My ravenous child is only allowed fruit at snack time. I am furious.

[Avocadoes]

My 4 year old DD started Reception class last week. She seems very happy but also very hungry. She is not a great breakfast eater, no matter how hard I try, so at home she used to get a mid morning plate of toast to boost her energy. At school her mid morning snack must be fruit and nothing else. Is that normal?

On her first day I sent her in with sliced apple and raisens. She ate them all, ate all her lunch, but still came home at 3.30pm starving. She then consumed two slices of toast and ate three large plates of spag bol at dinner time.

The next day I put dry cereal (Raisen Wheats) in her snack box to give her some carbs. She came home and told me the teacher had told her she wasn't allowed to eat it. She was very embarrassed about this.

When I dropped her off on the third day I asked the teacher what I could give her to fill her up mid morning. The teacher said it had to be fresh fruit or veg.

AIBU to think a growing child should be allowed a proper energy boost mid morning? I am not suggesting chocolate or crisps, but a health bar, or crackers, or dry cereal should surely be allowed.

sorry I didn't know they were trained as dietitians mrz

Oatcakes/sandwich ither,doesn't bother me.

The fact is as humans we are all different with different bodies, metabolisms,blood pressure etc. Fruit/veg are not the only healthy foods. A lot of kids need carbs-I do,my kids do.

My kids would rather take the consequences but as a mother I worry about my son's weight loss and concentration-that's my job. Kids have a history of not always choosing what is best for them. Eating a huge breakfast(they eat a tiny amount) makes the 2 in question feel yuk so being kids they choose to feel yuk later instead. That isn't the best for them. I want them to be full of energy to get the best out of the school day.

My dp as I said cycles to work on a banana but he has a healthy snack at 10am. It's the way his body works best.

I am sure that in their school career there will be battles worth fighting. What they eat at break isn't one of them. I doubt very much if we interviewed the DCs of the outraged parents on here that they could care less!

The dictate by schools on what and what isn't allowed really irritates me but it doesn't actually do DS any harm. He is allowed fruit/veg/yoghurt/cheese/bread sticks etc for his mid morning snack so I guess his school is not as strict as others but he still comes home starving.

I've started paying for him to have hot dinners most days as he seems to eat more and also gets a pudding. Which is he takes a packed lunch is options for pudding are more limited.

you would have if you were a teacher ivykaty

Yog/cheese/breadsticks Chou I'm sooooo .

I'd be thrilled if my dc could have that,don't get why they can't to be frank. I don't want my kids eating crap just a handful of cheese cubes or breadsticks along with his/her fruit.

"The next day I put dry cereal (Raisen Wheats) in her snack box to give her some carbs"

Fruit is carbs. It is just about all carbs.

Avocadoes,
The school should have stated their food policy BEFORE your child joined (in September?).
They ought to tackle any problems with YOU the parent face-to-face and not embarrass your child.
If your child really cannot face breakfast how about a milkshake?

It's usually in the prospectus, ours is!

:o

pmsl at cereal bars being stuffed with sugar in the form of fructose

um, guess what sugar is in fruit?

I would question how many DCs want something messy and difficult to eat for break. Mine wouldn't even have yoghurt for lunch when they were young, it took too long to eat.
Most DCs don't have the interest in food that adults do, they merely want to be free to play.

Ours just states "in line with government guidance"

Yes Spid but there is a higher concentration of sugar(often other sugars too) buggar all fibre(as most are those rice pop things) and quite a lot of fat. Half of those cereal bar ingredient lists are the entire packet long,crammed full of crap. Would far rather my dc have fructose in it's normal apple sized form and amount.

young children get yoghurt down their tops when sitting at the lunch table so I wonder how much would reach their mouths in the playground

My ds's teacher asked for more substantial snack to be sent in with ds as he was found eating the entire fruit bowl and still complaining to the teacher that he was hungry . He takes in a very substantial snack and always eats it and always eats 2nds of the school dinner. He is still underweight so he needs many more calories than other children (and more than me ).

If my dd has even a banana mid morning she won't eat lunch.

Every child is different and schools should respect this.

CRUST: WHOLE GRAIN OATS, ENRICHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE [VITAMIN B1], RIBOFLAVIN [VITAMIN B2], FOLIC ACID), WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR, SOYBEAN OIL (WITH TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID FOR FRESHNESS), HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, SOLUBLE CORN FIBER, SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, WHEY, WHEAT BRAN, SALT, CELLULOSE, POTASSIUM BICARBONATE, PROPYLENE GLYCOL, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, WHEAT GLUTEN, CORNSTARCH, NIACINAMIDE, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, CARRAGEENAN, ZINC OXIDE, REDUCED IRON, GUAR GUM, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), THIAMIN HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN (VITAMIN B2), FOLIC ACID. FILLING: HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, CORN SYRUP, STRAWBERRY PUREE CONCENTRATE, GLYCERIN, SUGAR, WATER, SODIUM ALGINATE, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, CITRIC ACID, NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVOR, SODIUM CITRATE, DICALCIUM PHOSPHATE, METHYLCELLULOSE, CARAMEL COLOR, MALIC ACID, RED #40.
sounds yummy

That's what Frubes were invented for

Spid too much fructose has links with diabetes. Orange juice is highly concentrated with fructose which is why an orange is better and too much jucie is not good.

Check out the contents of Kellogs Cocopops bar(my link probably won't work,they never do) but I lost count at 6 sugars(including fructose)-

www.kelloggs.co.uk/products/cocopops/bar/coco_pops_coco_rocks_bars.aspx

Ooooo it does,you need to clink on product details.

High fructose corn syrup in mrz's link is very,very bad and to be avoided.

No idea if it's hfcs in the Kellogs one but the abundance of other sugars along with it would probably make it contain far more sugar(and crap) than a chocolate bar.

Wouldn't touch one with a bardge pole for my dc but a few breadsticks and cheese cubes.... not a lot to ask really.I can see no reason why they couldn't be on the allowed foods list.

Earwiga: "Blu - did your child start eating fruit because of this school rule?"

No, he absolutely did not! I gather he occasionally ate a strawberry when they were on offer (his school offer free fruit and veg at break times and always have a range). He managed til lunch time.

However, he has started to eat a greater range of fruit and veg as he has grown older. And always ate stuff that he liked at home, but it wasn't a very school-friendly selection.

Many of the children attending our primary school come from chaotic backgrounds. Insisting that children have this or that or the other in their lunchbox would mean many children at the school having to go without altogether. This isnt about cost, the school has a very high entitlement to free school meals but such is the chaos in many of the children's lives that this entitlement is often not taken up.

Thankfully the head is very aware of this. He is encouraging healthy eating through school lessons rather than ill informed restrictions on packed meals.

Except this thread is about mid morning snack for a fopur year old GnomeDePlume not packed lunches

Aren't most schools flexible in the case of kids whose needs vary substantially from average? (eg can't eat fruit/starving hungry etc)

dds' school has fruit/veg for mid morning snacks, but aged 4 (nursery and reception) they have a 'fruit bar' with fruit, water, milk for snacking as needed. I know of one little boy who was losing weight/not eating: his mother asked for him to have extra snacks, he got them. One of dd1's friends in Y2 had multiple allergies, and he had different snack whilst others had fruit. Etc.

Still, as snack is provided by school/the state, it has to be simple and best for the majority: fruit seems to work well.

My DD had a real problem with this as she needed a mid-morning boost and doesn't do well on a fruity sugar rush.We cleared it with the head and she was allowed to take in plain oatcakes.