Does your school allow juice?

Keeptruckin · September 2014

Some parents are up in arms here. Our school has a no juice policy, only beverage allowed is a water bottle. So I guess no milk? The hand book doesn't say specifically no milk, just that it's a juice free school and water is recommended. Also, a child's snack was sent home because it was a granola bar with chocolate in it. Our school has no hot lunch program, parents pack all snacks and lunches. I am not concerned, but some parents are mad. What do you think? Oh and my kid does drink a bit of juice at home and even "gasp" chocolate sometimes lol! But I see no issue with savings those as treats at home.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Their school sells juice and chocolate milk. That being said I only send water for lunch and I don't think kids kinder and older need anything else.

Keeptruckin · September 2014

The juice that was sent back with a note was a veggie juice too, I found that kind of funny. I wish my kid would drink tomato juice lol!

Keeptruckin · September 2014

I think that is why the mom was mad, she wondered if her kid got a snack. So no, I don't think they offer a replacement.

Keeptruckin · September 2014

You should see the comments on our facebook about it. Juicegate!

Keeptruckin · September 2014

It's a Montessori charter school.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

My kids school strongly suggests healthy snacks/water bottle to drink but don't require. With that being said sending home a granola bar is crazy.

ridesbuttons · September 2014

Our school was the same: no hot lunch offered, parents packed lunch and snacks. The school strived to be peanut free and encouraged healthy lunch and snacks but to my knowledge does (and likely cannot) forbid any food.

I'd be annoyed if I couldn't send a juice box or put a granola bar in my kids' lunch if that's what I had to pack that day. Unless the school is prepared to provide a substitute, they should have no authority to take it away. Unless there is some juice-allergy floating around out there that I'm unaware of.

Now...if the granola bar was NOT peanut free, yeah. I'd give that a pass.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

kcisthebombdotcom said:

My kids school strongly suggests healthy snacks/water bottle to drink but don't require. With that being said sending home a granola bar is crazy.

Eh a lot of granola bars are the same as chocolate chip cookies. https://www.eatingwell.com/blogs/health_blog/5_healthy_kids_foods_that_aren_t

Keeptruckin · September 2014

The hand book states we are a nut free school. Then it lists a good example of a snack is whole grain crackers with peanut butter lol! Like right under the notice of being nut free lol! Parent council is tomorrow, should be fun lol! Is it sad I am looking forward to the drama?

jensriot · September 2014

L's preschool asks that we not send milk, but that's because they don't refrigerate the lunchboxes I guess. Anything else is ok.

C's elementary asks that we send a healthy snack that doesn't require a spoon for snack time. The only drinks allowed during class are water bottles. I haven't read any restrictions on lunch stuff. I send chocolate Zbars all the time for a snack. I think they're being ridiculous.

penguingrrl · September 2014

Our school allows juice at lunch, but only water for snack. And they have a very short list of acceptable snacks that is brand specific based on the company ensuring no possibility of any sort of cross contamination (so you can't bring any pretzels other than utz since others have shared facilities). I wish they had stricter rules, though, because junky stuff (cookies, chips, etc) is considered acceptable, no sources of protein are on the allowed list and fruit snacks are listed under "fruits and veggies" instead of with other snacks.

Granola bars aren't on our allowed list, most likely because finding ones that are not only nut free but guaranteed to be from a nut free plant is probably difficult. I've also noticed that most of the more popular brands of granola bar are really high in sugar and low in nutritional value, so I don't think it's unreasonable to have an outright ban, especially since I would imagine that it's hard to find one that's healthy and nut free/from a plant that processes no peanut or tree nuts.

I would guess that if the bar was sent home instead of the parent getting a note about it either this was a parent who has done this in the past and persists in sending the bars after repeated warnings not to or there was a risk of cross contamination with a kid who has a severe allergy.

Aussie45 · September 2014

diapersnwipes said:

Keeptruckin said:

I think that is why the mom was mad, she wondered if her kid got a snack. So no, I don't think they offer a replacement.

Yeah, I wouldn't be pleased if my kid had to "suffer" for my mistake. Send a note home, but let the kid have the snack.

These are my feelings too. They're so concerned about their 'rules' that they're willing to let a kid go hungry? Not cool.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Our snack rule is none of the 3 Cs (chips, cookies, candy) I consider most granola bars marketed toward kids as cookies.

penguingrrl · September 2014

Andrewsgal said:

Our snack rule is none of the 3 Cs (chips, cookies, candy) I consider most granola bars marketed toward kids as cookies.

That's awesome! I wish my kids school had that rule. I send a fruit or veggie only and both girls have started whining that "everyone else" gets cookies/chips/junk.

sunnydays99 · September 2014

I assume our school allows juice. It's water only in his kindergarten class though. He can take a water bottle or they just give cups of water to each kid at snack ti.

Frankly I would love it if the school was juice free. I only give the kids juice on special occasions like bday parties so I've already thought about how I'm going to handle the "every other kid gets juice boxes" complaint when he starts grade 1! The granola bar thing doesn't bother me either. I'm happy to save something like that as an at home treat and send healthier snacks to school.

Eta: his preschool was water only as well. Parents provided snack for the whole class on their kids special day and some parents version of healthy is really quite amusing!

Andrewsgal · September 2014

sunnydays99 said:
I assume our school allows juice. It's water only in his kindergarten class though. He can take a water bottle or they just give cups of water to each kid at snack ti.
Frankly I would love it if the school was juice free. I only give the kids juice on special occasions like bday parties so I've already thought about how I'm going to handle the "every other kid gets juice boxes" complaint when he starts grade 1! The granola bar thing doesn't bother me either. I'm happy to save something like that as an at home treat and send healthier snacks to school.
Eta: his preschool was water only as well. Parents provided snack for the whole class on their kids special day and some parents version of healthy is really quite amusing!

I doubt you will hear it my kids have never said anything.

notkateanymore · September 2014

Keeptruckin said:

It's a Montessori charter school.

Then this is not shocking at all.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

I'm at a loss of how granola bars are comparable to Cookies. Your standard Quaker granola bar has 5g of sugar and 1g dietary fiber. A serving of Oreos has 14g of sugar and zero redeeming qualities. Not trying to argue that a granola bar is as good of a choice as say a piece of fruit but I wouldn't consider it as bad as sending your kid to school with some cookies either.

likeanoldtimemovie · September 2014

I find this so interesting. We're in a small town in central Georgia, about an hour south of Atlanta, and our school is literally rule-free on food. We signed up for snack day at kindergarten open house and when we asked what to bring, the teacher said "Oh, goldfish, chips, Little Debbie snacks, things like that."

At the pre-k parties, they had those little old school plastic cartons of juice, Cheetos, fruit roll-ups, etc.

Basically, small town public schools in Georgia don't give a shit.

penguingrrl · September 2014

sunnydays99 said:

I assume our school allows juice. It's water only in his kindergarten class though. He can take a water bottle or they just give cups of water to each kid at snack ti.
Frankly I would love it if the school was juice free. I only give the kids juice on special occasions like bday parties so I've already thought about how I'm going to handle the "every other kid gets juice boxes" complaint when he starts grade 1! The granola bar thing doesn't bother me either. I'm happy to save something like that as an at home treat and send healthier snacks to school.
Eta: his preschool was water only as well. Parents provided snack for the whole class on their kids special day and some parents version of healthy is really quite amusing!

I've gotten a bit of whining over snacks (although it was more a "why does so and so get cookies?" than a whine and I usually just say that I will only send healthy snacks), but neither girl has said anything about their lunch or lunch drink (we send milk or water) at all. Both girls understand that they get juice with Sunday dinner or at a party and that's it and have never questioned it.

notkateanymore · September 2014

There is a fine line as with everything, but I see no point in juice...eat fruit, not drink it.

Except cranberry bc it goes with vodka.

ToastieSimons · September 2014

DS1's school has a huge list of foods they dont' allow, but 0 restrictions on juice. What if you want to treat your child to a juice box every once in a while?

Andrewsgal · September 2014

CC cookie

https://mobile.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/cookie-chocolate-chip?portionid=15800&portionamount=1.000&showFacts=True

Granola bar

https://caloriecount.about.com/calories-quaker-oats-chewy-chocolate-chip-i99507

Worse than a cookie

jnksmom · September 2014

Our public elementary school doesn't have rules for lunch. They recommend sending in healthy foods if you pack lunch but they also sell ice cream on Fridays. Snack is different and only water is allowed. We also cannot send "junk" food such as cookies, chips, candy, etc. most people send granola bars, goldfish, cheese crackers, or fruit.

notkateanymore · September 2014

The best granola bars are the ones that taste like cookies and I refuse to buy for DD...but sneak myself.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

Ye

Andrewsgal said:

CC cookie https://mobile.fatsecret.com/calories-nutrition/generic/cookie-chocolate-chip?portionid=15800&portionamount=1.000&showFacts=True Granola bar https://caloriecount.about.com/calories-quaker-oats-chewy-chocolate-chip-i99507 Worse than a cookie

Yes, but that's comparing one little tiny chips ahoy cookie vs a whole granola bar. Not a valid comparison. Per serving a cookie has a lot more sugar and crap vs a granola bar,

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Um those granola bars are not large. Admit it KC you were wrong about this one. They are just as junky. There is nothing good or redeeming in these kind of granola bars.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

Andrewsgal said:

Um those granola bars are not large. Admit it KC you were wrong about this one. They are just as junky. There is nothing good or redeeming in these kind of granola bars.

So if I cut an ores cookie in 1/4 it has less sugar than the cup of the trader joes cereal that my kid eats for breakfast. Does that make it healthier? Come on now. This is a huge logic fail.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

WTF these granola bars are not that large not much larger than a CC cookie I know because DS had one for a soccer snack Saturday. But we know you are never wrong so you are right granola bars with chocolate chips, chocolate bottoms and high fructose corn syrup as a main ingredient are totes way more healthy than a cookie.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Each bar is 25 grams;)

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

Go look on the nutrition info you posted. A granola bar is 24g. A single chips ahoy is 8g.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

Also no HFCs in granola bar. Again, not saying its as good as a piece of fruit but comparing it to sending cookies to school is inaccurate.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Feed your kids whatever you want but don't delude yourself that granola bars are always a healthy snack or so much better than a cookie.

kcisthebombdotcom · September 2014

Andrewsgal said:

Feed your kids whatever you want but don't delude yourself that granola bars are always a healthy snack or so much better than a cookie.

Lol, my oldest doesn't like granola bars and my youngest can't eat them. I did not agree with the school vilifying them and your links pretty much proved that not only are they significantly lower in sugar per gram the ingredient list isn't nearly as bad. Thanks for playing though

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Okay KC you are right they are a totally healthy food and should be considered the same as fruit for snacks. They should never be considered in the cookie department even though they are full of sugar and junk. I will let the kids school know you think they are wrong and granola bars are totes healthy. It is so funny how you defend the crap your kids eat to the death. Oh I know you said he won't eat them. I don't believe you. Oh and does this change when I compare them to my homemade oatmeal cookie? Provably not because every cooki is a chips ahoy right?

fancynewbeesly · September 2014

In the same vein, I had cafeteria duty today for the first time in 7 years. I seriously couldn't believe the crap that kids either bought or came to school with. I am still not sure why the elementary school cafeteria sells bags of chips like Doritos, etc.

I would definitely be more reluctant about a no-juice rule, especially due to some kids won't drink water and I worry about dehydration. Or I could just be biased and would request a doctors note for my child to be allowed juice. But that is just me.

Andrewsgal · September 2014

Oh and I agree there is nothing wrong with one or even two cookies. My issue is our rule is not cookies, chips or candy. Our school considers granola bars cookies I am totally cool with that. Doesn't mean they can't take the for lunch just not snack.

Aussie45 · September 2014

Andrewsgal said:
Oh and I agree there is nothing wrong with one or even two cookies. My issue is our rule is not cookies, chips or candy. Our school considers granola bars cookies I am totally cool with that. Doesn't mean they can't take the for lunch just not snack.

When I think of granola bars I think of the nature valley ones. Those aren't good for you either are they?

dmartin726 · September 2014

DD brings a coconut water/juice mix box drink to school for lunch. I send her with water in her sippy but it always comes back full. She really only drinks milk and not so much of that either. So she gets the box drink bc that is basically the only way she will drink in the time she is there. I'd be annoyed if they didn't allow it out of concern she wouldn't drink the whole time.

Keeptruckin · September 2014

From what I heard, and who knows lol, the granola bar in question was sent home due to having chocolate chips. Maybe if it didn't they would let it fly? Who knows lol!

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