So - I'm about to lose my mind with DDs daycare.
How often does your daycare provide protein in their diets...and what type of protein?
Do they provide it Breakfast & Lunch? Snack too? Every day?
Thanks!
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DS eats 5 meals at daycare. Breakfast, AM Snack, Lunch and 2 PM Snacks. Milk is always served at breakfast and depending on the day he will get 1-2 meals with protein. Lunch always has a meat protein. sometimes his morning snack will have protein too like yogurt. I consider dairy protein.
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Breakfast = protein 3 times a week
Lunch = protein daily
Snack = protein rarelyMostly the types are turkey bacon or turkey sausage for breakfast, turkey/chicken for lunch, and yogurt or cheese for snack.
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We provide lunch. They provide milk and snack. Snack is two times a day (mid morning and after nap). Snack is not high protein but is usually fruit and a carb. Like a banana and whole wheat fishy crackers. It works for us.
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Mine provides AM and PM Snacks and Lunch. Milk is served at the AM Snack and Lunch. Lunch always has some sort of meat.
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DS1 has the option of breakfast in the AM and it’s usually rotating between cereal, mini pancakes (plain), and yogurt. With milk. DS1 usually also has a car breakfast en route.
They have AM snack and PM snack. It’s usually something pretty clean like raisins, cheezits, pirates booty, granola bar, etc. I don’t think there’s protein in the snacks or very much of it, but I wanna say they offer yogurt for snack sometimes. Water with snack.
DS2 has to have all his food brought in by me, including snacks. His snacks are usually a dry carb and a fruit. He usually has a car breakfast with DS1 that’s carby like a waffle and a little milk.
I pack lunch for both. Usually some meat or cheese or PB involved with a whole grain, fruit and veg. And milk.
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Lunch always has some sort of protein. Even if it's just pasta and marinara, the pasta is protein fortified. Morning snack rarely does other than milk. Sometimes the afternoon snack will.
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I just checked our menu for the month and I could find 3 days where I wouldn't really say they had protein for lunch. They have a fish, beef, and chicken every week. Then fill in with turkey, ham, or beans here or there. They have milk with morning snack and lunch, and occasionally (once a week?) a protein with afternoon snack.
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our daycare has kosher lunches, so it will either have a chicken/beef protein, or will be something like grilled cheese. I would say it is about 2/3 meat, and 1/3 dairy lunches....some weeks are more dairy than others.
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Breakfast - usually cereal + banana or yogurt + muffin. About once per week they have eggs and bacon.
Lunch - almost always has protein (chicken nuggets, burgers, turkey wraps, etc). Mac & cheese/grilled cheese are a couple days per month.I just try to make sure I incorporate a decent amount of protein during dinner and weekends and hope it's enough to balance out.
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My DDs current school only does snacks and maybe half of them involve a protein (as in yogurt, cheese, occasional something more substantial).
Her old school did bfast and lunch, not snacks. Breakfast only really involved a protein if it was yogurt. Lunch had a protein 90% of the time.
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Our daycare does a morning snack, lunch and afternoon snack (and sometimes others, like a small arrowroot at the end of the day). Lunches all have protein, including tofu, fish, beans/lentils, beef or chicken + milk. Snacks may or may not have protein, but usually it would be cheese.
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I'm pretty sure that my daycare does protein with lunch every day (usually meat, but sometimes egg salad sandwiches). It is sometimes included in the snacks (cheese, hard boiled eggs, hummus) but not always.
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Breakfast contains protein in the form of cheese or eggs 1-2/week. Lunch has a meat protein every day. PM snack has a protein 2-3/week in the form of cheese or yogurt. Milk is served with breakfast and lunch.
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Thank you ladies, for all the feedback and confirming my suspicion.
So - we have recently noticed a severe lack of protein in ours girls school menu. Mostly bc my DD2 is a BIG meat eater and we find her housing several servings at dinner. After reviewing the menu I have found the 2-3 lunches a week include no animal protein. Breakfasts never include it (they dont ever do eggs for breakfast for some reason).
I'm really not comfortable with this. I think meat proteins are an essential part of a well rounded diet at this young age. I do support teaching kids to be well rounded and doing 1 vegetarian meal a week but it seems excessive.
They are always offered milk at both meals, and some snacks. They do have other forms of protein: yogurt, beans, hummus. But breakfast is ALWAYS carb heavy. Lunch is really trending that way too.
I need to do some research before I come back at the director but I am very disappointed.
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@Mrs D: are there any state regulations around what they are required to provide in terms of food? I am in Canada but in our province all daycare are required to follow the Canada Food Guide (not that it is my favourite resource for a balanced diet).
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@mrswin: Thats the research I need to do. I just looked up the AAP guidelines which basically say they should eat all food groups in a day. They also call beans a protein, which I agree they are...but I just dont think with a non vegetarian child they should be used as a protein regularly.
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Wow lucky so many of you dan't have to make lunches
I send a full lunch and daycare provides one snack per day. Usually crackers and/or fruit.
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If she is getting protein from home I wouldn’t worry about it at daycare. Protein doesn’t have to come from meat. Also, kids don’t need a ton of protein in there diets. Kids between 4-8 only need 19 grams of protein a day. For reference, two 8 oz cups of milk had 16 grams of protein.
https://www.100daysofrealfood.com/why-are-americans-so-concerned-about-protein/
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@KT326: I pretty much agree. (Long-time vegetarian here.)
I guess I don't see why beans would be considered not okay for everyone on the regular, but my family and I eat them daily, sometimes for several meals. They're easy, cheap, versatile, and super nutritious! I'd be thrilled to see them on school menus more frequently.
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Many daycares need to meet CACFP requirements and would this have to provide protein as part of the meal. Just because there isn’t animal protein doesn’t mean there isn’t protein—beans, tofu, etc count and it’s just a personal preference if you would want something different and you would thus need to provide it. DD1 isn’t great about eating protein at home aside from beans and tuna salad and even though the lunch foods may not be of the highest quality I let her eat it because she will eat certain things she’d refuse at home. We will sometimes provide snacks for my girls because they occasionally offer sugary cereals.
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I agree she is probably meeting the minimum standards for what centers need to provide. I view a lot of the meals (which have changed over the years we have been there) as very poor in terms of nutrition. Obviously its all over processed, but I'll ignore that for the time being.
Heavy on carbs, heavy on cheese, heavy on sugar.
I suppose my angle with the director will be: 1) I dont think meatless meals for all breakfasts and 2-3 lunches a week is acceptable 2) It certainly is not setting you apart as a high quality center, consistent with your tuition (among the top in the area) and 3) It really doesnt set kids up with a great view of balanced diet.
Daycare is a GREAT setting for kids to eat all kinds of food. Their friends are eating it - so they eat it. Its a win win. I wish they would consider their ability to make a positive impact on these kids eating habits - where instead it feels like they are worrying more about their bottom line.
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And yes, I know the easiest solution is to send additional food for DD...I just have to figure out if I think 1) she will eat it when all her friends are not or 2) if it will just go to waste! I know I can also just supplement at home until Kindy starts in the Fall.
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I don’t see why meat needs to be served at every single meal (I’m not a vegetarian). Beans, lentils, Greek yogurt - all great sources of protein. Is one source of protein considered better than another (asking because I legit don’t know). We don’t eat meat at every single meal , and I would not expect daycare / school to do so.
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@pinkcupcake: Nutrition is a fairly contentious subject, but animal protein has some clear drawbacks compared to plants from a health standpoint. And then there are the ethical and environmental issues, which I think are important to consider too. Anyhow, I'll leave it there, as that's really a topic for a different discussion.
@Mrs D: I'd be most irritated about the sugar, tbh. Nobody needs added sugar. Carbs I'd be less concerned about as long as they're not all/predominantly super processed. And I'd let cheese slide personally, even though I'm nearly vegan these days, because I acknowledge that it's much easier to do pretty healthy vegetable-based food that appeals to kids if you can use cheese.
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@honeybear: yeah totally agree.
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@Mrs D: does the class have a lot of vegetarians? My LO barely touches meat, as do most of his friends (they are from vegetarian families and my kid is picky). Our daycare doesn't provide food, but the ones I looked at did mostly vegetarian meals because of the high number of vegetarians in the area. I figure as long as there are a variety of protein sources (yogurt, eggs, beans, nuts) then I am fine with it.
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@Mrs D: Breakfast, lunch, and two snacks daily. Nearly everything they serve has some protein even if it’s just nut butter..
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Ours follows the state guidelines pretty strictly. I'm not impressed by the food as it seems pretty processed but they normally do a canned fruit and veggie with lunch. Here are some lunch examples: beef mac 'n cheese, turkey noodle bake, hot dogs, cheeseburger, ham sandwich. Milk is served with breakfast and lunch.
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I provide lunch and am required to include a protein. They provide milk at lunch. They also provide 2 snacks where they are required to serve a fruit/veggie, a grain and a meat protein or dairy. Usually it’s dairy, but they have pea butter sometimes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a meat in the menu.
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@Mrs D: just an FYI the way our center gets around the breakfast not meeting nutritional requirements is calling it a breakfast “snack”. We try to feed our kids yogurt or something with protein for breakfast at home.
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I'd be frustrated if daycare was giving LO meat every day for lunch. I generally limit meat to no more than one meal per day (usually dinner, as DH is a big meat eater), and if LO was having it for lunch daily, I'd feel limited about my options for dinner.
I just looked, and the bread and waffles that we have in the house each have 5g of protein per serving. Plenty per meal even if LO eats nothing else, based on the numbers @KT326: cited.
I send a full lunch and daycare provides one snack per day. Usually crackers and/or fruit.
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