This isn't particularly healthy, is it? Or am I BU?

[themummyonthebus]

DC1 has just started school. To "get the children to expand their palate" the class teacher wants 2 litres of juice to be brought in every day (there's a rota for the parents). There's enough juice for about 80ml each. They have this for a morning snack with a biscuit.

The after school club has just informed us of the menus they'll be offering:
juice + cake, bananas + biscuits, milk (with nesquik for those that want, so basically everyone with peer pressure) + fruit, cake + chocolate, bread + cheese. These "menus" rotate through the days. On the days without juice or milk there'll be water to drink.

DC1 has school dinners which seem to be well balanced with plenty of choice.

Ok, this is pfb I'm talking about but this seems like a lot of juice (we've been asked to bring 100% fruit juice and the after school club is offering 100% juice too) and the afternoon snacks seem very sugary. They've apparently been put together by a nutritionist. Tell me I'm BU!

[themummyonthebus]

Pamplemousse - I think because the snack is being provided by the parents the juice is a way of keeping individual costs down (cheaper than buying 26 bananas or apples or whatever).

The nutritionist said a good snack consists of a grain, a drink and a fruit or a dairy product. I can sort of see how the menus meet that requirement but I can think of ways of doing it better...

[JamieandtheMagicTorch]

Juice is acidic and sugary. Which is fine if you are going to brush teeth shortly afterwards. But not fine with other sugary stuff.

IMo they should offer only plain milk or water

[themummyonthebus]

Oh, lots of cross posts. I'm not so worried about DC gaining weight, I'm more worried about him getting used to a relentlessly sweet snack - he's got enough of a sweet tooth as it is. And as some say, it's weird when we get lectured in all directions about making healthier choices and cutting down on sugar.

Manic I'm sorry to hear about your DD, I hope she gets the help she needs.

MrsDibble I certainly will be making alternative suggestions if I do say something. The club organisers have said they're happy to have them.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Bread sticks, rice cakes with dips or spreads should fit with their current philosophy and I'll suggest including a vegetable as an alternative to fruit.

[stripeyslippers]

My dd is in the middle of a course of dental work. She is 7, and needs 4 fillings. I was, naturally, horrified and mortified.

And ten I started adding up what she eats.

[stripeyslippers]

Grr typos - bloody phone! Obv she has cake for pud, no pus involved!

[PunkHedgehog]

Ask them more about this 'nutritionist'.

Anyone can set themselves up as a nutritionist. Seriously, anyone. Ben Goldacre's dead cat is one ( www.badscience.net/2004/09/dr-gillian-mckeith-phd-continued/ ).

Dieticians are a different matter - that's legally regulated and you have to have specific, genuine qualifications. But if someone tells you 'a nutritionist designed this menu' that means no more than saying a carpenter or solicitor did - ask for evidence that they have relevant qualifications from a reputable organisation and really do know what they are doing.

[Thumbwitch]

Punk, if you read the OP's later posts, she says the nutritionist just gave guidelines for content, not the actual foods listed, so not really the nutritionist's fault in this instance, more the interpretation put on the guidelines by the people involved.

[FixItUpChappie]

YANBU...if they are teaching kids that a nutritious snack that will boost and sustain energy involves cakes, biscuits and juice than they are kidding themselves and setting a poor example.

[MacaYoniandCheese]

I wouldn't have a problem with juice if it was alternated with milk ( but not nesquik, wtf?) and water. Sometimes it's hard to get small kids to drink so hydrating with juice is better than nothing at all BUT I wouldn't pair it with a cookie...that's just gross and too sweet. Maybe on juice days they could give cheese or crackers or something else savoury?

However, I'm pretty sure I had orange squash/ribena and a custard cream/bourbon/penguin/trio/club pretty much every day after-school as a child . I'm not overweight, nor diabetic, have zero fillings and shun sweet things now so it is possible that we do get a tad hysterical about these things nowadays .

[Crowler]

I'm anti-juice. I have never given my kids juice, ever. I don't drink it myself so this is an extremely easy position for me to maintain.

Humans should drink water and eat fruit.

[Nandocushion]

Fruit juice is NOT full of vitamins - it's full of sugar. If you want the benefit from fruit, which is the fibre, you eat the actual fruit, not the juice. I am by no means a diet fanatic, but all that juice and cake or biscuits is awful and I would be expecting a late afternoon blood sugar meltdown on every day except perhaps the bread and cheese day. OP, YANBU.

[Jellybeanz1]

I like retros menu I'm going to go out and buy some better snacks for home. Thank you. Things can slide when they get older and chocolate mini rolls are on offer.
My dc like juice but I always have straws to hand and a jug of water on the table.
I think the idea of trying new foods with your peer group is great but for my children it would be the salad type of food which they didn't eat at home but would with their friends. I have to thank my ds reception teacher for sending them home munching on raw carrot and cucumber. He's healthier than the rest of us.

[Twattybollocks]

I think people need to remember that kids have very different nutritional needs to those of adults. What sounds woefully unhealthy for us can be fine for kids. Like whole meal bread etc, healthy for us, but not advised for under 5s as it is very filling and takes ages to digest, meaning kids don't eat as much other food missing out on valuable vitamins and calories. Same with saturated fats, ok in small amounts for us, needed in much larger quantities by young children as they are needed for brain growth.
As long as the nutritionist is qualified, id be fine with it.

[poachedeggs]

I'm really upright about my kids' diet

I wouldn't be very impressed with those snacks. Our school has a tuck shop from which they sell pancakes and jam, toast and jam, cheese on toast, those yogurt coated fruit bits "and other healthy snacks". At 10.30am, two or three hours after the DC have had breakfast. I believe they also offer fruit. Mine is allowed to go very occasionally, because I'm not a complete meanie and it teaches him about money. Or it would if he didn't always choose something he can't afford, only for the helpers to let him have it anyway

Rant over. I wish schools would leave it up to parents to offer their DC crap. Fair enough have treats at Christmas, Easter, end of term but offering them stuff as a matter of course which they'd only get once a week at home pressurises parents. And is hardly good for the DC. What's wrong with veg, natural yogurt, hummus etc?

[poachedeggs]

Uptight :)

[Wishihadabs]

I would be massively unhappy about dcs being given juice morning, completely unnecessary. My 2 clamour for money for the tuck shop. My line on this is simple, you eat a decent breakfast and then you can wait till lunch (served on the nose of midday) for KS1. This constant snacking drives me bannanas.

[Wishihadabs]

I would be massively unhappy about dcs being given juice morning, completely unnecessary. My 2 clamour for money for the tuck shop. My line on this is simple, you eat a decent breakfast and then you can wait till lunch (served on the nose of midday) for KS1. This constant snacking drives me bannanas.

[Wishihadabs]

I would be massively unhappy about dcs being given juice morning, completely unnecessary. My 2 clamour for money for the tuck shop. My line on this is simple, you eat a decent breakfast and then you can wait till lunch (served on the nose of midday) for KS1. This constant snacking drives me bannanas.

[Crowler]

I was intrigued by the suggestion above that whole grains are not recommended for under-5's (I've always given mine whole grains, and have never heard of this before). I googled it and there is some support for this view (like on the NHS website) but it doesn't sit well with me. I have to wonder what kind of diet the NHS is assuming here; I think in the context of a healthy toddler diet, this is utter bollocks.

[themummyonthebus]

jellybeanz1 That's exactly it. He needs no peer pressure to eat crap but I know he ate loads more salad and veg at the CM (and I'm assuming now at school) than he will at home because he sees all the other children eating it.

Regarding the nutritionist, she's employed by the local authority, so I bloody hope she's qualified. She was actually at the meeting and had played a role in putting the menus together though Her stated aim is to ensure the children will be able to make it through to dinner time on these snacks but with the exception of bread and cheese I don't really see how that level of stodge and sugar will really achieve that.

Someone raised the milk + nesquik thing. I'm also pretty about that. The organisers say, "Oh, not all children like plain milk," but if you always offer chocolate powder to go in it they won't find out whether they like it or not, will they? The whole thing seems to be to get food that the children will all eat with minimum fuss to the organisers.

I'm going to make some suggestions to the organisers for some less sugary snacks next term. to all of you who have made suggestions. I'm also going to have a word with some of the other parents who use the club and see if we can get some strength in numbers for a menu modification.

[Crowler]

The nesquick is mere pandering. You offer a child milk; if they refuse to drink it without nesquick, fine. They can drink water.

[themummyonthebus]

Crowler I'm with you, I don't do pandering, but then I can be a mean mummy.

[Crowler]

I'm told that I can be as well. :-)