To think it’s a bit unreasonable that children have to have fruit for school snack.

[MyLittleLove1]

DD’s school have sent a reminder that parents must send their children to school with a fruit snack for morning break. They will not be allowed to have anything else. This is to encourage healthy eating. I do understand this, but my daughter has breakfast at 7 as she is starving when she wakes up, and feel that a piece of fruit isn’t really that substantial for a snack. She would normally have fruit and a snack like some malt loaf. I feel a little against this also because there is so much to having a healthy diet. Many foods are healthy and make a great, filling snack. Why are we being policed on this? Or am I BU?

Give her a snack to eat on the way to school?

It sounds as though your daughter has a good diet, instigated by home life.

but many children don’t have that. So by having an all fruit rule, it is a very small step in introducing good nutrition.

Why not send a small banana which is quite filling? And make sure her breakfast is good and filling, perhaps porridge. And then a good lunch which will keep her going.

I wish our school would do this! I give my kids healthy options but some other parents give their kids a full pack of haribo so I get a loooot of moaning. I do get your point though - can she have more than one piece of fruit? Take a snack to eat on way to school so she’s a bit more satisfied in the morning?

Little snack on the way in (flapjacks type thing) then a banana plus otter fruit for break. Bananas are really filling.

She doesn’t even need a snack - it’s good to let kids learn feelings of hunger

franky having a piece of fruit is fantastic and something I wish my kids’ schools had enforced

It's probably the easiest thing for the school to do. Your malt loaf will be someone else's chocolate brownie or mars bar. Fruit is fruit...and it doesn't need to be refrigerated

Agreed, it excludes children with SEN who won’t touch fruit. My DS will eat things like bear yo-yos which are 100% fruit but because of sugar content people lose their minds. He wouldn’t touch a piece of fruit if it was a choice between that or starvation. He has autism.

Assuming breakfast is eaten between 7:30 and 8, and lunch is at 12-1, fruit should be a perfectly substantial snack.

It’s a great idea - it should be the norm. Give her 2 pieces of fruit. She really ‘starves’ in between breakfast and lunch if she only has fruit??

I'm glad that they are more relaxed with it at my sons school, he eats a limited diet and fruit only would limit him even more.

She will do fine. Go with the flow.

Snack on the way to school or make her breakfast more filling eg add nuts/peanut butter/eggs.

I find just adding nuts or sunflower seeds to cereal or yoghurt fills me up more.

Fruit at break is fine, most schools have lunch at 12 anyway.

Exactly. Fruit is an easy rule to follow and enforce. Otherwise they have to define what is 'healthy' which is quite subjective. And if you allow non fruit some parents will send in chocolate or sweets.

I know it can be a lot to read full threads but this information is less than half way down the OP’s first post. She has breakfast at 7 and most dc would certainly be hungry with just a fruit snack. Most fruits high in sugar and not ideal as a filling snack

It's a bit of a blunt tool, I agree.

The problem is that we have to have some rules in lace otherwise children bring in two doughnuts (or more - I've seen more) or grab bags of crisps for break. Some children come out onto the playground with arms full of food at breaktime, which is only an hour and a half before lunch.

My school doesn't insist on fruit. It's suggested but as long as its 'healthy' it's fine (but I'll admit, the inclusion of fruit winders in that leaves me a bit ).

What would you prefer to send her in with?

God knows how we made it through the school day! Snacks weren't an option.

Being hungry isn't a bad thing, but a good breakfast with protein, and a piece of fruit mid morning should get her to lunch with no problems.

What does she have for breakfast?

My DS won't touch fruit either. No SEN or autism. Cannot stand fleshy seeded stuff including tomatoes.
He will eat any and all veg at 18 and is 6ft tall and well built! So it's done him no harm.
Healthy snack of course that's a good rule. Insisting it has to be fruit specifically. Nope

Would they allow dried apricots? A handful of those is quite substantial. I don't bkame the school, the staff can't be expected to tell at a glane the difference between child across the room eating a healthy low-sugar piece of allbran fruitcake vs a chocolate bar, or to make a judgement call on where the boundary lies, but you can tell at a glance whether something is fruit.

If your DD is ravenous at 6:00 perhaps supper needs to be a bit more substantial, and it's ok to have "second breakfast" as something oaty like a flapjack just before going into school a couple of hours later to keep her going.

Can you send in some plain milk too? A glass of milk fills mine up

GC school enforced healthy fruit options too. Means children stick to healthy options. Why not give two pieces of fruit. When I put my GC out for school I let them help make a fruit salad with the fruits they like. Blueberry strawberry clementine etc. they enjoy making it and always eat it at school.

Trouble is as soon as you deviate from 'fruit or nothing' some parents will always just send in what they can arsed to grab out if the cupboard please.

Then you're into drawing up guidelines, sending out guidelines, people wanting to move the goal posts, teachers and TAs having to watch the kids, notice who's regularly deviating from guidelines, record it, speak to parents get moaned at watch to see if they take note, record it, speak again , and again and again .....

Over how many classes? How many staff hours is that going to take up?

If her breakfast is only sustaining her for 3 hours, she needs a bigger breakfast imo
Fruit as a snack seems perfectly reasonable mid morning
Like another poster mentioned, hunger is not a bad thing- it’s a normal response in advance of a meal. Surely the goal is not to feed our kids so regularly that they rarely feel hunger? They trend towards grazing every two hours doesn’t seem a very good idea for long term health and weight control to me 🤷‍♀️

My three year olds nursery does milk and fruit only, two things she doesn’t touch. She doesn’t starve but she does miss out on snack time every day.

It’s a great idea in theory but not for every child.

I'm 35 and had a morning snack at school. Infants were fruit & milk and moving to juniors was a big deal to us children because we were allowed to eat snacks other than fruit at morning break.

Our GC get milk daily at school. Parents pay a small fee it’s something like 6 pence daily, so this school seems lucky to get this.