Daycare supplied food

Hi everyone. My 10 month old daughter is in a home daycare and I've been really thrilled with our experience there so far.

She has recently started eating table food and I'm not thrilled with the tuition-included food they are serving. They do follow NYS guidelines for fruit/veggie servings with all meals but a lot of what they are giving the kids is frozen. Frozen pancakes, frozen waffles, frozen chicken nuggets etc. and I know that stuff has a bunch of preservatives and God knows what else lurking in the ingredients.

I am by no means a granola type of Mom and I know she will inevitably be exposed to processed foods at some point, I'm just feeling like 10 months is too young.

I guess my question is, does anyone have any experience or advice? I guess I could start packing food for her each day. I just don't know if I'm overreacting.

Message edited 3/9/2016 1:33:04 PM.

Re: Daycare supplied food

I think if you are unhappy with what they are serving then you can pack your DD's lunch/snacks for the day. Maybe they will work with you on tuition a bit if you are planning on providing your own food... I use a home daycare that supplies food as well. They are planning on raising my rate by $25/week once my DD turns 1 year I believe to offset the cost of food.

Re: Daycare supplied food

I used a popular chain daycare, and it was the same thing.
The food actually got worse after we lost some state funding about halfway through.
If you think about it though, they don't have the facilities or the time or the staff to be cooking fresh, homemade pancakes and waffles each morning, etc. They have to do frozen as it's quick and easy

It's the same in K now, she buys school lunch once in awhile and though they follow some guidelines, (fruit and vege with every meal, etc) it's not great.
Chicken nuggets, mozz sticks, pizza etc.

Honestly, with the cost of organic foods etc, you can see why they serve what they serve.

DD ate whatever they served her and it was fine.
But for me, that is not a priority, We eat pretty shittyy at home too. I'm just happy she eats anything at all, she is such a picky fussy eater and barely eats enough to keep a bird alive.

If you really feel uncomfortable though, just send in your own food. I saw people doing that at my daycare.

Message edited 3/9/2016 1:41:51 PM.

Re: Daycare supplied food

I am not opposed to frozen waffles and chicken nuggets but I wouldn't want my kids to have them everydsy. So I probably would be sending in some food to supplement.

Daycare supplied food

If you have the desire - and can find the time - I would certainly send your own foods with LO. Healthy meals were one of the biggies for me when looking for childcare for our 9 month old LO - and one of the reasons why we went with a small, in-home daycare, run by a woman who makes home-cooked lunches for the kiddos (and sends the left-overs home to the parents...bonus...woohoo!!)
I still specified, though, that I would prefer LO not to be provided with dairy. Because of that, I send her with coconut milk yogurt for her AM snack. Our daycare provider is 100% in support and follows our wishes. I mean, its one thing if they were eating something unhealthy on occasion - like a friends house or at an outing of somesort - but daycare is on a regular basis. Thats a lot of frozen, processed foods.....

Re: Daycare supplied food

I forgot to mention that she is only there 2-3 days a week. So realistically, it's a small percent of her overall diet.

Thanks for the input everyone!

Daycare supplied food

At home, I am pretty strict about DS' diet. I don't let him have really any processed foods. In all honesty though I do not have time to make him a home cooked meal every day for daycare so he just eats whatever they serve for lunch. It's only one meal a day (I provide breakfast) so I am not too concerned.

Daycare supplied food

I used to make homemade pancakes and waffles and freeze them myself...

Re: Daycare supplied food

In a perfect world, I'd make all my kids food and use only organic.

In reality, I work 50 hours plus another 10 commuting and have 2 kids.

So, I send in organic meats and milkwith DD and she has breakfast at home. She eats the regular daycare veggies, cheese sandwich and pizza. Not perfect but it makes me feel better and is more realistic for the time/energy I have. I will say she eats fruits and veggies there I can't get her to eat at home so I figure non organic is better than not at all.

Daycare supplied food

Can you just send food? Out in home day care doesn't provide food, so j have to, but I was actually surprised when I first heard that this wasn't the norm. I feel like I just prefer to have more control over what Dd eats

Re: Daycare supplied food