to be annoyed that my dds school has been giving out certificates to children who bring in healthy packed lunches?

[spudmasher]

Today she took in a ham roll, four cherry tomatoes, a few slices of cucumber, some fresh pineapple and a small apple pie.

She was not given a certificate because she had the apple pie in her lunch!

When I was making her lunch tonight she asked me not to put a little cake in because it was unhealthy and she would not get a certificate.

I thought it was unreasonable to reward a child, or deny a reward on the basis of decisions made by the parent.

I also feel that six is too young an age to bear the responsbility of deciding what they should eat. Surely the child should be carefree and just trust the parents to know what is healthy?

I also thought that a little fat and sugar occassionally, will not be harmful to a child.

I also felt that they are encouraging children to deny themselves small pleasures - could lead to eating disorders imo.

Thanks. Feel better now.

Am I over reacting?

Have sent snotty e mail to school........

this kind of thing is preaching to the converted really though if you think about mumsnet demographic - but it could be that this system filters through in some ways to people who may not be informed.

Agree that the way in which is has been executed is cack handed and wrong - but I can see the idea behind it.

low fat products taht should be full fat and artifical sweetners should not be encouraged in anyone's diet - let alone childrne.

I was winding MP up

have just spoken to my GP aboutdd having stomach pains due to lack of food

she was quite incensed

she said she would see her and offer me advice that would "get the school to back off"

to oliveoil

So where does the FSA say artificial sweeteners are a recommended food? I eat low fat yogurt. It contains... wait for it.... yogurt made with lower fat content milk. I don't buy things with crap in them, it's not compulsary is it? But I am lucky enough to have two energetic healthy children, who generally eat what they are given (although with dd it's not as wide a range of food as I would like). ds who is a very good eater, would still prefer to have dairylee lunchables, just like his best friend. Studies consistently show that many overweight adults were overweight as children. It is not good for kids to have a poor diet, and encouraging children to eat less processed/high fat/high sugar/high salt food is not going to lead to them suffering from malnutition.

when does she start full days?

dd1 quite often doens't have her fruit snack so has lunch at midday so she may be hungry as well

Well MorningPaper, seems you are on the way to get some results?

(as an aside, I wonder how long it'll be before there's a Weight watchers after school club... )

Apparently it is to do with the glaze or something, I didn't really pay that much attention tbh.

DS would have eaten everything of the oatcakes list except cherry tomatoes and chutney. Today he is having a packed lunch on a school trip. It is:

tuna on brown roll
babybel
cucumber slices
banana
frube
homemade orange and choc chip biscuit

I assume this is OK - not really sure what the rules are on packed lunches, because I am with bundle:
"thank god for school dinners"

DS is always really pleased with his puddings and comes home gloating to DH that they had treacle sponge and custard, or apple crumble and custard.

bozza

every time dd1 asks me about packed lunches I say: you don't get custard/ice cream you know and she scuttles back off to the weekly fish/chips

I dont think its wrong to reward a child for having a healthy luch box, it would be very wrong to penalise them for having unhealthy lunch boxes though.

Not getting a sticker for having an apple pie is ridiculous though tbh.

DS isnt allowed to take in fruit juice either but as RnB said the flavoured water is allowed just because it looks like water doesnt make it healthy!

Completely agree about the potential hypocrisy aspect though regarding school dinners. And the flexibility for children who have special dietary needs. If my ds ate school dinners he would be hungry all afternoon too, as ours just aren't big enough for his very large appetite (and he is stick thin btw).

Don't get me wrong Tiramisu, I don't want to cause a big battle with the school - I think it's great that they provide fruit and milk for children. But it isn't great that childrne who WON'T eat that have to have NOTHING as an alternative. I just don't want her to have chest and stomach pains every day.

Not artificial sweetners (on the FSA lunchbox list) but lots of low-fat products.

These are generally more 'processed' than the full fat version and have more thickeners etc etc in them. Mini blueberry muffins are also in the FSA list - many commercial muffins are chokker with hydrogenated fat and sweeteners.

Thos menus presume a high degree of preparation - rice and salmon salad, etc etc!

And - why all this fuss about packed lunches when school dinners routinely have sponge, fruit pies, ice cream etc as puddings??

I don't see any penalisation going on here. My ds sits a spelling test today. If he gets them all right he will get a sticker. If he gets one wrong he won't. I don't see him being penalised for "getting one wrong" if he doesn't get a sticker. In fact as he hates learning his spelling the sticker is obviously not enough of a reward (last term I tried bribing him with money, but is still dind't work!). Surely this is a reward system not a penalty system?

No MorningPaper it was a truly happy smil, not a sarcastic one, there should be alternatives. Schools should recognise that children are different, and be prepared to find a suitable solution with the parent.

I think that's the biggest deal with healthy eating, the fact that you actually have to make things, rather than buying them from a shop. And that's probably where a lot of the obesity issues spring from. The range of ready made food now available in shops, most of which, as you say is full of horrible rubbish. If you buy healthier options (and I mean really healthier, not labelled as such) then they tend to be more expensive. The biggest difference between our diets as children and our childrens (generalising here of course) is probably that we ate far more home prepared food, with much simpler ingrediants (after all you can't actually buy half the things that are in many processed foods).

Your DS learning his spellings it not the same as the OP deciding to allow her DD to have an apple pie after eating all her lunch, the rest of which was very sensible.

I think it is wrong for schools to reward children for having healthy food. It makes it into a competition for children who have no say in it.

Well my children refused to eat tea last night and I decided to play hardball & only let them have fruit, this morning they ate the cereal, which they usualy leave, with great enthusiasm.

I put my hands up and say im as guilty as the next person for giving my children what they want rather than what they should have - this is a luxury we didnt have when we were younger. I have decided its time to find a happy medium, in other words they can have the treats when they have eaten what they need to - of course I dont phrase it like that!

This is ridiculous - what on earth gives the school the right to sit in judgement on what is in a small child's lunchbox. I know that schools come up with ridiculous, hairbrained ideas sometimes, but the person who thought that it would be a good idea to rifle through decreeing good (here's your certificate) or bad (you are unhealthy, that's BAD for you) is mad.

Oliveoil - I wouldn't give children hula hoops because they have lots of monosodium glutamate in them, which is v bad (I think it has health warnings in France and Australia because of links to cancer etc).

I don't think people are aware enough of how bad for them msg is; it seems to be in so many foods.

well they are my bribe round Tesco's so I will have to balance that with my sanity tbh