to think that preschool should know better

[mattahatta]

today my DS came home from playschool upset as his teachers told him he has an unhealthy diet as he eats a fair amount of pasta and pizza!!!!!!!!!!! Now, we are Italian, this is normal. WE also eat a lot of indian and south american food, aome african and experiment with eastern european, I carefully think about balancing every meal and am so annoyed at this. Pizza if home made or even from a 'proper' restaurant is not unhealthy, I has carbs, veg, various vitamins, protein and is NOT PROCESSED, frozen pizza and american style pizza is less healthy...... PASTA can be served in many ways, with various sauces and ingredients. I am particularly annoyed as he was told chicken nuggets were healthy!!!! Even if they arent processed they are still fried in a load of oil- this is the problem with eating in the UK- misunderstanding and ignorance towards food..........please do not shoot me this is not an attack on UK eating as a whole, I am half English and eat various British meals as well but more of an attack on education around healthy eating as a whole

AAARGH

aaargh as in IABU or aargh at the situation?

Do not get me stated on how they teach healthy eating. Only fruit and veg will do according to DS3 teacher last year! Days it took me to convince him he was also alowed bread, rice, pasta, cheese, etc

There seems to be such a lot of confusion/lack of knowlage about what a health diet is. It is easy to pick on certain food rather that look at an over all diet or how a dish is made.

Why are pre-school children being taught about "healthy eating" anyway?

If it was my child I'd want to know exactly what the pre-school's idea of healthy is, and where they got their information from.

ok fair enough they can be oven baked, but to put it into context- one child commented that they go to McDonalds a lot and were told thats ok if you have chicken nuggets!!!

YANBU i think so much crap information is coming out from schools these days re: healthy eating. Often sounds like they are branding some foods as "unhealthy" like a blanket ban, whatever happened to using common sense and eating various things in moderation? Not sure they are doing more good than harm tbh...
and chicken nuggets, what is supposed to be so great about them?? A fresh italian pizza sounds much better than processed nuggets (not that i even would object to nuggets now and again)
The idea of teaching healthy eating in schools is not bad but sounds like its been done in such a rubbish and wrong way, then they might aswell not do it @ all. I would be annoyed if i was you. Also telling a dc "you eat unhealthy diet" is quite rude, even if they did because i doubt young children are doing their own meal planning at home so just upset them for nothing
They are better off focusing on providing a good healthy school lunch and teaching them about balanced diets rather than "this food is unhealthy, never eat it"

Exactly Missus84? tomorrow I'm going in... I already went in last week after they were teaching the children about Italy and DS came home saying that they would not listen to him that Garlic bread is in fact not Italian ( it is an anglo-americanized take on breads in general) when I asked them about it they said 'well thats what everyone thinks so we will carry on teaching it!' doh- if everyone of the children thought 2+2=5 would they still teach it???

cat64- depends on the child- my son is (dont shoot me) very bright in the fact that he has word perfect memory- he is currently working at and converses at the 'average' age of a 7 year old- so no I dont think this is the case

I HATE all this rigid categorisation of food, it really pisses me off. It is so simplistic to say that fruit and veg is "good" and crisps and sweets are "bad". Teach them to appreciate home cooked food and propper meals, and to enjoy crisps and sweets (which we all know, DO taste nice) as part of a healthy balanced diet. ARRGGGHHHH!

mattahatta - my DD1 is 5 and she loves over-exaggerating facts and at this age is more than normal. It's nothing to do with being bright/advanced for their age. I would make sure I go in gently in order to see whether this is true or not.

I think it's great that at preschool they are learning about world foods and healthy eating. OK you might not think it's accurate, but it's good that they are trying. Lots of preschools make no such effort. Maybe you could send in some italian dishes to educate them in what real italian food is really like.

I am italian (100% actually) and I am used to the garlic bread is italian/pizza is unhealthy scenario so I just don't get that worried about it.

My children know what's good/right/suits them and they also have cake & biscuits for breakfast, which is what millions of italians do and generations of italians have always done, but it would also be frowned upon. So what? x

Sorry there was more to my post, but it appears to have been shortened to just AARGH!

basically you should complain to preschool that they arent respecting cultural diversity and your sons individual differeces and a failing to keep in line with EYFS curriculum

I get really irritated when people class pizza as unhealthy, it bread/cheese/vegs/poss meat no different from a sandwich not everyone eats oily takeaway 'pizza'

We are going to end up with a massive increase in eating disorders because of the way 'healthy eating' is taught in schools. It is often based on incorrect information and often taught by people who really don't understand it. I can't believe it is now being brought into pre-school age range.

My daughter has several friends who developed a major complex about food at the time they were covering healthy eating in Year 1. The things they were coming out with was scary. DD is home educated so I have been able to avoid a lot of the incorrect stuff that gets peddled in schools when it comes to food. Whoever devised the healthy eating curriculum has made a massive balls up IMHO.

And I won't even get started on the response to the garlic bread thing.

emy72 - The point is that it is incorrect and the people responsible for teaching children should not be doing that. Don't children deserve better than that? Surely what they are being taught should be accurate. 'At least they are trying' isn't good enough.

yanbu - ds now yr 1 knows fruit and veg should be 5 portions a day but knows that rice pasta pizza etc are ok with this. Also knows ice cream chocolate are treats and can be eaten too. Tonight we wnt to coast for an ice cream (after his rice and veg for dinner) and when finished he asked for an apple as it's good for you!!!

He does still get the 'healthy eating lecture' at school but it does seem they are more realistic there than at preschool.

Fair enough.

My point though was that children that young interpret things so to be 100% sure that's what it was said before going in all guns blazing.

I guess I was giving the school the benefit of the doubt.

Since I've come to this country I lost count of the amount of stereotypes going round about Italy.

I have learnt not to get too upset about it, but you're right if it is true I guess it should be challenged. But how many times does the OP want to go in the school and potentially damage their relationship with the school? I guess if it was me it wasn't the thing I would go in and get upset about.

emy72,many people dont get this, i'm sure I will be judged fo rsay ing it, but I do understand my son, I know when he is exaggerating, I'm sure I will later find out that he has a condition or another, but as I said WORD PERFECT MEMORY, he is unable to change words in scenarios, it maybe a form of OCD, he may just be a literal thinker but anyway after last week nothing would surprise me... as for it being good to educate about world foods- yes but not if you are doing it wrong...! I'm not annoyed about Italians being called unhealthy its about the wrong information being given out.... exactly BARMY, just trying isnt good enough.. for what it is worth, I did offer to go in over 4 months ago and several times since... they chose to remain ignorant and teach the wrong things!!!

there is only 2 weeks left until the end of year and he will move on to 'big' school, so really I dont care, but I also hate the fact that we live in a soceity that parents have to fear that if they discuss/ try to question things that have happened in school then their child will be treaten unfairly.

As for stereotypes- yes they exist and nobody can know everything but if you have a local resource- say a dual nationality/ non British family then use them esp if they are offering!!!