Breakfast at nursery?

[Meid]

For those who have a child at nursery could you tell me whether or not the nursery gives your child breakfast?
My DD is soon to leave the 'baby' room at her nursery in which every morning she has her breakfast - cornflakes provided by me. But I've just found out that when she moves up to the next room they expect her to arrive already having had her breakfast at home. They have explained to me that there are health and safety reasons for this as in the larger rooms their staff:child ratios are not met first thing in the morning for them to legally be able to monitor the children while they eat. The implication for me is that I'll probably have to get her up about 1/2 hour earlier than I have been doing which I'm not too pleased about. So, I was just wondering if all nurseries are the same or would I possibly be in a position to challenge this and argue that as I'm paying for day care they should put more members of staff on in the morning so the children can have breakfast.
Out of interest, I've seen some other children being dropped off munching toast, crips etc. so I'm not the only parent finding this hard.
Many thanks.

At my boys' nursery they have breakfast in 0-2, but not in the older rooms. This is for the same reason as you were given. Seems reasonable to me as staff have to work earlys and lates to cover the opening hours. The baby room costs more as it has higher child/staff ratios.
My nursery is council run and is slightly cheaper than the local private ones. I guess if you wanted to pay more, more cover could be arranged?

DSs both have breakfast at nursery (cereal or toasted stuff) ad they're 2 and 4. It's all provided by the nursery. This is a private nursery.

Surely if the staff:child ratios are not met for eating, they're not met for any reason? Are there different ratios for eating and other activities?

My ds is 23 mths old. I provide ready brek/cereal/porridge and they provide the milk, make it up and feed him it. He moves to the 'big' room when he turns 2 and noone has said that it's done any different.

I think you should question the reasons. Who told you? Was it the Manager/ess?

ds nursery has breakfast at 8am if they're there by then (although one day I was in late at 9am and they did ask me if ds had already eaten otherwise they'd have found him something) - I find it a godsend as ds settles so much more quickly when his focus is immediately on food! He hardly remembers to say "bye mummy" between mouthfuls of weetabix...

The nursery we use opens at 8.30 and provides toast at around 9/9.15 but not breakfast. It does provide lunch and tea cooked on site so I've never had to faff around bringing food in. Swings and roundabouts I guess -its always been the deal so it seems find to me.

Our nursery opens at 8.30, and does breakfast at about 9 for all the children (though ds usually has something like yoghurt or a "narna" before he goes. It's only a small nursery though, so at most there'd be about 20 in total. What they have varies from day to day - toast, porridge, cereals, etc.

Soupdragon, to clarify, the problem with the ratios is that a member of staff (or 2) would be occupied in the kitchen organisisng breakfast and clearing up afterwards and not able to supervise the children in the room. At our nursery a cooked lunch and tea is provided and extra staff cover the lunch period.

Our nursery opens at 7am and breakfast is provided up until about 8.30, cereal or toast usually. It is a private Nursery, but we don't pay any more for the baby room than the rest of the nursery. Surely one extra member of staff for approx one hour could be provided by the nursery to do breakfasts - you are paying after all???

Our nursery expect children to come having had their breakfast at home, but they then offer toast to all children at about 9am. I know some children in the baby room and the toddler room (where DD is) also have some cereals provided by parents - these are the children who arrive early between 7.30am and 8am. Don't know the law on this though, sorry.

Our nursery (private) officially opens at 8.30am although a member of staff is always there in each room from about 7.30am onwards.

Breakfast (supplied by parents) is only given in the "baby" unit and is given when all staff in BU have arrived - other rooms expect you to have given your child breakfast beforehand.

Full breakfast provided in baby and toddler room. At 2 he moved up and then 2-5s have toast on arrival (nursery opens at 8). Toast is not enough for DS so he has cereal before he goes. Its a pain to fit in when you include the mess factor. DH supervises breakfast while I get ready. Then I wash and dress DS. So it will be an effort when DH has a week away soon.

Thank you all for your responses.
My DD's nursery is a private one open from 7.30-6.30 and she is there most of that time so breakfast at home is going to have to be very early.
However, it does seem as if this rule about breakfast isn't peculiar to her nursery - perhaps my problem is more that they've sprung this upon me with no warning. But as I'm not going to be paying less when she moves up I think I could probably complain to them but in reality I doubt it will get me anywhere.
Thank you all again.

I was a little put out at this stage too. And although I am still paying the same amount what price the cost of a bowl of cereal? I paid the same before DS was even on solids when I was providing all his bottles. The manager said it was because littlies would probably have early morning milk and the parents would have less time to provide breakfast.

Bit late on this thread, but as I've had your problem Meid and remember feeling exactly as you do I thought I'd post anyway.

I had exactly the same with Dd1 - and ended up giving her breakfast in the car when running late (often!).
Dd2 goes to a different nursery and they do breakfast all the way through - in fact Dd2 has breakfast at home and again at nursery!.
Obviously depends on individual nursery - but they could warn you eh!

Dd's is a private nursery open 7.30 to 6.30 as well. And they provide breakfast (cereals/toast) for all kids as lonng as you arrive by 8.30.

Meid - my dd's old nursery didn't provide breakfast. They were open 8am-6pm. However as I didn't have time to feed DD brekkie before going to work, I asked if the nursery if they would mind if I provided the breakfast myself could they give it to her. And they agreed. Which solved my problem nicely. In fact they were quite happy to heat up the breakfast if necessary (porridge), add milk if it was cereal, and give DD fruit.

Maybe you could ask if your nursery could do this too?

breakfast is provided for the children who arrive early ( before 8 o'clock) at the nursery we are hoping to send dd to.

They do breakfast for all ages at ds' nursery as long as the kids are there before 8.30.

Meid I'm stunned that there isn't a price reduction as your child moves up. The baby room at my nursery costs around £100 more than the other rooms, as the staff ratio is one to 3 instead of 1 to 8 in the older rooms - a big difference in overheads

My daughter used to attend a private nursery at 7.30am until 6.30pm. However we were not always happy with the quality of the meals they gave her. We are quite strict in that we insist she is given organic foodstuffs only, and they did not always adhere to that. When you are paying as much as we were, you expect quality don't you? We now have a live-in au pair to look after her, which is much more preferable as we know exactly what she gets to eat and when.

DD's nursery used to open at 7am I think and stay open until 6pm. Breakfast was served (toast, toast and more toast AFAIR) at 8am.

Children were only allowed to remain there for a maximum of nine hours.

I am surprised, like Iota that the price doesn't drop once the children get older, as the staff to child ratio does change after the age of 2, so surely this should be passed on to you.