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!

Easily done. Print a list of banned food and drink. Include brand, shop, size, colour, name, description and contents.

when the parents complain that something has been confiscated, the school can say "It's on the list"

School should provide juice or water for lucnh times then noone would confuse it!
They could charge something and have a jug on each table, or add milk as well

We had the lunch box police at school the other week! They were learning about healthy eating and the teacher and TA went through all the lunch boxes to see whose were healthy and whose weren't. Those who had healthy lunchboxes were given a silver star, those whose lunchboxes weren't healthy had a letter to the parents!

We got a star!

you don't think uk schools should do what dd's school does then?

I didnt pack a fruit juice for ds1 the other day, gave him water. Took me four times as long to get a screaming son to school, got bitten, kids at school got attacked....

DS1 is Aspergers by the way, but in a mainstream school. I need that leeway BUT I'm not stupid enough to mistake juice for fizzy and he eats a good lunch, by all means ban crisps / cho / fizzy.

caligula, you have clearly been very lucky with your children. my ds1 (6) eats and drinks anything. chooses to drink water most of the time, will try almost anything new. takes 4 portions of fruit and veg in his lunchbox and always eats them. ds2 (5) will not eat veg (if he can tell what it is), will not try anything new, will not drink water, hardly eats anything and would much rather go hungry/thirsty than eat/drink something he doesnt want. he has managed to go two days without eating in the past. so i dont think its anything i am doing that has stopped him drinking water. if that was the case ds1 wouldnt have it either, would he?

there must be something you dont like. why cant kids have preferences too? some are just more strong willed about these things than others

SP, it's a thought

There's nothing that could make Sam drink water, I include being semi comatose and on the way to hoispital from dehydration, which happened this summer

I recognise Sam is a special case but every school has at least one

My DS is just the same with water Peachyclair (and also Aspergers). He takes a bottle of water to school every day and it comes home untouched. Luckily he is allowed apple juice in his packed lunch. (They have to take water bottles for use during lessons, but he never uses his.)

oh for gods sake. any minute now republican politiacians will come over along with cheerleaders that arn't allowed to wear short skirts in Texas anymore and tell tony blair what a damn fine job he's doing.

if the school is providing the meals then the school gets to say - if the parent is providing the meals the school should butt out

Sam's allowed fruit juice at lunch, but it's squash ot water at break- he shouldn't have squash but it's one or the othre, no exceptions, no bring your own (we pay in advance)

Our local primary school "actively encourages healthy eating.." and insists on empty water bottles sent to school "to avoid leakages" and are filled up with water at lunchtime, water tap available for breaktimes. Dinner ladies are scary enough for children not to risk sneaking in any squash.
As for the actively encouraging healthy food, nothing specific is said but there is enough parental pressure/one upmanship that goes on for us to feel obliged to create fascinating, educational and decidedly organic lunchbags...Wholemeal tortilla wraps with organic goats cheese and sundried toms, little tubs of homemade couscous with lemon and chickpeas, selection of crudities with homemade healthy dips blah blah blah. And, my God, the mums just lurve to tell each other about their offerings - loud voices asking their precious babes "did you eat all of that couscous mummy made you darrrrrling??"
I HATE packed lunches and I HATE Jamie Oliver for putting such pressure on us already stressed out mums.
(Actually, raher impressed with what he has done for school lunches, just in the mood to moan a bit )

The parents that rebel are OBVIOUSLY ruled by their children - or else they are children in adults bodies

Well done for school being strict. Will the kids spontaneously combust without juice ? When I was at school we just had water at lunchtime - I'm still alive...ok....a little shrivelled....but on the whole, just fine...oh & no fillings either

hellmouthcusty interesting point HOWEVER, what if some child is disrupting the class because their parents are continually giving them rubbish in their lunchboxes ? Why put children at a disadvantage ? The point is giving better food benefits everyone, pupils, teachers, class mates, hospitals, NHS, dentists, mental health etc etc

"i would not be happy. ds2 refuses to drink water so would go the whole school day without a drink. "

You know what - I've spent nearly 5yrs trying to get DS1 to drink water. The most I'll get down him is 2 or 3 sips (If i'm lucky). However at his school flasks and bottles aren't allowed, only cartons and the likes - which we can't afford atm. HOWEVER, there is as much water to drink as they like available at school - so I put a plastic cup in his lunch box this morning - when he got back - I asked him what he drank at lunch time

"3 glasses of water mummy"!!! and apparently he's been drinking water at breaktimes too since the beginning of term....if I ask him to drink water at home.......well that's a different story

Well I am a rebel because I let DS take a choc biscuit in his lunchbox. The ones having dinners get puddings (often cakes, biscuit type things) and these are sometimes choc, so why not the sandwiches?

The healthy initiative at school has been a success for DS as he now refuses to eat any crisps at all ever! He has a wholemeal sandwich (with cheese, egg or ham) or crackers with cheese as a treat, + fromage + fruit + nuts/seeds/dried fruit and a Choc biscuit. He usually has squash or occasional juive carton & water bottle on desk

He used to refuse to drink water but has discovered he likes chilled mineral water (2 litres for 80p at Aldi), so he gets that in a thermos type bottle & actually drinks it now. The tap water at school is "minging" agree all the kids!

pmsl at the couscous making mums. GG, I most certainly haven't been lucky with DS, he's a nightmare with eating. He has restricted his diet to such ridiculous levels that at one stage in despair I gave up and started buying shite in the hope that at least he'll eat something. Luckily, it was at around the same time I discovered Mumsnet and I read loads of threads on fussy eaters, so gradually began to train myself not to worry about him eating, but to only serve proper food. And it has got better, but his diet is still more restricted than I'd like. Someone asked if eating nothing is better than eating shite - I can honestly now say that I think that except in very extreme circumstances, yes, it is better for children who live in a society of permanent feast and no famine, to be hungry than to be fed the rubbish so many of them are.

But I don't know what I'd do if I had a child who insisted on going into a dehydrated coma rather than drinking water - that must be a nightmare.

he has a water bottle at school which he wont touch. if i put water in his flask he wont touch it. if i tell him all he can drink at home is water he wont drink until he is desperate. i then have a sobbing, lethargic child who is very miserable. all for the sake of missing out a bit of fruit juice. why do it?????????? if anyone on here can say their child is like that and they still force them to drink water they are just cruel imo. the fact that he drinks water at school proves he is not like mine because mine wont do it!!!! i have tried!!!!!!!! why should he miss out on watered down fruit juice because some other mother thinks it is acceptable to send her kids to school with a box of sweets for lunch? and is it really that bad if they occasionally have a bit of ribena??? a drop of ribena in a full flask of water?????

the world has gone mad (and i think i have too, so am off to do the lunches for tomorrow - including the flasks of juice)

When dd was at school in Indonesia all the children drank water. Each classroom had a water cooler with disposable cups and the children helped themselves. Fruit juice wasn't easily available and even then was v expensive so it was water or nowt!

When you live in such a hot climate drinking water becomes as much a part of your day as something like teeth cleaning - you don't give it a second thought.

I was one of those kids who was only allowed water even back in the 70s and didn't like it so didn't drink it. I would go to other peopels houses and drink squash and juice instead. When I moved out, I drank coke and horribly unhealhty drinks until it came out of my ears. I worked as a model and developed terrible skin because of all the coke and sweets etc....anyway, I believe in everything in moderation as if not your little ones will just rob the sweet shop as adults. I am lucky because for some strange reason I have given birth to children who only drink water, but it's pure luck and could change at any time. I personally think there is too much panic about food at the moment.

Out of interest, at what stage do children start to refuse water? Mine were simply not offered anything else, other than milk, and even my mother, unco-operative as she is in most areas of food and kids, went along with me on that one and never gave the kids anything else until DS was about 3 (and then she gave him tea. Huh? Don't ask me why).

Are people saying that their children simply refused to drink and became very thirsty so you bought fruit juice because you felt you had to so that they would drink something, or did your offer of an alternative come first? Not having a go, just genuinely interested to know this one.

I'm interested too, Caligula - it just didn't occur to me to offer DS anything else because I really like water - so much so I'm always apologising for asking for it in other people's houses when they offer a drink! Mind you, that's been happening since I was a child - kept being offered powdered orange or lemon squash at parties and saying I'd like water please!

I think if you don't like water yourself, it must be hard to offer it to your child. Like any food/drink, really - DS has never had kippers, for instance!

My DS has never had tripe!

I have to say, Medway water is revolting compared to London water. This summer, it has tasted of mould, so I can understand anyone who doesn't like it.

I much prefer the chlorine aroma of Thames water.

LOL! I have a glass of Chateau Thames here, Caligula.