Shared food issue

Hi,

I come from a background that's pretty strict about eating good, healthy, home cooked, non processed food. Consequently I don't like a lot of stuff like lollies, chessels etc and I don't plan on making these sorts of things a regular part of my toddler's diet.

We go to playcentre twice a week and some of the morning teas are shared mornings teas. They are supposed to be heathly, but more cakes etc are creeping in. Plus some kids get chessels and chippes every day - these things get left on the table and yep and just know Miss will eat them. I have no probs with a piece of cake or something as a treat, but not every other day.

Any advice on how to teach her that these are treats only?

And secondly, I don't want to sound like a stick in the mud to other Mums but I'd rather some of the poorer choices either weren't brought or stayed out of general reach. How do I stay this in a way that doesn't alienate people?

I can understand that in some cases that these kids will probably only eat that crappy stuff, but I just don't want our daughter to be one of them.

ahhh thats a hard one!!  I know at our playcentre we have some sessions shared and some bring lunchboxes, mostly the food is healthy, the treat stuff tends to be things like biscuits and popcorn which I dont have a problem with.  How old is your daughter, does she help herself or do you get the food for her and put it on her plate?  I think if you arent comfortable bringing it up it is up to you to monitor what she eats from the shared morning tea table, you cant control what the other people bring but you can control whether or not your girl eats the stuff or not

you could talk to the people who run the playgroup and suggest they bring their shared luncheon policy more inline with local kindys and school who all have healthy food policies now... at the boys kindy they all took part in the no chippie challenge for example.

I agree with Bizzy about talking to the people who run the playgroup.

You could also give your daughter something to eat before going to playgroup.  If she's full already she'll be far more interested in the toys than the food table.

LittleMiss wrote: mum2alana wrote: Hiya MM If you don't allow her to even have a little bit of the not so good foods, later when she sees them she may end up scoffing them as soon as she sees them. I have seen this in a 7 year old girl and it is not nice.

yes but there is a big difference to never allowing "junk" and allowing it on special occasions, which is what the OP was referring to. My kids arent allowed fizzy drink except on special occasions and i find they dont really enjoy it that much anyway and prefer juice.

this was one of the reasons i didnt like the mainly music we used to attend as chips were always a part of the morning tea.

Edited by Bizzy

I dont know what the age of your girl is as that will depend on things that you can do.

For me I sit with my girl that has issues with artificial colors and flavours. Then Andrew that has a severe allergy to egg, then dairy and kiwi fruit and cant handle artificial colors or flavours either.

So when cake or shared morning tea things happen they usually will only be able to have the fruit or one or two other things (If I was notified beforehand then I bring in a cupcake or something)

I do a whole moderation thing. I dont stop them from eating sweets at parties (from the ones they are allowed otherwise they swop with things I sent in with.) but something that my kids always done is they will drop a sweet for a fruit. (so I am kind of lucky).

I have a rule that at shared morning teas they have to first eat 3 healthy things before eating anything sweet. And I must say I never ever have to check as it is just a routine. Andrew on the other hand just eat anything that is nearby.

I will ask everyone to make sure everything is cleared up after eating (good practise anyway for those with allergies and small kids as a choking hazard) and then bring it up in evaluation or your session meeting. Just say that you dont mind sweet stuff and all that but that perhaps we can do a few more healthy stuff as well and get that out first and then after they had a good few things in them then we get the sweet things out. (as we all know that most kids will go for sweet before hand first)

I think the min of ed has a "healthy lunchbox challenge" thing - our playcentre was going to join - anyway, you make a pledge to only have healthy food and I "think" you can even get a grant if you met these requirements. if you made it a suggestion to do this, then hopefully it would help.

We too are a family who tries to limit the junk food. going to some school events I've been shocked with the kids turning up with chips - everyday. i don't J and T have had chips in their lunchbox EVER - they've certainly had chips - pretty often in fact, but they know chips are for movie night, not for everyday lunch.

It is often the way that it is supposed to be healthy and then over time things creep in and suddenly it is party food all the time.

It is like that with some of the kids lunch boxes at kindy. The teachers send a reminder every few months or so but I have to admit that I cringe when I see what is in some of the lunch boxes

When DD was at Playcentre we actually had a meeting about it. One of the parents felt strongly about processed and sweet foods and thought they were inappropriate for young children and difficult when some children had them and others weren't allowed them. We agreed to only provide water, sandwhiches (ideally savoury spreads but no nut products) and fruit for morning tea. I had to fight a bit for fruit to be included as the parent concerned felt we should be banning all sweet and processed foods but it was agreed that fruit was a natural food so was allowed. I think we also made a committment to bake scones pretty regularly as this was an activity plus an accepted food.