https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 04 May 2026 17:11:30 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2692334 Mon, 06 Feb 2017 12:56:07 +0000 MrsADS 2692334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Just following up on this - my husband really wanted me to give it some time before causing trouble as "that mom" (lol). The snacks have been better so far - a lot more fruit and sometimes crackers, which I can deal with. Hopefully the one day of sugary cereal was just a fluke. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689911 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:37:44 +0000 littlejoy 2689911@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Here is our February menu for snacks (if you want to suggest a few things to them). There isn't a ton of variation, but it feels relatively healthy. </p> [attach=5603/17/oknvyx.600x377.Screen-Shot-2017-01-31-at-12.36.45-PM.png] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689909 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:36:04 +0000 littlejoy 2689909@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would not be OK with processed crap &amp; sugar. </p> <p>I am totally ok with the rare treat (like the seasonal cookies). I know it's fun, and not an everyday thing. </p> <p>Our snacks are usually a carb + veggie (or cheese/fat). Things like: healthy muffins + nut butter, crackers + cheese, snap peas and whole wheat crackers, hummus + veggies. Granted, for a 17 month old, some of those might be tricky. But, even a Lara Bar would be easy and healthier than cereal. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689896 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:28:08 +0000 sapphire 2689896@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ours tends to be fairly healthy - pita and hummus, fruit, homemade breads, trail mix. But there are days they have a molasses cookie or goldfish crackers. The portions are reasonable. I think bringing our own snacks would cause more drama than it's worth. There are certainly days at home or while traveling that her snacks are less than ideal too. I love the breakfasts and lunches served at our daycare so I just don't worry about it that much. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689879 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 15:12:22 +0000 PawPrints 2689879@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DD's daycare does some snacks that got an eyebrow-raise from me at first, but I really don't feel like it's worth sending in separate stuff. The lunches tend to be consistently healthy and cooked from scratch in-house, so as long as there's a wide variety in the snacks offered, I don't worry about it. I know if I sent snacks in myself she'd wind up getting a lot of the same thing over and over, versus at daycare they don't repeat a snack once during their six-week menu rotation. So I let it slide if there's an occasional cinnamon roll for the AM snack or cheese crackers for the PM snack. As long as she's eating. </p> <p>I would draw the line if they ever offered juice, though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689870 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:59:32 +0000 Mrs. Microscope 2689870@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>P doesn't go to daycare, but at preschool there is a strict snack calendar that the parent helper is to adhere to. And it is no treats, usually dairy free, gluten free and nut free too. They have 4 recommendations, and you can bring 2 or more as long as they are complimentary food groups (veggies and hummus, fruit and meat, something like that). And it's awesome. So there is no excuse for your daycare to feed the kids junk. If you want to see the example, let me know and I'll send it your way. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689857 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:40:13 +0000 T.H.O.U. 2689857@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We were allowed to keep extra "treats" on hand in his bag for times we didn't want him to have sweets. He got excited about a pouch or yogurt melts so there wasn't any hard feelings about not getting cookies. That only lasted so long though. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689852 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:30:36 +0000 Freckles 2689852@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DD started at a daycare when she was 13 months old, and their snacks were awful. Like marshmallows and chocolate chips in a "trail mix". Basically until she was 2 years old, i packed most of her lunches and provided snacks since she couldn't have a lot of things they offered. They rarely offered fresh fruit, opting for orange juice (since that's considered a serving of fruit). Yes, she was that kid who had the long list of "do not serve..."</p> <p>And before i get side-eyes from other parents, one of the reasons we had to restrict her sugar intake was because of the diarrhea it would cause. </p> <p>DS' daycare is great. They do a lot of baked items from scratch and offer a variety of fresh fruits. I'm more lenient with DS because he is in general a good eater and he eats quite a bit at home. </p> <p>I understand your concerns. I had issues with the daycare my DD went to when she was younger - there was one week where there was birthday cake and chips offered almost every day for some kid's birthday. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689836 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:21:59 +0000 Anagram 2689836@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have packed my oldest's snacks and lunches for forever for that reason. Her old daycare actually hard fairly decent foods, so I would let her eat it if it was dairy free (they definitely didn't serve stuff like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, but they would serve canned fruits instead of fresh and obviously I prefer fresh. )</p> <p>Her current public pre-k program relies way too heavily on "kids food", so I send in her lunch and snacks every single day. Their weekly lunch menus are something like M-chicken cutlets (breaded), T-mac n cheese, W-cheese pizza, Th-spaghetti and meatballs; F-Fish sticks. And then no vegetables are listed. When I asked where the veggie side are (they are required by the state to serve them), I found that the teacher just goes to the cafeteria and picks the same side out for all the kids and she tends to get stuff like cucumber slices or tomato slices. WTH. They don't ever have real vegetables like broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, etc. It's bizarre. Needless to say, LO will be taking lunch from home for a loooong time.</p> <p>I say, just pack your own snacks and make it clear to the teachers that you don't want your LO to have any of that stuff. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689828 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 14:15:44 +0000 gingerbebe 2689828@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Both daycares my kid has been at have said they'd be happy to give my kid whatever food/snacks I wanted to send. I also have access to a monthly snack menu so I can look at it ahead of time. So I don't think its uncommon for parents to send separate snacks if they choose. Personally, while I haven't always been thrilled with the options, I've just decided it wasn't really worth the fuss. </p> <p>My answer probably is affected by my child's personality, however. My kid has just never been into food. He's not super picky per se, but he's just not food motivated, so he actually eats a TON better at school with the other children, including healthy foods. I pack him a nutrient dense lunch which he eats very well 90% of the time because all the other kids are eating their lunches. So overall, I'd say he eats a healthier diet because he goes to preschool/daycare even with the less than ideal snacks.</p> <p>He eats morning and afternoon snack there and the portions I've seen are like a tablespoon of raisins and 2 tablespoons of Goldfish crackers with Dixie cups of water, or like half a granola bar. On Fridays, the kids can have a Dum Dum on the way out of school. Not my favorite thing, but whatever. I'll give him a healthy dinner with lots of fresh fruit at home and if he gets a cookie or a special treat at school for someone's birthday, I'll probably curb his treats at home that day or the next. Furthermore, he's MUCH more physically active on school days than days we are at home, so I'm certain he's burning off all of that sugar through play (especially since snack happens right before play times) because it hasn't affected his behavior at home and he goes to bed just fine every night.</p> <p>I guess if as adults we aim for the 80/20 split on healthy foods vs. treat foods, then I'm okay with most of it coming from daycare while I focus on what I can control at home. My school is smart enough to know not to amp the kids up on sugar because it just makes their jobs harder anyway. Our teachers always groan when its Halloween time or Valentine's Day because the kids are always acting up the entire week those holidays happen, so I know its not like they want the kids to be sugar junkies either. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689796 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 13:45:02 +0000 alphagam84 2689796@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daycare provides breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack. I'm not thrilled with any of choices. I've circled a few things in each category DD can have but other than that we send in all her food. It'd be nice to not have to pack and send food every day but I can't let her eat that stuff in good conscience. One snack is crackers and cheese-I clarified if the cheese is real cheese or those kraft singles that aren't even cheese and sure enough it's generic kraft singles where the first ingredient is water and followed by a bunch of junk! I let her have any of the fruit/veggie options at lunch and oatmeal or cheerios at breakfast but that's about it. We send in cheese and raisins for her snacks and organic milk for the daycare to use all week and send the other stuff daily. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689470 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 06:25:12 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 2689470@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daycare menu is not great either. I did ask a ton of questions clarifying what was served and how. Cheerios is the cereal. Some foods like gravy I have restricted. I brought in Puffs as a snack alternative although they serve the baby's alternatives to Party Mix already. I don't love the alternatives- Cheezits and Graham Crackers, but those are school foods. At home we serve other foods. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689469 Tue, 31 Jan 2017 05:29:00 +0000 Ms. RV 2689469@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Our daycare snacks are also not awesome. The afternoon snack is almost always a snack cracker or pretzels. I pack DD a half banana every day for the morning snack even though they provide both snacks. I want to make sure she has one healthy snack. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689446 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 23:26:06 +0000 AggieDaze 2689446@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Ugh. Our daycare snacks are terrible. Our 14 month old still gets food from home but my 3.5 year old has eaten the daycare food since he moved into the toddler room around 1-1.5 😬</p> <p> I'd kind of just resigned myself to it, and tried to feed the boys better on the days they were with me. I like some of the suggestions above though. I would love to hear thoughts from parents with older kids though... I think it becomes a bit harder to send different snacks when every kid in the class is eating one thing, and one kid gets something else. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689424 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 22:27:03 +0000 wrkbrk 2689424@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsADS: Yeah no. I'm pretty laid back about food but we chose our daycare in part because of the healthy menu. Those choices just seems lazy to me (sorry - don't mean to offend!!).</p> <p>My DS is 14 months and his provided snacks are: cheese cubes, plain yogurt, berries, hummus, celery with peanut butter, banana chunks, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689386 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:53:06 +0000 azjax 2689386@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I feel you on not loving the sugary snacks. We opt out of cookies (Lorna Doone and Teddy Grahams) and the super sugary vanilla yogurt. I gave in on graham crackers because they're only once every two weeks and DS loves them. We will bring fruit, veggies, etc on days that we are skipping the provided snack.. Do they provide you with a menu so you can plan in advance? I doubt that you'll make a lot of headway getting them to change their offerings so I'd probably it plan on bringing a little extra food from home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689380 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:43:05 +0000 FaithFertility 2689380@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsADS: Cinnamon toast crunch ....not ok<br /> V day cookies I would be ok with if it was a one time thing </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689369 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:26:51 +0000 peaches1038 2689369@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We do the same thing as @caterw. I go through the menu each week and cross off what I don't want him having. We had to get a dr note in order to bring food from him but our ped was totally on board. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689365 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:17:13 +0000 MrsADS 2689365@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@caterw good idea. Yeah, that's crazy. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689355 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 20:08:21 +0000 caterw 2689355@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would just bring snacks if the daycare is otherwise fine... My old daycare used to stuff the kids full of sugar and it made me insane. One day they literally had pudding AND cookies at snack in the little toddler room. Why? Why both? I just brought in little tupperwares of approved snacks and some pouches and left them there. You could cross out anything on the menu you didn't want your kid to eat and they would serve what you brought from home. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/daycare-provided-snacks-for-1-year-olds#post-2689346 Mon, 30 Jan 2017 19:57:15 +0000 MrsADS 2689346@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My 17mo just started daycare. We provide lunch, they provide morning and afternoon snacks. His room is 12-24 month olds. </p> <p>I am trying not to be "that parent" but I am not super thrilled with the snack options. They said they try to do fruit at morning snack. His first day was blueberries and Cheerios - fine. They told me the afternoon snack is normally a carb. The options I was told were: Cheerios, crackers, animal crackers, veggie straws, Cheezits, pretzels. All basically nutritionally void except for cheerios.</p> <p>Today my husband stayed the first part of morning snack and the snack today was Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal!! This seems like way too much sugar and like... just, why? Why not just Cheerios or a non sugary cereal? (On his take home sheet it just said "cereal" so we would not have known if my husband wasn't there)</p> <p>They are also decorating cookies with frosting and sprinkles for Valentine's Day which I think is ridiculous for 1 year olds - like can't they do a craft or something? </p> <p>Like I said, I am trying to give it some time since we first started, and I am okay with an occasional less healthy snack, but at this age - they don't know any different. </p> <p>Would you say something? Give it a few weeks? I guess if the daycare is otherwise good, it's one of those things that you just have to deal with. I suppose I could bring his own snacks. </p>