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5.8 DS refusing to eat breakfast, but no snacks allowed at morning break.

108 replies

nappyaddict · 16/03/2012 10:38

Anyone else in the same boat?

He will sometimes eat fruit or yoghurt. If not he can sometimes be persuaded to drink a smoothie or glass of milk.

OP posts:
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nickelhasababy · 20/03/2012 13:05

because i don't believe that fruit only is enough.

nickelhasababy · 20/03/2012 13:05

i'm an adult, and i sometimes snack mid-morning.
when i eat a piece of fruit, i feel even more hungry!

3duracellbunnies · 20/03/2012 13:18

The OP's son doesn't seem to have a problem eating fruit, the problem, if I understand correctly, is that there is no food allowed in the morning break at all, so he has to go until lunchtime, but then gets lunch and free fruit after lunch. Ours have fruit mid morning, and no afternoon snack, but as it is only 2 hours after lunch before we collect them it doesn't seem to bother them.

OP have you tried asking the school whether either they could move the free fruit to the morning (which makes more sense in terms of spreading it out across the day for all children); or if you could send him in with a piece of fruit for morning snack? It is not in the school's interest to have a hungry child either.

Does your son or teachers actually report that he is hungry? DS is at home with me, so can eat later, but he just doesn't ask/ want stuff before lunchtime. His biggest sister would have been onto social services(!!!) if she hadn't eaten by 10am, he's just not bothered, so I don't make him.

silverfrog · 20/03/2012 13:25

nappy - when did ds start not eating breakfast?

is he anxious about school (even if not typically showing it)?
is he worried about feeling ill on the bus journey?

is he too full from tea the night before to eat (might be related to poo habits/routines)

is he generally a bit bunged up?

there could be lots of reasons why breakfast is not wanted. I find it very hard to eat when I wake, and it often leaves me feeling quite ill - I avoided breakfast for many years due to this.

what are his eating habits like at other meals? is there a pattern of what he is refusing taste/texture wise?

nickelhasababy · 20/03/2012 14:32

sorry duracell - was extrapolating based on what the others came in with. i didn't mean to confuse the two issues.

it is weird that they don't get the fruit in the morning.

MrsHeffley · 20/03/2012 18:41

Riverside my kids eat masses of fruit/veg. They certainly don't run rings round me,I've insisted they have carbs. They aren't in any way obese. Mid morning they need carbs.1 can't maintain weight,the other 2 get dizzy(as do I)if they go too long between meals.

3 GPs and 1 HV have told us going nearly 6 hours on fruit is ridiculous and few adults could manage it. From my experience of staffrooms most teachers bolt some kind of carb mid morning.

As I've said we've been told by several professionals that fruit is the worse thing to give mid morning because you get a sugar high followed by a dip.

I'd be more than happy to follow a permitted healthy snack list that included other food groups.I don't like the inference from fruit only rules that fruit is the only healthy snack as it's incorrect,in actual fact snacking on fruit too much is bad for teeth.

Making kids feel dizzy because of some misguided rule is cruel and bad for concentration.

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 11:20

I'd say it has been since he started reception and couldn't have breakfast at 9-10 like he does at the weekend.

OP posts:
NagoosBeenCleaningWindows · 23/03/2012 11:24

I'd try getting him up earlier then, so he has time to 'come round' before he is expected to eat?

tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 11:41

I had the same thing with DS2 when he started reception, he was used to having a smoothie and an orange at home at 7am and breakfast at day nursery at 8:30 so he did not want to eat breakfast at home so early.

I got him up 15 minutes earlier and made sure I had cereal and toast at the same time (I used to eat earlier)
It gave him a chance to wake up and we used to have a chat at the table at breakfast time.

I dont see how you can be annoyed that the school doesn't allow you to bring in any other snack as our school does the same thing, parents used to send their children with crisps, chocolate, cakes etc.
I know that's not what you want to send in but as the school have to promote healthy eating, it's better just to have a blanket rule of fruit only, your idea of a healthy snack might be very different to another parent.
Someone else could argue that their child needs to eat sugar, or biscuits, or cake at 11am, and believe their point is just as valid.

As for a doctors note...really??
Saying what? My child wont eat carbs at breakfast time so he HAS to be the only one allowed to bring his own snack?

Unless there's a medical reason i think that's a waste of drs time tbh, if you are that worried that you need to visit a doctor, then you need to change the structure of your morning and make sure they eat what you consider appropriate.

kistigger · 23/03/2012 13:45

It's an unfortunate infants policy... fruit might not be ideal for kids in the morning but the school has to be seen to be following government guidelines of promoting healthy eating. The problem falls when one child is allowed to bring an alternative snack, one child eating raisins or cheese when every other child has to have a tomato or satsuma is hardly fair even if the school have not had to pay for it! When the same child has a different snack to the rest every day, it simply singles them out and often sets them up for bullying because the other children begin to resent them.

Our junior school doesn't get provided with free fruit but they expect all children to take their own fruit in for morning break (or have nothing), anything that isn't fruit isn't allowed! But then at the end of the day if a child is really that hungry they would eat even if they didn't much like it. Most UK kids are so privileged that they can afford to be fussy, their parents indulge them (myself included) and are not so underweight/starved that it will hurt if they miss a meal!

Personally I don't usually eat breakfast, mostly cos I don't get/make time or if I do it's usually a biscuit on the run! It has never hurt me, I'm usually really hungry by 11 though, and if fruit was all that was on offer, frankly I'd have it (and I rarely eat fruit, prefer veg)!!! My kids aren't allowed breakfast before they are dressed for school (otherwise we would invariably have to send them in PJs) which gives them a while to be more awake before eating. DD as a toddler couldn't eat for at least 20mins after she woke up, she wouldn't talk either, almost like her brain had become disconnected from her body and therefore she could not function properly without space!!

I wouldn't worry too much though, if your child seems happy and healthy and eats well at other meals, it probably isn't that big a deal! Obviously not ideal them not eating until lunch time but not the end of the world either!!!

kistigger · 23/03/2012 13:52

You could try gradually moving your weekend breakfast time to nearer the weekday time, in the hope that ds body clock will shift. It might not work and potentially you'd have to get up earlier on the weekends but if it works then could be good for your own piece of mind!!!

exoticfruits · 23/03/2012 14:22

I agree with Chandon. Get him to sit at the table with breakfast-he probably has better alternatives at the moment. If he doesn't eat and doesn't have a snack he will have to wait until lunch. Either he will find it OK or he will eat breakfast.

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 16:12

We do sit at the table together. He leaves at 8.15 and he gets up between 6 and 7.

If he would eat a substantial breakfast I wouldn't worry about him not having a morning snack, or if he didn't eat his breakfast I wouldn't worry if he was allowed a morning snack. The problem is that no morning snack is provided, only an afternoon one of fruit and we aren't allowed to send one in for the morning.

OP posts:
tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 16:22

Maybe you will have to vary your morning routine til you find one that suits you both

Have you asked him what he would like to eat in the morning?
Maybe next time you go shopping he could choose a "school day" breakfast?

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 16:29

I offer him a variety of things, give him what he asks for and then he doesn't eat it.

We have tried:

playing, breakfast, dressed, playing.
playing, dressed, breakfast, playing.
playing, dressed, playing, breakfast.
playing, breakfast, playing, dressed
breakfast, playing, dressed, playing.

OP posts:
tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 16:30

Perhaps no playing until he has had breakfast-as in none at all?

TooMuchSnot · 23/03/2012 16:40

I think the policy of fruit only for morning snack is crap too. Small kids should have slow release carbs at morning break not a sugar high from a bunch of grapes, or, worse, raisins. Banana, oatcake, wholemeal toast etc are my view of a mid morning snack. My children have a healthy balanced diet but they only have "sugar-high" fruit or smoothies with or after meals.

tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 16:42

But the school have to have a healthy eating policy and if parents are told they can bring a snack, people will bring what they want.

tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 16:43

And isnt banana a fruit?

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 16:50

They could send out a list of acceptable healthy snacks that would be allowed.

If he doesn't eat breakfast which is most days at the moment he doesn't have time to play afterwards anyway. He does play before because otherwise I would have to give him his breakfast as soon as he got up and everyone's said on here it's best to give them time to come round first.

What do people think would be too late for dinner the night before to be hungry by 7:30 ish?

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tantrumsandballoons · 23/03/2012 16:55

They did this at our school- a cereal bar was misinterpreted as chocolate, rice cakes as actual cakes! They spent so much time checking the snack it was a joke.

Personally my DCs do not play, watch tv etc in the morning until everything is ready as otherwise everything takes so long, they don't want to stop playing to eat, shower etc.

Can't you get up, shower, dress for school, breakfast, brush teeth and then any time after that he can play?
Maybe he will get breakfast eaten quicker that way? That worked for me.

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 17:00

I hadn't tried that because then he'd be having breakfast within 10/15 mins of getting up and the consensus seems to be that they need 30 mins or longer to be ready for breakfast?

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colditz · 23/03/2012 17:04

Give him a couple of digestive biscuits, a big glass of full fat milk, and bingo. No worse than a bowl of cheerios (I checked)

nappyaddict · 23/03/2012 17:07
Grin
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MrsHeffley · 23/03/2012 17:07

My kids do eat breakfast but still feel ill mid morning on an apple.They don't each lunch often until 1pm.

A lot of schools have healthy snack policies that include other groups because errr that is a healthy snack policy-fruit only isn't.

It's perfectly easy to police,I've done it.On the list are things like cheese,oatcakes,breadsticks,fruit,veg-end of.The utter crap kids smuggle into our school under the guise of fruit(fruit strings,flakes,rolls all little better than sweets,often 50% sugar)sorry policing a list with carbs would be no harder,maybe easier.

I also take exception to the fact my dc have to sit next to other kids at lunchtime who have utter shite in their lunchboxes-it's double standards.