Mothers buy chips to get around schools healthy eating

[Blandmum]

I have just heard in the radio that some mothesr have been boycoting a schools healthy food initiative.

They have been taking orders from the kids, going to the local chippy, and taking food trollys of junk food round to the children at lunch time.

Oh FFS!

Taking out of the equation those small numbers of children who have special needs issues with food, what the fuck do these women think that they are doing?

How do they think this will help the children or the school?

sorrel try looking here before you preach to us about our own children and you will see the kind of problems people can have with SN trying to get them to eat and to take vitamins look here

totlay agree with geiing 'proper' cookery back in the sylabus btw

sorrel I think you need to read the article I linked to. With a child who ate gluten free bread, gluten free cheese and tomato pizza and buckwheat pancakes only for 4 years the ideals about diets to help them can be absolute pie in the sky.

I saw an NHS nutritionist when ds1 was 2 and had started restricting his diet (from being a one year old who would eat anything) and we were suspecting autism. She told me he couldn't possibly be autistic as he picked up the toys when I told him to, and that i needed to do a star chart. When I told her he wouldn't understand a star chart she started quetioning me in a MSBP way about why I thought he was autistic, so I kepot quiet, got out of there and later paid money to see a nutritionist who understood about autism. I stopped seeing him (although he was excelelnt) because I couldn't get his recommended supplements into ds1, no matter how I tried and it was leading to a further rejectiion of foods (pancakes were beginning to go). I would love for ds1 to have fish oils, but there is nothing I can hide it in that a child who uses smell to sense his world won't find it in. So he doesn';t get it.

Well Jamie Oliver put back ds1's eating programme considerably (thread on SN from last year entitled "bloody Jamie Oliver"). It was incredibly frustrating at the time for all concerned (including ds1's teacher who was cursing him)

Ad I said, I don't see why any school can't get round the issues by exempting children with SEN.

Special schools should be, without any fuss, exepmt.

All of this should be covered in the same way that any SEN should be covered. And I know that they are often not

RB's dp asked me why we couldn't just treat all the kids the same and my aswer was that you treat children according to their needs. NT kids don't need to be coddled in this way. SN kids should be exept. It really shouldn't be an issue.

Oh, you know I'm not preaching. For the vast majority of children what I am saying is simply the truth.
Yes, of course, some children have particular needs around food. But does that make it ok for the government to short change our kids with cut-price crap every day? This is which is what Jamie Oliver campaigned against and has made some, very limited, headway with.
Not every child with an autistic spectrum disorder is unable to eat a reasonably healthy diet. And those that can may well benefit enormously from it. As for children without an ASD, the difference in their diet may be the difference between long-term chronic illness and early death and a long healthy life. I think that's pretty important.

JJ I think you're describing such a nightmare of lack of understanding of SN issues, that the lack of understanding of the dietary problems with kids with SN is just a miniscule part of the lack of understanding of practically everything to do with SN.

I'd have a lot more sympathy with these women if the reason they were protesting, was indeed because children with SN at that school were not being treated properly with regards to diet (or presumably anything else). But that is not their motivation (or at least, they certainly haven't said that it is) and I don't think that continuing to encourage NT children to eat shit food at school, would forward the cause of providing proper training and education about SN one iota. If it would, then maybe some of us would be more prepared to tolerate it and send our NT kids in with healthy packed lunches so as to avoid the turkey twizzlers. But there isn't a quid pro quo here.

Can't read all this thread so apologies if I'm repeating stff.

Have to say that I doubt Jamie Oliver had SN children in mind when he started this crusade. Isn't the whole point about special needs children that they have special needs? Obviously one of those needs may well be diet - from the severelt disable child who needs to be tube fed to the autistic child who has sensory issues with food.

On the whole I agree with what Jamie Oliver is doing and, quite frankly, those stupid women with the chips prove his point "there's nothing wrong with burger and chips" is what one of them said I think. Well, no, there isn't. Unless you're feeding your child that and only that in which case there's a lot wrong with it and that's why some people require a nanny state as far as school meals go. I think this healthy school meals initiative is great but it should go hand in hand with educating the children in healthy eating so they learn to have a balanced diet.

Obviously it needs to be applied differently int he case fof children with sensory issues/SNs but that's no reason not to have an initiative at all. I remember your chocolate button problem JimJams - that was utterly ridiculous.

With the exception of some sn children, I dont think that they should be given a huge amount of leeway in what they eat at school. I should be healthy. Children are called minors for a very good reason, they still need guidance and do not fully understand the repercussions of the decisions they make. They hear, but they do not always process. A few years ago they had a house full of girls and a house full of boys left to their own devices it was lord of the flies all over. Youth is about having fun and preparing for life - tomorrow always seems a long way away to many children. And without persuasion be it gentle or forceful many will not make the right decision.
I aggree with the sentiment below of how would they feel if someone uneducated came into their house and started telling them how to bring up their kids. these are the same parents who if not already, will be saying he out of control, i've done my best. the rest of us will be just paying them for their stays at her majestys' pleasure. pedaling ignorance should be a fineable offence. obviously if they have irrefutable evidence that a junk food diet is good for their children then I will be the first apologie.

a few years ago on tv..

Completely agree FCC and Soupy.

Well the problem with initiatives is that they are applied across the board. Whilst the application of JO gave us a nightmare with ds1, it does benefit ds2, and will ds3.I don't disagree with the opening paragraph- I was objecting to all the "well you just don't feed them then they'll eat" posts.

That's the problem with crap provision for SN, as today's report about the appalling lack of proper education for children with autism shows. As someone else on this thread said, 'special needs' means children have particular, non-mainstream needs, which should be catered for, but often aren't. Doesn't mean JO isn't right that the huge majority of children should have more than 37p spent on their lunch.

Oh and JO described seeing a five year old open his lunchbox and seeing a half eaten macodonalds burger (!) a packet of crisps and some red bull. Now, I defy anyone to say this is a decent lunch for any child, SN or not. JO said it made him want to cry.

Think the problems with initiatives being across the board are not just a problem for kids with SN tbh. One size fits all is always a shit idea, whether that's about food, homework, behaviour management, etc.

that f'king makes me want to cry too sorrell

sorrell that is tragic

Thinking more about this over the weekend, and reading the news coverage, I'm starting to think there is almost an element of ghoulish delight in it - the middle classes enjoying the spectacle of the idiotic plebs feeding their lardy children with daily chips.

It's as if we're relieved that they are doing something that separates "them" from "us" - comforting ourselves with the relief that it would never happen in our nice middle-class schools. I feel more uncomfortable with my initial reaction to it now.

TBH
If schools are providing food it should be good food.
If parents want their kids ot eat processed food/fast food or whatever then they should have to get off their arses and get it for them.
So essentially I have no feelings (aside from being harshly judgemental about their parenting) about them bringing fast food to their kids.
I'm just glad mine are not able to access that same shit at school anymore and also that I do not have to pack a lunch every day for a teenager!

Ah I think you're onto something there UnquietDad- I've been uncomfortable with the simplicity of the message, as there are so many factors that can affect diet and eating, but yes there is certainly an element of crowiness (made up word but I like it) about the whole thing.

Which is why I keep banging on about doing something useful. like breakfast clubs and nurture groups, rather than just calling people names.

Exactly Undad - I can't stand that aspect of it -look at them - the great unwashed. We get it now, lets do something, which I know is what JO wants but the abuse that followed wasn't necessary.

Unquiet Dad
When I were a lass back in NZ 3 decades ago...
WE had "bought" lunch once a week
It consisted of
white bread thin ham sandwiches
Cream donut
milkshake (in NZ this means - thick icecream, milk and flavouring)
Now my mother usually gave me vogel bread cheese sandwiches, milk to drink and fruit.
So this was her compromise
Then from age 8 or so, we were allowed fish and chips (these were ordered and delivered to school - you paid on the day - very small portions compared to now)
This was FAB and we adored it
Now I walked 3 miles everyday to school
I did athletics, gymnastics and had two ponies which I rose after school until 7pm. And I swm 2-3 times a week as we had a school pool open all week after school and weekends.

Difference being, if you're idle and eat junk the consequences are much worse.

I can say this as now I am idle and no longer can eat fast food

UnquietDad
i think you are showing your lack of class by smugly looking down on people you see as below you.
not all working class people feed there kids crap.

The class thing didnt stand out to me at all. i live near a pretty big council estate and many of the people who live there might fall into the 'working class population'. the children at dds school dont have chocolate, or fizzy drinks no one is selling food though the fence.