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

I am supportive of the policy. Perhaps if it helps set a tone of birthday celebrations being modest, no bad thing as an early lesson for life. In recent years far too many events have become overcommercialised and expensive.

Poor health outcomes are not of course unique to Scotland, but if I recall correctly, it does have some of the places with the shortest life expectancy in the UK.

I’m 55 years old and when I was in primary school in Australia 45 plus years ago, my mum used to volunteer in the school canteen - she would tell me about the strict (it was just a government school) guidelines they had to follow with a limit on how much white flour was allowed in the kids lunches ie if they were making lasagne it would need to be mostly whole meal flour etc. the kids food in the uk is absolutely shocking - the government needs to be stricter on what’s being offered in educational settings

Nothing wrong with plain yoghurt.

Most yoghurts marketed towards children contain nearly all of their daily sugar allowance (Petit Filous, munch bunch, frubes). I once had a child in my class eat two munch bunch yoghurts, a frube and a mr Kipling cake for lunch and this was in an affluent area! To be fair, she did love it but there’s no nutritional value in many of the packed lunches I see every day.

In my child’s nursery a few years ago nursery celebrated birthdays once a month (so say all kids with January birthday have a small party and cake on xx of Jan). The cake was prepared by nursery with reduced sugar and all allergies taken into account.
there were 6 birthdays in sept and 6 in October - I’m glad this was the policy.

I didn’t know this was a thing 5 years ago but I’ve taught mine to eat intuitively- I’ve given mine their dessert at the same time as their main meal so food doesn’t have hierarchy and no food is ‘bad’ they understand that some food means that we can’t have lots of them sweets cake because of the sugar and it makes our teeth bad and some we can’t eat as much as we like fruit and vegetables. Both children choose to eat other things on their plate first rather than the dessert or treat. I’ll give my eldest a snack plate and he’ll eat the carrots and houmous and will have a bite of the cake bar and leave it for tomorrow. My second child has a bigger appetite and he will eat more but he is the same. If you deny something they only want it more.

All nurseries in the area have similar menus.
the problem here is that as parents we are paying a lot of money per day for a service that it is not good enough.

it won’t get better if we don’t complain. You walk around the streets in Scotland and half of the population is overweight.

At home, the parent can give whatever they want to their children but nursery/school should set the example.

No nutritional value!

No nutritional value whatsoever!

Did you see a sample menu when you were researching nurseries?

I imagine there’s nothing to do except move your child to one you’re happier with. Guidelines aren’t law, so a childcare setting will always have leeway. They’ll also probably have a waiting list and someone who’ll happily take your place if you remove your child, so I really don’t imagine they’d uphold any complaint.

What is wrong with sandwiches?

I honestly feel nurseries should face much stricter regulations around the food they serve to little ones. The first two years of life are so important for shaping a child’s taste preferences and even their long-term metabolic health. The World Health Organization (WHO) clearly recommends no sugar or salt at all before 1 year old, and ideally no added sugar until at least age 2.
That’s why I’m getting really frustrated with my son’s nursery. They regularly give babies custard, cakes, jam – even sandwiches to under-1s! And to make it worse, they don’t allow parents to send in their own meals, so we have no say in what they’re being fed.
Has anyone been in a similar situation? Does anyone know who I can contact or where I can make a formal complaint about this? It just feels wrong that nurseries can ignore these basic health guidelines.

I think it’s utterly ridiculous.

Cake for birthdays is an excellent demonstration of sweet things in moderation and occasionally. Our nursery used to sub it for pudding or snack on birthday days. It worked really well. Sense of community, recognising the individual, demonstrating occasional foods vs every day foods.

New setting the table guidance seems to mean child now comes home hungry regularly, it’s fixated on now sugar and low calories.

Eating cake is absolutely fine as long as you don't eat too much of it. Same with everything in moderation, is o k. As long as your main diet is healthy. Then an occasional piece of cake for a child's birthday is fine.

I grew up with a mother in the nineties who was absolutely obsessed with this kind of thing. You name it, I wasn't allow to eat it. No crisps, no fizzy drinks, none of the junk food treats that appear in supermarkets. No pizza. Very little processed meat. Main meals were chicken breast with some potatoes and some raw vegetables. yoghurt for desserts

Ok, fine.I was probably really healthy.And I thank her for that. But it was the absolute hell bent determination not to allow eat anything ever.That she date deemed unhealthy.

I remember it like it was yesterday. When I was sixteen and at college and I had my own money for the first time to buy some lunch. I bought a can of coke and a packet of crisps. I felt absolutely deviant buying it and hoped my mother didn't find out. I'd never been allowed coke before and it was a novelty.

If you restrict children too much that's what happens.

Well said.

Lack of exercise. Barely saw any kids in the park a few days ago.

My son was served pineapple upside down cake for pudding at nursery .The ungrateful little bugger didn't eat it. 🙄

A choking hazard as well.

Sounds like very similar guidance to the nutrition guidance for early years settings coming in England in September.

As a provider I think it's fine and it won't really change my provision. No need for birthday cake at nursery/childcare.

I find it really hard to believe a nursery is giving lollies to a 3 year old every day tbh 🙄. Seems like a choking hazard as much as a tooth health problem and I just find it quite unlikely that it's actually happening.

I'm undecided what I think. I do appreciate that sugary or processed foods regularly isn't great but the odd slice of cake doesn't seem terrible to me. My kids nursery didn't allow parents to send in food generally, and for birthdays one of the activities for the kids in the room was to make some plain sponge, or plain scones that they'd have after lunch or for a wee snack. It seems a shame to stop something like that!

I think there are other ways the government could tackle child health and diet - for example poverty is one of the biggest causes of poor health.

My dc school banned home made cake from packed lunch but still served sponge and custard to the kids who had a cooked lunch. I ignored the ban.

A small slice of birthday cake isn’t going to make a kid obese. The nursery could cut the portion very small. The kids who are obese will have fizzy pop, fast food, fried food regularly.

It’s not shit because they’re limiting their sugar intake, it’s shit because they’re singling out their child from their peers when it’s easy to avoid it. People with allergies - in my experience, the parents are made aware of an upcoming birthday cake/celebration food, and provide an alternative. That way their kid can still join in.

With the poor ones who are singled out, I assume they’re taken away to do another activity, but come on, it’s absurd. How can parents not just adjust the kid’s sugar intake for the rest of that week if they’re so upset by it? Just wait until you go to a birthday party in a soft play and the food options are nuggets, a hot dog, fish fingers or a burger.

Nobody’s child’s confidence is shot because they can’t have cake, but the event is always popular (the kid has their friends in awe when they walk in with a birthday cake for them all), and that’s great for their self esteem and self worth. There’s absolutely no reason for people to be so incredibly anal about any of this.

I agree OP. I want to decide the amount of sweets my young child is fed myself, it annoys me when he's constantly being fed sweet stuff by friends, nursery, grandparents etc. Most people don't seem to realise how many sweet foods a 3 year old is offered on an average day! Which is precisely why they are getting all angry about the cake ban. It's not as if it's the only chance for a child to have a birthday cake!
It's perfectly possible to celebrate a birthday at nursery without cake. Children will simply think it's normal: cake is something thar you have when you celebrate your birthday with your friends and family outside nursery. They really won't miss anything.