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.

The question you have to ask is what is the point in 'healthy snack day' is it to ensure kids are eating healthy now, or teaching them a lesson in healthy eating later in life?

I was under the impression that it was a lesson...ergo crackers and cheese is not a healthy snack...the fact that it's fine for a young dhild to be eating full fat cheese isn't the issue, it's about them growing into an adult believing that it's a healthy option. I personally think think the benefits of eating a reasonable amoun t of cheese outway the non beneficial fats that it contains, however I see people/adults eating huge amounts of the stuff thinking that it's good for them.

I think cheese and crackers is fine. Agree with someone else who says that low fat stuff is generally over processed.

Reminds me: My dcs go to a childminder one day a week and I do them a packed tea. They have school lunches the rest of the week and then eat at home in the evening so packed tea is rather a treat. The tea is only in its cool bag at school all day so I don't put anything in that should be in a fridge.

When the childminder had her ofsted inspection one of the main things they brought up was that she should talk to me about what I put in the children's tea! That day they had peanut butter sandwiches, carrot, cheese, cucumber, a flapjack and shock horror a packet of crisps each!

I was mortified but so cross that it was not looked at in context of our whole week.

Somewhathorrified, surely they should be teaching them that cheese is healthy as long as it's part of a well balanced diet and not just wolfed down in huge portions?

I mean as opposed to it not being healthy.

Good heavens, gremlin...CRISPS!!!! The horror!!!

It is RIDICULOUS...there was absolutely nothing wrong with that tea, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with kids having crisps ffs...as long as it's not at every flipping meal !!

While I agree that there are parents out there that need a bit of guidance in terms of feeding their kids healthy stuff, not relying on takeaways and things like that, there is such an extremist view now that ALL foods that aren't on the nutritional pyramid should NEVER be consumed! It's insanity, and it's going to make our kids neurotic.

Aaargh...and people wonder why I'm having such a wobble about sending my ds to reception next year...

I eat loads of cheese and I am thin as a whippet. I need my calories, thank you very much. Shall we hold a mass cheese-eating protest?

I don't think anything with white flour is really very helahty at all. I don't eat it. NOr do I think we really need any diary products although I accept that most people if denied milk and cheese would eat many more cream buns so cheese is better than the alternatives. We are the only adult animal that drinks milk and the Chinese think we smell because we drink it. More to the point why do children need snacks at all? All this constant snacking is what makes people fat. Waiting between meals and getting hungry is what this country needs not snacks. If they're hungry mid afternoon they need to eat a bigger lunch.

No single food causes weight gain.

It's absolutely fine for a child, a healthy snack.
Most nay-sayers seem to think of themselves and their rigid diets. If you are an overweight adult then munching on cheese and crackers is perhaps not the best way to lose weight, however, 2 crackers and a bit of cheese won't make much of a difference.
A growing healthy child on the other hand, needs fat as part of diet.
Lets not mix the two up.

God help me if she'd come across the contents of my DD's lunch box today - Philadelphia Puppdoms and dip thingy, mini Pepperami, ready made jelly (plus fruit adn veg sticks).

Thought it would make a nice change from sandwiches but once I'd put it all in thought it did look a bit dicey!

I certainly wouldn't apologise for wht you gave your daughter - you know she has a balanced and healthy diet, and it's really not up to this woman to comment to your daughter about it. If she has any genuine concerns she should raise them with you.

TBH I'd be considering going in and having a word with her if she did something like this again.

Somewhathorrified makes a good point: it is possible that children are taught about adult diet on purpose for future reference. But to me at least, it would make far better sense to teach children that children and adults have different dietary requirements. Expecting a child to live like an adult so they know how to do it when they become adults doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Btw a recent Swedish survey found that children who are on skimmed or semi-skimmed milk are more likely to develop obesity problems than children who drink full fat milk. (They drink a lot of milk in Sweden, even as adults; it's the main meal drink. And they are not known for their obesity rates.)

Christmasmoon, I think it depends on how old the kids are as to how a teacher would approach the subject...after all it's easier to say it's unhealthy than trying to explain to a 5yr old about the diffferent types of fat and amounts of each type of fat in any given food stuff and how this interacts within any given diet that an individual eats and their genetics.

I have a five year old and we talk to him about a balanced healthy diet, he doesn't seem to find it confusing and we have discussed different food groups on his plate and why he needs each of them. It's how you say / do it I think somewhathorrified.

I think the whole 'healthy snack day' gives the message that it's fine to have unhealthy snacks every other day - whatever your definition of healthy may be. Numptitude of the highest order.

If a child is too young to talk about a balanced diet (not convinced 5 is too young) then maybe you could be less heavy on the subject altogether? It's not as if they're going to be grown up and buying their own food any time soon. I'd have thought it will be at least 15 years before they have to start worrying about the fat content in cheese.

Northern Europeans have been dairy farming for eons hence our digestive systems have adjusted to accept dairy better than SE Asians, for example.
On the other hand, the sheer amount of rice that is eaten daily in SE Asia, again, for example (and as I spent 2 decades there as an expat, I know a bit about local diets), would floor most people whose digestive systems were not adjusted to such volume of carbs.
IMO, that is.

I once sent my DD1 in with "biltong" as her healthy snack Thought the teachers would explode!

OK, I'll ask. What the hell is biltong????

Erm...so will you tell me? Please?

Oh thank you everyone - I think this has been the longest ever thread that I have started...

And I'm very surprise I've not been outed as some sort of rep for the Cheese-And-Crackers-marketing-Board having done some sterling work here in encouraging many other people to eat Cheese and Crackers today....(I'm not, honest..)

And DD1's pot of Apple and Blueberry Angel came back comepletely empty..!!

Ponders childrearing without the assistance of babybel...way too hard...

DS is solid muscle, the only skerrick of fat to be found on him is his cute little butt. He eats plenty of cheese.

It is possible to overthink this stuff.

Dried strips of leather beef abbierhodes. Did you really want to know?

btw - what's your name mean? Can't decipher

Jesus fucking Christ, I cannot believe how ridiculously nanny-statish this whole healthy eating thing has become in this country!! And why is it that there seems to be a correlation between this kind of education and kids getting fatter... When I was at primary school (which was obviously a while ago but it was still the 90s) there was absolutely no regulation about what was in your lunch box but hardly any of the kids were fat. I really hate this taking away from parents the right to teach their kids about thing like food, 'life skills' I suppose. Those kinds of things are between a parent and a child imo.

5 year olds aren't old enough to understand properly about food and calories. There is a danger of them taking things too literally and becoming scared/confused about food and fat.