teachers feeding kids too much junk

[binfoco]

@sweetheart5703 Thank you! Really helpful response

 

[christianpurpose]

@binfoco I get what you’re saying, the amount of crap my kid brought home for valentines was terrible, plus the next day it was someone’s birthday. The great thing is my kid has now decided she doesn’t like the unhealthy stuff because it makes her stomach upset. She’s learned some consequences the hard way, but we control the controllable and pack her lunch and snack.

 

[babygems]

@binfoco Yes, it’s horrible at my kid’s school too. He comes home with suckers or mini bags of candy a couple times a week, and I know they use candy as a reward in class. Not to mention the holiday party food. Children rely on adults to feed them. They’re, like, at the mercy of adults. It makes no sense to me that people choose to feed them crap. It’s easy and cheap and kids like to eat it, I guess is the answer.

Everyone is right - what are you going to do about it? But that’s exactly the frustration. I agree it’s not worth homeschooling over, and as long as other people are willing to provide candy, kids are going to choose that over whatever you might bring in as another option. It just sucks that the junk is so EVERYWHERE.

 

[binfoco]

@babygems I cant wait til he's a bit older to understand to make decisions for himself about it.

 

[babygems]

@binfoco Who would downvote this, what the heck.

 

[binfoco]

@babygems Yea idk. Its a 0 now. I saw earlier it was at -3 oh well.

 

[x_sam_x]

@binfoco The snacks at my daughters preschool are terrible too. Graham crackers, Oreos, apple juice, etc. Just stuff with no nutritional value. It does bother me but it’s only twice a week, so I figure if I’m giving her healthy snacks every day she’s not there, it’s not a big deal. If she was there every day that would be a different story. I don’t even know if there are preschools that do healthy snacks though honestly!

 

[christianpurpose]

@x_sam_x The only pre schools I’ve seen do healthy snacks is Montessori or BYO.

 

[louise55]

@binfoco I just wanted to chime in because I know you mentioned being low income and not having choices about schools…I live in a bougie, upper middle class area and my kids go to private school and it’s the same damn thing lol.

We just let them eat it. At least at our school it gets better in the older grades.

 

[binfoco]

@louise55 Thats what i am hoping for. In the older grades ill be able to send him with a lunch rather than him just automatically handed a bag of food. Thank you!

 

[ecclesiastian]

@binfoco Occasional sweets on special occasions will not harm your kid.

Being isolated from social celebrations is probably more harmful.

 

[crossroads100]

@binfoco I definitely wouldn’t keep my child home from the events just because of what they are serving. Here’s what I do with my kid (almost 4) to prepare him/help him learn about these types of situations. I let him know that artificial dyes and so much sugar aren’t good for your body. It’s okay to have some here and there but you won’t feel great if you have it often and then I let it go. I can’t control everything all the time-as he gets older I want to have at least tried my best to inform him to make the best choices for his body.

 

[abnormal2001]

@crossroads100 I also have talked with my kids about the fact that it’s ok to only eat some of a treat, and if you want to save parts for another time, or just don’t want to finish it, that’s ok. I think sometimes kids get caught up in “I have to have this now or I won’t get it at all!” but consistency of “you can have a little tomorrow/you don’t have to eat a whole treat, there will be some another time” works wonders—but you do need to actually let them have a little another time (though I will say about 75% of the time mine forget about it and we end up tossing whatever it was once it’s stale).

 

[binfoco]

@crossroads100 Thank you! I started showing him the label at the grocery store when he asks for certain things, and i show him what ingredients are in there that are not good. Then i find a comparable organic or not so processed food of the same variety and let him buy that one. Thankfully.in this day and age, that's a possibility. 20 years ago, there just weren't many options like there are now.

 

[valdenice]

@binfoco Former K teacher here. For birthdays, parents sent in cupcakes typically but we always requested them to be the mini ones. That didn't always happen but most parents understood and followed through. As for holidays, we always tried to have some fruit and other snacks, nuts, pretzels, etc that weren't pure junk. Of course there were sweets too. But this was at most like once a month in terms of holiday celebrations, maybe twice to three times a month at most for birthdays, definitely not weekly. Idk why your child's teachers would be okay with all this junk- it makes the kids crazy with all the sugar. I have seen it firsthand where the quietest kid in class is losing it due to sugar overload. I also always stressed to my parents the importance of sending in a healthy snack each day with protein to sustain their LO until lunch time. Most kids lunches though were inundated with sugar, more so the packed lunches than the ones from the cafeteria. I'm talking yogurt, fruit snacks, juice, PBJ, cookies, brownies literally sugar in every single thing. It drove me nuts!

 

[sarahsknight]

@binfoco As far as the school soap goes - I worked in public schools for years, and that pink shit absolutely wrecks my hands. I’d have nice hands all summer, then come in for the first day of preplanning, and my cuticles would be shredded by lunchtime after washing my hands maybe 5 times. I had one student who got eczema on their hands, and I think the soap was a trigger for them.

The only solution I ever found was to bring my own gentle hand soap and use that to wash my hands instead, along with using O’Keeffe’s Working Hands hand cream every night (but it has a formaldehyde releaser as a preservative, so I don’t use it on my kids). I just put the soap in a little travel bottle and hung it on my lanyard. The thing is, it could be dicey to have him bring his own soap, because he’s so little, and keeping track of it without forgetting or losing it might be a challenge. It also has the potential to make a big mess. If his classroom has their own sink or restroom, you might be able to request to provide a gentle soap for him to use instead, but because of OSHA issues, the school might not allow you to provide soap for any other students, particularly if it’s fragranced. So you can ask, but I wouldn’t expect them to be willing or able to do much there. Although you could check with his doctor, as if he does have a health condition like eczema or an allergy to that soap, then they might be more willing to switch to something else.

The hand soaps I had the most luck with were Clearly Natural Essentials and Dr. Bronner’s sugar soap - both unscented. But the Dr. Bronner’s is brown, so has more potential for mess.

 

[binfoco]

@sarahsknight Thank you! This actually just started up a couple weeks ago so idk if they started using something different there or if hand washing habits changed but ill have to ask the teacher. I have been using the borage advanced healing or something like that, along with babyganics eczema spot treatment because some of it on his wrists does look like eczema which he used to have and i thought was gone forever.

 

[knowthespirit]

@binfoco It blows my mind how much terrible food is accessible to children in an educational setting. Like what teacher wants a class full of kids hyped up on sugar? Without saying, we all know how important nutrition is for children’s learning. Oh boy!

 

[binfoco]

@knowthespirit Yes i was shocked the first time they gave him a blue cupcake at school without even asking me. He was only 3! I never gave him anything like that. I buy stuff from sprouts, trader joes, or whole foods, when it comes to bakery stuff. Or i make it myself.

And he came home with a whole bag full of various gmo candy and chocolate on valentines day. He let me throw it away though and he had a stomach ache for like 2 days poor thing.

Then they keep telling me has a problem with running in the classroom and knocking things over and laughing
Like gee i wonder why! You give him rainbow cereal for breakfast every morning as soon as he arrives!

 

[katrina2017]

@binfoco I’m amazed they give kids that young candy and sugary cereal in this day when we’re trying to battle childhood obesity. My sister’s fiancé comes home from work at 8pm and immediately gives his daughter Fruit Loops and turns on cartoons. And yet, somehow, my sister has trouble putting her to sleep after. It really makes me mad, but I try not to tell other parents what to do. I would raise a stink if my kid regularly got a lot of sugary snacks (not just holidays). He’s only 15 months, we’ll see how the schools in our area are. Right now we can’t even get in, we’re on 4 waitlists.