Opinions on schools dictating what kids can eat at snack...

[sendwineandastraw]

I’ve just made up my Y6 DD’s pack lunch and she mentioned that she was told off yesterday for bringing in and eating a Beetroot and Berry Soreen bar at break time, apparently she should be making better and healthier snack choices!

Dont get me wrong I’m under no illusions that’s it’s not exactly the same nutritional value as carrot sticks or an apple but a quick google tells me a Soreen lunch bar contains 32% less sugar than an average snack bar and 50% than the average cake bar...

Yesterday DD took with her water, yogurt, blueberries, sushi (Aldi’s finest lunch pack!!) and the above Soreen so She’s hardly living a life of Smartie sandwich’s and Irn Bru!!!...

I don’t like being dictated to at the best of time what’s right for my kids but DD’s school is very sporty and before break have already done their daily mile and swam for an hour, how is a satsuma going to sustain and keep kids focused until lunch?!

This makes me see red with fury.

I'm all for healthy eating (vegan, wholefood, home cooker here) but I think attacking or shaming the powerless 'victims' (kids at school) will do little to solve mass root cause of health problems (obesity presumably). It just makes sensitive/anxious kids singled out.

I also believe the school day is an arduous undertaking and a sweet treat is a tiny source of joy in a day of dealing with lots of things you don't particularly want to do.

Freedom of choice surely is the principle we live to rather than asking the State via schools and their pupils to nanny us.

Makes my blood boil!

I once told the head that when the kitchen stopped serving three forms of carbohydrate PLUS a sponge pudding they could moan about my son's crisps...

Same in DS2's school. I don't understand why they bother at snack time, then not at lunchtime. It's inconsistent. DS says some kids in his class bring in all sorts of sugary stuff, but keep it for lunchtime. There was a child in P1 who had one of those Goodies bars taken off her and thrown in the bin, which was a horrible thing to do to a 4/5 year old. Not to mention the fact, the teacher could have let her keep it for lunch instead of being so heavy handed.

The U.K in general has a problem in that it has become completely normal/acceptable to provide processed food and sugary things in lunch boxes

When the powers that be can get the economy in a state where you don't have to have both parents (if applicable) working evey hour G-d sends to keep their head above water, perhaps people will have time to make their own healthy snacks from homegrown, ground by hand ancient grains and fruits harvest fresh from their personal orchard...

In the meantime, no OP, YANBU!

It is good that we teach our children about healthy options. These are the ones that should be the normal daily choices.

We have huge issues with what a healthy size it, the average size does not make it the healthy one. We are struggling with an obesity problem, and as parents we should be choosing the healthiest of options for the long term health of our children.

At KS2 the children should know whats healthy or not so for a teacher to point that out isnt a problem in my opinion.

Soreen are a dessert option once a week in some of the schools by us. Providing its balanced, i cant see a problem.
I also would respect the teacher is only doing what she thinks is best, i would be working with the school on things like this(asking for a full list of unacceptable foods)rather than getting all bent out of shape about it.

I struggle with my DCs for this. They're the cliché MN ravenous twig type and I had to take them off school dinners because the tiny portions were bringing DS1 down to the threshold of the underweight category (shocker: 11 year olds need to eat more than 5 year olds!)

He has ASD and sensory issues so struggles with the inconsistency of fresh fruit, and can't cope with the texture of popular portable foods like rasins. Nuts are banned for allergy reasons. I want him to have healthy content and to be filled up. I tend to find it easiest to do hot food in a flask with added frozen veg. Fortunately they are allowed one sweet item and there is a small number of biscuit bars he will eat.

Only fruit is allowed at break so he goes without a snack.

Since making the change at the start of this year, he's back up to the 10th centile which is his normal, his moods are better and he has more energy. My priority is some veg, protein and foods to keep him going until he gets home. Food he will eat does him more good than idealised foods that he won't touch. Hunger contributes to his "fizzy bottle" meltdowns when he leaves school.

5 days of lunches a week are nutritionally important but picky, often arbitary rules don't significantly help the children with poor diets beyond school and can be harmful to others with more specific dietry needs/ difficulties.

My DD haa things like pizza and chips the a cookie for school dinners so I would be pretty annoyed if they told me off for p

posted too soon!

I would be annoyed if they told me off for giving her a biscuit for a snack on the odd day.

I don't mind schools doing this. Because I understand it's not about me. It's about drawing the line somewhere. If that bar is ok, then a normal soreen is ok, then a Kipling is ok etc etc.
simple rule is easiest. Fruit or veg only.

But then why aren't the school having the same rules for school dinners?

Just reading the thread now. Absolutely agree with @SinnermanGirl

I hate it when teachers pull DC up for what essentially is their parents doing. A child won't talk back to a teacher. If the teacher has a problem with the food, they should contact the parent.

It reminds me of when I was in junior school (a long time ago)and my form teacher used to give me serious grief about not going to church on Sunday. Every bloody Monday she would ask if I went and what the priest was banging on about. She didn't have the balls to ask my mum, you know, the person who actually had to take me to the church. This is why I have an aversion to my Catholic faith.

@Imthedamnfoolwhoshothim
I don't disagree with that. It is inconsistent.

But, I've been a dinner lady. Sorry, MSA. Some of the lunches people send in are appalling. Processed everything. Most are sensible. But I get that by having 'rules', yes you penalise slightly the families who do generally eat sensibly, but it's absolutely worth it to stop the poor children who are getting sent it with eg a packet of Oreo's. And, yes, that happens.

No fights had, but I challenged it because of the bollocks they were spouting about being a healthy choice compared to the balanced food my kid had.
I had very few issues with schools over the years, my kids are now adults, but when they talked bollocks I challenged

My child has school dinners a couple of days a week and reports having chips, pizza, chocolate muffins etc, so I don't why they police the packed lunches but don't seem to care what the ones having school dinners are having? On the days my child has packed lunches, I never send juice, chocolate, crisps etc. I do sometimes put in a chocolate chip brioche on Fridays and hope that it doesn't get commented on!

The NHS suggests malt loaf as a healthier snack swap for lunch boxes - www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/food-facts/healthier-food-swaps/#lunch

Our DC's headteacher had fundamentalist views about what children should eat. We got newsletters, presentations, lectures, Dolores Umbridge type rules. The entire SLT was overweight if not obese.

How we laughed when said head descended the bouncy slide with her child in her lap at the school fete. She was about 25 stone; the slide slowly deflated.

Every school lunch was chips, pizza, pasta, rice, sponge pudding and custard. There was even a rule that DC had to eat everything on their plates which was hardly in keeping with developing good attitudes to food.

I wouldn’t have minded so much had every word been spellt correctly, every tense perfectly used and if once the x and y axes hadn't been muddled.

The world would be a better place if teachers focused on teaching. They are teachers. They are not social workers, nurses or dieticians. If they have a genuine concern about the diet of a particular child then refer to the school nurse. I suppose that's hard because they might then be challenged or proven wrong. A good manager deals with the problem; a bad manager berates the team rather than deal directly with the problem.

Sorry but what the fuck is wrong with a mini soreen? Mine get bagels with chicken/ham (processed meat as I'm not roasting a chicken/baking a ham every week - who has the time?), an apple, mini soreen, 2 finger kit kat, handful of baked crisps. They get school dinners every Friday which is often a pizza and chips and some form of cake/chocolate based dessert - NEVER any fruit or veg!
Whilst I agree we are in an obesity crisis we STILL need sugar in our diets and admonishing a child or removing food from them is NOT the way to address this.
Also, what if the parent had bought these in bulk as they were on offer or couldn't afford "healthier" options? Surely any food is better than none?

I understand no sweets or chocolate, but that is ridiculous. Our primary school had a healthy eating award and never once policed what was in anyone's lunchbox. My kids took crisps and a chocolate bar most days.

Roasting a chicken takes 1 minute of your time.

To the previous poster, a mini soreen contains sugar and is therefore not suitable for eating as a snack between meals. I'm coming at this from a dental health angle as the main reason for a UK child to have a GA is for dental extractions ( gross caries not orthodontic or trauma reasons). All dietary sugars (drinks & foodstuffs) should be confined to the 3 main meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner. "Delivering Better Oral health" is the pertinent government publication.
So in sum, the school are correct in insisting processed sugars should be confined to mealtimes.

What happens to children who's parents don't pack or make foods on the proclaimed 'healthy' list?

I imagine some kids could get quite a tough time from their parents as a result of this ☹️

@Chaoslatte Soreen is maltloaf which is a type of bread - not a cake.

Buying, basting, roasting, cooling, de-boning, portioning, freezing and then defrosting. Do you have some sort of time machine that allows you to do all that in a minute??

I would be very annoyed at the school telling your daughter off for the contents of her snack.

She didn't choose it herself, you packed it for her. Why couldn't school ring or text you if they have a problem with a Soreen bar?

The teacher who complained is highly likely to go home and eat a pizza / take away / fish and chips etc. (Mostly because she'll have so much work to do at home that she won't have time to cook).