School lunchbox police

[gertyglossop]

My 4 year old daughter came home from school today and informed me that Miss X, her teacher, doesn't like it when children have chocolate in their lunchbox. She was visibly worried about it.

I have been packing her a fun sized (2 inch) Milky Way bar every day this week (last week it was mini ginger bread men, and some other small treat the week before). She also takes a wholemeal sandwich, small packet of savoury snacks and a piece of fruit. She knows that she must eat the sandwich and fruit before she eats the treat.

AIBU to resent:

A. The implication that I, as the parent, am unable to make suitable food choices for my child?

B. The complaint being made to my 4 year old child, rather than to me?

Until I read something online about the sugar content and was absolutely horrified - i'd genuinely thought they were the 'best' for babies because i'd obviously believed all the marketing crap and never really given it much thought. I'm a serial ingredient checker now with everything I buy.

I was like this with rusks

I honestly thought it was just a kind of weetabix version for babies. Heath visitor recommended she have one for breakfast and supper once she started eating. Stupid me just took her advice when I should have looked into it. A week later my mother asked why on earth I was giving her so much crap. I then found out that rusks more sugar than biscuits and more fat than fastfood burgers. Oh dear..

It's pretty obvious though, isn't it? What Sapphire is presumably saying is that putting a milky way in your child's lunch in no way means that you don't care about nutrition. Feeding your child a generally crap diet does.

Mine stay lunches now, but I find it laughable they can have a stodgy dessert with custard every day yet when we stayed packed lunches very small treats were banned.

Stodgy is the key - low sugar, high carb, high dairy (therefore protein)= fuller tummies for longer, plus the nutritional value of milk, often fruit too in those pudds. Beats a Milky Way both nutritionally and in terms of filling up hungry tummies both initially and for longer. I'd personally prefer fruit and yogurt choices only but I accept that these puddings are likely to fuel them better for the long afternoon.

Grumpy, it's entirely possible, unless you have a serious problem with brain capacity, to both have a grasp of nutrition and give a child a mini Milky Way. The rest of the OP's child's lunch is a wholemeal sandwich, savoury snacks and a piece of fruit, which is not really the devil's work is it?

Boring explanation, but it was a dull question.

And for those saying kids don't eat the school puddings and lots is thrown away, if children weren't subjected to such high sugar, high salt, highly processed food on a daily basis, their palates wouldn't reject a comparatively low sugar pudding. I've tried several, they are yummy, but a milky way they ain't. That's the issue - kids adjust to what they are given, give them less refined sugar and they'll naturally damand less and be satisfied by less. It's win win. I honestly don't see why any parent wouldn't embrace that.

Demand not damand obvs

Wow that's the first time I've ever heard stodgy puddings extolled as healthy. They tend to make me feel content and sleepy rather than bright-eyed and full of energy tbh. Surely a good-sized main course with plenty of protein and non-refined carbs followed by a piece of fruit would be better. The main course should be the thing filling their stomachs, not the dessert.

When did you last eat a school dinner. The desserts are definitely not sugary. The custard is vair bland.

Detailed, Wanking I was like that with petit filous and rusks. Very complacent. .

I became very ill when dd was 3 and between 3 and 5 she put on loads of weight. As my health has slowly improved, so has her weight, slowly. I struggled to put nuggets in the oven, let alone cook. Her diet sadly was pretty crap. Not through choice.

Now she's eating so much better but she's always hungry and loves sugar. I sneak a probiotic in her morning yoghurt (natural flavoured with a bit of 90% chocolate). She loves chocolate cake. I make fairy cakes with low sugar, higher butter and higher egg content. She has one a day, no icing. I do try. My issue is I'm not well enough to fight against the pestering for food all the time. It's hard. She has slimmed down massively. She's still overweight but not massively so.

I agree with the 80% diet 20% exercise for weight reduction. Dd does sport almost every day. I am continuing to work on her weight. And mine. I'm overweight but not quite obese on the bmi. I have been using sugar to give me instant energy and had been eating it constantly. There is a tipping point where my health is too poor to live on Paleo style 16/8 diet. I'm dreading that happening this winter.

Eolian my mother thinks "stodge" is a health food. Apparently my poor dd doesn't get enough bread and if I just gave it to her, she wouldn't crave it so much. Lol

It's just a bad idea to eat junk food every day. Bad for your teeth, bad for your health, bad for your well-being. It's irresponsible to give your children the habit. Simple common sense.

I must admit that i'm not entirely sold by the '80% diet/20% exercise' thing.

Only based on ds1 really. He eats a good, healthy, well-rounded diet. But a LOT of it. He's 8 and his portion sizes are mainly adult, which you wouldn't find any nutritionists advocating.

However, he does a lot of sport...very frequent and high intensity sport every day and although he's very big for his age (and I genuinely mean tall and broad, not he's chubby and I have my head in the sand ), there's not an ounce of spare fat on him. His diet is technically excessive for his age and size though.

Dd is tall and broad as well. The reason I'm saying the 80/20 is because dd is a bit overweight. Really for the amount of exercise she does, she shouldn't be. She's not eating excessive amounts of sugar but she does eat a lot more than some of her age but she's very active as I previously said. I suppose it's down to metabolism then.

I was also going to say, have you tried school desserts? They are made with next to no sugar and taste of...well..nothing! Same goes for the cookies etc. They look lovely, but are so disappointing, as is the custard. Most of the kids who have dinners choose to have the yogurt or pots of mixed fresh fruit as it's a lot nicer!
We don't ban anything in packed lunches except for fizzy and (god forbid!) energy drinks. We would have a riot on our hands if our children were not allowed to take crisps etc, but we do encourage healthy as possible.
I've known children in the past to have nothing but chocolate things in their lunch box, then someone who literally had only 1 jam sandwich...and said he didn't like jam!

Wow, I actually can't believe some people's attitudes. I am clearly a bad mum as I allow my 4yo daily treats as part of her balanced diet. She also takes fruit and salad in her lunch box along with a sandwich and a treat, perhaps jelly, a biscuit, a cake, a small chocolate etc. Sometimes she doesn't eat the "treat", sometimes she does. Much like at home. Some days she will want a treat others she won't. I'm exactly the same, some days I like nothing better than a cake or biscuit with my cup of tea after lunch or tea. FYI I am neither skinny nor fat and have no fillings. 90% of the time our evening meals are home cooked meals but yes every now and then I will dig out the chicken nuggets and chips. They love it, I love my adult version and I also love the minimal washing up and time it involves. I think it is so much more important to teach your children about having a balanced diet and to not teach them to perceive certain foods as naughty. As long as every single meal is not solely consistent of junk food I don't see it as a problem. As soon as a food is forbidden it is so much more tempting. I can guarantee that the children who are not allowed chocolate/sweets/cake etc are the ones at the birthday parties shovelling it down their face as fast as possible!
OP, in my opinion, YANBU. One small milky way bar is fine. If the teacher had a problem with it she should have spoken to you not been all passive aggressive and commented to your child. Keep up the good work. x

My DC's school has compulsory school dinners, and no choice in nursery or reception. Cue 2 years of: "it was jacket potato with cheese, and I only ate the cheese."

Such a "first world" dilemma!

Interfering, busy-body food police drive me insane.

I'm just amazed that a deputy head would need to come onto a forum to both express surprise at this and not understand it or be able to imagine why a school might impose it.

Whether people agree with it or not, it's so prevalent in so many schools, I fail to see how anyone could have missed it.

I'm with you their young Willie. As well as other teachers who have expressed surprise and amazement as to what goes into a school pudding. It's like they've never been in a school at lunchtime. There can't be many teachers who haven't had a school dinner at some point or who aren't aware as to what policies there are about healthy eating in school.

*there not their!

There is another reason why schools don't like the pupils to bring in chocolate. When mine have been on school trips it is specifically banned from lunch boxes. Nothing to do with healthy eating and everything to do with the fact that it melts and the children end up a sticky mess.

Puddings at nursery made me and I think they are utterly pointless at school. Agree that the stance is hypocritical if they are giving puddings with lunch.

catsize, as many pp have pointed out, the "puddings" at school have such a low sugar content they are virtually inedible - have you ever tried one? They are not designed to get you wanting more, unlike shop-bought cakes and chocolate bars.