AIBU asking teacher to stop giving sweets?

This sounds bonkers behaviour by the teacher and I'm really surprised by the number of people saying you're being unreasonable! Give their poor teeth a chance - little and often with sticky sweets is a really effective way to dissolve tooth enamel, we also know now that dental health has an impact throughout the body as bacteria and plaque from the mouth travel to organs (there's a really good Michael Moseley podcast episode about this).

It's also firmly planting a really unhealthy habit, linking sweets with task completion, and teaching reliance on short-term immediate rewards rather than building intrinsic motivation. And it's all totally unnecessary! Crazy.

Two of mine had severe enamel hypoplasia in their baby teeth. This would have been terrible for their poor teeth.
As it was I used to have to say no to loads of birthday haribo.

If this is your biggest problem with the school/teacher, you have no problems.

I don't think you are overreacting at all. Why would any parent be happy about their child being given sweets throughout the day when it is know that this regular snacking/grazing on sugary things is the main cause of cavities? What parent wants their child (first child/only child/fifth child/whatever) having to have fillings when this could be avoided by not eating sweets all day?

I've worked in at least 10 different schools over the last 25 years and none of those schools allowed sweets to be given out as rewards or as end of term presents etc.
It's unhealthy and bad for their teeth. Lots of parents don't allow their children to have sweets at all, or restrict them as a treat occasionally after a meal etc.
I really don't know why the school is allowing it. Stickers are a nice alternative.
I would speak to the school about this.

I think you’re over reacting. Is this your first child?

As a teacher and parent, I hate this and would speak to the school. I don’t believe in food as a reward and daily sweets is too much for primary school children. There are a million other ways to reward children. If you otherwise love the teacher @H930, have a quiet word with her and explain how you feel, she might have just been a bit shortsighted about it.

She is training them with treats. No, not a good idea.

This is perfect

I would not be happy with that at all! Is management aware?

Did they have them anywhere outside the home at relatives or friends?

We never gave our children sweets, so I’d be really unhappy about this.

Another thing to consider, the teacher might be the best in the world but hasn't given much thought to the kids dental by rewarding throughout the day.
Seems a bit lapse in that department does anyone do this with their own kids?
If not why is it okay for a teacher to do it when there are alternatives?

Just cut the sweets out full stop at school they aren't needed even for birthays. Maybe I'm a kill joy, so what? I'm more concerned about kids teeth and the future problems they may encounter. The Mners who only allow their kids one sweet a week on a friday must be pearl clutching too.😉
There are too many dental problems in this country already especially with kids. Don't get me started on the lack of N.H.S dentists.

I've worked in indy schools and at the primary level it was stated explicitly in the directions to teachers NOT to give sweets/food as a reward so I'm slightly surprised that this is happening. At that school, the issue was allergies - lots of pupils can't eat a range of sweets for various reasons - but also a recognition that food should not be an automatic, constant reward. Most schools use sticker/star charts

Regarding dental health, although frequent sweeties are bad for teeth, eating throughout the day, no matter what it is, is bad for teeth. At the primary level (and even secondary), children snack throughout the day so I don't think extra sweeties are so big an issue when they've been chomping on all kinds of things all day long.

I would speak to the teacher and ask if it was possible to have the jelly baby treats all in one go at the end of the day. It would give them something to look forward to, and would be way better for their teeth.

@HoskinsChoice I’m assuming you have some major traumas in your life at the moment, making dental hygiene seem irrelevant to you. In reality, dental hygiene is very important. My dentist has always said that the most damaging thing for teeth (apart from never cleaning them obviously), is constant grazing on sugary foods.

One sweet every couple of hours across the whole day is much worse than a big bag of sweets all eaten in one go.

Dentist talk about sugar windows. I remember being put on a regime where my sugar window was reduced to an hour on one day. When I could have as many sweets as I wanted but that was it for the week! That was what the dentist recommended and it did improve my teeth!

The sweets could be sugar free I guess? But I think the citric acid etc is still just as bad for little teeth. It's not great really.

There could be families who try not to give upf or refined sugars at all but now the kid will have a taste for it. Of course it would happen eventually but it's not a good habit.

Having seen the problem getting my DGS into the dentist ( into the dentist, ie through the door, not into the chair) feeding children sugar all day is insane -we no doubt have children with the worst teeth in Europe -then thers the blood sugar levels going up and down and what if some ‘earn’ more sweets than another child.

Ridiculous -Id speak to the head

I feel a bit sorry for you that you only have time to think about major things in your kids' lives and not anything minor. Bit sad.

Yeah I wouldn't like that, really bad for teeth. Wouldn't be nice for your son to be singled out either though so I'd want the teacher to use a different reward system altogether. I guess you'll just have to find a diplomatic way to approach the teacher/school about this.