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.

'when you treat your teachers so badly that nobody with a brain in their head wants to do it.'

Eh? Forgive me if I don't pass that onto my very clever sister

I too am baffled by the outcry against fruit/veg (it was either at DCs primary school).
Some DC dont ever get fruit/veg at home-they have been here for tea and were very suspicious of satsumas !
My DC would have an apple,satsuma or carrot at breaktime or if there was a good game of football- they wouldnt bother

Eating well has nothing to do with "this is the time you must eat fruit".
the message in school is "if you are hungry you can have some fruit" not "it is 10.30 so you must eat fruit" which seems to be your argument.

No, earwigca, I think that anyone who spouts erroneous views rudely must be either lying or ignorant.

spidookly the children have a choice to eat it - noone is forcing them.
At my DCs school they had a choice usually of 3/4 different things each day.
We currently have an obesity epidemic in this country -look around you !

I am baffled too thefentiger! It shows the need for schools to have the policy!

mrz has the true point. My DCs always thought '10.30am time to play' and they wouldn't have wasted it eating fruit or any food. They made their choice and were quite happy with it. I can't see what is wrong with 'break time, if hungry have some fruit'.

I know mrz, and really, these days with the likes of aldi etc fruit especially is a lot more affordable, we don't spend a fortune on food each week but my dcs have a good, varied diet, it is doable. Sadly there will always be those who jsut don't care, I think schools should carry on offering fruit/veg as snacks but be slightly more flexible at break times.

Yes, it's very important to tell a hungry child that they aren't allowed to have any food except fruit.

Anything else is clearly spoiling them.

I mean, just imagine... children deciding for themselves what they want to eat. The filthy brats - make them eat what they are told! God forbid they be allowed to follow their own appetite and choose what kind of food they need right now.

Better stop all this blw nonsense - best start them off as we mean to continue = your appetite is not your own, you don't get to choose what you eat, you must force your body to conform with "society's expectations" of what you will eat when, and flexibility is weakness!

Not all children are the same. Is it really beyond the ability of English schools to be responsive?

In a decent system the op's issue here could be accommodated. Leaving 4 year olds hungry because of strict snack rules is barbaric.

It's as though some people get off on using rules to inflict pain on small children.

I'm not a fan of blanket policies. And I have concerns about eating fruit without something to neutralise the acids re tooth decay, but I never had a snack at primary school and survived. I do remember my mum (primary school teacher) sending me in with two biscuits for break and getting the bollocking of my life from Miss Walker. Because we weren't allowed anything.

I think the option of a healthy snack is good - I know from work people are much more productive when adequately fed and watered - but I don't like the idea of a single type of food. I think a bit of variety is healthy.

If there are concerns about what children are eating perhaps there should be a range of snacks provided by the school and children can choose something from the range? Funding would be an issue but a nominal charge for parents, with the children who don't have the most desirable homelife (for whatever reason) being funded. I understand some LEAs already do fund this sort of thing.

It is child cruelty to let them be hungry for a couple of hours!!

So sidookly what do you do if you put food in front of your child and they say I don't want that?

Spidookly, your posts are turning into parody - and I am now genuinely concerned that you may actually implode with spluttering indignation.

"It's as though some people get off on using rules to inflict pain on small children."

Oh don"t be so stupid!

I've just looked up previous comments from spidookly and don't think the person commenting on this thread can be the same person. The other one is rational.

'Leaving 4 year olds hungry because of strict snack rules is barbaric.

It's as though some people get off on using rules to inflict pain on small children.'

Is irrational.

'I suppose this is what happens when you treat your teachers so badly that nobody with a brain in their head wants to do it.'

Was in Sainsbury's a couple of years ago, with my DS. He watched a couple of older lads fill their trolley with pizzas, beer, crisps, beer, chocolate, crisps, fizzy pop, more crisps....
His eyes were like saucers.
'When I'm 18, I will be able to buy whatever I like to eat and no one will stop me!'
major excitement.
'Yes lad, but in the meantime, go and get the broccoli'

Goblinchild my son was on an exclusion diet while ASD/ADHD was investigated and when the hospital dietician asked him which food he wanted to add to his very limited diet he said ...
broccoli!

Oh yes mrz, DS would have a very special trolley selection.
Spaghetti bolognaise 7 days a week, followed by cold rice pudding and his own bodyweight in chocolate.
Fortunately I've manages to push his limits a bit. Including broccoli.

Sometimes I have to work until 11pm, so every now and then I force DD1 to stay awake until that time, just so she knows what it's like. She cried and says she's tired, but fuck her. A few hours of being tired never killed anyone.

I would imagine all this will go tbh, schools taking an interest in individual lunchboxes is all a bit last government...

mrz - bless him! DD loves broccoli too. It probably won't last (in my case, that is...)

spidookly I personally dont think of my or anyone elses DC as 'filthy brats' but I do think as a parent I should provide a healthy and balanced diet for my DC.

I view this in the same way that I need to teach them road/personal safety-its my responsibility.
Mine are now teenagers -they eat reasonable portions and we eat three meals a day-odd snack here and there. No foods are off limits and they mostly drink water.
They are both healthy in a society where we have an obesity epidemic -the issue is not that DCs are being offered fruit at school but that many parents have lost the skill of cooking and providing healthy meals and encouraging their DCs to make healthy choices.
What I see around me is that sugary drink,sugary cereal and junk have become the norm and the need for constant snacking followed by yoyo dieting (most of the women I work with)-It doesnt work of course !

Spidookily, scheduled feeding of babies does seem to come into fashion every now and then and some mums seem to do it. Many mums consider older babies who eat every 2 or 3 hours to be greedy and ready for weaning (not my view but I've seen it mentioned on baby forums)
I'd say that my kids were natural grazers but the practicalities of doing this at school would be a nightmare for cleaners and teachers/tas. My children turn down fruit sometimes which is fine by me. Going without food from 7:30 until noon is not child cruelty IMO as my kids get access to water.
I think that the fruit only thing has happened because some parents think that Haribo or Jaffa cakes count as fruit and gradually other children would start bringing that sort of thing in too. Interesting that some schools do toast. Does the teacher have toasters in the classroom? What do they put on the toast?
I think that the problem with healthy eating policy is that most food can be both. Fruit is high in sugar but contains vitamins. Yoghurt contains calcium but some are high in sugar. Squash either comes with sugar or aspartame and so on.

Like all these government directives they are actually aimed at the lowest common denominator. The parents who's children don't see a balanced diet, aren't offered breakfast and will be lucky to get more than some super noodles for dinner.

As usual the middle classes take it seriously and personally while the underfed, neglected children only find out what a fruit bowl is when they start school.

Far more effective to introduce selective breeding ;-)

spidookly am baffled by your last post