to think Hula Hoops in a Friday packed lunch is ok...

[MerryMarigold]

OK. So ds1 went on packed lunches this week. He's had healthy lunches all week. Today he had a sandwich (2 slices of thick sliced wholemeal bread), 3 cherry tomatoes, raisins and [shock, horror] a packet of ready salted Hula Hoops as a treat 'cos it's Friday and wanted to give him a little treat at the end of the week.

So, they confiscated his crisps!

This was part of his packed lunch. No replacement given so he just had to not have part of his lunch. No-one has told me that you can't have crisps. One boy has chocolate spread sarnies and a pepperami every day. And this ok. School dinner on fridays is Fish & Chips.

OK, so I know you'll say I need to get over myself. But is this common in schools? Are Hula Hoops really damaging to children?

Seriously, I would go utterly utterly fuck mental if someone took my kid's food off them.

I would go proper mad. DS2 has school dinners so I'm not sure if this sort of shit happens at his school.

It drives me bloody mad when they 'confiscate' from lunch boxes...

I can't see how they are even allowed to do this.

DS2 once took in peanut butter sandwiches that his big sister had made for him and i stupidly didn't check.

He was five years old and they took them away and gave no substitute so he went all day without the main part of his lunch.

I'd be down there asking for crisps or the money to replace them back. I'd probably also be finding out if there were any non cretinous schools in the area.

seen a lot of threads mentioning things being confiscated. Seems quite wide-spread. I don't like it either

oh no. reeling you said peanut butter sandwiches and it's all going to go mad on here now.

If its the school's policy to not allow crisps in lunchboxes, then they should be making sure parents are aware of it. I'd be taking THAT up with them if nothing else. I'd be pretty annoyed too fwiw, as I think I am capable of deciding what my child should be allowed to eat. However, I do understand that schools are trying to do their bit for healthy eating and probably want to try and provide guidance for families who perhaps don't eat well enough. Communication is key.

This disgusts me. I hope DD's school isn't like this. Yes, some parents pack their kids off to school with nothing nutritious to eat, but the majority find an even balance. I think the attitude in schools nowadays towards 'healthy eating' is becoming very unhealthy. There are a new generation of kids now who are beginning to put food into 'good' and 'bad' categories, and I think this is wrong. It's all about balance.

So no, YADNBU

I did ring up and complain and got the peanut butter/allergy explanation.

But they saw no problem in letting a 5 year old go hungry all day...

Unbelievable ! Talk with the head re policy on food. Sick and tired of school ( state) intervention with stuff like this

Totally agree with everyone here. I would go utterly mental. 1) why the hell do any schools think they have the right to confiscate a young child's food? 2) if they have rules about crisps and such, they MUST make sure parents know. 3) if they confiscate something - give them something back like a piece of fruit!

Grrrr. My kids school doesn't confiscate but my goodness, I'd be jolly mad if they did. YANBU.

You are absolutely right Malkie, that was def the lesson dd was learning from school. It gives a lot of children quite screwy ideas of what a balanced diet is. Children need to learn that its not a case of good foods and bad foods but rather that they should eat a balanced diet and the occasional treat is perfectly ok.

YABU. Hula hoops are a weak crisp, n my humble opinion. Should have given him monster munch.

With all due respect to the peanut allergy sufferers.

My feelings are that children should be being taught from the earliest age to manage their allergy and the teachers should be helping with this.

Peanut butter isn't poison.

I'm allergic to eggs and have to manage it.

If the child has a dietary special need then the staff should be managing it and helping him to manage it.

I would be furious too! Yanbu. Making a child miss some of his lynch is out of order.

*that would be lunch of course.

I'd be raging. One dinner lady at my son's school removed his slice of chocolate cake (lovingly made by mummy) which was his Friday treat.

They do not have a list of do's and don'ts for packed lunches.

Seeing as the school nurse sends me bi-annual letters that my son is clinically underweight, I thought they had a bloody cheek. Especially as the school lunch puds are usually a stodgy sponge pud.

I wrote a complaint once I had established the full story to ensure my 5 yr old hadn't embellished it.

I'm not sure that fish and chips are healthier than hula hoops, unless they are baked potato chips and unbattered fish maybe

I agree that a bag of crisps once a week is alright but crisps are banned at our school for lunches so I just don't send them. It frustrates me a bit that a penguin biscuit is not allowed for packed lunch at our school-(even if the rest of the lunch consists of raw vegetables and organic hummus dip!!) but chocolate pudding and custard is allowed for school dinners

However, I keep my views to myself because i think school have it hard enough already dealing with the parents who think a packet of haribo and a mars bar makes a healthy lunch, and who give the poor head a hard time about poor little Esmerelda having the right to eat battered lard with added chocolate.

At our school in packed lunches, the children are allowed homemade cake of ANY description so I did jokingly point out the irony of this-ie I can make a fridge cake consisting of melted mars bars which is acceptable in a way that one fun sized mars bar is not!

The head said of course that's fine ......but only if you bring extra for the staffroom

It's probably an overzealous dinner lady.
I understand that there have to be lunchbox guidelines designed to steer the people who don't give a stuff about their kids diets, and it's fair enough to limit nuts if there are kids who will get sick if they go near them.
I would speak to the Head, because it is NOT on for a little kid to have part of their lunch taken away and to go hungry. And cellotape a stern note to the inside of his lunchbox.

i find this UTTERLY ridiculous
if the kid i from a deprived family wiht bad nutrional standards fair dos
but not from a normal kid wiht normal eating patterns

Really, what concern is it of the school what kids have in their packed lunch? Really, if they're not fussing about idiotic uniform codes it's what kids are eating. I fail to see what remit schools have over diet.