Pop Tarts for Tykes?

So far The Dad has been the packer of lunches for The Kid each day. He aims for a healthy, satisfying, and energizing balance of fruit, veggies, protein, and carbs and we've been warned not to send in any candy (not that we would anyway). The Kid gets milk at school and other parents asked that only regular milk be offered.

Often these lovingly packed lunches come back only partially eaten, which is disappointing. She does eat breakfast at home, and then again at school, plus lunch and a parent-supplied school-approved snack in her classroom and then again in afterschool, so we know she's eating enough.

We like to eat in our home, but we try to avoid the overly processed stuff, go organic with meat, milk, fruit and veggies when we can, and serve up lots of the Kid's favorite veg, broccoli. As a result, she's not a picky eater, and she loves to cook with us.

We were warned off of the school lunch by other parents. But I feel like it's a viable back up if we need it -- after all, it's all nutritionally balanced, right? Well, perhaps not all day.

Last week I went to pick up the Kid early from her afterschool program, which is on site but not run by the school. There they were, noshing on two strawberry Pop Tarts each and having milk.

The Kid loves frosting of any kind, which she gets at birthday parties, so the idea that this snack had built in frosting was heaven to her.

But I found myself reacting like Jarret Barrios did when he heard Fluffernutters were on his son's lunch menu in Cambridge. His outrage then backfired when many of his constituents came out in support of Fluff as a locally made staple, despite the fact that it's 50% sugar.

I know that Pop Tarts are easy and cheap. That's part of what's causing a nationwide epidemic of obesity for children and their parents -- at the same time we have child hunger rising.

After we left, I asked the Kid if this is what they normally have. "No," she said, "Sometimes we have cookies." This is a girl whose very special dessert treat if she's been well-behaved is a teeny tiny hard candy -- and then a tooth brushing right afterwards. We try to make sweets a special occasion thing, and chocolate is mostly banned due to making her crazy immediately afterwards. Cookies are not part of our daily dining choices.

Nutritional Analysis

Strawberry Pop Tarts: 203 calories per tart, 5g fat, 19g sugar
vs.
Fluff: 60 calories for 2 tablespoons, no fat, 9g sugar

The upshot? Pop Tarts are way worse for you than Fluff. And I'm going to have to be like Jarret and find a nice way to try and get this changed, not just for afterschool, but also for our parent nights, where artery-clogging KFC fried chicken is a staple. I don't know about you, but given the choice between nothing and some finger lickin' good chicken when I'm hungry, I'm hard pressed to say no to the Colonel after that smell meets my nose. But me clogging my arteries is bad news for my daughter, so we avoid KFC in our regular life.

Alice Waters, we need you here in Boston starting up an organic garden in our school...

We need to all be role models to our kids, not just for reading and moral discipline, but for eating. And that goes for our schools, our mentoring programs, our restaurants, and anywhere else we're eating with kids. - The Mom