Preschool Snacks?

[catg]

My daughter will be starting preschool before too long. I wondered does anyone else have preschool age children and how do you deal with the diet? All my friends with kids, non veg btw, tell me snacks are far from healthy and definately not veg friendly. Has anyone dealt with this issue? Do I send her with a separate snack every day? Tell them she's allergic to dairy/ eggs, etc? Help

[Umbriel]

Be straight up with your child's preschool and tell them that you and your children are vegan. They have to respect your personal wishes.

All my friends with kids, non veg btw, tell me snacks are far from healthy

This is tragic. Why have these parents not complained about their children's food choice's? At my son's preschool the snack's only consist of fruit, dried fruit, raw vegetables, rice crackers popcorn etc. In New Zealand our ministry of education has guide lines in place that are very strict on what food you can serve in preschools and schools.

They may not know what a vegan is so it might be a good idea to talk to your child's teachers or send some information. They may even start offering healthy food choice's, which will benefit all the children.

[cedarblue]

All my friends with kids, non veg btw, tell me snacks are far from healthy and definately not veg friendly.

i'm presuming you are talking about the snacks provided by the pre-school.
if it were me, i'd send my child in with a snack each day - it would take all of 5 mins or less to prep or do it at night and put in fridge.

there was a free healthy snack scheme in the uk at one point, not sure if it is still running - an apple, pear, orange daily - although the quality of the fruit i found, was not good, hard, unripe and knocked about imo.

ideas;
melon slices (tell her they are melon 'smiles' for a happy day at school
chopped melon
blueberries
strawberries
fresh pinepple
mango slices
papaya
kiwi slices
dried apricots/raisins/sultanas
rice cakes
mini satsumas/clementines/mandarins
grapes
cherry toms
cuke sticks
carrot sticks
celery sticks
fruit salad
almond/nut butter in a celery stick

home made flapjacks/muffins - make them healthier by making with wholemeal flour and reduced sugar content

pot of tzaziki or hummus or dip for veggie sticks

vegan yoghurt pot

cold rice salad/pasta salad (leftovers)

would she eat a mini salad pot?
does she eat nuts? (nuts & mixed dried fruit)

try the search function, i'm sure there are several threads on feeding vegan kids which may help.

good luck

[puffin]

My sons Playgroup only give them fruit for a snack. He is only there until lunch i feed him myself and he usually has something like, Toast, a crumpet, grapes, strawberries or blueberries, some hummus. He will also have a fruit puree drink and a banana sometime between dinner.

[xrodolfox]

Both my kid's pre-schools really honor our vegan-ness.

We were up front with both of them, and it's helped a lot. Most of all, we moved out of places that weren't excited about having vegans. I'm serious, I feel like those places should be EXCITED, not just complacent.

Eitherway, we give the kids all sorts of snack. Usually they decide. Tings, pretzels, apples, peanut butter. It is their snack, so they pick.

[catg]

[quote=Umbriel;366050]
This is tragic. Why have these parents not complained about their children's food choice's?

My thoughts exactly, its shocking the number of parents I meet who just don't care what their children eat. The playgroup we go to now is prmarily for special needs children, with A LOT of autistic kids...and they just don't want to listen when I try to talk (nonconfrontationally) about how diet can help. Frustrating

[catg]

i'm presuming you are talking about the snacks provided by the pre-school.
if it were me, i'd send my child in with a snack each day - it would take all of 5 mins or less to prep or do it at night and put in fridge.

The parents actually take turns brining snack, so good news is I can bring a healthy cruelty free snack for all the kids once in a while. Good advice thanks..I guess I will just pack her a snack each day. I just worry that she will feel different than all the other kids.

But I will definately talk to the school...maybe I can convince them to set up some stricter guidelines for snack...like no cupcakes or cookies!

Now I'm on a mission...

[Guitarmonkey]

I worked in a day care and the snacks we fed them were like pretzels, cheesy snacks, popcorn, cookies (oreos, vanilla wafers), crackers and usually pink lemonade to drink and at lunch they got milk (but there were 3 kids in my class who couldn't have milk so they got water) Also if they were serving something like grilled cheese or pizza they would give the three girls peanut butter a nd jelly sandwiches. Now that was a more upscale day care so they would tend to all the kids needs as far as that goes, but i heard that other schools weren't as nice.