Frustrated with bad daycare food/snacks

[Anonymous]

Is anyone else frustrated that our daycares are feeding our kids such poor food? I prepare lunch, but our daycare provides snacks and they are all full of sugar and sodium, highly processed and full of fake colors and ingredients. I understand price concerns, but I'm sure there are better options that are affordable, tasty and still healthy. Has anyone talked to their daycare administrators about making healthy changes to the food offerings? Do you think they are interested in making changes? I wish they'd realize what a great opportunity they are wasting by not talking about and feeding our kids healthier food.

[Anonymous]

Ours just improved snacks with the new director.
Kinda

[Anonymous]

Our daycare does a pretty good job with healthy snacks. Apple slices with American cheese, fruit and yogurt, pita and hummus, cottage cheese and fruit, etc... They don't do goldfish, cookies (except for graham crackers). or things like that. What snacks does your daycare give?

[Anonymous]

I would raise a stink. Weve done daycare with bad food, and ive done daycare with healthy food. Its a matter of priority.

[Anonymous]

We just sent our own snack in. It wasn't worth trying to get them to change. By the 4 year old class, most of the kids were bringing their own snack.

[Anonymous]

On the one hand I am frustrated. On the other hand, in response to complaints, our daycare did a survery of parents and asked whether people would pay a very slight increase in cost to have healthier food. Most people said no.

[Anonymous]

Our old daycare had horrible snacks-and when I say horrible I mean horrible. They were handing out things like Nilla wafers, canned fruit INCLUDING the artificially flavored liquid to the kids. Not once did I see them serve fresh fruit/veggies. We tried to talk to the teachers and directors about this but it was never resolved. They actually used this food as a way to bribe kids and keep them from crying. When my husband was talking to them once about being careful not to feed the kids on the playground while kids were running around (choking hazard, especially since many of the kids were like 12-18 months old) and to be careful with portion control one with sugary cookies, one of the teachers must have dole out 10 cookies to one child on the playground without even looking at the child! We left. New daycare tries to give fresh fruits and veggies at least twice a day, usually for breakfast and afternoon snack. It's not fancy stuff--things like carrots and bananas and apples and I'd bet it's actually cheaper than boxes of cookies. The main thing is that it is more trouble for the teachers because they have to prepare the food. I think daycares that serve bad, unhealthy food are just plain lazy, which makes me worry about everything else like safety and how they deal with your child if she is having a tough day.

[Anonymous]

Just bring your own snack and say your kid has allergies or other food sensitivity and they will not play around. My kid's egg allergy made the day care paranoid and they were vigilant about only feeding what I sent in if I specified it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just bring your own snack and say your kid has allergies or other food sensitivity and they will not play around. My kid's egg allergy made the day care paranoid and they were vigilant about only feeding what I sent in if I specified it.

and this is why many people think allergies are no big deal and a joke these days. I hate when people don;t like something and lie about being allergic to it. Don't lie about your kid having an allergy when they don't. if you don't want them eating the snacks then be honest about "I don't like the snacks you are providing and if you are nto going to imporve the quality then I would like to send in my own snacks."

[Anonymous]

We, as moms and dads, need to start demanding more from our preschools!! They are caring for our children - including their physical health, which should mean what they are feeding our kids too. We should push them to do more. And, as someone mentioned, it's not just what they serve, it's how they use food - as a reward, as punishment. What are they teaching our kids?!?! Unacceptable. Do parents care though? I'm surprised so few people have commented on this post....Would love to start a petition as one way of encouraging change...think it'd get momentum?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We, as moms and dads, need to start demanding more from our preschools!! They are caring for our children - including their physical health, which should mean what they are feeding our kids too. We should push them to do more. And, as someone mentioned, it's not just what they serve, it's how they use food - as a reward, as punishment. What are they teaching our kids?!?! Unacceptable. Do parents care though? I'm surprised so few people have commented on this post....Would love to start a petition as one way of encouraging change...think it'd get momentum?

Not all preschools serve unhealthy foods; maybe that's why there haven't been more responses. My DC's school serves organic, whole foods and they are pretty insistent that any snacks or lunches sent to school be the same. If a kid brings in an "unhealthy" snack from home they substitute something that fits the guidelines. They make their own whole grain bread and hummus every week, along with a variety of other healthy offerings that the kids can help make.

If you want to have the same at your school you will need to approach the director and other parents. Is that what you mean by starting a petition? Unless you are in a public school I don't think trying to petition on a larger scale would go anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our daycare does a pretty good job with healthy snacks. Apple slices with American cheese, fruit and yogurt, pita and hummus, cottage cheese and fruit, etc... They don't do goldfish, cookies (except for graham crackers). or things like that. What snacks does your daycare give?

They had been animal crackering and saltines with h20. With the new director : bagels, pizza, trail mix (peanut free 1 year old version)

I was and still do try and bring a veggie or fruit pouch. Kids dont need cookies!

[Anonymous]

Snacks at our daycare/preschool aren't too bad. In the morning they usually serve some sort of fresh fruit, and in the afternoon more of a typical cracker-type snack food. I'm not crazy about some of the things they serve for the later (it runs the gamut from scrambled eggs to cookies), but we eat well the rest of the day so I figure a cookie or two every couple days isn't the end of the world. It's a step down from our previous daycare where the kids were growing and eating their own veggies, but I think a pretty happy medium or what is reasonable to expect from a daycare. I'd be frustrated if it was much worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Snacks at our daycare/preschool aren't too bad. In the morning they usually serve some sort of fresh fruit, and in the afternoon more of a typical cracker-type snack food. I'm not crazy about some of the things they serve for the later (it runs the gamut from scrambled eggs to cookies), but we eat well the rest of the day so I figure a cookie or two every couple days isn't the end of the world. It's a step down from our previous daycare where the kids were growing and eating their own veggies, but I think a pretty happy medium or what is reasonable to expect from a daycare. I'd be frustrated if it was much worse.

Where is this veggie daycare?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We, as moms and dads, need to start demanding more from our preschools!! They are caring for our children - including their physical health, which should mean what they are feeding our kids too. We should push them to do more. And, as someone mentioned, it's not just what they serve, it's how they use food - as a reward, as punishment. What are they teaching our kids?!?! Unacceptable. Do parents care though? I'm surprised so few people have commented on this post....Would love to start a petition as one way of encouraging change...think it'd get momentum?

Not all preschools serve unhealthy foods; maybe that's why there haven't been more responses. My DC's school serves organic, whole foods and they are pretty insistent that any snacks or lunches sent to school be the same. If a kid brings in an "unhealthy" snack from home they substitute something that fits the guidelines. They make their own whole grain bread and hummus every week, along with a variety of other healthy offerings that the kids can help make.

If you want to have the same at your school you will need to approach the director and other parents. Is that what you mean by starting a petition? Unless you are in a public school I don't think trying to petition on a larger scale would go anywhere.

This would annoy me to no end.