This is one of the most common worries parents raise before their child starts nursery. The food will be unfamiliar, it will taste different, and their child will refuse it.

I understand the concern, and in most cases it resolves faster than parents expect.

The specific worry about salt

Parents often tell me they are worried because they use salt in their cooking at home, and their little one will reject plainer or blander food at nursery.

What we find is that children do adapt quite quickly to new flavours, even if they are used to more heavily seasoned foods at home. It usually takes time rather than intervention.

It is also worth knowing that how salty we like our food is a learned preference. We can adjust our taste buds to enjoy less salt. The earlier you adapt to a less salty taste, the less damage is done, and that applies to all of us, parents included.

So a child moving to lower salt food is not losing something. They are recalibrating, and that is a good thing rather than a compromise.

How the food is made to taste good without salt or sugar

The meals we provide have no added salt and no added sugar, and are well balanced. Instead of adding salt and sugar, we impart flavour using different cooking techniques, along with herbs and spices.

We taste test rigorously and always look for feedback, so it is very much a joint effort. Flavour is not the thing being sacrificed.

Why repeated exposure is built into the menus

We carefully plan seasonal rotational menu cycles that provide a wide variety of nutritious meals. The point of the rotation is that it gives your child repeated exposure to foods without meals becoming repetitive. Every few weeks, the same types of meals come around again.

That matters because some children need 15 or 20 exposures to a food, and some need an awful lot more than that. A rotating menu does that work steadily in the background, which is very hard to replicate at home.

The setting does a lot of the work

Nurseries are good at this for reasons that have nothing to do with the recipes.

• Positive role modelling. Children sit around the same table and watch their peers and caregivers eating the same sorts of foods.
• Consistent mealtimes. They know what to expect, and everything is predictable, which children really like.
• Education around food in a fun and age appropriate way.

It is more than just eating a meal. It is a social experience, and children learn really important skills through it.

Nurseries also provide great opportunities for cooking, growing food, or exploring food through play and books. Having different cultures in a nursery helps children develop curiosity about foods from different parts of the world.

Expect a settling in period

Starting nursery is a transition, and it can take a little time. As they settle, children are often more willing to accept regular mealtimes, try unfamiliar foods, and learn by watching their peers.

Some refusal early on is normal and expected. What is not expected is refusal that continues and continues, and cannot be explained by settling in. If it is going on, it is unusual, and you are worried they are not eating anything, that is when to get more support.

What you can do at home to help

Consistency between home and nursery makes a real difference. Using the same strategies in both places helps children feel positive and reduces confusion around food, because children love knowing what to expect.

Practical things that help:

• Move mealtimes closer to nursery timings before they start.
• Keep offering a varied diet at home, with different colours, textures, tastes and smells.
• Reduce added salt at home, which brings your cooking closer to what they will be eating anyway.
• Avoid pressure at the table, because pressure tends to push children the other way.

Tell nursery what they are used to

Before they start, share what eating looks like at home. Your meal patterns, whether they eat very late, and how much milk they have in the morning or overnight, because that may affect their appetite during the day.

Staff can work with that information. They cannot work with what they do not know.