To have started to think that the food police only exist on mumsnet?

[Meandmygirls2009]

Before my dd started school last September I was prepared for the food police so made sure I only put sandwiches, veg sticks, fruit and yogurt in her packed lunch which dd hated as it turns out most of the children have sandwiches, crisps and a chocolate bar (confirmed by a dinner lady who is a mother of a child at the school that I have become friends with). Dd tried school dinners, on the letter it says they are provided with water to drink, but the school allow them to bring their own drink if they do not like water, hence lots of fruit shoots by the kids coats every morning (my daughter included ) they have a water fountain they can use throughout the day but they can also bring in a flask of squash if they do not like water. The only rules are no sweets or fizzy drinks or glass bottles. My dd has regularly taken a lunch box without any fruit or veg in as it always comes back home with her so I have given up. No one batts an eyelid when she has taken a sausage roll, crisps and a chocolate biscuit! Her school is in a very naice middle class area surrounded by huge houses and most parents driving BMWs aldi Mercedes, even the odd porche. I am shocked as after reading so much mumsnet I wasn't expecting the rules on eating to be so lax. Has anyone else found this? Or does everyone else have the food police that is talked about on mumsnet??

[bobajob]

Why would you "give up" because the school aren't policing her lunch box? Surely you want her to eat well for her sake not just because the teacher tells you to

DS's school rules are just no sweets/chocolate, or own drinks. My school anything goes except nuts, sweets or fizzy drinks.

[ppolly]

Iit depends on school policy. I dinner lady at one that has no rules at all, other than no fizzy drinks. There isn't the staff capacity to police lunch boxes and frankly, it is not the business of the school to ensure that food brought from home is healthy. However, I do wonder occasionally over the mars bar/chocolate spread sandwiches/ crisp combination that some children have.

[mugglingalong]

Dc at two different primary schools within half a mile. One says anything except nuts and chocolate (because it melts), other has umpteen different official rules plus numerous other random rules made up by lunchtime assistants but with no real nutritional basis. It all depends on the school.

[CigarsofthePharoahs]

I was sending ds to preschool with a healthy lunchbox. This was fine for a few days but soon it mmostly came back uneaten.
I swapped sandwich fillings as he decided he would only eat jam. No veggie sticks, fruit, yogurts or dried fruit. Now he has jam sandwiches, crisps, a soft drink and... Well I do put one healthy thing in. Dried fruit mostly, sometimes some cheese or cucumber. Guess which bit is never eaten?
Lunch at home is healthy, no crisps. He eats it all with mostly little fuss. Don't know why he's so bad at preschool.

[Nromanoff]

Big my kids schools are strict. Ds starts full time in September and it has a long list of banned foods.

Biscuits are allowed but choc bars are not etc. no juice allowed in school at all. Water only in school water bottles. At dd secondary again water only in one of their bottles.

[UnspecialSnowflake]

DDs school doesn't allow sweets, chocolate, fizzy drinks, crisps or cakes/cookies other than homemade. DD has school lunch but I know they do police lunch boxes, and will periodically send out parent mails reminding us of the lunchbox rules.

[Meandmygirls2009]

bobajob I have given up because dd comes home with a still full lunch box. She will only eat cheese sandwich, crisps and some type of biscuit bar and a fresh apple juice. I would rather her eat than go all day without food at 5 years old.

[nocutsnobuttsnococonuts]

I think dd's is no nuts, fizzy drinks or sweets.

However on the days she has pack lunch she will have sandwich, fruit, cucumber/tomatoes, yoyo bear, yogurt and a few tortilla chips in a sandwich bag. shes told me other children have chocolate/biscuits and proper crisps however I told her that different parents have different rules. I want her to have a balanced lunch that fills her up. same as chocolate spread on toast/frosties are weekend breakfasts. school days its toast or weetabix.

she's 6 and just finishing year 1

[Meandmygirls2009]

CigarsofthePharoahs that is just like my dd. ate everything on the first day and then less and less until no lunch was being eaten. And she kept telling me about her friends who were allowed crisps and treats on their lunch boxes. I think she felt gutted watching them eat it while staring at a bit of cucumber. She eats healthy at home though so the crisps and biscuit bar in her lunch box are the only junk she gets all day.

[Corneliusmurphy]

Only the kids are rewarded with stickers you know... In theory a healthy lunch box should equate to healthy kids or at least well fed kids who can concentrate in the afternoon.
Our school only allows water in their bottles which are accessible all day, they can have juice with their lunch. They are not allowed chocolate or sweets in their lunchbox and messages are sent home if they do.

Of course they are allowed cereal bars and crisps which I don't personally see as much healthier than a small bar of chocolate and the school dinner dessert is occasionally cookies, cake or ice cream...

[MamaLazarou]

DS's school doesn't allow any chocolate or nuts and only water to drink. Fair enough, say I.

[mugglingalong]

Oh fizzy drinks might be banned at easy going school. Other school has rules about which cakes are allowed (only homemade) which order they eat food, no crisps, no biscuits, certain other food is banned, no chocolate, no drinks other than water or fruit drinks - but only fruit juice/ smoothie. Most of the time the rules don't bother me as their lunches are fairly healthy, but I might have on occasion when really busy at work, taken the wrapper off a cake and tried to pass it off as homemade!

[Passmethecrisps]

Mine isn't at school yet but I work in education and have never heard of a school locally which has any sort of monitoring. I cannot imagine the staff having the time or inclination and it always strikes me as being counter productive. Rifling through lunch boxes and sending home passive aggressive notes surely creates bad feeling.

Some of the lists of banned food I have seen on here are too bonkers to be believed.

[snowaccidentprone]

Ds1 had a friend who had the same thing for lunch every day;

Jam sandwiches on white bread, a penguin, a kitkat and a carton of ribena.

We always used to wonder if he was bouncing off the walls after lunch.

They've since tightened up and don't allow nuts and only water to drink.

But those are the only rules.

[mugglingalong]

Oh yes no sweets or cereal bars either.

[Husbanddoestheironing]

I would just be grateful your school obviously trust your judgement and balance your children's diet. I find it really annoying when schools dictate beyond some basic guidance, and totally pointless when the children then don't get supervised sufficiently to make them eat it. At home my two are happy to eat very healthily, and we can make sure they do eat it. Children do actually need sufficient calories to get them through the day or they start behaving badly, so I am happy to throw in a Kitkat along with the sandwiches, yoghurt (kids one with low added sugar) fruit and (sometimes) veg sticks (these usually come home again) Ideally I'd put a piece of homemade cake in instead of a Kitkat, but we only bake rarely due to time constraints and out of school sports/activities etc. it's all about balance. I have heard of very bossy schools though, one of my colleagues had a nightmare with her painfully thin 8 year old at hers.

[ppolly]

I also think that a lot of children aren't all that hungry at lunchtimes. They've already had a morning snack and then there is the fact that lunchtime also means playtime. Most will rediscover their appetite when they get home.

[Meandmygirls2009]

They are not allowed to take in a morning (or afternoon) snack at dds school, so she would be going 7.30am until 4pm without food

[elephantoverthehill]

My DS1 won the healthy lunch box award. They were doing a project on healthy eating and were asked to show what was in their lunch box that day. DS had brown soda bread sandwiches with tuna in I think, no crisps, carrot sticks, apple etc. Why? because I hadn't been shopping and was using up stuff.

[ppolly]

Well it is fine to pack whatever you know they will actually eat. Most fruit will keep until they get home anyway. most do the sandwhices/biscuit/ fruit/ crisps combination. Oh and those awful tube yoghurts that I have to open after they have already been in the mouth of a child vainly trying to rip it open with their teeth.

[ProcrastinatorGeneral]

My eldest is at seniors so Jeff only knows what she eats.

Middle child is at primary. Very strict packed lunch policy. No chocolate at all - including Nutella, no sweets, no fizz, no glass, yoghurt fine, but not the chocolate pudding type thing. Crisps are permitted but limited to one bag per child, and after a while a letter was sent home to statement 'family bag' crisps did not class as a single portion and they weren't allowed either. Oh, there was a special letter reminding that energy drinks aren't suitable for primary age children too.

Very poor area, huge obesity problem. It's been a year now and the protest group has fizzled and died.

[RufusTheReindeer]

muggling

Lunchtime assistants don't make up the rules regarding food

The local council sorts the dinners and the head/teachers decide lunchbox rules (mainly the head as far as I know)

[derxa]

I have heard of very bossy schools though, one of my colleagues had a nightmare with her painfully thin 8 year old at hers.

Also I have an anecdote about a poor child who was sent into school with a slab of rock hard home made wholemeal bread and other 'healthy' foods. She was 4. She couldn't physically eat her lunch and she was malnourished.
I also have an issue with state school dinners which are actual processed shit.
When I see the school dinners that private schools dish up,(I've eaten them) it makes me weep for state school pupils and their health.

[Passmethecrisps]

It is stuff like procrastinator mentions which sheds a bit of light into why some schools do need to provide a framework. Energy drinks are really awful and must have a dreadful impact on children's attention span. And family sized bags of crisps?

I am not sure what the answer is but fanatical 'lunchbox policing' doesn't seem to resolve anything. Surely if the school remove crisps/chocolate etc during the school day the child just gets them in the evening?