To have a word with the school about birthday treats?

[BananaPie]

Ds is in reception. On their birthday, kids are allowed to bring in treats to dish out to classmates at the end of the day. The other day, ds came out with a piece of cake, a chocolate biscuit and a lolly.

Now, I'm more than happy for ds to have the odd treat, but I do like to choose what and when he has them. That said, it does seem pretty churlish to whip them away when all his classmates are tucking in, and I couldn't quite face the resulting tantrum on the way home. Ds ate them all, but was on a sugar high for the rest of the evening which made bedtime a bit of a nightmare.

Would it be unreasonable to talk to the school about types / amounts of treats allowed? Some people just bring in a box of celebrations or similar and each child takes one, which I have no problem with. Or should I just confiscate as much as possible from him in the playground and deal with the tantrum?

Singin - sugar highs ARE a myth! Please read the science and learn a bit about the physiology of the human body. Your children might react like that for a variety of reasons. Causation and correlation are not the same thing.

In term of all of this hand wringing over small bits of cake or a mini packet of sweets, I do understand that people are concerned about their children's nutrition and afraid that they might be saddled with a fat child with poor dentition, but I think the fear is overstated.

Yes, there is an increase in obesity in today's society, but a) levels of young childhood obesity are flattening and associated with obesity in the family and b) the uptick in child obesity happens at the senior school level. I think that it is far better to teach young children about moderation and self balancing that completely restricting as it probably will backfire. If the majority of a child's diet is varied, comprised on minimally processed foods, and balanced, a relatively small amount of cake or sweets will NOT promote bad habits or turn that child obese.

Someone above made the point that it is bad to associate celebration with sweet things. Equally dangerous is to portray foods as good and bad, clean and dirty, saintly and sinful, wholesome vs slutty (yes, I have seen descriptions of some baked goods as slutty!!!). Best to not associate foods with such descriptions and just simply as foods.

See, if schools say that you couldn't hand out sweets they are fascist. If they do say that you can then they are sugar pushing, allergy ignoring bastards.
Can't win

Very rarely is it school - it's usually "that" parent who rants and raves and the HT snaps and bans stuff as it takes up too much time out of her day

See, if schools say that you couldn't hand out sweets they are fascist. If they do say that you can then they are sugar pushing, allergy ignoring bastards.
Can't win

Very rarely is it school - it's usually "that" parent who rants and raves and the HT snaps and bans stuff as it takes up too much time out of her day

I am so fed up with parents bringing sweets and lollies to class for everyone. If ONLY it were for birthdays I could accept it but every other day someone brings in stuff and I have asked the teachers to limit it to birthdays but I am apparently the only one who sees the problem with kids having a chupachup for an hour in the morning. One mum even said to me - well they only have baby teeth!! (Mine actually have adult teeth now and the sugar is not good for them). I have said I don't want them to give them to my kids but twice now they have forgotten and then yanked them back off them half way through...

Why are people bringing in sweets so often if its not birthdays?

We do get Chinese new year, eid, diwali, etc sweets, so its pretty international to celebrate with sweet stuff.

I read a book by an anthropologist who lived with a very remote tribe in the Amazonian jungle. Yup, honey was the big treat (mostly for kids).

Why are people bringing in sweets so often if its not birthdays?

That's what I would like to know! Seems to be to make their children more popular.

Could be! DS doesn't get too many sweets but desert at school seems to be cake or jelly every day.

Yes sugar is a treat and used in celebrations in many cultures but the quantity and frequency are in question here. We consume 200 times more sugar than we did 100 years ago. Yes we need glucose to fuel our body but in its fruit form or carbohydrate form, it's release into the body is regulated and fruit brings with it minerals and vitamins the body also needs.

Sorry for repeating but it has been cited again... The busting the sugar high myth study compared sugar to aspartame, which is sugar substitute. Of course sugar gives a rush, it is cell fuel, it is what makes us go! Try telling the energy gel manufacturers and sports people that use them that the sugar rush is a myth!!

Energy gels are meant to be used when the glycogen stores of the body are depleted to allow ready fuel for athletes who need to continue onwards instead of the body relying on glyconeogenesis - very different from saying that sugar causes children to be hyper!!!!

Also, most of the additional sugars people consume are not cakes and sweets, but the hidden sugars in processed foods. People are not getting obese because everyone is mainlining packets of Hairbos and cakes, but consuming sugars in their ready meals, smoothies, juices, and caramel lattes.

The busting the sugar high myth study compared sugar to aspartame, which is sugar substitute.
Not so, I have seen it compared to children eating fruit and vegetables - true they contain sugar too but I don't think anyone would stand in the way of a child handing out carrot sticks for his birthday.

Of course sugar gives a rush, it is cell fuel, it is what makes us go! Try telling the energy gel manufacturers and sports people that use them that the sugar rush is a myth!!
Not the same thing. Converting sugar into energy and rushing around like an thing possessed and refusing to go to bed are not the same thing.

Mominatrix "most of the additional sugars people consume are not cakes and sweets, but the hidden sugars in processed foods."

Unless you specifically mean cereals by processed foods, rather than "ready meals", that doesn't really tally with the National Diet and Nutrition Survey - bit on sugar consumption [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27941325]]

I don't mean anything specifically - just that the majority of added sugars are not the ones which are being demonised by pearl clutching about birthday treats at school.

In fact it's the "treats", plus the breakfast cereals and sugar sweetened drinks that account for the huge majority of the excess sugar consumption in primary age children in this country. Which is actually great because they are the easiest thing to cut out. But somehow we've got into some weird mindset where regular consumption of these products is not only normalised, but defended as a right. And where people who want to stand against this trend are either perceived as killjoys or as setting their children up for future problems.

My DC didn't have sweets, etc until they were given them at preschool parties. I didn't make a fuss when the parties, playdates, school birthday treats, school/beavers/clubs rewards in the form of sweets started increasing.

But now I'm questioning why we're so resistant to a cultural shift away from excess sugar consumption.

My DC didn't have sweets, etc until they were given them at preschool parties.

Yawn. Nothing more boring than the I feed my children homegrown granola and organic wild rice crunchy moms.

TheCatsMeow - I just didn't get why anyone would, so I'm probably unimaginative as well as boring. In fact, I must be really unimaginative because I don't get why my post would provoke such a hostile response.

Because it gets tiresome on here to keep reading people overreacting to haribo

Overreaction... Well it does sound like you're familiar with overreaction..

I'm with t1mum here, simply no need to introduce sweets (especially as reward!!) when it's not a normal
family thing to do, I mean, it doesn't occur to me to go out of my way to buy my preschooler and older children sweets, it's not being boring, I'm just not keen on them getting type 2 diabetes!! (And I'm assuming t1mum is a mother of a type 1 facing every day battles against the confectionary industry!).

Eating sweets doesn't cause diabetes.

Obviously eating sweets if you have diabetes is a different thing!

Yes I know not literally but it's a big contributor to insulin sensitivity issues.

No it isn't. Being overweight causes the risk for diabetes to be elevated. Not eating sugar.

Mine did t1. Because I sometimes eat them. So my dd grew up with the idea of eating them in moderation. Sometimes mummy fancies a sweet or two, she eats them. Other times mummy got offered a sweet and said no cos she didn't fancy one. Or ate half a biscuit or a few crisps. Nothing exciting, freely available and accessible in the kitchen 24/7. Unlike king prawns, which were rarely seen, and mummy would gorge on given chance.

Crappy treats are just there, something we eat for taste and not hunger, like in the outside world they're always available, and therefore nothing special.

Doesn't mean she didn't like celebrating stuff though, and sweets are a cheap thing to give. Hence why age 12 we still get licked lollies on plates, bulldog clipped crisp packets, choc bars and sweet packets with 1/4 gone, cakes with a few bites missing, all left for a 'later' that never comes. Not to mention half a cupboard of untouched crap. Because even at 12 she still likes getting it, despite not having much interest in eating it.

King prawns, smoked salmon and other expensive savoury treats we don't have lying around, and unlike sweets are financially limited both at home and child social events, and aren't something she can pick up 3lbs of at the corner shop or a vending machine with her pocket money she will gorge on given the chance.

And eating sugar is a contributor to being over weight.

Eating more calories than you burn causes you to be overweight. Not eating sugar.