What I don’t understand is why they will police a child’s lunchbox contents but they don’t police bullying in the school. It’s one thing to educate children on the best foods to eat but ultimately leave it up to the parents. How about shaming the bullies?

Schools are taking way too much on themselves these days. They tried to do it to my parents when I was in primary school because I had a Petite Miam yoghurt- I would have thought that that would be reasonably healthy! In all honesty, the fact that the muffin was gluten free would have meant that it would have already been a little healthier and the occasional treat is fine so long as it’s not every day. I also don’t particularly like the whole ‘nut free’ thing in case other kids are allergic- I’m not asking anyone else to eat my child’s food. I’d really like the freedom to decide what my kid eats.

It is all becoming a bit too far-fetched. The schools need to back off and mind their business.

I don’t think it is the role of the any school to dictate what should be in a lunch box – excluding where serious food allergies are a concern. Parents do the best they can with what they have access to and this kind of behaviour is increasingly becoming a problem.

Crazy, the poor mum has to provide Gluten Free food for her child and is shamed in making a GF muffin, simply crazy.

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  • • june11 replied
    • 04 Mar 2018 , 5:17 am

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  The chocolate chips in gluten free food is very high quality cocoa with no bad additives like other chocolates have. They also have a lower sugar content.
  Did the teacher even bother to ask why the child had gluten free food? There is a piece of fruit and celery in the lunch box, probably healthier than most kids have. I hope the teacher didn’t touch the food at all or he/she most likely cross-contaminated it and the child wouldn’t be able to eat it at home either. The ingredients to make gluten free food are more expensive than those that contain wheat, oats, rye or barley too. Flour can be up to double the price. Some are also lactose intolerant. Their milk is approx double the price too unless it is on special. That includes cheese, yoghurt, cream, icecream.

This lunch box thing is over the top. When the teachers start teaching PE [Physical Education] again and having a sports afternoon once a week, THEN they can tell me what to feed my child and not before.

I don’t think schools have any business commenting on children’s lunch boxes. Yes if there are allergies like nuts or etc but for goodness sake, are they accredited dieticians? This is a snapshot of a child’s overall food for the day. Food is neither good nor bad – there are sometimes foods. How would that teacher know if that muffin was made from chickpea flour??

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  • • mom93821 replied
    • 17 Feb 2018 , 5:46 pm

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  Thank you! Exactly – food is not good or bad and it does not help to set food up as good or bad.

There are children starving in the world and a gluten free muffin is being sent home!

I’d be sending my own note back to the teacher with the recipe for the gluten free muffin and a request for the teacher to do my shopping and a time table for when she can come to my home to pack my child’s lunch box.

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  • • cherz replied
    • 17 Feb 2018 , 1:09 pm

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  LOVE this response te he.

My first thought is : Really ? None of the schools business !
First of all we all have different opinions about what is healthy and what not and how much of that is ok or not.
By the way, what does the school know what ingredients this homemade Gluten free Chop Chip muffin had ??!

Teachers have enough on thier plates without adding to the workday list. Where do we drawcthe line of schools dictating to parents.vit was bad enough when my now adult children were at school but it has got worse. Judge the whole lunch box if you must judge at all. Children need to move more and run around. A little sugar is then not going to cause obesity.when I think of some of the so called unhealthy foods we ate as kids and we’re as skinny as takes it was not sugar that was an issue. We burnt it off running around playing outside. We used to eat white bread and dripping off the roast for afternoon tea and love it then burn it off running around. I can’t stand it now but is it because we are so brainwashed that it is bad for us. Children are so wrapped in cotton wool and delivered from one activity to the next instead of walking there or running around. Life styles in general are a big culprit2 to obesity. We no longer get up to change channels and we use remotes for so many appliances that we can sit on our bums and control almost anything. Children get taken to school instead of walking or riding to school. Some schools no longer let children play before school and they have to sit in lines until school starts. They get bored and open Thier lunchboxes. They run out of food so mumpacks extra. I work in schools and see this all the time. I am not a teacher but see how much they already have to fit into thier days. Let parents parent but encourage some old-fashioned activity.

I support schools helping kids and families in making healthy choices although it is going to be very hard to “police”. And begs the question what is the ‘gold standard’. Just look at the experts who argue paelo versus vegan. They are poles apart and have very good reasons for their diet recommendations. It turns out one diet suits one person more than another and both are to be praised for the common “non-processed” food emphasis, i.e. home made and you put in what you want to be there. And yes we all need more education about ‘good food’ choices, perhaps especially teachers, before we can understand what might be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in a given situation.

I would read the note and then discard the note – I am the parent and I will decide what I pack in my kids lunch boxes – I won’t be dictated to by school principals – everything in moderation – at least it was a homemade gluten free choc chip muffin rather that some over processed piece of rubbish muffin from the supermarket!

I believe this fixation on ONE treat being included in an otherwise ‘healthy’ lunchbox may lead to eating disorders in later life. As I’ve posted elsewhere, the HARDEST thing a person struggling to recover from an eating disorder, is to STOP classing foods as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Instead, if a teacher must judge the contents of a child’s lunchbox, then look at it as a whole, don’t zoom in on ONE treat, that isn’t going to cause obesity. Overeating, even so called healthy foods, aided by inactivity is the cause of obesity. Look at the size of dinner plates of yesteryear compared with those of today, the entree plates of old are the size of the sandwich plates now, and the dinner plates are HUGE! Of course they are filled to capacity. Children at school are discouraged from running around during recess, resulting in increased use of medication for ADHD and also increasing waistlines! Instead of making silly rules like ‘no playing chasey’, ‘ no running’ etc encourage children to run and expend their natural energy during recesses etc instead of medicating them to make them sit still in class and shaming their parents for including a treat in their lunchbox…

Schools need to back off. Parents are the providers of food for their children and it’s none of the schools business.

I find it hard enough trying to figure out what to put in my kids lunch box every day when they are extremely picky eaters. I try to find alternative healthier options but it’s not easy. Who cares if there’s a little sugar. I don’t think teachers should shame parents. I’m all up for educational programs to teach kids about healthier options.

I really think it’s not the teacher’s place to question our kids’ lunchboxes!!