Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

And you'd be wrong, because "healthy" isn't a concept that exists in a vaccuum. Some kids need more fat in their diet because they don't naturally want to eat much. I have one like this, and I'd much rather see her eating Doritos than pretzels. She'd prefer the pretzels, but sometimes I push stuff like Doritos that would be less healthy for me, because her dietary needs are different.

So do you think that's why many kids are bringing whole sleeves of cookies for snack, or is your kid maybe an outlier?

I think that I don't know why kids are bringing what they're bringing, so I keep my mouth shut. Teachers should do the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

Neither has much nutritional value, their main purpose is in delivering some calories so a kid's blood sugar doesn't dip too much. Which is also usually the point of a mid-morning snack at school, it's just a bridge to lunch so kids aren't falling apart while they wait for their lunchtime.

I don't send Doritos because I personally think they are gross and messy, it's not something I buy my kid. But when I send pretzels, I don't do so under some illusion they are healthier than Doritos. They are both "empty calories" in that they don't offer many other nutrients and aren't really providing the key things my kid really needs -- fat, protein, iron, vitamins. It's just a hit of carbs. But if it gets her to lunch without feeling famished, okay.

I also don't sit around juding the parents who send Doritos, even though I don't like them. It's not my business.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

And you'd be wrong, because "healthy" isn't a concept that exists in a vaccuum. Some kids need more fat in their diet because they don't naturally want to eat much. I have one like this, and I'd much rather see her eating Doritos than pretzels. She'd prefer the pretzels, but sometimes I push stuff like Doritos that would be less healthy for me, because her dietary needs are different.

So do you think that's why many kids are bringing whole sleeves of cookies for snack, or is your kid maybe an outlier?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

dp. Most pretzels are not healthy.

Well ALL Doritos are not healthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

And you'd be wrong, because "healthy" isn't a concept that exists in a vaccuum. Some kids need more fat in their diet because they don't naturally want to eat much. I have one like this, and I'd much rather see her eating Doritos than pretzels. She'd prefer the pretzels, but sometimes I push stuff like Doritos that would be less healthy for me, because her dietary needs are different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have patience and tolerance. Most people are doing the best they can. Show some empathy.

No. A sleeve of cookies is not the “best you can.” Even if you can’t manage to prepare anything, at least buy skinny pop and gogo squeeze.

LOL at gogo squeeze being a decent choice by any metric. You’re adorable.

I wouldn’t send it either. But it’s better than Oreos or Doritos for parents who are “doing the best they can” whatever that means. I mean, why even have kids if you can’t bother to feed them nutritiously? After “keep them alive” it’s probably your most important parenting task.

Show your work. You sound like a sucker, to be honest.

Here ya go! It wasn’t exactly hard to determine that applesauce beats mini muffins.

Gogo Squeez
No added sugar or artificial ingredients and only 60 calories and 14g of carbs. The 10g of naturally occurring sugar isn’t ideal but at least it’s not artificial.

https://lowfodmapeating.com/are-gogo-squeez-healthy/

One pack of Little Bites muffins is 200 calories (more than 3x), 9g of fat, 14g of (not naturally occurring) sugar and 30g of carbs (2x). They also include preservatives and artificial flavors.

https://lowfodmapeating.com/are-little-bites-healthy/

I see. You’re making the assumption that all kids are diets. I’d prefer my kid eat 200 calories versus 60 for a snack, so point 1 goes to the muffins. I also don’t care about counting macros for my elementary schooler, maybe your kid has some special health needs? Sorry about that.

You also forgot to consider microplastics and plastic waste in your analysis of carb counts for grade schoolers. This was a “C-“ effort on your part.

+1, the PP is approaching her child's snack like her child is a woman in her 40s trying to drop 15 lbs before swimsuit season. My kid needs calories, desperately.

To be honest I'd prefer to send both items as a snack, because then she gets the calories in the muffins plus the fiber in the apple sauce, and it's even more calories. But schools don't like two-part snacks for some reason and if I have to choose, the muffins do a better job of meeting my kid's nutritional needs.

I hate the preservatives (and packaging) in all the prepackaged stuff. Whenever I can, I choose options that don't have preservatives. But unfortunately these items tend not to travel as well and are not as visually appetizing as the prepackaged stuff. I still send my kid in with homemade muffins when I can, where I can control all the ingredients and even add stuff I know she needs like hemp hearts for protein or sneaking in fruit or veggies. But also the homemade muffin will come home half eaten (because it has less sugar and looks less appealing than the pre-packaged one).

It is so bizarre how people in this thread seem to think that simply serving your child healthy food is the end of the conversation. I serve my kid healthy food every day. At home, if she refuses to eat her peas or won't eat her protein, I can point her to the fridge where she can replace it with an apple or a peanut butter sandwich. At school those options don't exist, I'm not there to reinforce healthy choices, and I really just need her to get some calories so she's not cranky. Sometimes that means sacrificing ideals around how processed foods are or added sugar. Oh well. That's life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are they snacking so much anyway? My 3rd and 4th graders, only eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No snacks.

why they do that? Constipated?

They just don’t need or want snacks.

Snacks are part of lunch. I can't send a five course meal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

dp. Most pretzels are not healthy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are they snacking so much anyway? My 3rd and 4th graders, only eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No snacks.

why they do that? Constipated?

They just don’t need or want snacks.

Anonymous wrote:Why are they snacking so much anyway? My 3rd and 4th graders, only eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No snacks.

why they do that? Constipated?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you are not watching out for this you should be.

On a daily basis I have kids bringing for snack (not dessert):

Packaged muffins, cookies, brownies, Doritos, cheetos. And the quantities they are bringing are astounding too.

This is terrible brain food. It makes them sleepy, unfocused and it’s terrible for their health too!

At our school they hand these out for breakfast- well not "cookies" but sweet muffins and pastries. Plus juice or chocolate milk. I agree it's terrible for the reasons you state but this is far from just a problem of poor parenting.

Chocolate milk is one of the top nutritious recommendations for pretty much every serious athlete in the world. But some influencer or random journalist told you it’s uNhEaLtHy so you get your panties in a twist at the thought of a kid drinking it once or twice a day.

It’s very obvious that most of you do not have older kids (or kids you’ve actually managed to raise to adulthood). The sanctimommy is strong in this thread.

This is school, where kids are sitting all day (with percentage of overweight kids climbing every year), not high performance sports. Zero rationale for school to pass out chocolate milk. Regular milk has 13 g of natural sugar.

If you think chocolate milk is what is causing kids to be overweight I have a bridge to sell you.

Why not just give out white milk? Why do kids need chocolate milk at all?

Because a food your child doesn't consume or only has a little of has no health value at all, even if it is "healthier" than an alternative they will finish.

Chocolate milk and white milk have the same amount of calories, fat, vitamin D that a kid needs. But if I give my kid white milk, she might skip it altogether or just have a sip or two and decide she's done. So she misses out on most of the nutrients. If I give her chocolate milk, she will almost always drink the entire thing. Thus the chocolate milk is actually healthier, because it results in my kid getting all the underlying ingredients, than the option with no added sugar, which might be preferable in a vacuum but in reality will simply get thrown away.

Why are they snacking so much anyway? My 3rd and 4th graders, only eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. No snacks.

My younger kid is a restrictive eater with diagnosed autism and sensory issues around food and is quite thin. I’m fine with him getting some extra calories from a bag of mini muffins or Teddy Grahams or whatever.

When I was a kid in the 90s, kids were bringing cans of soda to school for lunch and drinking the whole can of Coke or sprite or whatever. Then in the mid-late 90s it switched more to Snapple and iced teas especially with the wealthier kids. Kids have literally always eaten “junk food” and they don’t need to be as restrictive with their diets as a 40 year old mom who works a desk job.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are being weirdly defensive about crackers when we are talking about Doritos and cookies. Not everything is about you.

Also, just spitballing here but fruits/veggies that could easily make it 3-4 hours without an ice pack:

Apples
Bananas
Clementines
Grapes
Pears
Carrots
Peppers
Cucumbers
Grape tomatoes

Exactly. My kids don’t eat the healthiest by any means. Our “snack cabinet” (food that they can choose occasionally (not daily) for an after school treat right now contains: pop tarts, trail mix packs w m&ms, plain ruffles potato chips, little fruit squeeze pouches that I know have tons of sugar, etc. So I’m not exactly super strict on providing only healthy snacks.

But, no, parents sending this junk for snack every single day all school year are not “doing the best they can.” You can buy a bunch of bananas or a bag of apples cheaper than that costco size pack of Doritos or Oreos. They don’t need to be refrigerated. If your kid won’t eat an apple or a banana and you can’t use ice packs, plain popcorn or pretzels are also very cheap and easy things to send still healthier than Cheetos or chips ahoy. I volunteer at my kids’ school lunch often and it’s honestly really sad and appalling what most kids are eating on a regular basis—both those who bring home lunch and those who get school lunch.

LOL Please explain the health benefits of pretzels.

Pretzels have a lower calorie and fat content than Doritos. They have a lower fat, calorie, and sugar count than cookies. I'm not the PP, but I think pretzels were suggested as better than Doritos or potato chips for a snack. Certainly we all know they aren't as nutritious as say kale, but there's a place for carbs in a healthy diet.

Fat isn't unhealthy and most the fat in Doritos isn't even saturated. Doritos are probably healthier for a lot of kids depending on the rest of their diet.

Nobody said fat is unhealthy. But I will say that Doritos aren't healthier than pretzels.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please have patience and tolerance. Most people are doing the best they can. Show some empathy.

No. A sleeve of cookies is not the “best you can.” Even if you can’t manage to prepare anything, at least buy skinny pop and gogo squeeze.

LOL at gogo squeeze being a decent choice by any metric. You’re adorable.

I wouldn’t send it either. But it’s better than Oreos or Doritos for parents who are “doing the best they can” whatever that means. I mean, why even have kids if you can’t bother to feed them nutritiously? After “keep them alive” it’s probably your most important parenting task.

Show your work. You sound like a sucker, to be honest.

Here ya go! It wasn’t exactly hard to determine that applesauce beats mini muffins.

Gogo Squeez
No added sugar or artificial ingredients and only 60 calories and 14g of carbs. The 10g of naturally occurring sugar isn’t ideal but at least it’s not artificial.

https://lowfodmapeating.com/are-gogo-squeez-healthy/

One pack of Little Bites muffins is 200 calories (more than 3x), 9g of fat, 14g of (not naturally occurring) sugar and 30g of carbs (2x). They also include preservatives and artificial flavors.

https://lowfodmapeating.com/are-little-bites-healthy/

Counting calories as "bad" makes sense if you're an overweight adult, not if you're a sixty pound ten year old.

I'm not the PP, but what you feed your kids is teaching them how to eat for life, as well as setting their preferences.

This thread is so eye opening. If the relatively educated readers of DCUM don't understand basic nutrition, what chance does the average person have?

I understand basic nutrition. Part of that is understanding that my kid is generally underweight and needs calories. That's something that I've learned from parenting my child, doing research, and talking to her doctor. I understand this better than her teachers, which is why I don't need a lecture from one.