to be fed up with the Government telling me what to eat?

[meltedmarsbars]

Its never-ending, and now school have sent my dc's home with charts to fill in for "healthy eating" targets and "move more" targets, to record for a MONTH how they get on!

Its intrusive and patronising!

How do I tell them to bog off?

I'd bin it too. Agree with you wholeheartedly Meltedmarsbars.

And Ineedacleaner your post is spot on. They are being too literal with the info they give out. Dd's teacher last year was obsessed that only fruit and veg were healthy as a snack. Absolute rubbish.

I would get rid of it. Like BendyBob said, the way they talk about "healhy food" in school is not actually that healthy: my 5yo refused anything that was not a fruit or a veg for weeks because they were the "only healthy food" apparently

And I was not talking just as a snack, every meal with me pulling my hair out trying to tell him other foods are important too!

Healthy diet is one thing and low-calorie diet is another.

If my child said 'teacher told us eating take away every day is not good for our health i would be pleased.
But if he said 'teacher told us we shouldn't eat cheese because is fattening' i would be .

I think all we need is to teach our children cooking and eating less proccesed food. You cant go very wrong with this even if your diet includes cheese, butter, cakes...

I think the best thing to do is write to the school saying you won't be filling in the form and why (your DC have a healthy diet and the type of advice the school is giving is bullshit).

I agree, as usual, with Riven. We mumsnetters know everything already but there are plenty of families who don't. I'm at the people I know who think that the food they're giving their DC is good for them. (Fruit filled pastries=healthy? REALLY?) I think if it's for a project it's fine, but if it's obsessively counting calories or something that's quite another thing altogether. And hopefully the emphasis would be on health, not appearance.

SGB, that is good advice.

Laquitar, I agree.

I just saw something on an American based baby website that talked about how 2 year olds should be following a low fat diet. I actually screamed reading it. I would have agreed with it if it were on about limiting potato crisps, processed cakes and foods, but this was prescribing only skimmed milk, low fat yogurt...all stuff that may well be lower in fat, but is filled with all kinds of processed artificial crap!
I am hugely in favour of guiding people to cook at home using natural ingredients, but all this diet/low fat/ having little kids write food diaries and such is just a little ridiculous. I also agree that it is being taught too literally, making our poor wee ones completely paranoid about food, instead of making healthy choices, but enjoying sweets and such in moderation.

YABU a little bit. I think the food diet is a good way of getting them to think about what they eat and perhaps fior some kids, they might actually enjoy some of the healthier foods that they will try just to please teacher!

Agree that it does make food into a bigger issue than it potentailly needs to be but i also think that as riven has pointed out, there are those of us who know everything about healthy diets but not every kid has the luxury of living in a household when they are given a balanced diet and the gentle background message that fruit and veg are better than crisps and crap.

I also think peer pressure is a great motivator for kids in sOME circumstances. DD is a weird child who likes hummus and carrot sticks for a her break - now her little mates have asked for them as well.

i think it is all very well for you to tell tem to bog off and stop interfering, but for some families, they just don't know how to feed their kids healthily and their children's health suffers as a result, and their children grow up fat, have fat unhelathy and probably unhappy children and so the cycle goes on and on. I actually think it is really good that we have government campaigns such as 'eat your 5 a day' - some of the kids my kids bring home from school 'won't eat fruit' or veg, or this, or that, apart from rubbish. it is bad for them and if their parents don't have the skills to life them out of the cycle of unhealthy eating, I am really really glad schools are.
You are of course entitled to ignore the advice and stuff cakes down your kids until they can hardle walk, but hav to waddle everywhere. That'd show those mean old interfering government bastards wouldn't it!

Sorry, i have just skimmed the thread, but i do feel it is pointless in most cases.

Either the family is aware of healthy eating and doesn't need these 'helpful' schemes,

Or

The family are a bit in denial about what is healthy and won't listen anyway.

I totally agree with you OP. It assumes that parents have no brain and Alicetheinvisible sums it up perfectly. What business is it of theirs anyway?

thanks AliGrylls (don't think anyone has ever noticed me before )

PSCMUM you are totally missing the point, I assume deliberately? That the message many of these schools are giving is not a healthy eating message and in the long term could do much more harm than good.

You also seem to believe that cake is evil - which may explain why you are so keen on the governments black and white, good/bad approach.

Cake can NEVER be evil!!!!!!

I don't believe in eating low-fat things that aren't supposed to be low-fat either doesn'tplaywell. It gives me the heebiejeebies to think about what kind of sodium and chemicals they're pumping into the food to replace the flavor of the fat they took out. For the most part, if a food has more than five ingredients or I can't pronounce the ingredients it has, we don't eat it.

As long as you eat a lot of produce, whole grains, and lean protein you should be fine. I don't know that there's any reason kids should be writing down everything they eat as long as they understand that things like cake, etc, are occasional treats (not good for you but not something to be avoided like the devil either). At our school they're doing a program where the kids (and staff) track their 5 a day and I don't think it's bad. The kids seem to be enjoying it actually.

doesntplaywellwithothers at that website!

Agree with you 100% meltedmarsbars. I am sick and fed up with the bossy government sticking their nose in to things that aren't their business.

How do you tell them to bog off? You could try sending the charts back incomplete with a PostIt attached to the effect that your children won't be filling these in because you disagree with school interfering in what are essentially private matters.

The "what to expect - the toddler years" book recommends moving to a low fat diet at age 2, including skimmed milk and low fat cheese.

That book is obviously adapted from the american version, and a lot of the advice is a bit strange, reading it as a brit. OTOH the series (especially the first year one) are really comprehensive and good that they cover different approaches to everything.

What I am getting at is that a very widely read parenting book in the UK recommends a low fat diet for toddlers. Why they do that, I have no idea. Everyone knows that things like low fat yoghurt are simply full of sugar instead, which is worse IMO and tastes like shit. Why not bloody leave it as nature intended.

YANBU, its good that schools encourage healthy eating, especially to older children, but to bombard children with the messages that "if you eat such and such you will get fat" . Children take things literally and do not have mature enough thought processes to interpret the information in a more sensible way. Threfore health promotion needs to be carefully thought out. I heard that the government were going to employ 5 a day officres that would come knocking at your door around dinnertime to give you a lectureadvice on healthy eating , I would just tell them to bog off

When I was teaching I once found that a child (aged 6) had been sent to school with a cold, half eaten McDonalds meal in a packed lunch box for his lunch. It was one of the most depressing things I think I've seen.
I know healthy eating initiatives put in place by schools can be irritating but you have to include all the class to try to reach the families who need it, though whether they do any good........

DNPWWO I am name and shame the website. A such a young age toddlers need full fat milk and and as much calories from good food as they can what idiots.

Twinmum for the majority most of us try to eat healthily and no sane person would send their children foods like that to school.

I also think that trying to "reach" the parents through the child is not great - the child is not the one in charge. it is not a responsibility they should have to take on their shoulders and I feel uncomfortable that so many "healthy" campaigns take this approach.

How is that child going to feel when told that cheese is bad and you have to have fresh fruit and veg every day, when mummy won't give him that whatever he says.

Teaching children about healthy eating - great.

Telling children they should be following a diet suitable for an overweight adult - not great.

Telling children that some foods are bad and some are good - not great.

Telling children about food in the hope that they will educate their parents - ???

I'm not happy with some of the messages that my dd has picked up from school of late - certainly the cheese one has annoyed me but the one I am most amazed at(coming from the very skinny sporty teacher) was that diet coke is better for you than fruit juice .