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........

tosleep...actually, I meant the very large number of parents that used to or possibly still do this at my ds's school....because we live ina deprived area, I assume it's not uncommon...however, I do believe it's a bit of a cop out...surely seasonal fruit and vegetables, and yoghurts, and wholemealbread, instead of white (not sure what you are using) or a soup or salad, etc...do not blow the budget....especially if you maybe stop buying crap things like crisp and chocolates in the first place...I mean, they are not exactly that cheap...
We are not well off, by any means...better then a lot here in the area, I suppose, but that doesn't really actually mean anything...iykwim.
Obviously it's great you ensure that they have healthy foods otherwise, the parents I was talking about, well, they usually , generally really just provide this sort of crap food all the time, so, those Kids really do go without the things they vitally need to grow up strong and healthy.

i buy fruit, yoghurts etc and this is usually kept for a treat after a finished tea.

They will have sweets maybe once or on very rare ocassion twice a week.

If i were to change everything in their lunchboxes from...

Sandwiches of ham salad, cheese salad.
A penguin bar or something similar.
A packet of crisps.
A flask of orange squash.

To...

A sandwich of ham or cheese on wholemeal bread (ok not so much different)
A yoghurt (they sometimes have) but 3x5=15 yoghurts a week plus more for treats, they arent exactly cheap!
Pieces of fruit which can work out to be quite expensive as again 3x15 plus more for treats.
and then the pure fruit juice they want ie orange juice, apple juice.

When i do buy this i do not buy the cheap version as it is very very sour so its around 1.50 a litre? To fill their flasks again will cost a bomb. On top of everything else that needs to be paid out i will be looking to spend out another 10 or so pounds per week which i really cannot afford!

It was different when my dp was in work but when he lost his job our income was cut to the humoungous sum of £140 per week to pay all the bills get food etc etc.

As i say given the circumstances I do try my hardest to provide for them as their health is obviously very important to me!

would your children eat carrot sticks and cucumber sticks, or celery...that might be a good option, and especially carrots are really cheap...as for Yoghurts...maybe not teh Kids yoghurts, but the ordinary ones, mihgt be a good and cheap option?
Saying that, I have no idea how people survive on that little money....and you are obviously giving them, all in all a good range of foods....but, I really do know many parents that don't...iykwim...and sometimes I wonder, because those parents tend to be tose that buy everything at the more expensive cornershop...rather buying in bulk in a supermarket or from the market...so, to those parents , I think it would work out cheaper if they did it correctly...

Must say....when es started school, I was told, that for snacktime, he wasn't allowed plain bikkies, likea couple of digestives....but they were allowed crisp.... to me that really didn't make sense at all...

my ds would eat carrot sticks but dds wont, Myself personally though being a fruit and veg hater lol dont see how they could get filled up by stuff like that

Why couldnt they just leave it all be instead of putting familys in such a challenging situation!

DD came home the one day and said such and such has babybell and cheesestrings and yogurt things in long packets etc can i have them please mum Even if i could afford them i wouldnt buy them but it makes my heart sink when they cant be given such things

Would like to remark here that my ds is a great lover of raw carrot and other veg, apples, pears etc but doesn't want to eat them at lunch. He can eat 3 or 4 fruits after school sometimes, but if I put an apple in his lunchbox it comes home with him. Same for cake or biscuit type things. It's not that he doesn't like it, but at lunchtime he wants to wolf down his sandwich and go straight out to play.

I think it's wrong to prescribe too minutely what they have, as different children have different needs.

I asked DD (4, just started reception) today what were good healthy foods

"Fruit, vegetables"

What are bad foods...?

"Berries"

?

"You mustn't eat berries, they make you poorly. Or leaves"

Penny drops So she hasn't absorbed any sugar/fats info yet!

lol....she must have been on our walk yesterday ( volunteered to go for a little walk around a country park wiht my ms reception class....) because the teacher was very adament to point out that the Kids mustn't touch any of the berries and certainly not eat them, because they could hurt them....lets hope none of the Kids there now htink the same applies to strawberries et al

Iliketosleep (great name btw!)

you said 'Why couldnt they just leave it all be instead of putting familys in such a challenging situation! '

Sadly schools can leave it alone, hpoeing that parents will do the right things, because sadly, many parents don't do the right thing.

Sometimes because they are dysfunctional, sometimes they simply don't know themselves, and sometimes thay just don't care.

I well remember teaching this topic to year 8 (12-13 year olds) and one girl, with florid gum disease told me that her diet was 'good miss' because, 'My mum buys me Sunny D to drink'

ah yes, sunny d's lol i used to love them

I can understand it for a 12-13 year old but my eldest is only 7 and my youngest is only 4. I think you are right there are some parents out there that dont give a shit but when all the competetivness of "well i give my childen...." begins its just not fair.

As i have mentioned i am not as well off as some people and cannot afford to fill my kids lunchboxes full of organic this that and the other, but i do make sure they have a sensible diet. I might be talking gobbledigook but i know what i mean lol!!

Also ive heard that the acid in fruit can damage teeth if fruit is eatten to much? Im not sure though

I dont know alot today, im quite compas mentos
oh and im terrible at spelling, have to type quick or twhat im thinking goes out of my head!

I don't think that schools do promote organic food tho, do they? They promote eating 5 a day of fruit and veg, that sort of thing.

Now granted, it needs to be done in a sensible and tactful way, but if you leave it to age 13 the kids eating habits are already entreched and you have one hell of a job shifting them.

The standard breakfast for lots of our kids in a mars bar and a can of coke.

Some kids drinkso much red bull they are off their faces. It is quite horrific.

I've seen kids sit down to a packed meal of 3 chocolate bards and two packets of crisps, washed down by a coke. you should try teaching them after that!

I don't think that n the nice, safe, caring world of MN (and I'm not being sarcastic), some people don't realise quite how dreaful some kids diets are.

I've taught kids of 14-16 who cannot eat with a knofe and fork, becaus they only ever eat junk food with their hands.

I wish that we didn;'t have to teach this stuff. I would much rather that parents did it. But some parents can't. And if they can't, then the school have to do it.

that would be chocolate bars not chocolate bards! LOL. I can't spell or type either!

Actually, I wouldn't mind a chocolate bard

quite Music and something good to nibble on!

I cannot eat with a knofe and fork

and I can't type. and I don't get wound up when people point it out.

Can you really not eat with a knife and fork?

I think the upper classes often eat with a knofe and fork.

I hope that DD actually uses the cutlery at school when she starts having lunches - she can do it, does it out for meals, in front of DH's parents etc, but at home she seems to want to opt for fingers

I eat chocolate bards with a knofe. All the other junk food with my fingers.
Good practice for when they are older and eating lunch over their computers I suppose.

It is quite sad to see some of these children eat. They have no table manners at all, have no concept of the normal polite behaviour that makes eating a more pleasurable experience. And their food choices are often very poor.

A secondary school near to us has started taking some of the children to lunch early, as part of a nurture scheme. They teach them how to sit and eat, to pass food to each other, and to chat in a normal way.They also make sure that they eat a reasonable hot meal in the middle of the day. They have seen significant improvements in the children's behaviour in and out of the dinning room.

We have students who would benefit from this sort of help.

Actually MB this is one of my bugbears with schools, they don't give children enough time to eat in a civilised fashion. They're encouraged to wolf down their food and rush outside to play.

I think how we eat is almost as important as what we eat, in establishing good eating habits. That thing of sitting down nicely, rather than lolling in front of the TV while grazing, should apply to school as much as home. But I suppose they'd have to cut play time, or lesson time, or extend the school day to deal with giving children a good amount of time to eat.

I hate bad table manners. It's one of my real bugbears. And I have to confess that even my DCs who eat at least one meal a day at a table (with or without parents) and proper knives and forks, still have a tendancy to try to pick things up with their fingers and eat with their mouths open . It's a constant battle to remind them. However it has paid off when we go somewhere it really matters. I wonder if it is because they spend a lot of time with other kids who simply never get told how to behave when eating.

yes not being able to eat with a knofe and fork is not good, i give my 4 year old a knife to practise with (newly sharpened carving knife) and he either sits for around half an hour trying to cut his chicken on his own or he amnages and shoots said chicken across the room often into the greedy cats mouth! but he tries bless him

Moons ago when we were little we had proper crockery, cutlery and pudding bowls and glasses for lunches. Now they seem to have plastic prison trays and blunt cutlery. Not a good start.

We had that too hathor. Everyone sat at tables of 10, a prefect at the end to serve the food and everyone had to pass plates down and then help each other to vegetables and water etc. And help pile the plates up at the end.

But that was a private girls school in the 70s

LB

you said,
'I think how we eat is almost as important as what we eat, in establishing good eating habits.'

Agree 100%.

Sadly we don't have a lunch hall large enough for all the children to sit down to eat (1300 in the school). Staggered lunchtimes would help, but they would be a devil to timetable, and still allow the staff a lunch break too!

Lunch is a 45 minute break, which isn't ideal.

We do have good school meals provided, and we also have a breakfast club, which offers ceriels for 60p, toast etc for 30p. And still some of the kids but sweets etc for breakfast from the local shops. It is such a shame.

And to be fair to the children, and their families, we have not been teaching good food in schools in helpful, appropriate ways for many years.