Kindy food restrictions - would you be annoyed?

[Bloom]

Thanks F.L. - I'll do some research from the links you've provided - a great help!

It is just such a wide range of protein foods that are ruled out!

It suddenly occurred to me that even butter is off the list too - and I'm wondering what I can use to "stick" a sandwich together - no cream cheese, no peanut butter, no butter or marg, no jam/honey (kindy policy).

[Rowellen]

I honestly don't think I would be able to continue to send my children to that kindy if it were me. I do feel for those with allergies. It must be very difficult. We were asked not to send egg or nuts with DD and when we asked more about it, we discovered that the child with the egg allergy would only be attending on one day that my DD went and only had to be egg free on that day.

For "sticking" sandwiches - what about avocado?

[Bloom]

Avocado is a good idea (though expensive!). In fact this whole thing could be expensive if I'm sending meat every day as his protein! He can have a peanut butter sandwich and a glass of milk for dinner instead of meat on kindy days. LOL.

I'm not keen on the vegetable oils and additives in Nuttlex.

[Bloom]

Meow - that must be really hard for you! Not even processed at the same facilities would rule out our regular bread and crackers too. So your kids come home for lunch?

[meow]

Yes- our preschool finishes at midday. They just go 9-12. I couldn't have considered the school otherwise. We liked it for the teaching philosophy but the food restrictions are hard core!

[meow]

Sunbutter can be a good peanut butter alternative.

[~clover~]

You can buy butter/marg that is dairy free. My sister is dairy free. You can use rice/almond/soy (I'd check on the soy) milk as an alternative in baking I think? And vegetable oil can replace eggs in cakes etc. I use about a half a table spoon for each egg.

Just check that the dairy free child can have soy. That is the usual alternative for people who are dairy intolerant/allergic. If not, rice milk & almond milk should be an option

Good old vegemite should be ok on sandwiches? Or are there nut traces in vegemite?

[Bloom]

Thanks for the ideas Clover. Vegemite sounds like a good sandwich option though!

I've got to say that if we weren't already involved in the kindy, (he went last year), this would totally turn me off going there!

[Artechim]

That would totally stop me using a centre.

[Tinks]

I would be annoyed and would look for a new Kinder to send the kids to.

[Olive]

I think the no dairy needs to be clarified, we were smearable dairy free a few years back, so no yogurt, cream cheese etc or butter on biscuits but could have hard cheese, last year we had no egg or baked good which honestly was ridiculous, we're always nut, tree nut and sesame seed free.

[TaRhLi.]

That is a pretty extensive list of exclusions - my twins have food issues due to ASD and if we had a kinder that put that many food exclusions for us then DS1 would not be able to take anything to eat as he has a very limited diet and your list pretty much wipes out what he would eat and DS2 has issues with dairy and fructose (which my other children don't have) and as the parent I would think that it is up to me to provide suitable foods for him and not exclude everyone else to accommodate him.

I have no idea how you will feed your child apart from finding maybe 1 or 2 safe foods and them sending that 'everyday'.

[Nai]

I would use it as an opportunity to try some new recipes but it wouldn't bother me that much.

I would check out some vegan websites for some ideas on baking. Do they include coconut in the "nut free"? Coconut oil could be spread if that's ok, or avocado or banana.