Were you aware that there are National Childhood Obesity Prevention Standards?

About two months ago, I sent my daughter to school with lunch and two snacks (her favorite, a Nutella Cracker snack pack for both snacks).  When I picked her up from school, she told me that she had to split one pack for both snacks because her teacher said that it had too much sugar in it.  She is not in any way overweight.  She does not have a problem with hyperactivity.  I was furious!

My husband was as well and sent the letter below to the Teacher, Principal and Assistant Superintendent.

This afternoon my wife and I were informed by our daughter that the snack we provided for her today, Nutella, was deemed nutritionally deficient by you for having too much sugar and she was therefore not permitted to eat it. Instead she was informed that she would be allowed to eat half of one snack during each snack period rather than to eat one (we provided two) at each snack period.

Let me be absolutely clear- at no time have we relinquished our authority as parents in any respect; ever. In this particular instance my wife and I have the sole discretion to decide what is and isn't appropriate for our children to eat; not you, not the principal of the school, not the school superintendent, nor anyone else for that matter.

I am not asking your permission to feed my child how I deem fit. I am not even asking for your blessing. I couldn't care less how you or anyone else in this world feels about the decisions I make with regards to my daughter.

Now I am certain that you are going to explain that you are only following the rules given to you. That someone above you has given guidance as to how you are to police the lunches and snacks provided by parents. And undoubtedly this all ties back to first lady Obama and her drive to improve the nutritional standards for school lunches. My response in short - I Don't Care...

As such we have instructed our daughter that she is to eat her lunch and snacks regardless of what any staff at the school tell her. Please refrain from instructing her otherwise or in any way interfering with her ability to eat what we provide. She has been instructed to be polite if any staff speaks to her about this matter but to ignore any instructions forbidding her from eating. 

We have taken the liberty of including both Dr. Wood and Dr. Hard on this email so that everyone in authority there at Clark Elementary is aware of our position and understands that we are not in any way flexible on this matter. Our daughter is to be allowed to eat whatever we pack for her without exception. If that is at all unclear please feel free to let us know.

We appreciate your compliance in this matter.

We received a phone call from the Teacher that night.  She apologized and said that she didn't know that our daughter had two snacks.  When asked by my husband why she thought our daughter only had one snack (she always has extras in her back pack and at her desk.  I even send boxes of crackers that she has at her desk in case I were to forget one day).  Her response was that she didn't check.  She said that she was merely trying to teach our daughter about nutrition, but we were correct, she had no right to interfere. We received the standard email from the principal saying that there must've been an understanding--there were no rules on snacks.  Only food sold by the school and guidelines for class parties.

My husband responded with this email.

I appreciate you looking into this, and look forward to hearing your feedback. I wish I could say it was a misunderstanding. However, we have another friend with a child in ****** who has had this exact same issue with their teacher. And this is the second time this has happened with ********. We let the first roll of our shoulders hoping it was a one off experience...

If there isn't a policy then clearly many staff have completely misunderstood whatever discussion did take place.

I do understand that there are some legitimate concerns revolving around food allergies and ********* understands that she shouldn't be sharing her food as a result. I wouldn't even be terribly offended if there were a policy banning peanuts, shell fish, and their end products out of an abundance of caution. 

However, telling a student that they can't eat a snack because it crosses some arbitrary limit on sugar content crosses a lot of lines for me. If I want to send my child to school with a Mt. Dew and a Snickers bar that is my choice. You can disagree, think whatever horrible thoughts you want, and even share that with me. I don't mind and won't be offended. But no one gets to over-ride my decision and tell my child she can't eat it. For the record I would never send my child to school with that kind of snack.

What is this world coming to? When I was a kid everyone wanted to eat the school lunch. It was good. And you were made fun of if you brown bagged it; not that I am a fan of teasing. Today, school provided lunch is terrible. I have come to ***** and shared a few meals with ******. Frankly she would be better off with the snickers bar and soda pop. She actually petitions us to make her lunches which I find amusing given my experience at her age. But given the terrible quality of the food served in schools today I find it ironic that anyone would dare question what we send our child to school with to eat. It would be amusing if it weren't so nauseatingly "the government knows best"...

So after being told that that were no rules regarding food, I dug a bit.. It took about 30 seconds to find "Standards for Childhood Obesity Prevention".  Where do we draw the line when it comes to our children?  "Standards for Breathing?, "Bathroom Standards"?  Seriously!
http://stage-linux.governor.wa.gov/sites/default/files/policy_briefs/pb_HealthiestNextGeneration2015F.pdf

http://www.smartstart.org/2010/07/28/new-standards-for-early-care-education-programs-to-prevent-childhood-obesity/

http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/physicalactivity/pdf/roleofschools_obesity.pdf

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12746
 

The CDC's website, I've found is a good source of info too...It also talks about their surveillance programs and data collection.  A simple google search for "Childhood Obesity Prevention Standards" will bring up all sorts of seemingly innocent organizations that just want children to be healthy.

As a parent, I appreciate the concern, but to force your ideas on my children is unacceptable to me.  I might make mistakes and not be an expert, but I am a parent who loves her girls with all her heart.