BYO Snack

Our school instituted a nutrition policy last year which was quite controversial.  Neither class parents, nor the school are allowed to provide treats to the children.  For any party, such as last week's Valentine's Day celebration, children may bring their own treat to eat.  The parent-teacher organization even provides holiday themed bags for parents to send said treat to school in, complete with a large sticker on which to write a note.  Treats for individual birthdays have been discontinued completely.

This policy makes my life much, much easier.  I do not need to know ahead of time what is being served for a party in order to send in a carbohydrate count for the nurse.  I do not worry that what I was told was coming in will turn out to be something completely different.  I do not spend time questioning whether my definition of a "medium cookie" is wildly different from Mrs. Smith's.  I no longer field desperate cell phone calls from the school nurse announcing last minute birthday treats. 

Having attended the recent Valentine's Party to help with a craft, though, I'm not certain this policy's goal as a nutritional improvement has been met.  A few children had pretzels.  Most children had cookies or cupcakes or brownies.  Some even had candy, an item which was never allowed for  parties even before the new policy.  My child had a cookie, albeit a home-made and well carbohydrate counted one.

Having argued for this policy change more from the medical perspective than the nutritional one, though, I'm happy.  My child can participate in parties the same as the others, without worry on her part or mine about what she's eating.  Her friends with food allergies can do the same  With a laundry list of things for our family to worry about each day, this was a nice one to cross off the list.