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I think this was ridiculous and totally inappropriate! This is how eating disorders begin! No foods should be off limits.

I would be so teed off! I don't believe it is the school's role to interfere with what a parent packs for their child in their lunchbox - fair enough to encourage healthy eating habits, and make a list of unacceptable foods at the beginning of the year with valid reasons (ie no soft drinks as the caffeine and/or high sugar content makes it difficult for the kids to pay attention in the afternoon etc) but anything beyond that is way out of line in my opinion!

I used to be a teacher and at no point in my training did I ever learn enough about childhood nutrition and food science to be a qualified expert making judgments on how children should eat. That is for the role of the medical professionals/food scientists.

And on another point (sorry, on my soap box now) what about the kids whose families can't afford fresh fruit and vegetables for their lunches? I taught at an impoverished Chicago public school and most of my kids brought in a bag of flaming hots every day and that was about it - $0.79 for the big grab bag...heck of a lot cheaper than lunch meat, fruit for every day, and a veggie. Not saying it's ok, but to make these broad, sweeping rules and shaming people makes me so mad!

I can't imagine how much I would flip if something like this happened. My kiddo is underweight and just started really eating, so I send high calorie foods, including peanut butter and cookies! Offering nutritional info is okay...calling someone out is not.

Ridiculous. I'm sure they have worse things they should be focusing on. Like the nightmare that is standardized testing!

In general I'm fine with daycares and public/private schools having rules about what it's okay to feed their charges. They should have publicized the rules in advance, however (and maybe they did). I suspect that this whole episode was handled poorly by the daycare and that perhaps something else is afoot, or else a sort of passive aggressive, but not exactly naming-and-shaming, note in a lunch box would not have made national news.

Yeahhhh.....The note itself is weird with the line about bread/potatoes. And the fact that the teacher apparently took the oreos and subbed out a different snack is crossing the line.

I think a general letter home about lunches is fine--but this letter in particular has all kinds of problems.

I will say, as a teacher I've seen insane things in packed lunches--like a boy who regularly brought new family-sized bags of doritos (and that's all) for his lunch. And he was in 4th grade. This was in a low-income school, so I think sometimes parents just aren't educated on healthy foods or just don't have the time to bother with healthier foods. So in those cases, a general note--to every kid in the school--from maybe the school nurse, about balanced meals is appropriate.

But otherwise, a teacher shouldn't be policing a child's meals.

This is absolutely crazy!

@TheSwissWifeStyle: Ditto on the all "unhealthy" stuff I got as a kid! It totally made my lunch though, and I turned out okay as an adult. Sheesh

Lol at "if they have potatoes, they also need bread." That makes no sense.

I agree with the mom, they should have sent a note home reminding her of the policy, but they could have at least let her eat the cookies. It's not like one day with oreos would have killed her.