Whoever is against the healthy eating policy, say "I"...

[purpleduck]

Ok, well, I am not really against it, but it seems to be an excuse take away some of the kids rights.

For example, my dd had half a jam sandwich in her snack box. On whole wheat bread. This was after she had 3 portions of fruit for her breakfast, and was going to have another four in her lunch...
The LSA looked in her snack box, and said "That's not healthy.."

I am so angry!!! As a girl, my dd will face so much pressure about her body/diet etc - how dare they start her feeling anxious about it at age 6?

Now my daughter -who is a fantastic eater- is anxious about her snack.
I am fuming - she sits quietly through her lessons, does as she is told, and gets along with everyone...

While I agree in principle with promoting healthy eating, surely this should take the form of EDUCATION????
And if a child really is having trouble sitting still, THEN look at his/her diet.

I just feel my rights as a parent are being sidelined....

What do you guys think? Has it gone a bit far?

Seashells I agree, exercise is key too. That's never been a problem with my two, as if you leave them alone for more than about 10 mins they start wrestling with each other. In the UK they would also walk to school, spend their playtimes rushing about with their friends, have a good hour or so in the playground in good weather after school, and ds also did rugby and cross country running after school. They are both fit, healthy and thin. The trouble is that once you start to put on weight exercise becomes harder work and less fun. It's a vicious/virtuous circle.

I do think the healthy eating message has gone wrong somewhere down the line. Not particularly at school - I'm quite happy with the line that my two came back with, which was just food wheel stuff, general no crap rules and no policing at lunch. But many adults seem to buy into the diet food industry marketing rather than think about what they are eating. I think the simple if it has too many ingredients it is probably a) disgusting and b) not as good for you as the labeling claims is a good way of reasserting common sense in eating. Many people have very poor eating habits and are just unaware of how much they snack. Sometimes I think my mother's draconian rules (three good meals a day and a simple snack only after school) were probably right, much as it pains me to say..

Isn't it depressing when the things your mum said turn out to be true

I agree about diet foods. Stupid idea. Eat less, eat unprocessed, move a great deal more.

We will be having our CH turned down really low this year, and off for much longer because of the cost of gas. I'm sure won't be the only ones. Wonder if longterm that will help a tiny bit.

They should let them out of the classrooms more to run around in the playground.

Well, i don't have the lunchbox police where I am, but here's what I do: bottle of water into class, cereal bar for morning break (there's loads of fresh fruit available from the school for free as well), then for the lunchbox (ds won't eat school dinners because his tastes are simple and he can't be bothered waiting in the queue!): wholemeal bread/roll/or pitta with cheese/tuna/ or chicken, bag with a few cherry tomatoes/cucumber slices/carrot sticks, piece of fresh fruit and a small box of raisins. That's it! Then at pickup time from school I must come armed!!: popcorn or crisps, a couple of chocolate biscuits and a couple of rice cakes for good measure all consumed on the walk home with a stop off in the playpark for at least an hour!! My view is: healthy stuff in school (to reflect the fact that you are in a controlled learning environment), then once you're off school, you are more free to do and eat what you want: so through the course of the day, you kind of can have your cake and eat it too!!!

Reading this thread and the similar one just makes my blood boil. I have a daughter who has serious growth issues and we have had a lot of help from a nutritionist. Things they suggested she ate included sausage rolls, jaffa cakes and crisps. The only thing I have limited following the advice is crisps because I worry about the salt content, but generally she has a high fat/high calorie diet, and her behaviour really goes downhill if she doesn't get it. As soon as she starts school we are stuffed as far as I can see. I just don't know what we are going to do to get her through the day. I already know we won't be able to use the after school clubs because she will need feeding 'banned' foods as soon as school finishes. It seems that most schools these days will just undo all the hardwork we have put in. Our nutritionist taught us that there is no bad food and good food, but a balanced diet, and that balance needs to be different depending on who you are. Our daughter doesn't see chocolate as a treat or a bad food, just another food item, this is something else the school will undo for us when she starts.