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

They have this at my daughter's school. She skips snack rather than take one. The fruits that both transport well and that she will eat are very limited. Then she says the carrying around of the pot is a pain and she's a slow eater so says she'd rather just go hungry and wait til lunch. She used to like the fruit yoyos as could eat as much as she felt like then put back easy enough or just bin when done but they aren't allowed now, probably because they are similar to sweets on the teeth really when you think about it! I get why they do it though as all sorts go in otherwise and they aren't too strict over lunch boxes - which is a blessing as she's fussy there as well! We keep trying at home to broaden her palate but I just give her what she'll eat for school.

I agree there are other healthy snacks, but allowing anything healthy would be much harder to enforce, and lead to arguments about where the line should be (eg. If chease & crackers are OK, why isn't mini cheddars? And if they're OK, why isn't crisps). It would end up taking a lot of teacher time to manage.

Is it fruit? is an easy yes or no rule to implement. It also has the added benefit of keeping snacks more equal so there's not a noticeable difference between the kid with the fancy snack, the kids with the cheap apple and the kid who brought nothing and has been given something by the school.

Blueberries and strawerries out of season are very expensive. I couldn't afford that on a daily basis.

Give her a massive porridge for breakfast

It’s only half an hour. Her breakfast should be substantial enough that fruit is filling to tide her over until lunch.

What does she have for breakfast? If its cereal, I'd look at changing that to something more substantial. A higher protein breakfast will keep her fuller for longer.

Tell her to wait for breakfast. She isnt a Baby. She can wait until 7:45 or later.

Give her a banana for snack.

Why are kids constantly snacking now. There was no snack time, no water bottles - we had a drinking fountain in the playground when I was at school. I survived.

Our GC get milk daily at school. Parents pay a small fee it’s something like 6 pence daily, so this school seems lucky to get this.

I'm 35 and had a morning snack at school. Infants were fruit & milk and moving to juniors was a big deal to us children because we were allowed to eat snacks other than fruit at morning break.

My three year olds nursery does milk and fruit only, two things she doesn’t touch. She doesn’t starve but she does miss out on snack time every day.

It’s a great idea in theory but not for every child.

If her breakfast is only sustaining her for 3 hours, she needs a bigger breakfast imo
Fruit as a snack seems perfectly reasonable mid morning
Like another poster mentioned, hunger is not a bad thing- it’s a normal response in advance of a meal. Surely the goal is not to feed our kids so regularly that they rarely feel hunger? They trend towards grazing every two hours doesn’t seem a very good idea for long term health and weight control to me 🤷‍♀️

Trouble is as soon as you deviate from 'fruit or nothing' some parents will always just send in what they can arsed to grab out if the cupboard please.

Then you're into drawing up guidelines, sending out guidelines, people wanting to move the goal posts, teachers and TAs having to watch the kids, notice who's regularly deviating from guidelines, record it, speak to parents get moaned at watch to see if they take note, record it, speak again , and again and again .....

Over how many classes? How many staff hours is that going to take up?

GC school enforced healthy fruit options too. Means children stick to healthy options. Why not give two pieces of fruit. When I put my GC out for school I let them help make a fruit salad with the fruits they like. Blueberry strawberry clementine etc. they enjoy making it and always eat it at school.

Can you send in some plain milk too? A glass of milk fills mine up

Would they allow dried apricots? A handful of those is quite substantial. I don't bkame the school, the staff can't be expected to tell at a glane the difference between child across the room eating a healthy low-sugar piece of allbran fruitcake vs a chocolate bar, or to make a judgement call on where the boundary lies, but you can tell at a glance whether something is fruit.

If your DD is ravenous at 6:00 perhaps supper needs to be a bit more substantial, and it's ok to have "second breakfast" as something oaty like a flapjack just before going into school a couple of hours later to keep her going.

My DS won't touch fruit either. No SEN or autism. Cannot stand fleshy seeded stuff including tomatoes.
He will eat any and all veg at 18 and is 6ft tall and well built! So it's done him no harm.
Healthy snack of course that's a good rule. Insisting it has to be fruit specifically. Nope

God knows how we made it through the school day! Snacks weren't an option.

Being hungry isn't a bad thing, but a good breakfast with protein, and a piece of fruit mid morning should get her to lunch with no problems.

What does she have for breakfast?

It's a bit of a blunt tool, I agree.

The problem is that we have to have some rules in lace otherwise children bring in two doughnuts (or more - I've seen more) or grab bags of crisps for break. Some children come out onto the playground with arms full of food at breaktime, which is only an hour and a half before lunch.

My school doesn't insist on fruit. It's suggested but as long as its 'healthy' it's fine (but I'll admit, the inclusion of fruit winders in that leaves me a bit ).

What would you prefer to send her in with?

I know it can be a lot to read full threads but this information is less than half way down the OP’s first post. She has breakfast at 7 and most dc would certainly be hungry with just a fruit snack. Most fruits high in sugar and not ideal as a filling snack

Exactly. Fruit is an easy rule to follow and enforce. Otherwise they have to define what is 'healthy' which is quite subjective. And if you allow non fruit some parents will send in chocolate or sweets.

Snack on the way to school or make her breakfast more filling eg add nuts/peanut butter/eggs.

I find just adding nuts or sunflower seeds to cereal or yoghurt fills me up more.

Fruit at break is fine, most schools have lunch at 12 anyway.

She will do fine. Go with the flow.

I'm glad that they are more relaxed with it at my sons school, he eats a limited diet and fruit only would limit him even more.

It’s a great idea - it should be the norm. Give her 2 pieces of fruit. She really ‘starves’ in between breakfast and lunch if she only has fruit??

Assuming breakfast is eaten between 7:30 and 8, and lunch is at 12-1, fruit should be a perfectly substantial snack.