Parents rebel against school ban on junk food

[Caligula]

I decide kid's lunchbox

Had to share this with you. My DB was telling me about this earlier - a friend of his works in the school concerned and the reason they've banned juice etc. is because there's too much room for confusion with fizzy, sunny D and other e-numbered shite. The paper version of this newspaper had a big splash about their kid's yuman right to eat crap but apparantly, no information about how their human right to be educated can be seriously affected by them eating shite. Hilarious!

I don't really see what's so funny, Caligula. I'd be quite annoyed if I couldn't give DS1 a carton of fruit juice with his lunch.

Hmm. Perhaps she should pack cigs & lighter for him as well? Government says kids under 16 can't smoke - so are they denying him that human right too?

(I'm being silly so don't flame me!!!!)

Hmm, it is a bit 'big brother' though isn't it?

I'm all for more education around healthy eating and trying to persuade people to bin the fizzy and the sweets but at the end of the day, you can't dictate what people can and cannot eat.

Fair enough if the parents choose school lunches, then the school decides what's on offer but I think it's up the parents when it comes to lunchboxes.

I'm swinging a bit though because OTOH, if this really is a huge crisis that needs addressing, I suppose you can say 'well on these premises we don't allow x, y and z to be consumed'.

I put pure apple or orange juice cartons in ds1's lunchbox and I'd be pretty pissed off if this was taken off him as it's hardly junk.

It's someone's human right once they're an adult and can be responsible for their own decisions.

Obesity is rising, and there's a positive correlation btween poor diet and bad behaviour in the classroom.

If parents can't police their kids and what they eat, then the government has to step in.

To me, there's nothing sadder than seeing young kids - age 3 or 4- who are already grossly obese.

Having worked in a Holiday Club this Summer I can say I am amazed at what goes into some lunch packs and I can undersatnd why some schools feel the need to intervene. However fruit juice cartons should be included imo.

I don't really think you can go much further than to educate, educate, educate though. IN the end, what you eat is up to you (and what children eat is up to the parents).

There is no point banning it at school only for the children to have it after school and every weekend. Educate the children to educate the Parents in healthy choices. You see so many parents asking children in Supermarkets "to get those things they like" which are are usually deep fryable (sp)? or full of crap and all washed down with coke and sunny d!.

It's easier to educate children not full of shit food though. They aren't off their tits on e numbers.

There should be absolutely no opportunity, within school, for kids to choose crap food, even if it does come in lunch boxes.

No-one would argue that children should be given the choice to play crap computer games or watch trash telly instead of doing lessons, so why should the food issue be any different?

It's like saying, 'My child should be allowed to watch the Power Rangers video I sent them in with, instead of that boring school programme which they hate'.

i would not be happy. ds2 refuses to drink water so would go the whole school day without a drink. i dont see what is so evil about being allowed to take in juice. they cant take milk (which i would prefer) because the lunchboxes dont go in a fridge. if this happened at my kids school i know for a fact that more than one child would have no lunch because it would all have to be confiscated

LOL (with gritted teeth) on the 'Off their tits on e numbers line'!

Kids who are hard work in the mornings in school are bloody wild after a crap filled lunch.

And as you say, what next? my kid has the right to tell the teachers to fuck off, freedom of speech and all that

No, spidermama, but the rules are a bit illogical IMO. For example at our school cereal bars are okay, cake is not. But I can guarantee that a commercial cereal bar, or even one of my homemade flapjacks (allowed) contains way more sugar than a piece of my homemade banana cake.

Also at the top end of the school, some of the girls are getting quite diet conscious, and I don't think the "apples are healthy, crisps are unhealthy" is terribly helpful here. I would prefer them to think in terms of healthy diet, with a good balance of different kinds of food, rather than demonising certain items.

I think it's fair enough to ban sweets and fizzy drinks, but beyond that it becomes a bit arbitrary.

so are they better after a crap filled lunch or no lunch at all? friend of ds1s taked 3 full sized chocolate bars for his lunch. his parents must know thats rotten but they do it anyway.

I think kids who 'refuse to drink water' would soon learn to drink water (a basic tenet of a healthy diet) if they were offered no alternative. That might sound tough, but it's fundamental that kids learn to drink water fgs.

Agree frogs.
Actually, I'd be pretty annoyed if school banned me from putting certain things in lunchboxes. I understand it is to stop those parents who'd just give choclate, crisps and fizzy drinks. As usual it's using a sledgehammer to crack a nut and once again it's the responsible parents who end up feeling got at.

Again, agree in principle over the water thing. Mine are happy to drink water at home, but a drinks bottle filled with water tends to come home as full as it left with ds (6). And I am concerned that he doesn't drink enough during the day, so sometimes I put a slug of juice in it, or even send him with a packet of juice.

I'm not disagreeing with the principle of controlling what kids bring in, but I do get mildly irritated by having a nosey lunchtime supervisor poking her nose into my children's lunchboxes, thinking she knows bettter than I do what's good for them.

Hhhmmmm! Come to think of it have you ever tasted water out of those horrible plastic bottles? No wonder so many kids want juice in it.

Would it be so hard, I wonder, for schools to give out drinks of water in paper cups, or even in melamine cups, at break time?

The trouble is with all of these things is, 'where do you draw the line?'

Everyone on mn would agree that a lunch of three chocolate bars isn't a good idea. So how do you stop parent sending them if, if not by saying 'No chocolate'? Because if you say 'one only' some joker will send their kid in with one in the lunch box and one in each pocket.

Same thing with juice. Does the school then allow Sunny D? Orengina? Fizzy orange pop? Can the lunch supervisors cope with discussion the relative merits of waeach with each child?

As a parent I would feel that a tetra pack of pure juice would be a good thing, but would that end the think end of the wedge?

Spidermama, I don't think that plastic cups would be feasable in secondary....they would end up thrown all over the place. We do offer water and glasses at lunch tho

spidermama, i have sent ds with water before and he will not touch it. ive tried the tough thing and he would rather not drink til he gets his milk or juice at home (and im not stopping those cos they are good for him).

i would be happy to send fruit juice and as that can count as one of your five a day portions i dont see how they could say thats not healthy actually

out of interest what would they do if parents continue to send kids with nothing but stuff that has to be confiscated? surely they cant stop them eating altogether

I think 'No fizzy drinks, no sweets, no chocolate' is reasonable.

I think much beyond that it becomes too complicated to work well and risks antagonising responsible parents. You could say, 'Only pure fruit juice' which our school did for a while, but it's unworkable because lots of people haven't figured out the difference between pure fruit juice and 'juice drinks', or think Sunny D is pure juice.

So it's a question of balancing the rights of some kids to be protected from their Sunny D-wielding parents with the rights of other kids to have a drink of fruit juice at lunchtime as part of a balanced diet.

Sorry to be hardline gg but children should learn to quench their thirst without the need for sugar, be it fruit sugar or any other kind of sugar. Water is fundamentally good for them.

If they got thirsty enough, of course they'd drink it.

Yes, spidermama, they will drink it eventually, but by the time they are actually thirsty enough to remember to go to the water fountain, they're no longer optimally hydrated. Ds just doesn't bother to drink his water at school (drinks it at home fine), and is noticeably grumpy at hometime, which improves when he gets home and has a decent drink (water). I don't know the answer either, but I think taking the hard line here will mean that some children just don't bother drinking enough to keep them functioning at their best.