Vegetarian-friendly daycare?

[Guest guest]

I have a 15 month old daughter who I'm raising ovo-lacto vegetarian.

I'm trying to find a daycare that can care for her 2-3 days per week.

I live in Alexandria, VA, so I'm hoping to find someone nearby. I'm

having a really hard time finding anywhere that is

vegetarian-friendly. I've seen a few places that claim to serve a

veggie option, but I've heard through the grapevine that they just

serve all children the same food when parents aren't present. Does

anyone know of a place in my area? I can be an actual daycare, or

simply a person who does in-home care.

 

Thanks.

[Guest guest]

I don't know Alexandria, but I just supplied lunch and snacks for my daughter to

avoid any confusion regarding what she could or couldn't eat. It worked really

well. The daycare had a menu and I tried to stick to vegan versions that were

healthy and tasty. Actually I stuck to their menu betther than they did. I

also did this when my daughter went to be cared for in someones home. I found

my daughter would actually enjoy looking forward to her snacks if she was able

to help with the prep. I got a lunchbox with multiple levels so I had one

section for am snack, another for lunch and another for pm snack.

 

indigogrlva <Indigo7892 wrote: I have a 15 month old daughter

who I'm raising ovo-lacto vegetarian.

I'm trying to find a daycare that can care for her 2-3 days per week.

I live in Alexandria, VA, so I'm hoping to find someone nearby. I'm

having a really hard time finding anywhere that is

vegetarian-friendly. I've seen a few places that claim to serve a

veggie option, but I've heard through the grapevine that they just

serve all children the same food when parents aren't present. Does

anyone know of a place in my area? I can be an actual daycare, or

simply a person who does in-home care.

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Laura Ballinger Morales

 

 

oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links.

 

 

[Guest guest]

A lot of daycares have parents supply meals, given dietary wishes and

allergies. Even if they typically don't, would any be open to you bringing

food? If it's easy to serve stuff, I wouldn't think they'd have a problem

with it.

 

I'd be more upset at the deception of feeding the kids stuff secretly, than

the fact they got meat, even.....I wouldn't want to put my kids in care

where I thought they were going against my wishes like that!

 

I supply all my kids' food for daycare, but that is how their daycare (group

centre) is set up. I also supply extra vegan cupcakes for my preschool age

child to have in the daycare freezer for surprise birthdays, and bring a

vegan food to share on party days. There are enough allergies in the

centres (about 6 in the preschool room) that they don't share food at all.

 

I'm in Western Canada, so I can't help you re: actual centres, sorry.

 

Wendy

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Don't know what your religion is, but if you can find a Jewish or Muslim daycare

you like, often the default is vegetarian for what the children are allowed to

bring/eat, so that the school as a whole can adhere to kosher/halal rules. And

if you want a Christian daycare, Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian.

 

Liz

 

 

[Guest guest]

I've actually been hoping to find a place that would let me provide my

own food, but I haven't found anywhere that allows that. All the

daycares I have found serve the standard USDA-approved lunch, and

require parents abide by that. USDA does allow for " meat

alternatives " , but apparently many places don't feel like

buying/preparing that just for one child.

 

I'm an agnostic, so I'm kind of hoping to stay away from religious

daycare centers. But yes, I have heard that Jewish centers in my area

will allow to kids to bring food from home, so other religious centers

might as well.

 

, ERB <bakwin wrote:

>

> Don't know what your religion is, but if you can find a Jewish or

Muslim daycare you like, often the default is vegetarian for what the

children are allowed to bring/eat, so that the school as a whole can

adhere to kosher/halal rules. And if you want a Christian daycare,

Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian.

>

> Liz

>

>

[Guest guest]

I went to Kindercare, which states in it's policies that they will not allow

prepared foods. After attempting for only like one day me bringing in unopened

packages for them to prepare there, they quickly made an exception to the policy

and I never had that problem again. Sometimes you just have to bear with them

while they figure out the best way to work with you.

 

indigogrlva <Indigo7892 wrote: I've actually been hoping to

find a place that would let me provide my

own food, but I haven't found anywhere that allows that. All the

daycares I have found serve the standard USDA-approved lunch, and

require parents abide by that. USDA does allow for " meat

alternatives " , but apparently many places don't feel like

buying/preparing that just for one child.

 

I'm an agnostic, so I'm kind of hoping to stay away from religious

daycare centers. But yes, I have heard that Jewish centers in my area

will allow to kids to bring food from home, so other religious centers

might as well.

 

, ERB <bakwin wrote:

>

> Don't know what your religion is, but if you can find a Jewish or

Muslim daycare you like, often the default is vegetarian for what the

children are allowed to bring/eat, so that the school as a whole can

adhere to kosher/halal rules. And if you want a Christian daycare,

Seventh Day Adventists are vegetarian.

>

> Liz

>

>

[Guest guest]

I haven't posted here yet, but I felt I had to give some input on this.

 

I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for about 15 years now, and I have a nearly

2-year-old son who just started daycare about four months ago. I had a place

in mind that was close by and had a good reputation. It also turned out that

a co-worker and a former co-worker took their kids there, and they were both

very complimentary of the staff while also being very realistic.

 

So, when I called to see if they had an opening for my son, one of the first

questions I asked was how they would accommodate a vegetarian. They said

they'd had a vegetarian child there previously but it had been a while, and it

took a few days for them to research how they'd handled that. In the meantime,

they'd emphasized that they follow the USDA standards, so I did quite a bit

of research on what that means for accommodating a vegetarian, and it wasn't

looking very good.

 

Apparently, the lack of single-pack food-service-order size meat substitutes

with nutrition and labeling suitable under the USDA rules means that many

places will simply not make an accommodation. In many cases they just don't

want the extra troubles of preparing separate portions or entirely separate

meals. Veggie burgers, for instance, can be difficult for them to substitute

because they often won't be a pure protein replacement and instead have

low-protein veggies and other " fillers " that the provider has to account for in

their

nutrition calculations. In order for a direct substitution in-house, they

would have to get a food-service labeled portion that indicated exactly what it

replaced in the normal menu's nutrition, and they'd have to be willing to

open one veggie burger out of a package of 40, assuming they're willing to buy

them in the first place.

 

They also have to maintain the guidelines for anything else they serve as a

substitute, which means they might be able to substitute cottage cheese, nut

butter, beans or yogurt for a lacto-ovo vegetarian child, in place of a meat

item. But are they willing to do the calculations and keep the products

available in the kitchen? The protein portions they might normally substitute

are

very limited in variety, especially if you don't do dairy or eggs, and some

places don't allow any peanuts due to other kids' allergies. Much of this

pushes them to have to consider creating an entire USDA-requirement-meeting

meal

plan just for a vegetarian child, which explains why so many refuse. Hearing

this, I was scrambling for a way to make it work, even if I had to supply all

of my son's food. That is not something a lot of places would be happy about

or even allow, since you're dealing with toddlers who always think whatever

someone else has is better than what they have, and they therefore want

things as much the same as possible.

 

That said, this particular daycare had made an accommodation in the past for

the previous vegetarian, I found out. And they were willing to do so for my

son. And it's actually a very workable solution: when they're having bologna

sandwiches, I simply bring in some veggie bologna. They look the other way on

the USDA requirements that don't provide for consumer-packaged meat analogues

meeting the letter of the rules, and I eat the extra tiny bit of expense.

I'm still trying to figure out how to create a meatless version of their ham

and cheese casserole, and the small portions he needs are a minor time/budget

buster for me, but it's worked very well for us so far.

 

The real concern is whether they're really feeding him what I'm bringing in,

as one previous poster suggested and as I'm sure some lazy daycare folks

might do. Short of snap inspections, I'm not sure how you know that. But if you

don't trust them to feed the kids as you ask, I'm not sure you should trust

them to take care of them at all.

 

On that count, I brought in a note politely asking the teachers and kitchen

staff to make sure my son does not get meat, etc., (including broth in soups,

meat flavoring in baked beans -- thankfully absent here -- and that sneaky

Jello) and to let me know immediately if I haven't brought in a substitute when

something like that is to be served. I cited both religious and health

reasons for this. I warned new teachers about his special diet when they

started,

saying I would bring in something different on days they were having meat.

And I make sure to thank them every day when I bring things in. The only

problem I've run into so far was a day when they changed the menu with a future

date's items without notifying me and I brought in the wrong substitute.

 

A doctor's note citing health reasons would be a step better, as most

daycares with more than a few kids end up with some who have food allergies, and

they are required to make accommodations for those if they're big enough to be

on the USDA program. Some of the kids in my son's class have milk allergies

and do get substitutes for that, which the USDA specifically allows. If I was

really suspicious of them giving him the substitute items I provide, I would

take that step. With a family history of weight problems, heart disease and

diabetes, I've got plenty of reason to consider our vegetarian diet a medical

issue, as would our family doctor if I asked her to testify to that. Our

daycare keeps a poster in the kitchen to remind the staff members of these

allergies and they remind the new teachers, too. You can also generally get a

religious exemption if they're being sticks in the mud and you can provide a

letter from an accommodating religious leader.

 

In Northern Virginia, you should have an even easier time finding a

vegetarian-friendly daycare than I did in my semi-rural area. I wish I could

give you

a specific recommendation, but it will likely take some calls. It will

likely be the biggest and the smallest places that will accommodate you best,

since the one will have run into the situation before and the other will have

more ability to tailor to your needs. I hope you find a great situation where

they will be happy to work with you on this.

 

Here are some links if you want to do some more research on your own. Some

of them are information for food-service operators and workers, to help them

understand how they can make this work:

_http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=14 & tax_lev

el=2 & tax_subject=232 & topic_id=1208_

(http://healthymeals.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=14 & tax_level\

=2 & tax_subject=232 & topic_id=1208)

_http://ucsfchildcarehealth.org/pdfs/healthandsafety/vegedietsen81803.pdf_

(http://ucsfchildcarehealth.org/pdfs/healthandsafety/vegedietsen81803.pdf)

_http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/deps/nutrition/cacfp/child_care/mpcompo

nents/meatandalt.pdf_

(http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/deps/nutrition/cacfp/child_care/mpcompone\

nts/meatandalt.pdf)

_http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/daycare.shtml_

(http://www.vegetarianbaby.com/daycare.shtml)

_http://www.saucemagazine.com/article/1/136_

(http://www.saucemagazine.com/article/1/136)

_http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2003issue2/vj2003issue2hotline.htm_

(http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2003issue2/vj2003issue2hotline.htm)

_http://www.vrg.org/fsupdate/_ (http://www.vrg.org/fsupdate/)

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

When my children were little and we used daycare for a short time.

Thankfully we were able for me to stay home and enjoy those sweet kiddo's

even more.

 

The daycare we used, let me bring in my children's vegetarian food. This

was great because then I knew they were getting a balanced meal that I knew

what was in it. Most daycares will let you do this. I usually just used

a tupperware container and put in left overs from dinner the night before

and some fruit and crackers, etc....... The staff always bragged on how

good my childrens food smelled when they heated it up. Sometimes I would

bring some of the Vegetarian entree or soup for them too. I also provided

their vegetables, since many places cook meat stock or meat in their

veggies.

 

Judy