To think it’s a bit unreasonable that children have to have fruit for school snack.

Might you get away with sliced apples and cheese? Nice chunk of protein and could be subtle with it.

Tbh I'm on the fence. DS is an adult now and still reminds me of sadly eating carrots and hummus whilst everyone else got dairylea dunkers. I do feel guilty about that.

The thing about the current focus on the twelve main allergens is that people have then pulled themselves into this false idea that they are the ONLY allergens.

It thing that pisses me off even more than this is people who have an allergy or a child with an allergy who are then utterly dismissive of the concept of anyone who doesn't have one of the twelve.

These are the people who should be most tuned into how serious it can be.

I do not get the nut ban in schools - outright bans are discouraged by allergy charities - they advocate for management of allergies because they know that kids have to learn to cope from an early age.

My son has a fruit allergy. It's not on The List. He's come out in hives from contact around school on several occasions even after school had been told.

The last time he ate it he was a gnat whisker from A&E as he was wheezing and his lips and mouth swelled up.

I have struggled to get school to take it seriously. The GP won't do fuck all because apparently it's being managed (DS really probably should have an EpiPen at this point).

Nut allergy people really should be more clued up than most and it's frustrating as hell when they go 'ban this but make them have fruit' which has a range of allergies which are more common than people realise.

This aside the whole 'bad food, good food' shite isn't encouraged because that leads to eating disorders and you have SEN kids who are particularly sensitive to foods (and more likely to have allergies strangely even) who get forgotten in this because of ignorance. DS was first flagged as SEN because of food issues.

We had so many issues with DS and food... Until a friend who has a really restricted diet said that as a child his parents put pressure on him over food and he thinks that's partly what contributed to him being so picky. He also said as he's got older and not had that pressure he has relaxed a bit (he really pretty much eats chicken and pizza and that's it). It was about this idea of 'safe food' and not safe food.

We backed off DS after this because we were shit out of other ideas. We just let him have access to other things and made a habit of sharing food between us if we wanted. He then started to say he liked the look of something and could he try. It was a complete nightmare up to this point.

Plus the normalisation of snacking, whether it be 'healthy' or not, isn't in itself healthy. It doesn't allow kids to learn to get hungry. There's just a constant availability of food on demand. Schools really shouldn't be managing kids who have an absence of food at home precisely because it impacts negatively on other kids too. Breakfast clubs rather than snacks should be the way it is handled.

Honestly EVERYTHING about food in primary schools is fucked in the head and poorly thought out. It just follows the latest trend rather than actually giving the subject a scientific / educated approach.

@ThejoyofNC
The way I see it is at break time, you can have some fruit if you want it. If you don't want it, don't have it.
⬆️This, 100%.
(And what is it with snacks and snack cupboards? When did it become a thing to eat between meals?)

Not wanting it is very different to having a limited diet due to autism or another medical reason where eating fruit isn't possible.

I'd say it isn't fair to make some children go without.

but people can be allergic to fruit and/or veg

When I was young we didn’t snack

I don't think it would be fair for certain children to be allowed to eat different snacks in front of all the others who can only have fruit.

The way I see it is at break time, you can have some fruit if you want it. If you don't want it, don't have it.

As I said, alternatives should be allowed.

Considered how?

SEN and other medical needs should be considered though. He might not starve if he doesn't get a morning snack but he shouldn't be excluded either.

Alternatives should be allowed in that situation.

He won’t starve because he doesn’t have a mid morning snack - saying it’s fruit or starvation is completely OTT

My child’s school started doing this because of allergies. We had children bringing in cereal bars with nuts and countless other things around children with very serious allergies and snack food isn’t monitored as rigorously as lunch food. It’s just easier to say fruit or vegetable snacks only.

Not sure if Low sugar but tastes nice. We got to try at a parents evening

I don’t know about your school but at ours all the puddings are made by them and they are relatively low sugar and use substitutes. So not the same as your average flapjack or cake etc

That's a daft argument though. If they're having cake for pudding they really don't need it at break as well. Cake once a day isn't justification for cake 3 times a day.

I think what annoys some parents is that school dinners always had a sweet pudding so cake. Biscuit. Sponge. Flapjack etc

so if they are having that for lunch , why can’t they have the same at break time

same for birthday cakes. Mini blondes always wants to give out cakes on her birthday after school

school always says I can’t on the school grounds due to health reasons and unhealthy yet again 3hrs earlier for lunch cake was given

I get many kids say they don’t like fruit If something better on offer and yes some kids really don’t like fruit - but most will eat it

I prefer it in ks1 where they gave the fruit

I would be happy to pay extra so ks2 gets fruit there rather then bring in a bag each day

Me too. And things like grapes you can't buy in small quantities.

@ToffeePennie could you suggest the school provide the snack and the parents pay? Or at least have that as an option.

F**k 'em go vegan

Malt loaf healthy? Also how old because I've known no schools to allow food

Thats what I was thinking. It can't help if some children are excused the rule and others are not.

I have no idea. It's a reason why I don't like rules like that, it can make children with allergies/medical needs etc stick out and they often feel different enough as it is already.

@Sgreenpy excellent info ta!
I “think” at my school morning milk carried on as you’ve described for a type at or so and then was stopped for all or all but the littlest because it wasn’t a thing by the time I was in the equivalent of year 2.

It's just one of those things.It's what you allow your children to make of it.

Imagine said in whiny voice .... muuuuum im staaaaarving.... Parents play up to it instantly worried their child is going to slip down the plug hole.They re so malnourished.

But if parents actually said, oh, come on, you can wait another hour until lunch. You might get push back and some more whining, but ultimately, they d be fine.

Honestly, you just don't take this stuff.So seriously. A slice of malt loaf an hour before lunch isn't going to make the difference between starvation and not, they ll be absolutely fine.

My DC got fruit or yoghurt as a mid mornong snack at home. I don't see the issue.

In the winter I sent them to school with a warm breakfast in their tummies. Scrambled eggs, beans on toast, cheese and tomatoes on toast, cheese and bean or cheese and tomato toastie. They wouldn't touch porridge.

70’s primary school child in Kent. We definitely had no mid-morning snack. We did have free milk which was great in the winter, vile and boaksome in the summer. We were too busy charging about at morning break to miss a snack. The school dinner was nowhere near as considered as lunches have to be today. We definitely had no snack on arrival when we were handed to our parents at home time. I can remember practically fainting with envy on being invited home for a play date and seeing a crisp cupboard.

The kids in our KS1 get free fruit and it’s the carrots, satsuma, bananas and tomato days that get the best results.

Frankly, even the word “snack” irritates the shit out of me, but since it’s become ubiquitous that children must eat mid-morning or fade away, I can’t see why continuing to provide fruit or veg for playtime is the end of the world.

For me, the real challenge is watching very many primary school kids being given a grab bag size Doritos on the way into school. Given that costs at least a quid a day, I simply can’t see an affordability argument against even toast for breakfast and a banana for break.