This is kinda 2 topics in one.

I also do not understand the food rewards for kids in school. The "rewards" are usually candy or junk food. Not a bowl of grapes and some cheese. Not extra play time outside - what kid wouldn't want to run and play for 15 mins as a reward? Why not high five very kid in the class and say "Great job!" Good points have been made about childhood obesity and fitness - yet the teachers forget that whole aspect.
My kids are in junior high and they still do it at that level. and they are even worse at letting me know ahead of time. Double whammy for my son when they "surprise the class" with food. he is diabetic and celiac so if he hasnt planned ahead...he gets to watch everyone eat...one teacher always hands out candy.
The other thing they do is have "movie class" if the class has been doing their work...they watch movies like Shrek, Miss Congeniality, Shanghi Noon...
Okay - ummm... arent they SUPPOSED to be working at school?..why reward expected behavior with food or movies?
If they have extra class time - why not do curriculum related stuff - an extra science experiment for fun....in math - teach the kids how to play old fashioned games like checkers or chess...
What I found out is - the teacher uses the movie class as a time to catch up on their stuff.

Then there are the pets, I am an animal health tech so this is a topic I know well. I just saw a cat food commercial - for a cat food that has meat, whole grains, fruits and vegges incorporated...so that cats can eat the way nature intended
hmm okay - they are obilgate carnivores, the way nature intended was for them to eat meat. Never seen one picking fruit or grazing on grain. They do eat grasses and legumes but it might make up 5% of their diet - if that.
Treats are used as rewards for dogs, then we wonder why they beg. Training using food rewards does not mean they get it everytime, rewards can be a pat on the head or "good dog" and treats used intermittedly. The reason? If you reward a pet everytime with food- they only do the desired behavior (coming when called, sit etc) if they see food or are enticed by it.

By giving rewards all the time to kids...
We are teaching the children that they only behave well if there is something in it for them - a reward. They don't just do well because that is the correct thing to do - they perform based on the tangible reward. .. and we wonder why there are kids out there who aren't just pleased with themselves for a job well done...that they need to reward themselves with food, a movie or go buy something.... because that is what they are taught is how to "reward themselves for doing well".


Okay so long rant started by seeing stupid pet food commercial, then reading post about food rewards...then well...probable PMS

Sandy, you are so right on everything you said, I couldn't have said it better.

2Kids4me, While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, it's not why I responded.

I noticed in your sig like that your daughter had kawasaki's disease. My son had this at 4 1/2 years old and he's now almost 10. It's rare that I meet others that even know what that is.
My name is Heather, mom of 4
3 boys all on the autism spectrum, The 9 year old has a ton of additional issues.

You are a person after my own heart! *high five*

I realized a few years back, after one of my kitties got heart disease and kidney disease, that feeding it grains was just stupid! I switched them to an all meat diet, supplemented with certain vitamins and taurine. I think I saved my Siamese from getting diabetes, he was probably on the way to that. Unfortunately the change in diet was too late to save my other cat.

For "treats" for him, I have to watch his food intake like crazy because all those years of high-carb cat food led him to have a tendency to gain weight like crazy, even the good all-meat treats I would give him. I found dehydrated chicken breast "coins" in a pet store and bought those for him. He loves them.

It is crazy that they're pushing all this sugar and refined carbohydrates on kids. Then we keep hearing about this obesity epidemic... well... duh!

That commercial about "eating the way nature intended" just makes my blood pressure rise. Nature intended cats to eat mice, lizards, and bugs. A cat is no more likely to eat a grain than a cow is to eat fillet mignon.

I totally agree!!!!! My kids bring home lovely pictures of the food pyramid, complete with a handy cookbook for healthy treats. Then they are bombarded with total junk for rewards or parties. And alot of it is the parents....I had one room mom who did not like my selected class snack of Fruit A Bu, so she decided the kids also needed Little Debbies. And when I go eat lunch with my kids, I am usually shocked at the junk that qualifies for lunch these days. One kid had Cheetos, hawaiian punch, a Reeses, and half a sandwhich.

The hot lunch line isn't any better....one of the main course meals is nachos with cheese. And they sell ice cream. Most of the kids don't bother with eating their meal, they only have half an hour (20 minutes really once you take away all of the lining up time) to eat, so they usually get their ice cream before they've eaten anything. I just don't understand WHY....WHY on earth do kids who have to sit still all day even need ice cream offered to them??? Or cookies, or chips, etc. Since parents can't have a say in what their kid picks in the hot lunch line (some new rule), then don't offer crap, plain and simple.

This is a passionate subject for me. Even before we were all on this diet, I was shocked at some of the food my son picked from the food line, and I had no way to control it. I didn't get why they offered kids such junk. Shaquil O'Neal had a reality show that highlighted some of these issues, and they made great changes. School diets need a HUGE overhaul, b/c as it is, they are just setting these kids up for disaster.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant too, lol.

The way my Mom dealt with this when we were little was to send us a bagged lunch. I'm sure that option still exists doesn't it?

The option certainly still exists, but it's super hard to monitor what your kid eats at school, especially at the older grades. At my high school (which is very much like most schools) there was an a la carte line where you could buy all sorts of junk - pizza, burgers, ice cream. Then we had the "school store" whose main function from what I could tell was to sell candy to kids at lunch and before school. A number of the teachers sold candy and soda in their rooms to raise money. Ironically it's usually the teachers who coach athletics who are raising money for their teams. As a gymnast, my coach gave gymnasts candy to sell to raise money for our leotards. I sold around 500 candy bars in about two months that way. The point is that junk food is so easily accessible that there's no way a parent can monitor this.

I agree with everything OP said. I coached gymnastics in high school and my kids always hounded me on the last day of class about when they would get their candy because all the teachers gave it out. They'd come to expect it. If I had to do it again, I would hand out stickers or pencils or little sheets of paper showing what new skill they had learned that day that they could color.

Food shouldn't be used as a reward. Food should be eaten for fuel when the body is hungry. Reward food means kids are eating without thinking about whether they are hungry. It associates eating with happy, fun times. So it shouldn't be a big surprise that this will eventually led to comfort eating and becoming overweight.

I know what you mean. This year my daughter has a teacher who is diabetic and there is another diabetic in the class. So I was hoping there would be less food stuff. But not really. They have rootbeer float parties and pizza parties.

Worse yet are the all day parties they have this year. They get them for good behavior. They can bring in video games, Ipods, they watch movies (G only), can play board games and can bring in snacks of their choice. They can share the snacks but because of my daughter's food allergies there is rarely anyone else's snack she can have. Not that I think she needs all day snacks!

The teacher has a goodie box (just like the teacher did last year). There are some candies in there and some she is not allergic to but there are also little toys in there as well.

Then there are the seemingly endless birthdays. There are only 26 kids in the class but sometimes there is more than one birthday in a week. The kids often bring in donuts, cookies or cupcakes for those. For my daughter's birthday (summer) we have brought in stickers in the past, but in the 4th grade the kids have pretty much outgrown those. I think one year we brought in special pencils. Last year we brought in fruit snacks but we bought too many mango flavor (kids didn't like those) and I didn't notice the fine print that said they were manufactured in a plant that uses pretty much everything daughter is allergic to. So she couldn't even eat her own treat! This year she will probably bring in Fruit Rollups or something similar or maybe little bags of marshmallows. I like the individually wrapped treats because then the kid can take them home and eat them at an appropriate time.

Yes, that's what we do now. But, if you want your child to have a hot lunch from the line, you can not dictate what your child can choose for their three items allowed. Alot of parents were upset by it, it's a new rule that was put in place about 3 or 4 years ago. A teacher is not allowed to guide a child's food choices either. So, there were some days that my little boy had teddy grahams and raisins for lunch (pre gluten free days). So my qualm with this is, if parents or teachers can't guide a child's food choices (in the hot lunch line), then they need to only offer healthy food...and not offer things like chips, ice cream and cookies. That, to me, seems like the logical thing to do.

Plus, I think it is asking way too much for little 5 year olds, who are overwhelmed by the whole lunch line process to begin with...to make the healthier food choice if asked to choose between a fruit cup or chips. Learning about food choices begins at home, but schools need to take some responsibility too.