To agree with the new guidance in Scotland to ban cake at nursery?

[AmericanMummmy]

The new guidelines from the Scottish government are effective today (1st August) - among other food restrictions, cake should not be brought into nursery to celebrate a child’s birthday (or any other reason). The goal is to fight childhood obesity and promote healthy eating.

I’m totally in favour of this and don’t understand the backlash! Everything I read on this topic is about parents and staff thinking it’s a huge overstep and sapping all the fun out of life, like kids need cake to be happy. If parents want to feed their child cake outside of nursery, that’s completely their choice, but why does it need to be at nursery too? I allow my 3 year old to have sweet treats on occasion (such as birthday parties or holidays/weekend activities), but it drives me nuts when he’s being offered cake at nursery (several times a month), and it’s always at pickup right before dinner time. They give him lollies on most days too from what he tells me, it’s just too much sugar!

Am I the only one who agrees with this guidance? Are there not other ways we can teach children to celebrate that don’t involve ultra processed sugary treats? No judgement to how people parent - and I love sugary treats myself- but I want to teach moderation and show that there are plenty of other ways to celebrate.

I would be more concerned about the nursery offering lollies regularly. Really bad for teeth and unnecessary.

Sharing birthday cake is traditional and social. I can't see the problem with nursery children having a few small slices a month. On the other hand, Scotland like other places has real child dental and obesity problems so perhaps birthday cake is best reserved for home and birthday parties and nurseries can celebrate birthdays in other ways. This also solves potential problems with cakes being brought in from home and possible allergy and dietary requirement issues.

You really cannot see that this is a step too far OP?

What business is it of the Scots government what a Scots parent feeds their child in a private nursery they pay for?

I'm all for healthy eating, but healthy eating is about balance, and having a small piece of cake to celebrate an event is surely a good way to teach that - we have cake when it's a special occasion, not every day.

Not to mention the issues around the government telling people what they can and cannot eat.

If they were dictating what children can eat in their own home, I’d see that as an overstep. But nurseries are regulated and for good reason. I certainly don’t think other children’s parents (who I may not even know) should decide what my children eat!

You might be very surprised be the rest of the guidance! 😬 The healthy eating guidance for Nurseries in Scotland is incredibly strict to the extent that when the children bake they should not even use honey or raisins for sweetness.

For me, the guidance makes sense that a lot of children have poor diets at home and should be offered the chance to explore healthy eating at Nursery. It stops making sense when it curtails learning experiences and hen they enter P1 they can eat yoghurt and chocolate filled pack lunches every day.

It's very specific as well. So no cake, but cookies, flapjacks, sweets etc are fine?

Banning cake, literally banning it by law seems ridiculous. It almost doesn't sound real.

Totally agree with moderation. But I don’t view every child’s birthday as a special occasion for my son. They stop being so special when they happen so frequently.

I can’t bring myself to feel strongly about this. We eat healthily at home, the nursery food is great, I can’t get worked up about a tiny slice of Colin after lunch once or twice a month or something. The Scottish Government would be better off tackling the proliferation and advertising of UPFs all over our supermarkets and the terrible home diets of many children.

Nurseries can continue to allow cake if they want. Mine did a parent engagement thing where everyone agreed that it’s ludicrous and wanted the nursery to continue as normal.

A child having a small piece of cake with their friends at nursery is absolutely fine.

Very odd that you didn't take issue with lollies being given most days at nursery before now though.

A small pice of cake o someone's birthday doesn't cause obesity (plus you can deny permission for your child to have it!)

Obesity is caused by stopping for sweets on the way home daily (I was the odd one when DD2 was at preschool because we only went once a week!), lack of exercise, over large portions etc.

I have DC in nursery in Scotland. I think it's ace - the nursery has been following the new guidelines for children's diets and although it was always pretty good, it's now much more varied and the children are being exposed to a wide range of different foods. They do still have cake, actually - ours never allowed cake to be brought in but they do baking as an activity with the children when someone has a birthday. They've just had to change their recipes to reduce sugar and make things like banana bread and scones instead.

When DS was at nursery, they had a policy whereby parents were told not to bring in cake for birthdays but, when it was a child’s birthday, they’d all bake a low sugar cake together as an activity. That seemed like a good compromise to me.

Agree with this.
Presumably kids in Scotland also have birthday parties, at which there will also be cake, as well as celebrating with their families.
It’s not like these kids are going to be deprived of the experience of ever eating birthday cake.

Meh! Let them eat cake 🤷‍♂️

It's not like they're making it a staple part of their nursery dinners.

We should remember that most (all?) nurseries have a way to inform the parents of what their child has had that day too. So if birthday cake shows up in the afternoon snack section, can people not just withhold their dessert that night at dinner, or skip the ice cream that weekend? Just make an adaption at home if you’re worried about the cake.

I honestly can’t find the will to get upset over it. If your child is a healthy weight, sees a dentist regularly, is sleeping ok, eats a range of foods and is following the growth curve, you’re fine.

They need to have heathy attitudes to foods and banning anything is wrong, IMO. I just teach my boy that some foods are healthier than others so we eat fruit/veggies lots, but only have a little bit of chocolate/cake.

Well it’s hard to take issue when they don’t tell you they’re doing it! My son only told me this week. And after being offered cake twice recently, I’m going to raise with the nursery manager.

Obesity is surely not caused by a few small pieces of cake at nursery. It’s caused largely by a crap diet at home, and not enough exercise.

I don't think it will impact on childhood obesity at all and just seems a killjoy.

My child's school (england) has preferences for what parents put into lunchboxes and I got a letter once saying piece of fruit for breaktime, no sweets/cake etc... but if children get hot school meals they regularly have cakey things for dessert which makes no sense to me. Better to sort that out than ban birthday cake.

I agree with it on the basis that my son has allergies. Not just for him but for the other children who would miss out too.

If I'm hosting anything or going anywhere, I always pack his foods that he can eat. Not all parents do.

Would it be fair to exclude some children due to no fault of their own if the cake wasn't allergy friendly?

I'm horrible and my children haven't even heard of pudding. And yes, I know they'll find out eventually.

Is it a dairy or gluten allergy?

I find that places are very often nut-free, but don’t really consider other allergies or intolerances.

Outrageous

there’s nothing wrong with cake we’ve had cake for 1000’s of years
it lack of exercise and portion control

Our nursery only allows lemonade iceblocks due to all the different dietary restrictions and kids fighting over colours. It's a killjoy, but admittedly much easier and cheaper for the parents and the kids don't care!

In reality, at school we would have birthday cake on average less than once every couple of weeks - there are 30 children in a class, some of those children’s birthdays will fall in the holidays, some children won’t bring cake so let’s assume 20 lots of cake over a 39 week school year.
Nurseries have fewer children than that in each room, my grandchildren have 14 in their rooms, so even fewer times birthday cake is brought in.
If you don’t want your Dc to have what would likely be a tiny piece of cake every once in a blue moon, then tell the nursery staff.