To think the school has a point about packed lunches

[Rebeccaslicker]

I'm not sure about banning parents from the premises, but is it a bad thing to say no chocolate, sugary drinks etc in a primary school lunch?? (My DD is only 2, so I haven't had the lunchbox decisions yet, v interested in people's views!)

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/now-mum-48-banned-school-1108690.amp

I don't see the harm in squash.
I worked in a Staffordshire school and children having school meals used to be served cup drinks. This changed last year and they were then given a choice of blackcurrant or orange cordial.
I'd be interested to see what drink the school serves with school lunches.

As an aside. I don't like water either., I much prefer a drop of cordial just to flavour it.

MrsKoala
I have one of those as well. Before he went to special School it was hell and the thing they got weirdest about was food.

Just couldn’t understand that he would starve himself despite documentary evidence from several medical practitioners, and a history of admissions for it.

It's right to ban fizzy drinks, sweets etc. You can advise people on diet for school lunches, as the Government does, but unfortunately the audience for which it is intended, is often the audience not reached.

I don't think there is enough calories in the school dinners. My DS eats them but come home and raids the fridge. There is a reason for energy dense food- When you need the calories. He is slightly underweight. We are very active and walk a lot.

We serve water in a cup with school lunches. The infants get a free carton of milk at break time.

We don’t allow water bottles on the table because some parents send in squash in a bottle you can’t see through and it’s not worth the risk of it being knocked over onto the table or other children’s work.

I think this tell us all we need to know about why the mum was banned
A council spokesman said: “We would always hope that schools and parents can resolve disputes amicably. As an employer we do not tolerate the abuse or intimidation of our staff.”

That mum looks so pleased with herself, posing outside the school gates with her half-full bottle of Vimto. I agree with the above poster that there is most probably a lot more than meets the eye with this parent and the way she has broached this point. However, the daily mail never miss an opportunity to print some sad faces to Stoke a bit of outrage!

Schools have a warped idea of healthy eating

I just realised my totally unintentional pun there- am quite pleased with that!

Schools have a warped idea of healthy eating

What’s that supposed to mean?

It must be hard having a child that flatly refuses to drink water. Especially as in our school we allow children to bring in a water bottle but not squash. Obviously if a health professional were to tell us we had to allow a specific child to bring in squash we would go along with that. However it does then make it difficult to uphold the “no sugary drinks” rule with the rest of the children

That was the reason given to me to not allow my son to have his prescribed fortified drink with his meal. The damn thing had a prescription label on it and is in a bottle that clearly doesn’t look inviting.

Sensory processing difficulties are a totally different thing and any school should accept evidence of that.

But for the kids who don't have such needs, surely squash is too sugary and bad for teeth? And I wouldn't want DD having all the sweeteners every day in no added sugar (big fat Diet Coke drinking hypocrite here!!).

There just seems to be a difference between the occasional drink and that being all they take? Even in secondary school we were only provided with water (some parents did send in juice; fizzy drinks were banned but because kids were spraying them, not because of health reasons )

NeedsAsockamnesty - Ds now has his fortified juice at lunch too (another care plan), it is the rankest liquid ever, oh that the other children should be 'lucky' enough to get such a sugary delight!

I think schools do jump on the bandwagon too easily. We also had issues with school over fortified prescribed drink. And had chocolate bars which were medically advised removed from my child. The medical team had written to the school but it becomes frustrating when they don't listen.

It's far better to have a child drinking enough fluid to stop kidney problems than not, if the alternative is not drinking enough.

I had my child admitted to hospital because she wouldn't drink enough. It can and does happen.

When i went thru school there was no meals in either primary or secondary, secondary had school tuckshop selling bars, crisps and cans. We all went to the chippy about 50 metres away from the school and got our bag of chips for 50p each.

Esp in primary from the age of approx 5-11, my mum gave me the same general lunch every day, 1 or 2 bags of crisps, 1 or 2 bars, can or 2 if was thirsty, i wasnt keen on sandwiches but for my age due to other issues i was extremely underweight and needed to gain and maintain. I loved the home made bread that one of my friends mums made so i would trade with her for what i wanted so we had win - win situation.

In order for me to gain weight at one stage, i was put on a "breakfast regime", i was asked for my dream breakfast and my mum would make it and bring it to bed to me and after i ate it, i had to stay in bed for at least an hour (i know now it was to give it time to digest and hold onto any inside bits it could), this went on for over 18 months.

(For anyone interested i had a deep fried burger with saute onions and tomato ketchup in a bun made from 2 slices of toast cut with a round cookie cutter, a side of wedges with some bbq and mayonaisse and vanilla ice cream with coffee essence thu it, to wash all this down, i had banana milkshake with mashed up banana and sugar thru it), It helped me get slighly more in line with what my weight should have been,

However, I ended up with a NG tube in hospital at 15 by a Dr who was convinced i was anoxeric and in denial despite me telling her I was bulimic .

@Soubriquet you say would like to get DC drinking just water, can i recommend for those who want to give just water but where the DC want more to meet halfway,

This is something i use myself now as I need to drink a lot of water, no calories, no sugar and no additives. It tricks the senses.

www.therightcup.com/

My son won't drink water, and believe me I've tried everything to get him to replace at least half of his juices with water. I just give him very diluted down apple juice, so he has some flavour. I don't see anything wrong with hin having that as the sugars in it are from the fruit and there's no sweeteners in it. There aren't many parents who would willingly watch their child become more and more dehydrated rather than give them something that isn't water. That said, I totally agree with fizzy drinks. I really hate seeing really young kids swigging from a bottle of coke.

mandalorian I used to think there was no harm in reduced sugar squash. However, I've had loads of tooth decay despite brushing a lot and not having loads of sugary things.
The dentist has explained that reduced sugar squash has still got sugar in and is very acidic so it can be ruinious to teeth. I used to have glasses of it per day.
I've had to switch to plain water and I'm not struck on it or coffee with a drop of milk(no sugar).I've noticed I've been a lot less thirsty throughout the day.

It's so soul crushing isn't it Needs? If someone looked my boys lunches i would be considered a piss taking neglectful parent. But what it doesn't show is the years of tears and desperation and the numerous visits to paeds and nutritionists. The stomach aches they have. The bleeding from their bums from constipation and straining. The cajoling to get them to take laxatives and vitamins.

DS1 already feels like a freak and the way the school behaves about food makes it worse. I have to make a decision to feed him something and it's better than nothing.

sock

That’s a pretty rubbish response from your DS’s school, bearing in mind I expect they would have asked you to sign a form because he was self-administering prescribed medication in school? Maybe no-one told the lunch supervisors. Wouldn’t be the first time.

I think there's a lesson here for all mums of babies - make sure you give them small drinks of water from a very early age, then perhaps there will be no more of this 'he/she won't drink water' nonsense.

SusannahL
I don't think that's a foolproof plan. I'm sure I was given lots of fruit and vegetables as a child but I hate 90% of them now.

I get irritated by blanket bans based on the assumption that only school dinner chefs know how to make healthier lower sugar versions of cakes etc. It’s all there on the internet and I can read it just as well as the school chefs can and how else will I get rid of the glut of courgettes if I can’t send them to school in a cake

Have you ever tried school dinners? I went into our school kitchen because I had forgotten to bring any salt to put on my lunch and they said they don’t have salt in the kitchen! I’ve had their cakes before and they honestly taste like they have no sugar in them at all.

@SuburbanRhonda and yet parents can't send in their child with a low-sugar cake.

Banning foods is really not the way to teach healthy eating. For most children, it makes the banned foods more desirable and it all goes to pot the moment they can make their own food choices. I'm sure many of us have an anecdote about a friend from a super strict family who busted out like Miley Cyrus the moment they could.

In our school kids are allowed the same things in their lunch as the hot meals. They can have cake or biscuits, but not sweets or chocolate bars.
This seems fair and actually the hot meals service are actively trying to reduce sugar in their meals. They have reduced the sugar in desserts overall and now alternate a more sugary dessert such as cake with yogurt and fruit on the alternate days. Drinks are milk or water.

Both my boys were excellent eaters and water drinkers up to the age of 2. It made no difference Susannah. They hit 2 and started restricting themselves till they now eat so little we couldn't eat out anywhere and have to take food with us everywhere we go. On holiday last year they ate dry frosties for 4 straight days with nothing else.