Not healthy food served at daycare/pre-school

[Anonymous]

The parents bring snacks at ours and we were told they must be store bought prepackaged snacks. I would love to bring something healthy like fruit, they don't want it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

DP My mother always packed my lunch for school so I wouldn't have to eat the school lunch. It didn't make me sneak around or hoard food. It meant I had better food options and got used to eating fruits and vegetables. I still eat junk food but not to the level of my DH's family, all they eat is take out and fast food because that is what they are used to eating.

[Anonymous]

Not your job to be the food police just send your kid different snacks and make sure he’s not getting any of that disgusting processed junk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

Mine were raised with very little processed food and the times they’ve tried anything beyond crackers or potato chips they said it tasted like cardboard or plastic and spit it out. I never forbid them to eat anything I just usually make things from scratch and don’t buy many processed foods. If you raise your children with healthy home cooked meals and a focus on fresh whole ingredients that is what they will want to eat and learn to cook. They are old enough that if they ask to try something I sometimes buy it but they rarely ask. If they want a snack they know how to make brownies and cookies and a hundred other things from scratch and think they are much better than store bought that have been on a shelf for weeks. They don’t need to hoard food, they just get up and make whatever they want. Difference is mine don’t rely on frozen or prepackaged junk they grab a recipe and figure it out in the kitchen.

[Anonymous]

At my daughter's Montessori preschool parents took turns sending in snacks for the class. My daughter chose cantaloupe slices, one of her favorites. Her teacher told me later than most of the kids didn't eat them and my daughter ate as many of them as she could at 3 years old. Teacher thought that was amusing and cute.

That was 40 years ago.

[Anonymous]

If you tried to rope me into it, I’d ignore you and would thing you were a busybody. Like, if you want to send other food for your kid, go for it. Mind your business, stay in your lane and don’t try to make busywork for me. You want to be That Mom in the eyes of the daycare staff? You’re on your own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The parents bring snacks at ours and we were told they must be store bought prepackaged snacks. I would love to bring something healthy like fruit, they don't want it.

Raisins, no sugar added fruit pouches, nsa apple sauce, beef sticks, real fruit leather, mini Lara bars, hummus, prepackaged apples grapes or carrots, chia pouches, and yogurt are some things I send.

There’s healthy options, you just have to look for them. If they don’t want what I supply I would just stop sending food for everyone and focus on sending food for my kids.

[Anonymous]

Is your issue just with that snacks? What are breakfast and lunches like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

This is true. I’m a nanny who has been with the same family for 11 years. The mom eats once a day and won’t let the kids have sugar or carbs. Everything has to be gluten and sugar free. The 14 uses her allowance to buy junk food and hides gummies, chocolate and chips in her room. I find them, but do t say anything anymore. The mom is crazy about her eating distorder and the first time I brought up the food hoarding, she made her daughter do an unreasonable amount of exercise to ‘make up for it’. It’s really sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

Mine were raised with very little processed food and the times they’ve tried anything beyond crackers or potato chips they said it tasted like cardboard or plastic and spit it out. I never forbid them to eat anything I just usually make things from scratch and don’t buy many processed foods. If you raise your children with healthy home cooked meals and a focus on fresh whole ingredients that is what they will want to eat and learn to cook. They are old enough that if they ask to try something I sometimes buy it but they rarely ask. If they want a snack they know how to make brownies and cookies and a hundred other things from scratch and think they are much better than store bought that have been on a shelf for weeks. They don’t need to hoard food, they just get up and make whatever they want. Difference is mine don’t rely on frozen or prepackaged junk they grab a recipe and figure it out in the kitchen.

NP. Are you a SAHM? At what point did your kids start cooking snacks for themselves? Because geez, as much as I would like to make everything from scratch for my family, between working full time and taking care of two young kids in the evening/weekends the best I can typically do is make a batch of hummus or muffins. Although I generally pack my kids lunch, I let them have the snacks given out at daycare and aftercare/school because i simply don’t have time to make from scratch two snacks per kid per day. I’m sure they’d just want to eat goldfish like their friends anyway. And I can’t stop my older one from eating the sugar laden breakfast provided every morning at public school. I feel like the system is working against me and have given up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School lunch and snack are universally terrible in the United States. So unhealthy. Teach him to always eat his own fruit and veg snacks. Bring in a bagged lunch of fruit, veg, whole grains.

Just say no to junk! We are poisoning our children.

Depriving and forbidding junk food will just make them want it more. I agree it would be better if processes junk food ceased to exist but it is so pervasive that you need to accept it or your kids will start sneaking around and hoarding food.

Mine were raised with very little processed food and the times they’ve tried anything beyond crackers or potato chips they said it tasted like cardboard or plastic and spit it out. I never forbid them to eat anything I just usually make things from scratch and don’t buy many processed foods. If you raise your children with healthy home cooked meals and a focus on fresh whole ingredients that is what they will want to eat and learn to cook. They are old enough that if they ask to try something I sometimes buy it but they rarely ask. If they want a snack they know how to make brownies and cookies and a hundred other things from scratch and think they are much better than store bought that have been on a shelf for weeks. They don’t need to hoard food, they just get up and make whatever they want. Difference is mine don’t rely on frozen or prepackaged junk they grab a recipe and figure it out in the kitchen.

NP. Are you a SAHM? At what point did your kids start cooking snacks for themselves? Because geez, as much as I would like to make everything from scratch for my family, between working full time and taking care of two young kids in the evening/weekends the best I can typically do is make a batch of hummus or muffins. Although I generally pack my kids lunch, I let them have the snacks given out at daycare and aftercare/school because i simply don’t have time to make from scratch two snacks per kid per day. I’m sure they’d just want to eat goldfish like their friends anyway. And I can’t stop my older one from eating the sugar laden breakfast provided every morning at public school. I feel like the system is working against me and have given up.

This is neither here nor there to OP's question because a preschooler will not be baking on their own for their classmates, plus it's not even allowed for the preschool in question.

OP, in addition to the other suggestions provided, those Made Good granola bars aren't bad, and if they allow refrigerated snacks I like the Stonyfield Farms yogurt tubes (the whole milk varieties have less sugar).