To agree with the new guidance in Scotland to ban cake at nursery?

Nowhere in the guidance does it use the words “birthday cake is banned”. First pic is the guidance re baked goods. Second and third pics are the guidance re confectionery. So cakes can be given as a pudding but not as a snack, as long as they are plain and low sugar where possible. Setting the table guidance - link to full guidance here. It’s a long slog but the relevant bits are in section 3.4 the food and drink standards.
Haven’t read the full thread so apologies if this link has already been provided!

As this thread has been resurrected, my DC are still getting cake at nursery so this supposed ban isn’t getting enforced clearly.

How do mum celebrate child birthday, when they start in primary school( scotland setting) ? Heard, cakes not allowed in the school anymore. I Have no idea what/ how do teacher celebrate it in the school? Any suggestion? How do you celebrated your childs 5th birthday (before birthday after birthday)😊

@Cchka I think that lack of nuance is probably down to the individual nursery and definitely worth talking to them about - I've not seen anything like this at my DCs' nursery, where all the food education is about having a balanced diet, what we can eat to be healthy, and growing their own food in the garden then tasting it.

I am one of the parents who complains about the amount of cake my children get at their private nursery due to birthdays. Some weeks it's 2 or 3 nights they're bringing home cake. It's a large nursery and there is rarely a week without cake being doled out at the end of the day. The kids know whose birthday it is so it is difficult as a parent to say they can't join in.

On the other hand, I'm sick of the scottish government's over reach and interfering in how we choose to raise our children. I overheard 4 year olds at a birthday party discussing how they should not eat the sweets as it was bad food. This comes from the food education at nursery which lacks nuance and gave my child the idea to refuse to have butter as its fattening. She's 4. In my view they're raising a generation of eating disorders.

If they really want to tackle childhood obesity they need to address food culture in society by tackling structural issues, with the adults. Telling tiny children that their families' food is bad isn't going to help anyone.

You’re cottoning on to the point that many of us have been trying to make.

It’s silly and excessively restrictive to ban it. Providing space for it in moderation would be far more appropriate.

Home made cake has a lot of good things in for children - fat, eggs… never really understood the outrage about it.
Cakes bought from shops can contain lots of preservatives so I would be less keen for them to have those regularly. My children’s nurseries have always wrapped the cake up and put in children’s bags which seems like a good compromise to banning it completely.

Apologies, @AAT65 - I hadn’t heard of it near me.

Scottish schools do participate in the daily mile. It was after all originally introduced by a Scottish head teacher. Our school has taken part for over 10 years.

I would rather the Scottish government was doing something about the terrible food in Scottish schools - ‘cheese’ made from powder reconstituted with water was a highlight at my dses’ senior school - but that would cost money, so much easier to make more nanny-state rules that smack of virtue signalling to me.

I also think the daily mile would be a positive change they could make for free - where all the kids spend 20 minutes running at the start of the day. Schools in England that have done this have seen a marked improvement in their levels of obesity.

I like the favourite book suggestion.

We had cake, ice cream and jelly at parties in the late 70s and early 80s, when I was school there were rarely any overweight children or teens, more needs to be done about their lifestyles now. We went out and played cycled, played on a rope swing, played rounders and did not sit in front of screens. It was also every food is ok, in moderation. But I will say we ate far more healthy meals then (with the exception of packed lunches where there no restrictions). We went to a local pub a couple of times a month as the children’s cocktails were good, probably full of sugar though.

And, tbh, the number of people who are angry at the prospect small children not frequently being given cake is quite staggering.

I've been quite surprised at this! I suppose maybe it's people getting angry at the thought that they might be told what to do? Besides which, no-one has even banned cake at nursery. I think what has happened is that, in order to comply with new dietary guidance, some nurseries that used to allow parents to send in shop-bought cake (which was not all nurseries anyway) have now stopped allowing that.

Perhaps there could be better funding, provision or subsidising of healthy foods.

Absolutely no one who has developed a behavioural pattern of comfort eating is going to swap cake for the famed MN "plate of veggies" No matter how subsidised they are.

It's probably better to not develop a behavioural pattern of unhealthy junk food as an automatic reward or celebration in the first place.

They're different problems with different solutions.

And, tbh, the number of people who are angry at the prospect small children not frequently being given cake is quite staggering.

Do you think children in the 80's had a 3 cake celebration on their birthday?
McDonald's or pizza after their party?
When close to half the adult population is obese, little changes will help.
DC won't suffer in nursery by missing out on 20 slices of birthday cake over the year.
If parents are bother, they can give them 20 extra slices at home.

When I started teaching, and was in Reception, I bought a birthday hat shaped like a cake and the birthday child wore that and we sang happy birthday. And that was enough.

I remember being at primary school and we had a cardboard cake brought out and the same happened.

No one needs cake.

It started off in schools with parents sending a bag of sweets in. Now it's two or three bags of sweets because only giving children one sweet on someone's birthday must feel mean or something. I still only give one sweet out and send the rest home unopened.

It's not that a slice of cake is the cause of childhood obesity but the persistent belief that everything must be celebrated with food. Especially when one of the reasons given for adulthood obesity is emotional eating - eat when you're happy, eat when you're sad, eat when you're celebrating, eat when you're commiserating...

People can object to it on the grounds of drugs, cost of living, cost of vegetables but I, for one, welcome it and I hope they do it in England too.

The guidance is laughable. Banning birthday cake?

Scotland has worst drug death rate in Europe, lowest life expectancy (and decreasing) in W Europe, 21% of the population live in deprivation, it has faster increasing rates of death from alcohol violent deaths and suicide in Europe and the worst health inequality in Europe.

Banning cake is the equivalent of Tony Blair/Alistair Campbell's sound bite politics.

So cause ADHD is trendy everyone should miss out on celebrations really

Of course it is not, why should everything with celebrated with sugar.

Take the birthday child, school cake, home family cake, party cake, that's 3 cakes for one birthday.

A cup of diluted orange is a treat.
I didn't mind my DC having treats. Some parents do, it should be respected. The rise in ADHD, over stimulating or sluggish lack of attention has a lot of connections to the shit food on offer today.

I eat crap, when I focus on reducing sugar, increasing fruit/vegetables my brain perks up.

Id be fine with that rule. We were never allowed to send cakes of any sort into DC nurseries. Once over the age of 3 you could send in prepackaged treats e.g. haribo and they'd be popped into kids bags (where no allergies) so parents could decide when/whether to allow them.

I totally disagree with this rule and hope they eventually see sense. How ridiculous! Children need to learn good habits, having a small piece of cake on special occasions is totally fine and not the root cause of obesity. It's also part of growing socially. Perhaps there could be better funding, provision or subsidising of healthy foods. Banning birthday cake! Whoever heard of such nonsense!

Normally they have to be bought not home made to be distributed.

Yes because a slice of birthday cake is the sole reason for childhood obesity maybe stop the nanny state and look at the child's home life this is about food education which starts in the home the parents control the budget do the food shopping and the cooking but birthday cake is to blame not the parent