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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think pupils shouldn't have to go without food for 5 hours!!!

111 replies

karise · 08/12/2008 09:22

Just dropped DD off at school. They have a school trip today & we were told to take everything back home with us except their lunchbox & waterbottle!
AIBU to think that it is important for 4 & 5 year olds to be allowed to take a snack if they aren't due back to school for lunch until 1pm?
I just thank God there are no diabetic's in DD's class

OP posts:
TinselBaublesMistletoe · 08/12/2008 19:13

I agree with LittleJingleBellas. My friend is a lifeguard and he calls it camel mode.

As adults we eat whenever we feel like it - if you go past the four hours it takes to digest food without eating that's still your choice - but we expect children to eat when we say they can. I think there is a lot of this going on and not just food! I never restrict what Tink eats and she is very good at balancing her food, she asks for something when she is hungry, often fruit or yoghurt, she occasionally has chocolate but she doesn't ask for it that often, and will drink when she is thirsty. Not enough trusting children to know their own bodies, I'm sure it's the start of the problems Paul McKenna's diet helps address.

nooka · 08/12/2008 19:16

No one is saying that this will kill their child. I don't see why concern can't be expressed when the situation is less than deadly. Not being allowed to eat or drink anything between 7.30ish and 1pm (assuming the bus doesn't get stuck in traffic) is hardly optimal though is it. I don't think it sounds as if this trip has been well planned. And these are reception children, so pretty little to be "learning about hunger".

piscesmoon · 08/12/2008 19:24

If children were trusted to know their own bodies there wouldn't be a problem with childhood obesity.

shouldbeironing · 08/12/2008 19:25

I was a helper on a reception trip with this type of regime. It was not fun for me at all to have the children totally disinterested in what we were looking at and asking "when is it lunchtime" every few minutes from about 10am onwards. Sure they survived - but do you know what - they didnt enjoy it as they were hungry and thirsty.

I also know (from my own child and talking to other parents) that as it was their first ever school trip they had been awake early with excitement and some of them had been too excited to eat as much breakfast as usual.

So IMO YANBU.

nickytinseltimes · 08/12/2008 19:28

Had to go away earlier.

Littlejinglebells - it is a common misconception that you will become dehydrated if you do not continually sip at water. You need 2 litres of FLUID a day and most of that can be provided by food.

This shite about bloody access to water has fuelled our obsession with bottled and filtered water.

If you want to know what real dehydration is then go to an impovirished country where people have no access to clean fresh drinking water.

Bloody soft bastard westerners whinging about nothing again.

(obviously, people with certain mediacl conditions are excempt from the above description!)

Oh, and many adults do not have constant access to drinking water all day - have you never worked in a shop? You can work up to 6 hours before being entitled to a break and your employer is under no obligation to allow you off the shop floor.

ra29 · 08/12/2008 19:28

It's amazing how judgemental and worked up people get about eating. Think it's sad and part and parcel of the fact that we are such an eating disordered society. Children do not all have the same eating patterns and habits, some need to eat more regularly than others. It's amazing that OPs concern causes such an outcry of moral panic from everyone else. Think that is worrying really...

pointydog · 08/12/2008 19:28

They do not need a snack. Sometimes it is not possible to stop somewhere suitable for a snakc while on a trip.

What on earth makes you think the school would not look after a diabetic child properly? How ridiculous.

TinselBaublesMistletoe · 08/12/2008 19:28

But allowing them to trust their bodies starts from birth. How many parents put their children on a schedule for feeding from the start? Or twirl a bottle to get the last bit out (not talking about what's in it because it doesn't matter)? Or don't let their baby use them for a "human dummy"? Then we get to weaning, playing airplanes and scraping food from off their mouth to put it. Our toddlers we bargain with "One more mouthful" or "No desert unless you eat it all up". Who can seriously expect their children to know their own appetite when they get to school when they've had 4+ years of that?

pointydog · 08/12/2008 19:30

and teh adults who can't survive without food every couple of hours - must have severely affected your job choices.

nickytinseltimes · 08/12/2008 19:32

Exactly pointydog.

pointydog · 08/12/2008 19:34

Food and drink is banned on all coaches in my area now. So if the venue also bans food and drink and if the weather's not suitable, you;ve had it.

Let's forget about the trips.

piscesmoon · 08/12/2008 19:35

Children of that age ask when it is lunchtime even when they have had a snack! The day is long-they also say 'have I had my dinner?'. It is all pretty meaningless.

Children will eat all the wrong things-given the chance, even if trained from birth. Parents who happily say 'my little DC prefers a raw carrot to a biscuit' don't see their DC when they are not around!!

TinselBaublesMistletoe · 08/12/2008 19:53

I might not see my daughter when I'm not around, but she's never on her own! She knows she can have what she asks for, but she mostly asks for bananas, grapes and yoghurt's. If I help her to look in the fridge she'll look past the chocolate and choose something else.

There's been studies done on children's eating habits. Once a child knows nothing is restricted then they will eat properly (to be basic). I do wonder how many people can honestly say they've followed a child's appetite from birth?

Mercy · 08/12/2008 19:57

Wow, some angry responses here.

It's a fact that i can't go more than 3/4 hours without eating something. If I don't I get shaky and light headed/stars in my eyes. Yes, lucky old me I worked in an office so I could eat at my desk.

Afaik the law in this country is that no adult should work longer than 5 hours without a break.

But we are not talking about adults but 4 and 5 year olds whose parents weren't forewarned.

And obviously we are not poor or starving in this country.

It's about lack of regard for young children most likely on their first school trip
(and for their parents too tbh)

piscesmoon · 08/12/2008 19:59

I have seen many a child who is very two faced on food. I was laughing with friends only yesterday, about a brother and sister who used to pester other DCs for their sweets, the official line to Mum was that they didn't like sweets, and she believed it! She was well known for saying that her DCs only asked for fruit and no one liked to enlighten her!

meglet · 08/12/2008 20:08

YANBU. I wouldn't be able to go that long without a snack. FWIW I eat between meals and have been a size 8/10 all my life. If I don't eat something every 2 hours or so I get shaky and crabby. I wouldn't expect an active child to last 5 hours at all.

nooka · 08/12/2008 20:24

I've never found it restricted my career or any other choices. I bring my own lunch to work, and carry snacks (fruit, cereal bars etc) and a bottle of (tap) water. I get quite woozy if I haven't eaten (enough to have to sit down with my head between my legs). My mother made sure I had a snack at secondary school (I don't think it was an issue at primary) because I fainted a few times, and as a teenager/young adult I always carried glucose just in case.

My children are as liable as anyone else's to ask for unsuitable food if they think they will get away with it, but as a family we know that we all function much better if we eat every two-three hours, and drink frequently. I've spent enough time with my son to observe that he gets cranky if time slips by and his energy dissipates. If it's cold he is also liable to get pale and wan. When we eat and drink properly we have a lot more energy and are nicer to be around. We are all thin and active.

Also as an adult I have learnt to eat when I feel hungry (one of the reasons I used to get dizzy is because I have a tendency to ignore being hungry). I think it is rather unfair how much time adults spend telling their children they can't have things, when they themselves can and do help themselves when they feel hungry or thirsty.

noonar · 08/12/2008 20:33

i have read and re read the OP but am confused . surely if they were keeping the lunch boxes and bottles with them, then they would have access to a snack.

sorry, i'm clearly the only one confused by this.

i couldnt possibly last 5 hours without a drink without feeling awful.

rachels103 · 08/12/2008 20:35

They will probably be so busy on the school trip that they won't even notice! The school may well be taking fruit but if not then the children will survive.
I'm sure the teachers aren't being deliberately obstinate about this, but as piscesmoon said, think of the logistics. If you are out and about with your child you only have them to think about. The teachers will have plenty to do without looking after and dishing out snacks. That's if there is even enough time and a place to eat them.

MrsSnape · 08/12/2008 20:35

Kids eat too much as it is

blueshoes · 08/12/2008 20:44

When I attend day long or half day seminars, there is always a morning coffee break and afternoon tea break built into the schedule on top of lunch. This is for adults. Not more than 1.5 to 2 hours between refreshments. Very civilised.

nooka · 08/12/2008 20:45

The OP clarified that the lunchbox and water bottles stayed at school. I can't see why in a four hour trip 15 mins cannot be taken out for a drink and snack. I think most teachers are more than capable of organising that (after ll they do it every day in the classroom, and there will be lots of helpers on the trip), and most places that welcome school groups have rooms for eating lunch, that could presumably be used for a snack.

OnceAPillockNowAnAngel · 08/12/2008 20:56

But you haven't actually confirmed with the school that they didn't take the snack and milk that Reception class get, have you?
I know if I ask my 5yr old he frequently tells me daddy didn't give him lunch because he's complete;y forgotten it. And just because they didn't take lunchboxes/water bottles which would have given more to carry does not mean the school did not give them a snack or a drink. I wouldn't trust a 5yr old to remember what they were given over 6 hours after returning from the trip and having had lunch and afternoon at school in between times.

LittleJingleBellas · 08/12/2008 21:00

nicky you sound mad

I think they should make the kids do the trip without shoes.

After all, in many countries children don't have shoes.

Soft western bastards.

Loon.

LittleJingleBellas · 08/12/2008 21:03

oh and the reason the govt is promoting regular water drinking by children in schools (because they often forget to drink when they are too busy running around) is because research has shown that children behave better and concentrate more in class and get better results and are less likely to wet the bed. The govt aren't doing this because they've got a sudden bee in their bonnet and have decided to waste thousands of pounds on plastic bottles for a larf, they're doing it because it gives good outcomes.