm doing to offer some finger foods when we have our dinner and see how that goes.

hi :) We also developed an 8-8:30 bath and bed routine just before mine started nursery at 2 months (so sad having to go back so soon). Now he's older (9months as well) he has tea at nursery at 3:45 and we feed him another meal at 6 when he's home. I think it's quite a small meal at nursery and I find he's really hungry once home so give him a full meal....and pudding if he's being greedy, but I'd just judge it on how hungry he is at that time. Ours doesn't wake up in the night so I'd say he's getting nice and full but I know every baby is different.

And yes, ask about the beans. it's your baby and you should know what's going into him.

:)

DH is a chef in a children's nursery, he is also a regional kitchen manager which means that part of his job is to help design the menus. DD is going to start nursery there in 3.5 months and I have been pumping him for information.

Government guidelines say that during the nursery day meals should be provided (where the nursery is making them rather than parents obviously) assuming that parents are making meals in the evenings. The nursery therefore must fit in the appropriate amount of nutrition according to the amount of time they are at nursery. That might not make sense, when DH tells me it makes perfect sense, not so much when I repeat it! The chain that DH work for compile the menus and they are then sent off to an independant compaby who analyse each aspect to make sure that they do not go over the childs daily salt, sugar etc intake.

As for the baked bean question, I know DH tells me all the time that they just order what the suppliers stock and for his nursery that does not include sugar free baked beans. That is the chain he works for though so it might be different in other places.

DH also tells me that it's standard policy never to introduce a food that a child has not had at home before. He thinks this is pretty basic and should also be adhered to in other nurseries. So you could always say to your nursery that you don't want him eating foods he hasn't tried before. This shouldn't cause any rucus because it's normal for the cooks/chefs to cook a variety of things due to dietary requirements.

Thanks Lizzywig, that is really useful. I've been feeding LO again in the evening this past week - some days he has eaten quite a bit and others almost nothing. Think I will continue to do that. I checked re the beans and they were reduced salt/sugar.

The nursery asked me to write down a list of all the foods he had had before starting - I've fed him a vast variety though so it was a bit tricky to be sure everything was down! The only thing I was really keen was that they didn't give him anything on my forbidden list (nuts, eggs, dairy) - my son has cows milk protein allergy so is on a more limited range than most other kids. THe nursery are doing the dairy free thing really well though and so far I have been impressed at how much they report he enjoys the food! They have several other kids in teh nursery who are dairy free as well and didn't seem too put out when the issue arose.

I am feeling a bit more settled about the whole thing now he has been there a bit longer and I am getting more familiar with the new routine!

My DD usually eats again when get home, but she is particularly greedy. I have no problem with baked beans but I would unhappy with the lower salt sugar free ones. They are full of nasty artificial sweeteners are they not?

DialsMavis No I don't believe any of the reduced sugar baked beans contain sweeteners.

FWIW we found value version beans had even less salt/sugar than the branded reduced salt/sugar beans - so don't spend more than you have to!

I am sure most of the supermarket ones do. I have just seen that Heinz do not, so I will give them a try

That's interesting smile, I usually get the waitrose cheapo ones, so will do a comparison next time I go shopping

Checking:

Sainsbury's reduced salt sugar have no sweeteners in.
Tesco value contains slightly less salt than their normal, but not as little as a reduced salt one.
Tesco don't really do a reduced salt one (they're light choices is really just reduced sugar and contains a sweetener)