Kids' Health
I found out today that the daycare my daughter attends servings almost all non-perishable foods for breakfast, lunch and snack. All fruit is canned, the lunches are canned (spaghetti, soup, etc), and the breakfasts are frozen Ego waffles or dry cereal. I've been packing bottles with breastmilk and her pureed foods that I make at home, so I hadn't looked at the menu until today to see if she could start to eat what they are serving. I was so upset and disappointed to find out that the quality of food is so low. This is my first child, so I don't know if this is normal or not, but I can't have my child eating canned and frozen prepared meals like that. Today would have been canned peaches, frozen waffles, canned spaghetti and meatballs, and goldfish crackers. Every once in a while would be fine, but not regularly. The sodium content is way too high and is serving a fresh piece of fruit too much to ask? So, I guess I will continue to fix her foods at home and send them with her. Has anyone else had this problem? Are all daycares like this?
Replies
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Sadly my son went to day care for pre k (we didn't qualify for pre k with the school district because we made to much money) but they served all canned food also. My son didn't like it he brought his lunch -
The pre school my girls went to, we provided the meals or snack ourselves. I think I prefer it that way, better than eating canned and pre packaged as you stated.
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Our daycare menu isn't too bad but it isn't great either. At least once a day she gets a fresh item, like yogurt, blueberries, apple/orange slices, or salad. They do sandwiches too. So it's not all packaged but sometimes it is. I would say it is 1/2 and 1/2 packaged and fresh. My DD eats at daycare and I just make sure the breakfast and dinner I give her is as fresh as possible.
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That is pretty bad. =/ I would probably do some reseach first before approaching them. Find out what the least expensive fruits/veggies are and do a cost comparison. I don't buy canned fruit, but what does it cost? Maybe a $1.30 a can and its 4 kid sized servings or so? That same $1.30 would buy at least 4 bananas that would serve 8 kids a half of a banana. Organic baby carrots were on sale this week for $1 a bag. It would serve more than a $1 can of veggies. Apples and grapes have been kinda pricy here but peaches and plums are reasonable. Even cooking dried spaghetti and a jar of pasta sauce is cheaper per serving than the canned spaghetti
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I'm very lucky that in my 8 years of mommy hood I 've never had to rely on day care my dh and I worked opposite shifts and were severely sleep deprived but we've made it thus far...dh got laid off sept 2010 and in May 2013 he'll be done with school for medical assistant so although I'm working a lot he's been home caring for the kids!
can you try to modify your life to not need child care? (IMHO babies belong with their mommy and daddy's)
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We use a private sitter. Even there I prefer to pack his lunch most days.
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I used to work in a daycare where we had fruits and veggies on the menu, but I don't remember ever making anything from scratch when I was on snack or meal duty. Of course we were provided commodities, too, so they fed what they had.
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i will be going back to work soon (in a child care) and they serve a lot of precessed, canned and frozen foods and TONS of carbs. i fully plan on bringing my healthy foods for DS, i dont care if i am the obnoxious parent in the classroom.
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IS this a big center or more home based? Perhaps offer to donate some fruit to the daycare. Most do what they feel is cost efficient which sometimes is canned foods.