Juice in school

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My DD’s teacher is being very combative about her taking juice to school (primary) in a clear drinking bottle. He says it’s against school healthy eating standards, but if she brings it in a non clear bottle it’s fine! She brings a very healthy lunch and has perfect teeth. She is also very sporty . She point blank refuses to drink water. Yet others in her class bring crisps and chocolate and nothing is said .
AIBU to stick with the (new) clear bottle?
i dislike petty rules that have no bearing on her education ! Especially when the rules are not enforced for others !

Because parents aren't bloody parenting!!

The shit choices that parents make cause physical harm to their children and end up costing the taxpayer £££ in dentist and medical bills!

This nation is fat and unhealthy!

Something has to give and prevention is imminently cheaper than cure!

Most hilarious thing is, a huge amount of teens are sneaking in much worse drinks to secondary. I know a teacher who’s having a hell of a time banning energy drinks from his school. Beyond primary school these ‘my little darling will drink their water perfectly well’ are spending all their spare change chugging Monster and Prime on their way to school (awaits the ‘my kid would never’ comments…).

this exactly. send her with water.
if she doesn't drink it at school, she can drink it home. if water is the only option, she will drink it.

its really not that difficult, if she's gotten to the point where she won't she needs to be encouraged by removing the temptation

Possible silly question, but when you say juice do you mean actually mean, for example, orange juice freshly squeezed (or from concentrate) or cordial.

If the latter, and it's cordial, give her something like elderflower.

What do you want to happen? The rule to be changed or to be enforced. The rules sound quite lax if they're turning a blind eye to forbidden snacks, and juice.

I agree with others that it's not about sneakiness' but not wanting a whole class of children to spot it and start doing the same.

The no juice rule is pretty standard in primary. You may disagree with the rule, but it's a rule nonetheless. Also, stop worrying about what other parents can/ cannot get away with. The teacher is holding out a compromise to you. Take it graciously, get an opaque bottle and put juice in it. Schools are actually very good at working with parents, if the parents work with them. And I say this as the parent of an autistic daughter who has a hard time with quite a lot of things and who has to frequently work with the school to resolve various uniform related issues. If all I had to contend with was buying an opaque bottle to put juice in, I'd consider myself on Easy Street.

My tap water isn't good to drink. It lacks electrolytes and leaves me still thirsty

Are you having a laugh? You're blaming the teacher for teaching your child to 'bend the rules'. YOU are the problem, not the teacher! The teacher is compromising because if they didn't then people like you would kick up royal stink that their precious baby would instantly perish if only allowed water all day!

Jesus, this kinds of backwards thinking is painful to witness!

But you’re making it everyone’s business by posting here 🤨
You’re making a mountain out of a molehill, you could probably start a fight in an empty room I think.

No. YOU are teaching your child that it’s ok to bend rules by allowing her to have juice when the school have a water only rule. The teacher is trying to be flexible and sensible as you are adamant that your child will ONLY ever drink juice (unless there are SEN, she wont). So either accept the compromise the teacher is making, or die on this hill and always be known as “ that” parent. I will never understand people like you who are absolutely always looking for an issue when there isn’t one, so unnecessarily confrontational and expect everyone and everything to bend to your wants.

God no wonder teachers are leaving in droves!

My children's school has a blanket ban on juice, it's plain water only in water bottles. We've got around this by using flavoured water as my youngest two don't like plain water - the school are non the wiser.

I'm a 70's child so I was mostly given milk. Tap water tastes 'metaly' to me. Bottled water is better.

OP’s quote - it’s not about the juice , it’s about a teacher teaching my child it’s okay to bend rules as long as no one knows about it . She is an anxious child and she doesn’t want to be doing something she shouldn’t do 🥂. It has never been an issue before but this year it seems to be a problem.
So instead you tell your child it’s ok to bend the rules in plain sight? Your child doesn’t want to do something she shouldn’t do? Yet she takes juice despite knowing she shouldn’t do this? Yeh I can see why she’s anxious tbh. 🤔

+1000.

You think energy drinks are bad, DD told me kids are bringing alcohol in reusable water bottles at her school!

It sounds like the teacher has tried to be kind and rightly or wrongly make an exception for your daughter - based on what you have told them about her not drinking water. It’s pretty shitty of you to then make fuss as thanks. It’s not clear from your posts if your daughter doesn’t drink water due to SEN or just questionable parenting - but either way surely you can frame it in an age appropriate way for her level of understanding - or give her water! She may be sporty but over 1/3 of kids are overweight when they finish primary school and nearly 2/3 of adults. Sugary drinks are a huge cause of this and make up over 1/4 the total calories for teenagers diets. You can undermine the rules for your own daughter but they’re perfectly reasonable not to want you to undermine them for all the other kids.

God no wonder teachers are leaving in droves!

You are extremely naive if you think pigheaded parents are even on the radar of why teachers are leaving in droves. SLT making pedantic rules and leaving boots-on-ground teachers and TAs doesn’t help, but teaching is in crisis for much bigger reasons. There will always be parents who seem ‘difficult’ but don’t undermine the actual hell the education system is in because of water bottle arguments. It doesn’t even register compared to the real issues being swept under the carpet.

That's nonsense. You get minerals and electrolytes from food.

or juice

Adding a slice of lemon, cucumber, or tiny amount of salt to your tap water can easily sort out any electrolyte imbalance.

Dosing it with squash may provide a small amount of electrolytes but the cost is a high dose of sugar.

Doesn’t shock me in the slightest. I know of a school who had to remove the entrance doors to the toilets because of all the alcohol and weed smoking going on in there. Can’t expel the kids so everyone has to suffer. Teachers losing their lunch breaks to be on constant patrol. Letting them have juice in primary is the least of the worries.

No one needs added electrolytes, unless they are doing extremely intense exercise, or are in very hot conditions. It's mostly a marketing gimmick.

And that's the issue and why schools have these rules because parents are not doing enough to keep their children healthy. The rise in childhood obesity and poor dental hygiene are the reasons for these rules. I have been teaching for over ten years and at every single yearly dental check at least a quarter of the kids have come back with slips saying they need urgent dental care. It's closer to 40% in recent years. Last year over half my class of year 6 had it. That's their adult teeth, they are year 6 and still don't know basic hygiene. That would be the reason for the only water rule.

And I know very well it is not all parents but it is enough that schools have to take these measures. Even the fact that OP is saying her 6 yr old refuses to drink water is and the problem is the schools rule not allowing juice! No the reason is the OP let's her child only drink juice. A PP said her 2.5 year old only drinks juice!! That only happened because she gives them it. They introduced them to it and then when the child said 'no I don't want plain water I want the sweet sugary juice,' the parents just let them. That's the reason schools have to eve think about these 'inconsequential' things because parents are not

You probably aren't actually thirsty. You ate probably looking for the "reward" of the sugar taste.

Maybe a full water bottle come back still full, as it’s 12 degrees, and nobody really needs to keep on drinking all day.

its a wonder we survived in the 70s & 80s with no drink available at all times

along with diabetes. An average glass of squash has 3 teaspoons of sugar in and recommended daily consumption for women (not children) is 6 teaspoons.