AIBU - restrictive school snack policy, hungry child

[nemoni]

Our children's school (primary) has a policy of only allowing fruit and vegetables for snacks at school. Completely get the rationale - healthy eating, relatively easy to set parameters, no overly complex education needed around it etc.

The only problem is I have an active child - plays sport (on top of PE etc) 5 days a week and generally on the go. He comes home from school ravenously hungry, grumpy and tired. He's also going through a growth spurt. I'd like to be able to give him more carbohydrates, even protein, during the day as snacks, as I do on weekends, particularly on days he goes to after school sports sessions. I'm not asking for crisps/chocolate/jam sandwiches etc.

School so far saying no, no, no.

I think it's a cop out, it means they get to look like they're promoting healthy eating while not really promoting a balanced diet, kids are scoffing loads of dried fruit, and don't have access to a water fountain during school hours except at lunch. And don't get me started on school dinners.

Am I being unreasonable?! What parameters does your school set? How do they promote and support healthy eating? Thoughts welcome before I book a chat with the headteacher :)

When I was in primary school (1990s) we didn't have snacks. We had lunch and there was a water fountain if you were desperately thirsty and that was fine. I do remember visiting another primary school at the same time though and they all had crisps or something out of their lunch at morning break!

High school we had toast at morning break and access to snack machines/tuck shops

This article is interesting - not on snacks but school food/messaging more generally.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/flaws-how-schools-talk-about-food

Thanks everyone, lots of useful comments, sounds like I am being a bit unreasonable :)

What I stupidly left out was I'm a working parent so DS at school from 8.30pm until after 5pm, 4 days a week. On 3 of these days he goes to school sports club, straight into the club from class. One night he goes to their after-school play club, which provides rice cakes, toast, brioche, fruit, juice etc. It's not breakfast to lunch that's an issue, it's 12ish to 5pm with with sports club etc in between.

He has school dinners, comment about whether he eats enough then really useful. Trying to avoid packed lunches as 3 children, other 2 currently receive the funded school dinners and there'll be trouble if one gets packed lunches and the others don't!

School lunches? Ask him whether he bolts out as soon as the dinner ladies allow it to get maximum playtime instead of finishing his food. That was a problem for our dc until he was told the remedy to this isn't a parent turning up after school laden with snacks.

Ok well in that case I'd provide him with sandwich and piece of fruit to wolf between end of school and sport. If anyone asks tell him to say it's leftover from lunchtime. Mine are generally extra ravenous after school on in the days they have school dinner.

Pack him a sandwich to have after school.

After about 12 months I never got into the habit of giving mine a morning snack so it hasn't been an issue. Sensible breakfast, lunch, snack after school, dinner at 6. Neither have starved yet.

EdenX & BarbarianMum that's the issue, he's only allowed to take fruit/veg into school, so sandwich between school and sports club not an option (it's not something I pick him up for, it's straight from class into hall etc).

At dd's school we send in a pound per week for snack money, the teachers then buy the snacks for their own class.

She is in year one, just asked her to what they have- she said a variety of fruit, yoghurts, plain biscuits, breadsticks/dips and sometimes cheese crackers.

I really didn't know that some schools ask the dc to bring their own snacks in, I'm certain that people would take liberties at dd's school, any change is usually met with resistance.

Dd told me a parent tried to bring a happy meal in for their ds lately for lunch.

That's when children had a good mix of fruit, fat, sweet, carbs, protein etc and we're brought up with a healthy attitude to food.

I don't think it that's true. My nan was obsessed with everyone clearing their plate or finishing food, even if they didn't want any more, and had a very emotional connection to food - eat when you're happy to celebrate, eat when you're sad to cheer up. I think she was like this precisely because food was scarcer when she was a child.

She also fully embraced the convenience foods of the 60s/70s when she was a young mum. All of her children became overweight adults.

I think her attitudes to food are and we're really common amongst people her age.

Big breakfast and packed lunch is the answer.

Ds1 is 11 and he has a large bowl wholegrain porridge with banana and what ever fruit is going, he also has a large glass of full fat milk.

Lunch he has 2 tuna, sweetcorn and mayo on seeded whole meal bread, homemade quinola crumble bars, sliced apple, grapes and melon, full far cheese, yogurt, and a slices of cured meat. he eats this everyday.

He plays football 2 x a week and trains 4 days a week, (academy) he also does athletics (represents his county) 2 days a week and he also does judo 1 day a week, as well as represent his school in Hockey, Football, Tennis and Dodgeball.

Ds1 school is good however as ds has a motebolism disorder, so his school also keep snacks in his class room in case he needs them.

Wouldn't the biscuit/waffles snack be better eaten when CM arrives at school and they are hanging around the playground? Or even walking to school? Then the food breaks would be more evenly spaced.

Hi, my kids primary school is the same and I have utter empathy with you because my kids get v hungry. They also get chatwells cooked meal for lunch but it is a really poor standard and most of the time they tell me it's inedible and they hate it. As they are ks1 they get it free so I am loathed to give it up but I do make sure they have a good breakfast, porridge, eggy bread, pancakes etc .. toast, cereal smoothies, yoghurt..

I also make sure they have a cooked tea ready when they get in the door and most days they eat at about 4:30 and then have supper (cereal, toast, sandwiches, warm milk) before bed. This week on my blog I challenged myself to feed us all on £30 per wk shopping at Aldi. I also post kid status friendly recipes from. Y meal plan every day this week, you might find it useful, I hope so!

Cutting your weekly food bill. Step 2: meal planning and Mondays recipe
Hi, so I promised you that I would help you cut your weekly food bill and I'm determined to give this a go.

Food costs are spiralling and food banks…
myfamilyhomeblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/cutting-you-weekly-food-bill-step-2-meal-planning-and-mondays-recipe/

Not sure about tuna and processed meat every day.

Op I'd see your GP.

I had a wobbly low blood sugar child getting distressed. GP said it was ridiculous and fruit not actually that great.He gave us a doctor's note.

We had very early breakfast in order to do school run and work. She was often not having lunch until 1pm. 6 hours on a piece of fruit. Of course she felt shit.

I have 3 kids with very different metabolisms. GP people can vary hugely. For what it's worth I have very low blood pressure and can't go long without something.I eat healthly.

Have the school specifically said he can't take a drink and a sandwich to have after school?

We're not going to make any headway at all with the obesity problem by forcing draconian snacking rules onto primary aged children.

I wouldnt say giving your child a protein shake or bar is an unhealthy option. Tell the school to get a grip as its making your son feel shit, he needs protein to help his stay alert and focussed

Jeepers, I swear the super healthy one grape is enough of a snack crew have forgotten why it's like to be a child. Ok, I was an 80s / 90s living in a deprived-ish area, child so education around food wasn't brilliant, but I distinctly remember having cereal or whatever for breakfast, and getting to first break and being STARVING and wolf half my semi-healthy lunchbox (say, crisps and a tangerine and the school milk). Then starving again at lunchtime so jam sandwiches, Apple, chocolate bar or flapjack, then again at afternoon break I'd eat cheese and popcorn. Everyone in my class was the same, and we were all skinny as rakes.

Kids get HUNGRY! They're growing at a crazy rate, and running around all the time - just so busy from the second they wake. Of course it should be acceptable to give some carby and protein bits - even just a few crackers or ricecakes and cheese with a bit of fruit, and milk, for a child that needs it! The autonomy should TOTALY be with the parent, fgs. It irritates me

My kids are now at senior so this is not an issue anymore, but at primary the school used to provide the fruit, we were not allowed to send it in.

The fruit varied, some days it was a banana, other days it was 1 large strawberry . My kids liked some of the fruit, but not all. If for example there were pineapple chunks on offer, they would not eat them because they did not like them. Then there was nothing else until lunch. They sometimes went hungry until lunchtime, although that might not be seen as bad on MN, it did make their concentration levels drop.

Personally I could not survive from breakfast until lunch on just a piece of fruit, but then I have a quick metabolism.

BTW, I went to school in the 70's and we were given milk & biscuits by the school at break time. My Dad was from the National Service generation and he got elevenses in the army. So having a snack is not a new idea at all!

Who said the cured meat is processed? yes he has 2 tins of light white canned tuna a week, all fish and shellfish contain mercury, tuna is lean, high in protein, contains omega 3 fatty acids, and B12 to name a few nutrients.

Who said the cured meat is processed?

Well the clue is in the name... of course processed means very different things to different people and most only care about some sorts of processing.

Our meat is home sourced directly from the farm and we cure it ourselves. its not out of a supermarket or in prepackaged containers.

starlight there was certainly no fruit or veg in our break time tuck shop in the late 70's - early 80's. All sweets and crisps.

But curing meat is processing meat, just because you process it yourself, doesn't change that it's been processed. Generally the complaints against processed meat is from the curing salt, which you would have to be using too, but complaints against processing are generally non-sensical anyway.

Enjoy your meat, I am sure it's very good!

Mumzy
The food handling course is an evenings work and you can do updates online.
You register with Environmental Health. Its that easy.

I dont 'colour co-ordinate' my kitchen! I already have seperate chopping boards for meat and other foodstuffs as you would normally, I have a small box of kids crockery and selection of baby cups, cups, tumblers, cutlery for minded kids.

I get inspected once every 2 - 3 years by Environmental Health (they are too busy to do it yearly!)

To be honest I think its more to do with the faff of meal planning, buying extra food which often gets binned if you have fussy kids who dont have fruit, veg or healthy stuff at home for whatever reason, mess and possible time restrainst that is putting her off not the actual food handling course.

I agree maybe you could send a '2nd breakfast' with him to cm so he could eat something just before he goes to school?

BTW a friends child has started showing signs of tooth decay, her dentist said to replace fruit with cheese sometimes as the obsession with 'fruit is healthy and should be the only snack' is not doing kids any favours. Just repeating what he said....

The food handling course is a piece of cake, you can rattle through it online in an hour!

We have been inspected once in 4 years. One set of colour coded chopping boards, that's it.