Snacks?

[Imnotasnacklady]

Good morning,

I have enjoyed reading all the posts and just joined to ask about giving out snacks. Who gives out snacks? I'm a new float school RN and am amazed at the amount of kids that come asking for a snack. Today I have turned away 20 kids so far. I just had one student ask for 4 snacks for her classroom. It's only the elementary schools that seem to give out any snacks. I'm sure there are some students legitimately hungry(maybe do not have enough at home/lack resources) and I am sensitive to that. But I've also had kids say, "I don't like the snack I have". I also think that some nurses buy the snacks and then spend time putting snacks into plastic baggies. They are always nutfree(saltines, cheerios). Because I float and fill in when needed I don't feel like I can really try to change the situation. But when I sub for people I have a no snack policy unless there's an obvious need. I also can't imagine the teachers would want the disruption of kids leaving twice a day to get a snack. I just don't feel like it's the nurse's job. Am I way off?

[jess11RN]

35 minutes ago, Eleven011 said:

I have crappy sink water. No one wants it.

At my previous district, I handed out bottled waters (because I was a brand new school nurse and that's what the nurse before me did). Well, when I started going through a case a week, I decided enough was enough, no more bottled waters...my numbers magically decreased!

[MrNurse(x2), ADN]

1 minute ago, EnoughWithTheIce said:

3. Why are we still using food as a reward system as opposed to teaching healthy eating habits?????

So much this! This has been my battle all year. Now that I have a T1D whose mom doesn't want her to be "different" despite the T1D shirt she wears and the biggest LL Bean backpack they make with " Type 1 Diabetic" embroidered on it, and wants her to never say no or not yet to a treat, this is my Waterloo. Seems like every time I turn around, here she comes with some treat that I must now look up. There are days students get 3 snacks. Administration has been very cooperative, but teachers are resistant to giving this up.

In our school ALL kids receive FREE breakfast, morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack. I swear the kids eat all day long, LOL. But it is nice that I know I have easy access to food for a student anytime they might want it.

27 minutes ago, EnoughWithTheIce said:

3. Why are we still using food as a reward system as opposed to teaching healthy eating habits?????

I have been fighting since our school opened four years ago to not allow food of ANY KIND for class birthday celebrations. It finally passed this year. It was after a mom totally showed up unannounced with (I kid you not) Wendy's cheeseburgers, popsicles and cupcakes for the class. This was at 3 pm, an hour after the class had snack. My T1D kid is in her class. I have two dairy allergies in her class. I lost my mind. The teachers and admin finally understood and I was able to send home a letter that said "Effective immediately we will no longer allow food of any kind to be bought into school for celebrations". I actually had a few families THANK me.

[scuba nurse, BSN, MSN, RN]

Oh trust me, I have crappy sink water too, but I put it in a pitcher and keep it in my refrigerator, so they think its good water because it is cold! It comes from the sink and I wouldn't drink it!!

[AdobeRN]

34 minutes ago, scuba nurse said:

It comes from the sink and I wouldn't drink it!!

I will admit I am a water snob - I don't drink out of the tap unless it is absolutely necessary - LOL.

I was raised on bottled water - we always had Sparkletts 5gal jugs of water delivered to our house when I was growing up. Looking back on this it is so crazy - we were poor, like food stamp poor and my parents spent money on bottled water! As a kid we thought we were rich when we got the Hot/cold dispenser for the jugs of water - my parents loved that thing ?