School lunchbox police

[Beyondbeliefsometimes]

Just after some input on others thoughts. Kids have come home from school that they are to have a healthy snack at school. The last few years my kids have been taking a fruit and the youngest also 3 cream crackers with a slither of butter (she doesn't like much butter). My youngest only eats fruit for breakfast, so 3 hours later she is hungry and does need a carb of some sort. Occasionally she will have bread sticks.
She has now been told that she isn't allowed butter, it is not healthy, she is to have dry crackers.
Their lunch consists of a sandwich, a yogurt and a small fun size bar. They have been told there is too much in their lunch bag... On a Friday when school dinners are hot dogs or pizza, they occasionally, very occasionally get a jam sandwich as a treat, they have been told this is not healthy enough. Yet if I paid for school dinners they could eat the healthy alternative of pizza or deep fried chips and sausages... Make it make sense to me! Also not allowed sugar free squash which they will still be getting as my youngest has constipation and needs lots of fluids to help and that doesn't happen when drinking water only. They have also been told their lunch bags will be checked. Yet dinner always involves a cake of some sort!

It is the dry crackers for me... Is this bat crazy or am I so out of line that they dry crackers is suitable. Jeepers we used to dare each other as kids to eat them dry it was that hard to do

(both my kids do afterschool sports 5 days a week and gymnastics at weekend. Both always need their clothes taken in as they waist size is much smaller than their height, you cna count every rib they have from across the room. So definitely not over weight. We are also in NI so back to school already)

So ultra processed crackers are fine but the butter isn't ?

They have a serious screwed up idea of healthy food !

Breakfast not lunch!

Could you try nairns fruit and seeds oatcakes? They are a bit sweet and don't need butter? But they don't really have UPF in them. Not that there's anything wrong with butter. Would they allow cream cheese instead? It makes little sense.

Exactly what I was thinking! What about all the fat soluble vitamins in butter. What on earth.. They will probably not let the kids have milk soon too!

I agree this is bonkers. Our school has a nut free policy, fair enough. Last year they introduced seed free too. I know some such a sesame can be dangerous allergens and maybe a child in the school has a severe allergy. But all seeds are banned, I try to give them seeded breads as much as possible. I even made oat bread with chia and poppy seed but no. So we are back to white bread, either sliced pan, bagel or small rolls. Basically filler with no nutrients.

This is madness. We've got families dealing with food poverty and they are starting on children because of a tiny bit of butter. Their lunches do not sound too much. Surely if they were they wouldn't eat it all.

I get we have to make sure that children eat healthily and well but demonising certain food is not the way to do it. We are storing up eating disorders for the future.

Butter has some nutrients and lots of calcium (which I imagine they're getting plenty of anyway if they're having milk and cheese as well) in it - but is also high in saturated fat.

I love butter and prefer it to alternatives but that doesn't mean it's actually healthy to have every day.

I think that's where people struggle (including me), is by thinking each of these things aren't individually bad for you but taking as a whole there is very little healthy food in that lunch.

We do have a very poor food culture in this country and then we also complain why we have the unhappiest teens in Europe, badly behaved children and high rates of obesity.

It's very difficult to deal with because people can be very defensive if they are questioned or given advice about their food choices.

Understandably.

What do you suggest?

It’s fucking bonkers. Butter or an olive oil spread are part of fats, you need all food groups. What kid wants to eat dry crackers and what harm is a slither of butter?

Unless they are going in with a microwave Rustlers burger it’s none of their business you know your kids and should be able to feed them what you want.

Is this not going to create unhealthy relationships with food for children if everything is ‘forbidden’?

Edited to add - Everything in moderation. Like everything in life, they probably get balanced meals at home. And what about those parents on budgets who can’t afford just whole foods and have to bulk up with cheaper things. It’s nanny state gone mad!

This sort of nonsense makes meal times really stressful for some kids, mine completely stoppec eating at school because of relentless authoritarian behaviour from various different staff, turns out later he is neurodiverse and now at 15 will only eat an extremely limited diet. I have no doubt that all the school bullshit contributed massively to it. I always sent him in with healthy food, but you could never predict the rules as staff were poorly supervised or misinformed.

What an absolute joke. It is so irresponsible to scrutinise lunches in front of young, potentially impressionable children and feed them with ideas that a small knob of butter is unhealthy. Talk about skewing their relationship with food.

No idea! I'm as bad as everyone else and it's a struggle as you can't spend your life reading ingredients on packaging and the cost of food causes big problems. But it is difficult to say objectively that this is a healthy lunch.

I suppose wholemeal bread would be better (if not already).
Some vegetables in there somewhere.
Plain yogurt - or fruit from home mixed in rather than the supermarket sweetened yoghurts.

I'm not against butter on crackers, I'm just saying it isn't healthy. As long as there some healthy stuff in there then unhealthy stuff becomes less of a problem.

It is difficult because nuts and seeds are very important to diet, and as said previously, some schools don't allow these.

I would prefer schools to look at what people are eating and give advice then just give in to the poor diets that lots of children get.

I use a Sainsbury’s recipe (it’s actually red pepper spinach and egg muffins but my dc hate red pepper so I use grated carrot and courgette in it’s place)
For the sweet muffins I don’t measure anything I just mix 2 very ripe mashed bananas , some almond flour and self raising flour (about half and half), cinnamon peanut butter and some melted butter (not much butter I think I use about a dessert spoon ) if the mix is a bit dry I add a splash of milk then bake them for 20-30 mins

It’s ridiculous. I hate being on “snack duty” at work because if someone from SLT comes in and sees a kid eating a something from the “banned” list which I’ve chosen to turn a blind eye to, I get pulled up on it. I’ve argued and argued against the ridiculous (and inconsistent) rules but nothing seems to give.

Scotland.

Our school has told parents there’s a ban on after school snacks unless it’s a piece of fruit or veg

Honestly, the English centrism on here makes my head hurt. It's the same every holiday. The OP states in her post she's in NI.

In Scotland we finish 3rd/ 4th week in June & go back 2nd/3rd week in August depending where you are (we're quite a big country). So our kids get 7 weeks actually, more than England. I believe NI are similar or perhaps longer again.

It was similar on a Higher Education thread with posters saying how 'unfair ' it is that Scotland get their exam results earlier than England (& therefore university places in Scotland)! Our education system is completely different, thank you: we don't do A-levels (except the very odd private) & our university system matches our schooling, funnily enough.

Objecting to butter is bonkers and could actually contribute to kids forming an eating disorder. Not convinced crackers and a sandwich are the best way to get carbs into your kid though. Assuming they're not fussy eaters, something like a grain bowl or even a wholewheat pasta salad might be a better option.

@Beyondbeliefsometimes the cakes do annoy me as it gives the wrong idea for pudding. But if you have ever tried the school cakes at primary they have very little sugar in them, nothing like you would buy in a shop or even make yourself. As as dinner lady we would get to try them and I wouldn't eat them as they really didn't taste like cake to me.

But I still think it gives kids the wrong idea on what they should be eating.

Nothing wrong with a sandwich on decent bread

Not in my school. Secondary & the iced ginger cake on a Friday is FULL of sugar & absolutely delicious as a Friday treat, should you so want it.

Butter isn't unhealthy though. Neither is jam, in moderation.

I can't get my head around slimy butter crackers. What happens to the one on the top of the stack?Does the butter just stick to things? The whole thing is giving me the creeps 😬

Butter or cream cheese could also cause problems for children with severe allergies to dairy. Dairy causes more anaphylactic reactions in children than nuts in the UK.
Not saying that either should be banned in schools (the allergy charities guidelines are that allergens shouldn't be banned from schools), but the idea that nuts are the only allergen that anyone needs to worry about is wrong.