Donning my armor!

Specialties School

Published

Specializes in Pediatrics, Community Health, School Health.

I just sent out an email to the entire administration that effective immediately, we will NOT allow ANY food to be brought in for birthday celebrations in the classroom. I tried this a couple years ago and was met with some resistance for some of the teachers who felt like some of our students would have no other celebration if not at school. I caved and we decided cupcakes only, and must be labelled as "nut free" and have nutritional information on it as well. This worked well for that school year. Last year, things sort of fell by the wayside and parents were contacting teachers directly and sending things in that I had no idea were even being served. This year, I have one classroom that ironically has the most dietary "issues" (T1D, milk allergy and nut allergy), and it the worst offender. Last week, in the same week, we had a family bring in Wendy's cheeseburgers and cake one day, and two days later we had a family bring in cupcakes, individual cans of Pringles for EACH child, AND ice cream ?. Yesterday a third family is that same classroom showed up at 3:45 with a Carvel ice cream cake (dismissal is at 4 pm). It was cluster!

Thankfully my admin is extremely supportive and are happy for me to put this new policy into place. The email went out at 8:00 am and a Robo call is going out this morning to the entire student body. I am sure I will be fielding angry calls from families.

5
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

Good luck!!

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in School Nurse.

May the forces be with you!!!

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

Good Luck! It has been great since our district made it a policy of no outside food for individual celebrations. Less stress on the teachers and myself trying to keep up with the allergies, intolerances and/or the random weird food requests of parents.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU, Adventures in school nursing.

Good luck! Our district has become pretty strict on this as well. No food for birthdays. Parents may send in a non-food item to celebrate if they wish. Halloween, Christmas, and Valentines we do allow food but kids do "party in a box". They decorate a box or bag at home and parent's send in a special treat(s) for their student. On the rare occasion that a teacher requests to have food in the classroom, they ask me to read the label, but they are responsible to notify and request permission from each parent of student's with allergies. Putting the responsibility back on the teacher has really cut down on the amount of lessons/ celebrations that involve food items. It is kind of a bummer for kids and parents, but there is just too much risk involved these days.

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

If they are bringing that much stuff to school, I absolutely think they are celebrating at home. The ones who aren't probably aren't bringing in treats either. That sounds like a scenario that just emphasized the haves and the havenots.

7
Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in ICU/community health/school nursing.

May the odds be ever in your favor.

This is a hill I would die on, by the way. But the district has a "no party food" policy so I don't have to!

1
Up Vote Up Vote ×

We only allow treats to be purchased from our cafeteria (usually cookies) and given in lieu of morning snack for the younger kids. Though last year I saw a parent (through the break room window) bringing a giant batch of balloons including one of those big gold number balloons for her kindergarten child's birthday. I'm not sure what the kid did with the balloons...maybe carried them around all day?

Up Vote Up Vote ×
1 hour ago, BiscuitRN said:

We only allow treats to be purchased from our cafeteria (usually cookies) and given in lieu of morning snack for the younger kids. Though last year I saw a parent (through the break room window) bringing a giant batch of balloons including one of those big gold number balloons for her kindergarten child's birthday. I'm not sure what the kid did with the balloons...maybe carried them around all day?

We don't allow balloons either.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

Our policy is no sweets, and provide recommendations - popcorn, pretzels, a vegetable platter, etc. And the parent must provide the list of ingredients ahead of time, so we can make sure no one in the class is excluded from the celebration. This seems to work well, though I am in a relatively small school.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment