Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi everyone -

I was just wondering if anyone has any experience with families who have really specific dietary requirements, beyond the scope of allergies or intolerances. The centre I work in provides all meals, and one new parent has provided us with a very specific list of what her 19 month old child can and cannot eat, basically nothing processed and all organic whole foods. To summarise, he is not allowed any refined sugar, added salt, preservatives or emulsifiers. He can't eat anything that was once frozen or came out of a tin. Extra virgin olive oil is ok if it's not used for cooking, but otherwise only coconut, avocado and macadamia oils only. He cannot eat the centre's breads, pastas, cereal, yogurt or crackers. His mother did encourage foods such as quinoa, lentils, millet, sprouted 100% wholemeal bread, avocado, steel-cut oats, any vegetable or fruit etc. He can eat dairy and meat products, just the organic/free range/grass fed/hormone free variety! This parent is a registered paediatric dietician, and I have no doubt that this child has a really great, balanced diet. This parent has definitely educated us about the nutritional value of some of the centre's food.

However my question is more in regards to how we define a 'reasonable request' - our chef nearly had a panic attack reading the list! He follows national dietary guidelines, but realistically the menu is planned around seasonal produce and own brand (non organic and processed) Coles products for every thing else as this is what the budget allows. Thankfully our director will handle the conversation with the parents, we did tell the parent that we don't buy organic fruit and veg, and she said that her son could have non organic if it was peeled and washed thoroughly, so we are hopeful that she will continue to work with us.

I'm just wondering how centres usually proceed with requests like these - do we tell the family to bring food from home and provide lots of fruit and veg but nothing else? What if the mother provided a letter from a dietician or some other medical professional requesting that the child eat non processed foods, she's a dietician herself so presumably that wouldn't be difficult. Would a centre legally have to make accommodations for this, regardless of the expense?

Hopefully this situation has been resolved now. To my surprise, our centre is going to take the child's dietary requirements on board. Today was the first day we actually put the requirements into practice.

The parent recruited some other families so we've had a several more requests too, which will be near impossible to deny since we now have an unprocessed food plan in place already. I guess she just emailed a few other parents from local mother's groups whom she already knew, and on the same night there were several new emails with the same request. In the nursery, 9 children have requested a similar thing in 3 days. From a parent's point of view, if they know we are willing to provide unprocessed foods on demand, they may as well get the best possible nutrition for their children - especially as they pay nearly $150 a day in fees.

Basically it will be a whole lot more vegetables, and a very small amount of high quality meat will be stretched as far as possible. Our chef has complained, he will have to separately prepare meals to accommodate these children, just like children with other dietary requirements (we currently have vegetarian, kosher, dairy/egg/gluten/nut/seafood free - of course all of these other requirements were accepted without hesitation because of medical or cultural/religious needs). We will now use 100% wholemeal pita bread, and our chef will also have to bake bread from scratch - sprouted bread is 5x the price. Thankfully rice is still ok, so lentils, rice and whatever vegetables and fruit are on special will be staples. Aldi also has slightly cheaper organics than Coles, so our chef will have to get creative shopping around. Aldi doesn't to my knowledge deliver, so that's another problem right there.

There are a few things that would concern me as a parent though - namely that staff have been told to give much smaller servings to cut down on waste. We will always give more if children ask, but I'm not sure all children will ask for more even if they are hungry. We usually have leftovers from lunch, but I don't see that happening anymore. Today we had beef stroganoff but in one child's bowl I couldn't find any meat, because grass fed organic mincemeat is more expensive so we will buy less. We've also been told to just use a tiny bit of milk, and wait for children to ask for more.

Anyway thanks for listening, I still don't see why the mum didn't provide her own food as you suggested, but I know if I had to pay $150 a day for childcare I would have high expectations too.

Sorry one thing I forgot to add - yes this is clearly a dietary preference more than a requirement, but it's coming from a medical professional who could easily write a letter of support for this diet, or get a colleague to. The mother has said that it's a strong preference, he has no allergies but she has said it's her responsibility to ensure that her has access to varied and nutritious foods at all times, including at childcare. What she's requesting is just really healthy food, which will be beneficial for her son - just not essential.