My four year old is ONLY allowed to bring CRISPS for a playtime snack. Is this normal? Or am I weird...

[savoycabbage]

Have had information pack from the Infant school that my dd will be starting in September. The school says that they provide fruit for all of the children that want it and if you want you can bring a packet of crisps for morning break. Nothing else. Not a nice home-made flapjack or a biscuit. We are going to the parent's meeting soon and I can't decide if I should say something or not as there is NO WAY MY CHILD IS EATING FIVE PACKETS OF CRISPS A WEEK FOR THREE YEARS!!! But I sometimes have difficulty in deciding if I am normal or not.....I don't want to make a tw*t of myself before she even starts. What do you think?

Twiglett what you said before about the penguins and the flapjacks does make me see things in a different way. I can see where they are coming from a little bit more.

Am liking the homemade vegetable crisps idea. Although I haven't got a fryer. You can get them in sainsburys though I think. Am also considering popcorn as a loophole alternative.

Sooooo, shall I say something at this meeting or keep my mouth shut and see what happens. What CAN I say without making myself sound like a weirdo?

you have to say something.

for the sake of the childrens health!
ok thats maybe OTT but ykwim

We only allow fruit

The schools have to assume all parents are thick because a minority are.

That's why they've phrased it so badly.

Ask them how it fits in with their Healthy Schools agenda.

I would not want my children to eat crisps on a daily basis.Its a bad habit to get into.

DS starts in September and all the children can have fruit from the fruit scheme box in the morning, and they are allowed to take in their own fruit / veg as well if they want.

They are apparently not allowed to take anything else for break.

I must admit I did wonder whether or not DS would make it through til lunchtime without anything more substantial....at the moment, he is at nursery every day and they usually have toast and fruit or raw veggies at snack time.

I find it difficult to get from breakfast to lunch wihtout eating at least two snacks though, so I tend to think no-one can

I would just ask, along the lines of

"Can I ask, why are the children allowed to bring in crisps at break, but not anything else that might be more nutritious?"

And see what they say.

just be aware that schools don't like yogurt / chocolate / cheese for the potential melting / mess everywhere

nuts are a no-no

I'd ask how they feel crisps fit into the healthy eating strategy

oh and cheese is seen as a junk food nowadays

We allow yoghurt, cheese and nuts in my school but not for snack only lunch.

It's probably because chocolate etc is not allowed and if you say flapjacks are then people will send in biscuits etc.

I wish ds1's mainstream school had had this rule we had all sorts of problems when he was there because he wasn't allowed to eat any of the 5 items of food he would eat.

Seems both weird to encourage crisp eating and to make you fill out a form for the fruit and vegetables scheme. I wonder if they have their healthy eating scheme quite right?

id rahter my child had a piece of chocolate than a bag of crisps

i am thinking possibly they wnt parents to fill out forms for the fruit scheme so they kow how much to order maybe? dunno

but then thats ridiculous

they should order for every child and ENCOURAGE

I should ask them about their Healthy Schools Award.

our nursery doesn't allow sweets, biscuits or crisps in lunchboxes.they give the children milk and fruit and you are only allowed to send in sandwiches and yogurt. i like this system as it takes off the pressure to have junk

BTW its a parent run nursery and they voted for this

Utterly ridiculous. I'd refuse. Point balnk refuse. I'd send in a healthy snack of MY choice and they could lump it.

Schools receive fruit for all infant children without the need for parents filling in forms.

I would rather she had chocolate than crisps too Nailpolish. Hadn't really thought about the strangeness of filling in a form for the fruit.....They know how many kids there are. It may be the wine talking but Thomcat is making a good point! They can lump it because I am not sending in bloody crisps. It is ludicrous. I think I will ask them about it in a nice passive way and about their Healthy Eating Policy too. Am desperate not to make a w**nker of myself before she even starts though. There will be plenty of time for that.

I don't think they're saying you have to send in crisps though are they? They're just offering it as an alternative for children who don't want fruit (and before people start there can be some very good reasons why fruit isn't going to work for everyone).

It's very odd. As far as I know dd gets fruit or nothing - we don't have the option of sending an alternative. And I didn't have to sign for her to have it.

She's going on a school trip next week and that specifically says NO CRISPS for the mid morning snack that we have to send.

Well it's a stupid alternative I think. But, no they are not saying you have to have them I am just trying to find out if this is normal as I was a bit, well horrified I suppose but I couldn't tell if I was being over the top.

It would have been helpful for us when ds1 was in mainstream. He's severely autistic and at the time he was in mainstream would only eat 5 items of food. He had been eating those 5 items for about 3 years. Food restriction is very common in children with autism.

So he would eat crisps. But he wasn't allowed to eat crisps - it had to be fruit. But he wouldn't eat any fruit. He wasn't allowed crisps as 'it wouldn't be fair on the other children', although he was never anywhere near the other children - usually he was in a room or the playground by himself - so it would have been no problem. And really ime most children actually understand that a child who can't talk at all can sometimes operate under different rules if it's explained to them. Incidentally he wasn;t allowed to use the disabled toilet either (so the most disabled child in the school wasn't allowed near it) because that wouldn't have been fair on the other children either.

So he's arrive home from school having eaten nothing all day and not having been to the toilet all day. Luckily he moved to a special school and actually given a year and starting with a crisp and a tiny piece of baked bean sauce on that crisp his diet was slowly expanded with 1:1 work every day- it took over a year but he now eats very well.

So yes generally the fruit rule is a good one, and certainly my other children take fruit and its fine. BUt a little bit of flexibility can be good- especially in an inclusive school.

The fruit rule is generally a good

Jimjams - I am very interested in your experiences with your son and crisps. A friend of mine has three boys under 7. The middle one is autistic. All three of them seem to exist on crisps, pasties and fruit shoots