healthy eating for babies

healthy eating for babies

by: Mrs. A - 20-01-10 10:22

Hi everyone i am after some advice on healthy eating for babies, the parents of our babies (from as young as six months) have suddenly started brining in bottles of juice, those special baby juices and even herbal tea. Staff don't feel happy giving this to the children as they are aware of how bad it is for them but when parents are confronted they just say that the baby doesn't like water, when we explain that its not really good for them they just say they wont take anything else and that is what they want them to have. Has anyone got any ideas on how to resolve this and help parents understand how bad these things are with out patronising them? Short of tipping the juice down the drain and making up water for them we don't know what to do!!

by: Maestro

Our policy states no juices, but we do allow one bottle made up "just in case". This nonsense of my baby doesn't like water is a joke. Its a good job we've had juices for these 10000's of years of the human race.

Tell the parents that water will always be offered as first choice by the staff for drinking. Hold the juice back but have it out of sight, out of mind just in case. Adjust any policy to make it clear, and perhaps send a letter home to parents.

We had one grandparent who told us their grandchild wouldn't drink water, so when they had them for a a few days, they refused to give them juice for a whole day and the second day they drank water. Done so ever since. A bit extreme but fair play to the grandparents!

by: leanne

Have you got a parent information board that you could do a display on healthy eating and mention Juices in this.

I would also send a polite letter home as maestro has said. You could put in how under 6 months Juice is not suitable and you don't feel comfortable with giving it to babies of this age but after 6mths if you really want to supply it as a drink for your child whilst at nursery then please use fruit juice that has been diluted rather then the baby juices (Cow and Gate etc). Also I would mention that you would prefer it to be brought into the nursery in a beaker as juice through a bottle is very bad for their teeth even if none have come through yet. If you get any parents say that their child will not drink from a beaker suggest that they put coiled boiled water in a bottle and juice in  the beaker. That way if they drink the water its healthy for them and not as bad as juice for their teeth, but if they want juice then they have to go to the beaker.

The trouble is I'm not to sure where you stand with saying you will not give their child the drink the parent has asked for them to have as its all about following parents wishes.

Sorry to go on but also mention that clear water will always be available and offered as a first option. That way if the baby does drink the water the parents will not think that they have gone all day without a drink and they will then realize they do drink water.

by: Mrs. A

thanks guys, i am deffinatly going to look at changing our policy, we are going to do a healthy eatting month next month so maybe this will help.

by: stormgirl

We just had an excellent presentation by our local Oral health worker, she ran through the presentations that she does with parents, and we are inviting her back to do a stall at our front gate, along with some other parent information. She will be giving away freebies to attract them but also showing them the facts about the damage a bottle with juice in it can do. Google "bottle caries" to look at the images she uses. More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_childhood_caries