Frustrated with snacks at otherwise wonderful arlington preschool

[Anonymous]

The only one abscribing the value judgment is the daycare parents who seems ashamed of the way "daycare". Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it sounds like daycare, not preschool. Preschools families take turns bringing in snacks and they only have the one snack.

What they are serving is normal. They would have to charge a lot more tuition to cover serving organic berries and cheese cube---more expensive to purchase and you have to pay someone to prepare them. 90% of families find those snacks perfectly healthy and acceptable.

Haha maybe at your preschool - our preschools serve the snack (country day school in McLean, village green in great falls, lank in reston - no parents bring the snacks!!)

Ours serve the snacks because it is easier and safer allergy wise.

[Anonymous]

I'm in a small daycare (only kids over 18 months though) and they have two snacks and serve lunch. Morning snack is fruit and crackers. Afternoon snack is yogurt or homemade cottage cheese and fruit.
Lunch is soup, salad and a meat/fish entree or veggie pancake with a side of potatoes/rice or pasta.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you op. I’ve fought this fight and lost. At my house I only serve fruit and occasionally cheese as a snack. When I’m making dinner they get cut up vegetables.

I’ve learned that they eat trash at daycare but eat so healthfully for me so I hope it lasts. I can’t afford any better and my daycare serves chicken nuggets, tater tots, fish sticks and cheese quesadillas for lunch. All of it is awful and nothing my family would ever serve.

[Anonymous]

OP, why don't you send in a few bags of apples, oranges, peaches and some containers of strawberries for all the kids. Same with some cheese. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Ours has a pretty healthy menu. No frozen foods or fried things and no sugary things like cookies or sugary cereal. Fruit and veggies daily. No juice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, why don't you send in a few bags of apples, oranges, peaches and some containers of strawberries for all the kids. Same with some cheese. Problem solved.

She needs to send everything washed, cut up and ready to serve fresh each morning. For the whole school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, what snacks would you want your child to have? Can you pack your own?

Our Arlington preschool was pretty limited in what they could provide because it wasn’t an authorized food service provider (or some phrase like that). I sent in my own, following the allergies and safety restrictions (cut grapes, no popcorn, etc).

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have sent some snacks with my son - cheese, chopped up grapes, berries, sliced apples, carrots etc. He usually loves eating these but so far they have come back barely touched. I think its because he just wants to eat what everyone else is eating =) He is a social eater and also doesn't like feeling different. Completely understandable I guess.

Based on what everyone is saying it seems like this is the norm.

Let's look at your snacks and whether they're feasible for an entire preschool:

cheese -- not okay for the kids who are allergic to dairy
chopped up grapes - not feasible to chop enough grapes for an entire preschool
berries -- tend to go bad quickly, so not feasible for a preschool that can't get fresh fruit delivered every other day. Plus a lot of kids are picky about berries other than strawberries so some kids won't eat them, and strawberries can be an allergen
slice apples -- like grapes, too much work to ask for an entire preschool every day
carrots -- half the kids won't eat them, and have to be sliced length-wise for younger kids so they're not choking hazards (like grapes)

[Anonymous]

What school is your child going to? Mine go to Children's Montessori house. The meals are served by the good food company. Snacks consist of fresh fruit, a carb and a protein. Sometimes they will serve crackers or what not but most of the snack is healthy. Here is their lunch menu for last year: https://www.montessoriofarlington.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lunch-calendar-Feb-Sep-19.pdf

Everything they eat for lunch is whole grain. There is fresh fruit and they serve greens. Its not perfect but I've been satisfied with what they serve. Perhaps talk to the director and see if other parents are the same. People who think that what you listed is healthy are deluded and probably love feeding their kids crap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What school is your child going to? Mine go to Children's Montessori house. The meals are served by the good food company. Snacks consist of fresh fruit, a carb and a protein. Sometimes they will serve crackers or what not but most of the snack is healthy. Here is their lunch menu for last year: https://www.montessoriofarlington.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Lunch-calendar-Feb-Sep-19.pdf

Everything they eat for lunch is whole grain. There is fresh fruit and they serve greens. Its not perfect but I've been satisfied with what they serve. Perhaps talk to the director and see if other parents are the same. People who think that what you listed is healthy are deluded and probably love feeding their kids crap.

OP is complaining about snacks, not lunch. I’ll note the photo of a typical snack on your preschool’s website includes animal crackers.

[Anonymous]

Just wanted to throw in some support since other people are making fun of you - this would bother me too. Pretty common though. At my child’s daycare/preschool whatever you want to call it, they participate in making their own snack with ingredients the parents take turns providing. There is a fruit or a veggie, then something like a biscuit which I didn’t like the idea of at first (fine on occasion but weekly?) but now I think it’s cute that the two year olds are pouring out their own ingredients and stirring etc. Anyway - you’re not wrong to feel this way, but at least everything else about the place is great, and of course a few graham crackers while not ideal are not going to be a problem in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So it sounds like daycare, not preschool. Preschools families take turns bringing in snacks and they only have the one snack.

What they are serving is normal. They would have to charge a lot more tuition to cover serving organic berries and cheese cube---more expensive to purchase and you have to pay someone to prepare them. 90% of families find those snacks perfectly healthy and acceptable.

OP here. I never said they sound be serving them organic anything. Where did you get that idea? I pay almost $2000 a month which for me isn’t pocket change. The snacks are acceptable but definitely not healthy. They are basically empty calories.

They aren't empty calories. They have carbs and carbs are fuel. For a preschooler whor race around all day, a few wheat thins or some goldfish are perfectly fine. Very common mass snacks. Your kid is going to get these snacks at a thousand different activities and events over the course of his life. Your child can eat a range of foods and be healthy.

Not all carbs are equal. Children should be eating whole grains for their carbs and their snacks should be low in sugar. For example instead of serving cheerios with 9 g of sugar per serving (kids should have no more than 25 grams of sugar daily) they can serve the plain cheerios with 1 gram of sugar per serving. That's just one simple switch that would be an improvement. There was a recent study on ultra processed foods and how they lead to weight gain and overeating. All the examples of foods they serve in OPs son's preschool are examples of ultra processed foods. American kids deserve better and not everyone can afford taking their kid to a three hour preschool and hiring a nanny for the rest of the day.

[Anonymous]

Such an Arlington problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Such an Arlington problem

Not sure what you are implying here. Childhood obesity and childhood diabetes disproportionately affects children from low income families and minorities. OP clearly has enough money to pay $2000 a month for daycare but nutrition is not only an upper middle class concern.

[Anonymous]

OP I feel the same way. But as you see from these responses most people don’t mind feeding their children crap. The responses are defensive because they feel like you are criticizing them. If the director isn’t amenable for change just do what I do. I make sure they eat a healthy breakfast at home as well as dinner. I bring a healthy take home snack with me. I teach them about healthy eating habits at home - make salads (fruit or regular together) and they also will help me cook. We don’t have packaged snacks in our house so on the weekends they eat nuts, fruit and veggies for their snacks. If someone gives them something unhealthy I don’t say no. I don’t want them to then crave these unhealthy things by completely depriving them every time it’s in front of them. But I agree with you - the place where they are in every day should serve healthy food. My eldest is in kindergarten and our school has really improved nutrition wise. FCPS are now rolling out salad bars in each of the schools and the choices have gotten healthier. I’m assuming it’s the same in Arlington. So it gets better.