How about the fat filled food they sell for lunch?

where is your child's school? I have been trying to get my school to adopt the "No junk food snacks" for quite some time with no avail. How did your school get thier policy?

Nancy,

I did an in-depth research paper last year on School Nutrition and the lack of healthy options, whether a la carte items or standard choices from the official school lunch program. A good place to start learning more about advocating to improve your school lunch program is the CDC's Making it Happen/School Nutrition Success Stories:

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/nutrition/Making-It-Happen/index.htm

Improving school breakfast/lunch nutrition is a critical area we need to address to lower the rising rate of childhood obesity.

Dawn,

We live in a south suburb in the Chicagoland area. Our preschool is in a different town/park district than our elementary school, but both institutions did a sudden about face for the 2007-2008 school year and instituted a "healthy snack policy". Same goes for the park district's recreational activities, too. Where exactly the impetus came from, I'm not certain. If you'd like to get in touch directly with our school district to find out more, here's the link:

http://www.troy30c.org/

Bev

Wonderful!!! The food Nazis strike again.

Now think about what you said "Now kids have a cheeseburger, fries and a milkshake then go home and play videogames all evening"....it is the same parents who make that choice, not the kids, and then complain about 1 stupid little cupcake, like its going to end the world if they eat 1. I agree with another comment I read, that Birthdays only come once a year, and so what if they eat one cupcake, I'm sure that the burger, fries and shake will wash it down once they return home. So how about we worry about the important stuff and leave the cupcake alone! And yes I have kids...4 of them all of which are very active and healthy and might I add I bring in cupcakes every birthday every year and offer other snacks to those who can't due to allergies. So, complain about it, I really don't care, because this world is out of control with all of this BS. We have people trying to change "Our constitution" and you worry about a cupcake. We have people saying there shouldn't be religion in schools, and you worry about a cupcake. Please GET REAL! This is our country, if we went to their country and demanded we make them change their ways becasue we live there do you really think they would? NO! Quit worrying about the 50 calories he/she may consume over 1 cupcake and worry about the 650+ you just fed him for dinner at your favorite fast food place. News Flash it isn't the cupcake that's making them fat, it's all the othr crap in our food that is. Why not ask the government to ask the farmers and food makers to stop adding hormones and chemicals to our foods.....yeah didn't think so.......

Well, obviously JRL's comment wasn't in response to mine specifically, but I find it hilarious that comments about fast food were written in reply to me. My sons don't eat fast food with any regularity. They have NEVER been to a McDonald's or Burger King, and NEVER had a fast food hamburger. We might do what would be considered fast food (Sonic, Wendy's or Jack in the Box) twice a month at the most, and it's usually not that much. Last night for dinner, I was feeling lazy, and opened a can of Annie's Organics spaghetti-O's stuff (which my husband had bought), and neither of them would touch it, but when I pulled the veggeis out of the microwave they chowed on broccoli, carrots and green beans.

The fact is, though, that I have no problem with treats in moderation - my sons both get a small piece or two of good dark chocolate every day, and we bake homemade cookies or brownies probably twice a month, and go out for ice cream once a month or so. The problem is, as others have stated, that most kids AREN'T having "treats" in moderation, and are eating cookies, cakes, candies, microwave meals, burgers, fries, sodas and other crap on a regular basis. My feeling is just why add to that, and bring cupcakes into the schools? For one thing, it gets to be so frequent that it's not even a treat anymore.

My understanding of the article, too, was that there were so many birthdays in a short time frame that kids were having "treats" several times a week. Add to that the birthday parties they are attending after school and on the weekends, and they are having baked sweets every day. Not a big deal, necessarily, if the overall diet is good, but face it, for most people it's just not, and this just adds to it.

Considering I am the oldest person in my mom's family to have not developed diabetes, high blood pressure or other diet-related health problems, and I am the only one to have maintained a healthy weight, I'm thinking maybe something I am doing must be working, so I'm going to stick to it. And give my kids yummy, home-baked goodies as treats in moderation.

my son is diabetic and if cupcakes show up at school he will either cheat or get horribly sad because he is left out. It depends on if he can convice some adult that he can just take another shot or not. I would love it if no junk would show up at school. Before his diagnosis I would have thought it was stupid.

I saw your post mentioned celiac? you and your husband must be of irish and italian descent? as are my husband and I, and our 1 yr. old was tested for it and thankfully he did not have it, now my other son is getting tested in May. I wish you the best of luck with your situation. I too agree with the food bans in schools.

I think it is stereotypical to say that kids nowadays only eat fattening foods and are lazy slobs. True, videogames and such make it harder to stay fit, but lots of kids play after-school sports and watch their diet. I feel that kids should be themselves and save the dieting for when they are adults. A birthday comes once a year and should be a special occasion for the birthday girl/boy.

Andrea,

Spoken like a true single person with no children!

Who said you can't ban them from playing video games and watching T.V. in the house all day? Yes, you can do that, you are the parent. Try taking away the games, or the controls to it. Power cords usually are needed as well. I may not be able to control what my kid eats or doesn't eat at school, but I can when he is at home. I don't care if he ate a cupcake at school. So what? It is not the responsibility of the school to watch you childs diet. Once again, YOU are the parent. Do your job. Remember when you do have children, you are the parent and you have control.

If you don't have kids, you shouldn't reply to the topic. Saying what you will do when you have kids and doing it are to completely separate things. Also, the vast majority of parents feed their kids better than the media wants to portray. If a couple of cupcakes are going to push your kid over the edge to you, then you are the one with food issues, not them.

When ever people post lots of advice, then follow up with "but I don't have kids yet" the comment "I used to know everything about children once too, then I had kids" comes to mind. It is just like "teenagers should move out now while they still know everything"

Now, on topic. I can see where the school is coming from. I don't agree completely banning cake, but can see placing limits or asking parents to go with alternatives also. My younger 2 kids classes, have designated a certain party every month. They tell the parents and the children that the last friday of the month at a certain time they will be celebrating all the birthdays for month and ask that if parents want to send something in, to please do it at that time.

It works quite well because there are sometimes several parents there to help supervise distribution and clean up. Some of the parents will opt to send in different things and if it is a really large class, it also cuts down on cost.