DD tired after lunch

MagentaYenta

Mon, Nov 28 2016, 10:20 pm

LittleDucky wrote:

Kids need milk. 2 cups is fine especially as there will be none at a fleishig dinner (and how many kids drink a lot at a rushed breakfast in the morning?). And I was told by my kids' pediatrician that unless there is some other health concern it should be whole milk and whole yogurt. Besides the fact that the fat free or low fat usually has tons of sugar in it, it is less filling and doesn't have all the healthy fat that growing brains need. (Someone mentioned low fat yogurt being a good option- full fat yogurt!!).
There was a study that full fat milk helps maintain weight and doesn't cause weight gain as expected. It has to do with curbing hunger for longer periods of time.

I mentioned the low fat, based on the presumption that most parents here are carnivores and the child would be getting fat from other sources meats, nuts, cheese etc. Your point is well made.

shabbatiscoming

Mon, Nov 28 2016, 10:47 pm

OP, is the pasta for lunch every day? You said it is school lunches, as in, they provide the food. Is it always a carb? I would talk to the person in charge of the meals even if the food is not the issue in the end.
My daughter gets a hot basari lunch. A protein, a vegetable and a healthy carb. Every day. Never is their pasta and cheese.
The school should have healthier food as they are providing the children with the nutrients that should be sustaining them for the rest of the day of learning.
Is it mandatory for the kids to have those lunches? If not, and they refuse any kind of change in the menu, I would take your child off the food plan to see if that is what is happening.

seeker

Mon, Nov 28 2016, 11:02 pm

LittleDucky wrote:

Kids don't actually NEED milk. This is something I've looked into a lot. It is either a myth perpetuated by the dairy industry or a government tactic to help fill in nutrition during hard times when meats were unavailable. Maybe both.

If children do drink milk, it should indeed be full fat. There have been a slew of studies recently supporting this. However, for reasons beyond my understanding, the schools still serve only low fat, and/or worse - fat free. This is mandated for schools with government food programs, and I have seen the same in schools that don't rely on funding. Like they can't break the habit even though the idea of low-fat = healthy has been thoroughly debunked.

My kids' school lunches are similar to OPs. They used to have fleishig some days and my kids ate reasonably well those days but they stopped because they said it was logistically too difficult to keep a kosher kitchen with both meat and dairy going on. Even though it's done almost everywhere and had been done in that school forever. SMH. So it's WHITE bread/pasta and some form of cheese every day, there's also tuna, eggs, occasionally fish sticks, but there seems to be always a cheese option on the table and if you have the kind of kid who automatically goes for the cheese... forget it.

I used to send my own lunches for my older child but I haven't done it in a while because it got too hard (also expensive! lunch is included in school not extra fee), I've been having a hard time managing all my commitments lately. After a couple of months of hearing similar menus I'm eagerly looking forward to getting my act together on the lunches again. But for my younger daughter, they don't let you send lunch unless there is an extreme allergy or something, because it's too hard to manage a bunch of preschoolers bringing their own stuff. I get that. But.... ugh.

B"H (according to their own self-reporting, at least) my kids make healthy choices within their options. I told my DD that she should have at least one protein and one vegetable before taking a second helping of the bread/pasta. But that only operates within the given options. And the bread/pasta is going to be the main dish and it's white trash.

amother

Gray

Mon, Nov 28 2016, 11:13 pm

If my DD, who is also in 1st grade, came home and told me that, I would think:

1) Maybe she is coming down with something (if it persisted and was confirmed by the teacher I would check it out with her doctor).

2) Maybe there is something going on in English that she doesn't like. Does your DD seem tired when she gets home? If she is only tired in school, perhaps her "tiredness" is due to something that is bothering her in school.

3) Maybe she is still adjusting to the longer day and greater structure of 1st grade. Is your daughter's day significantly longer than last year? Several 1st grade teachers have told me it's a big adjustment and kids are often tired.

4) Maybe she didn't eat enough at lunch. Do you know how much your DD ate? Is it possible she only took a couple bites of pasta and bread and is hungry later?

5) I must admit I don't think I would think she was tired from too much carbs. I have not seen that effect on my kids. But it sounds like a reasonable possibility to consider among the others I've mentioned. Maybe experiment with different lunches sent from home and see what happens.

Also, just curious what would happen if you fed her that same lunch at home on a day off - would she be tired? Not that I am advocating those food choices, but could be useful for investigative purposes if necessary.

amother

Mauve

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 7:21 am

LittleDucky wrote:

I agree with you. I'm very glad she likes drinking milk. I also agree with you that kids benefit from full fat dairy products even after age 2. It's taking the governments recommendations some time to catch up.

The worst thing is, I took a college course about childhood nutrition in schools. The course ran circles around itself - saying that kids needed protein and whole grains and fruits and vegetables and no added sugars, but then saying that due to budgets, schools would end up serving things like peaches in syrup and white bread anyway. Wth???? So the government knows its bad but still won't give schools enough money to buy healthier options every day. Confused

amother

Mauve

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 7:28 am

The school usually serves a carb-based or protein-based main dish. Lasagna, baked ziti, tuna, fish sticks, egg salad, French toast, pancakes, pizza etc. Along with those, they ALWAYS have plain pasta available "for the picky eaters." I've tried to explain that this damages the eating patterns of all the other kids but it falls on deaf ears. If there was no pasta available my DD would eat more of the fish sticks, tuna etc. But if there's pasta, she'll also have pasta and eat less of the healthier options. She told me when they serve pizza she puts pasta on top of the pizza. I don't know if I should laugh or cry...

LittleDucky

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 9:10 am

seeker wrote:

There is practically no nutrient that cannot be replaced by another food item. We are lucky that there are a variety of sources for the essenial nutrients. BH!!
Milk can be replaced by other animal products or nuts. But since it is a nut free school and they likely would balk at her sending meat products for lunch due to kashrus issues, options are limited. So milk is the easiest form of these needed nutrients (protein and healthy fats) and also one of the cheapest. Kids also are more likely to drink milk than eat almonds or other items (ok, my toddler just asked me for nuts for snack but that's not always the case...).

I drink whole milk and so do my kids.

I can't understand why the government can't get with the times. Non fat is terrible!! Lunch is so important and is sometimes the main meal... And for the public schools who give breakfast to eligible students too, school meals are 2/3 of their nutrition for the day. And we wonder why kids can't concentrate, are falling asleep, act out. Yes, home life factors in a lot but so does nutrition. if we are spending money feeding kids, give them sustenance!

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 11:27 am

LittleDucky wrote:

Peanut free, not nut free.

LittleDucky

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 4:26 pm

I had thought she said nut free. Schools near me if they ban peanuts they also say no tree nuts either...
But if other nuts are ok, milk is still a great source of calcium, protein, vitamin D (huge percentage Americans apparently are deficient in D unless they work outside) and good fats. But it does open up other options. If you gave WW bread and nut spread that isn't peanut, I would label the container so the teachers don't throw it out thinking it's peanut. Even if it looks different, don't leave it in the hands of teachers who don't know such things exist.

Amarante

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 4:41 pm

rainbow dash wrote:

My ds 12 has the same problem. But he falls asleep in the morning by the rebbi. I gave him something natural to calm him down at night so he can sleep better cause he doesn't sleep enough. He eats breakfast at school and 3 times a break. I serve hot dinner when they come home. Im thinking about taking him to the dr.

This could also be a different issue which is linked to adolescent sleep patterns. When kids enter adolescence their sleeping patterns change and so if left to their own devices, they would naturally sleep late in the mornings. There were a bunch of articles on this a few years ago and how some kids - especially those who were in schools with early morning double sessions - really suffer.

It's not that they are deliberately staying up late and then wanting to sleep late but that their sleep cycle is such that they have difficulty with early morning risings.