Special diets

What do you do if a parent requests a specialized diet for a child, not due to allergies, but due to personal choice(ie. vegetarian) My menu has a bit of everything, with healthy well balanced meals. My normal policy is that parents provide the meals if it is a specialized diet. What are your thoughts on this. We eat a fair amount of meat/dairy/egg protein here. Do I offer to accomodate with an increased rate, or ask parents to provide the meals? If parents provide the meals, do I have to drop the daily rate? I feel like I'll be giving away my time for next to nothing if I discount the price? Thoughts?

I address food issues case by case usually. I've had one child with a milk allergy (more like sensitivity tho, not quite an allergy) so mom supplied a different milk and I just didn't give him things with milk in it. (I quit putting milk in soups and kd for instance) and I bought the lactose free yogurt for him. He didn't eat the cheese, cream cheese, sour cream etc part of the meal. His mom never asked for a discount but probably because I would buy things specifically for him and she knew this. Eventually I just started buying his milk too as it was easier. I Never made him a different meal but altered how I prepared some dishes

Another child of mine was on a very healthy diet for health reasons but I can't remember all his restrictions now. They sent all his food and milk but I'd give him some fruit and veggies from time to time if he needed more or sometimes to just include him in our snacks (they would send him chick peas and kidney beans as snack lol...to be fair, he loved them tho). They paid my full rate for awhile and than asked for a discount. I gave them a $3 decrease which they were happy with and it didn't hurt my income.

I do have it stated in the contract that any special food needs to be supplied from the parents with no mention of a decrease but I'm okay discussing this as it comes up with individual families. If they supply ALL or most of the food, I'm okay with decreasing it a bit IF they even bother asking.

If a family wants their child to eat a special diet they simply send the food. This doesn't effect their enrollment fee. Its their chose not to let their child eat what I am serving. I am not a restaurant and can't/wont make 5 different meals each day.

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Originally Posted by BlueRose

If a family wants their child to eat a special diet they simply send the food. This doesn't effect their enrollment fee. Its their chose not to let their child eat what I am serving. I am not a restaurant and can't/wont make 5 different meals each day.

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I totally agree! Especially if it's voluntarily. If they want them eating different food than what I'm serving, you bring it yourselves. I serve healthy homemade meals and snacks. Why should I decrease the fee for them if they are the ones deciding it's not good enough?

When it comes to children with allergies, like dairy, eggs, nuts etc, I usually let them know that this is not the daycare for them. I serve all these to the daycare children and my own family and I'm not willing to be that flexible as to have to eliminate those from the house altogether.

I do not accommodate food requests. We eat what we eat and that is it. If they want a special diet for their child they can send food but there is no reduction in my fee.

I do not accommodate food allergies either.

If they want special food, they send it, no discounts given.

I have a 3yo dcb who gets spoon-fed baby food at home - yep, it's ridiculous. So I give him what we are all eating and when he refuses it, as he does 99% of the time, he gets an applesauce or pouch of baby food from home, put in a bowl and handed to him with a spoon. I have trouble even with this, because I think his food issues are almost completely stubbornness and habit-based, not an actual issue. BUT not my kid, and that's what the parents want. So they supply it all.

I had another who was autistic and mom decided that a dairy-free, gluten-free diet would "cure" him. I said I could not accommodate his diet, so she sent all his food every day and never asked for a discount. With the amount of extra work he was though, she probably understood that a discount wouldn't have been fair.

The only thing I have accommodated was a severe peanut/tree nut allergy. I agreed to take on the child and my house became nut-free. They were my first clients and I really wanted to sign them, so my husband and I discussed it and committed to it. We've been nut-free for the last 2 years. We are moving now, so I am losing that family, and I won't be taking on another serious allergy unless I have absolutely no choice.

I'd be more inclined to think about accommodating an actual allergy, instead of a specific diet that mom and dad have just decided they want the child to eat. If they want to be that picky, then group care is not the right fit for them, and they should look at hiring a nanny.

I haven't experienced this issue, besides goat milk which the parents prefer and they supply. However, when it comes to the actual meal, I don't know if I would ask the parents to bring it in. I have a hard enough time just getting the regular things from parents. It might give you more of a headache if they don't send enough food or forget his lunch altogether. In your case, I would probably up their rate $3-5/day for the work involved/special groceries for the child.

I feel different food requests for CHOICE is different than an allergy/sensitivity/diet reasons.

I didn't realize what I do to accommodate some families was rare. I may use that as a selling point when need be!!! LoL

It also has a lot to do with how you prepare your meals. If you tend to serve each food item separate. Meat, starch, veggie then it might be easier to not put the meat on one child's plate {thought they'd be lacking an important part of their diet (protein)}. But, if you tend to make a lot of casseroles, stews, soups, stir-fry's etc then it is really hard to just not serve the meat. You would have to make a separate dish for the vegetarian child.

The vast majority of our lunches are mixed dishes where I can't just remove the meat. Therefore I wouldn't want to be in the habit of having to cook every meal differently for one child. They would just be better off in a different daycare.

I am not much a fan of having different meals for different kids. I get that it is the reality in a lot of daycares and is later in school. But, I like that the kids are all served the same food and see their friends eating the same foods. I like that over time the peer pressure of seeing their friends eat those foods eventually has them branch out and try more. It took 1.5yrs for my DCG to finally eat pasta sauce...1.5 yrs of her watching my daughter bath herself in the sauce in glory lol. But she eats it...despite home not serving it to her because she never eats it.

I'd be hesitant on taking on a family that wants different meals (whether provided by them or not). They would have to be a rock solid match on all other fronts lol. That said, if my 2.5yr old were in daycare I would likely be sending her own food. She is the above kid that eats chickpeas and black beans and kidney beans for snack. It is a very rare occasion that she will eat any type of cracker. She has never had any interest. Same for bread. Since this is often the majority of snacks and a big part of meals for many others I could see having to send food for her. BUT...I would be doing this because in my opinion I would be sending BETTER foods in place of food served (not that there is anything wrong with bread and crackers). I would never send baby food in place of daycare meals (but, as mentioned it's their kid and you can only win so many battles)!

I down sized my daycare long ago but I had quickly learned that little things add up to become extra burdens and this job is tough enough...no need to make it more complicated on the caregivers behalf. I stick with families that are a good fit and that means little things like eating and sleeping the same as the group. I wouldn't open early or late...because over time it just gets annoying and you get resentful. I can't help but feel the food thing would be the same. Will you regret it months, or years from now?

Generally speaking I don't accept a child into care that is on a completely different diet than what we normally serve because it becomes difficult as the child grows and wants what the others are having and I have to be the mean one and say no. I also find those with a diet regimen different than mine tend to have other attitudes that are different or tend to be more fanatical in a sense about some things that maybe I place less importance on - in general we are not on the same page as far as what is wanted for the child so it is rarely a good match.

At the same time I have done specific foods due to allergy/sensitivity and as much as possible mom provided the alternative to what we had such as milk or a specific brand of a food that didn't contain the offending ingredient so child's meal didn't look as different and everyone soon understood that if said child ate the forbidden food it would make their tummy hurt real bad.

I never gave a price reduction and never had anyone ask for one. Most were grateful that I would accommodate the child. But I only took those that were easy to integrate not those that required a separate lifestyle.