AIBU to think this WAS a healthy snack.

[Bathsheba]

DD1 is in Primary 1. Her school aren't very strict on Healthy Eating (not as hugely strict as some places I've heard about) but they do have healthy school dinners (which DD1 has 4 days out of 5) and they have the rule of "Healthy Snack on Wednesday".

DD1 has 2 teachers - 1 does Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and the 2nd does Wednesday - so she only ever sees DD1's snack on Healthy Snack day.

My conversation with DD1 this morning -

DD1 - Mummy, whats for snack today
Me - Its Apple and Blueberries Angel.
DD1 - Is that a Healthy Snack Mummy, because its healthy Snack day
Me - Yes Angel it is, but you always have a healthy snack...
DD1 - I didn't last week
Me (frantically wracking brains) - You did Angel - trust me you Always have a Healthy Snack...
DD1 - Well Mrs S said it wasn;t healthy - it was cheese and crackers and Mrs S said that wasn't a healthy snack.

Now, am I wrong in thinking that 2 crackers with some cheese on it is a healthy snack..?? Most days she has fruit, but soem other days she has a carbohydrate snack - crackers, or some home made banana bread. She NEVER, since she started, has had sweet biscuits, crisps or "sweeties" for her snack....although Mrs S never sees her on any day other than a Wednesday to know this.

DD1's memory is fairly rubbish so I can only think that Mrs S must had fairly obviously pointed out to her that her snack was unhealthy on Healthy Snack day for ehr to remeber it a week later...

Is it worth sending a wee note in her message book to say apologies for the confusion, I thought cheese and crackers was a healthy snack but I'll ensure now that she ONLY ever has fruit on a wednesday.

Why does that make a difference Bonsoir? Does your brain stop growing after reception? Children should not be fed a low fat diet and rigid rules about when they should have fat are ridiculous.

I am not looking forward to ds starting school
since when have carbohydrates been bad anyway? well unless you're following a fashionable diet from a few years ago (mad IMO)

and agree - it drive me mad when mum tells me something she's giving DS is healthy because it's low fat - I can count his ribs through his T shirt, limiting fat is not high on my list of priorities!!

I have not said that children need a low-fat diet. They need fat - but they need it properly incorporated within a balanced meal, unless they are underweight and need extra fat.

I wouldn't call it "healthy" but I wouldn't condemn it as unhealthy either.

Salt levels - too high probably;
saturated fat levels - too high definitely;
refined carbs - probably too high although the fat in the cheese would slow the absorption of sugar into the blood
If you had included an apple or some grapes with the snack it would have helped, I think - fruits contain potassium which balances the sodium in the salt, and also reduces the impact of the acidity of the fatty acids and amino acids that are the breakdown products of the fat and protein in the cheese (although the calcium in the cheese would also have some benefit here)

Although children do need fat, they don't need lots of saturated fat - they should have a combination of omega 3 and omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids, omega 9 fatty acids and some saturated fatty acids; and NO trans fats (which might have also been present in the cracker).

Does that help?

If a child has had wotsits and a fruit shoot for breakfast, chocolate biscuits and jam sandwiches for lunch then comes home from school and has 3 packets of fruit pastilles and another bag of wotsits for a snack and then sausage, chips, gravy and a regular coke for tea, then yes, cheese probably isn't the best snack that they could have.

But YANBU to give a child whose diet consists of items like Apple and Blueberry Angels a piece of cheese for a snack. My kids are buggers for drinking milk so I have to use cheese and yogurts as a source of calcium.

Don't apologise! Cheese and crackers is perfectly acceptable snack for a growing child. Our school is ver food-policish and even they wouldn't object to that!

thanks thumbwitch, it does actually. I'm struggling to get DS to eat, and have just realised myown diet is shocking - going to improve for both of us

OF COURSE its a healthy snack for a child fgs unless the child is grossly overweight and sits on its backside all day everyday in front of TV/computer with giant bags of crisps and sweets!!!

I sent my ds in with a home made cinnamon and raisin muffin the other day and he told me it had caused from the food gestapo.
He is an active, busy , slim growing boy.

LOL Riven! Me Too!

SPB you might like this book - it's a very easy read and full of useful and practical info

You should all move to Singapore! Here, when my son's (British) teacher asks us to send in healthy snacks, particularly for morning snack time, it basically means not a packet of two Oreos!

I asked DS what he had for school dinner today, and his reply was 'A sandwich, cookies and a potato'.

The teacher is being a bit OTT. She can't make a judgement on 1 snack when she doesn't see what your child eats the other 7 days.
If you asked a paed about a healthy diet he wopuld not be bothered if you told him that every weds she had a donut as long as for the rest of the week she had a balanced diet. It is the overall weekly intake which is important.

From a lifetime of dieting I have realised that if you have lowfat foods then you tend to eat more of them. if you can teach your child about nutrition and portion control then it is perfectly fine to have a piece of full-fat cheese with crackers

thanks tw, struggling a bit atm with a toddler and baby, need to sort out some priorities!!

What a coincidence. I had this same thing happen last year with dd.

I gave her a cracker and some cheese because she was feeling faint before lunch and sometimes wasn't getting into have her lunch until a late sitting.

The teacher and I had quite a heated debate discussion about what constituted a 'healthy snack'. She said 'this is a healthy eating school and only fruit and vegetables are acceptable as snacks'.

That is promoting fruit and veg not healthy eating to my mind. I think the message they are sending out is very wrong but there you go

She wouldn't budge. Apparantly allowing a cracker and cheese would open the floodgates to slices of cake ().

Thanks everyone - it seems that the overall opinion is that its an okay snack for a 5 year old who has an otherwise healthy diet (which she does)..

I did think I knew a fairly decent amount about nutrition (and actually fancied going back to Uni to do Nutrition Studies a few years ago).

I guess if Mrs S saw her snack every day then she'd know her food intake better.

They do check snacks on a Wednesday and I know classes can get certificates for having "100% Healthy Snack" etc so I guess I was also worried that she'd be penalising her entire class...!

I often give my children crackers/oatcakes and cheese as a healthy snack. IMO, as part of a balanced diet, which OP is obviously providing, it's absolutely fine. If I only gave my DS's low fat snacks they'd disappear! Young children need the calcium and fat.

What concerns me is what sort of message is the teacher giving to children regarding their diet. I think it's worries about what foods are 'good' or 'bad' that cause most of the obesity problems in this country.

I feel for you SPB, I really do - DS is nearly 2 and went through several weeks (possibly even a few months) of refusing to touch anything of a vegetable nature. He ate fruit ok but not veg (unless it was baby veg puree from a sachet). Thankfully in the last couple of weeks this has started to resolve itself and he is now eating peas again, beans, capers (he thinks they're peas), raw carrots but not cooked, amongst others. He still gets the green squish on a regular basis as well because it helps him eat other stuff that he might not otherwise touch...

Honestly, you have all the knowledge available and the little so-and-so still manages to bugger it all up by being contrary.

He loves crackers too btw but I have to limit him with them because of the salt content.

Totally agree that foods should not be classified as either healthy or not healthy with the possible exception of processed junk foods like doughnuts.

N Europeans have been eating full fat dairy products for hundreds of years. Removing the fat also removes fat soluble vitamins. I do not want my children exposed to the low fat alternatives.

Low fat cheese will also have added bulking agents and water.

Low fat yoghurt is full of added sugar.

Stupid people who know nothing about nutrition should not be controlling our children's diets.

Only allowing fruit or veg as snacks begs the question as to what the purpose of a snack is though. Because with the best will in the world an apple doesn't provide as huge amt of nutrition in itelf and it won't really stave off hunger. Mine eat shedloads of fruit and it never seems to fill the botomless void. So what purpose does it serve? Apart from making the kids feel that they've eaten something. In which case it's better not to bother.

Somewhathorrified so wrong you can do low fat cheese for an adult not a child -- and ryvita are incredibly unhealthy aren't they? choc full of salt

I think it sounds like a healthy snack for a child or a regular adult. Prob too much salt in the cracker but what can you do. There's too much sugar in bread, too much sugar and salt in almost anything that goes in a snack box except fruit. I mean, how much blander can you get than a cracker. I suppose you could buy carr's, or salt free or something.

But Mrs S is being over zealous.

As others have said,as part of an overall balanced diet it is a healthy snack.

Again as others have said, food items taken in isolation give no indication whatsoever as to their health giving properties: an apple for a child such as ds1 (severely underweight) is compulasory yet u8nhealthy as he really needs the banned dried fruit or similar (not cheese but only due to allerg- would be perfect otherwise).

All these rules make me - ds1 has eating disorder, and they owrsen dramatically when they have done so-called healthy eating (AKA as fruit good other stuff bad). far better to look at the children as indixiduals with regards to remedial diets,and concentrate on a balanced diet otherwise- pre- school rules Nursery had a rota of fruit one day, cheese next, veg next, toast (wholemeal) next and something like a healthy muffin or flapjack on a Friday- bang on IMO.

lol tsarchasm at open the floodgates to cake

DC's school makes me laugh. They go on about healthy eating school and to be careful with the content of packed lunches. If you have school dinners, the children get cake for pudding. Mine are packed lunch so I put a treat in and got a letter home

Mine have a really good diet so I hate the food police at school.