Extravagant Pack Lunches

DD is autistic and sensory seeks with food. She won’t eat “standard lunchbox” food such as a ham sandwich, instead we have to continually mix it up. Humous with chilli sauce mixed in, pickled eggs, bbq chicken and jalapeño ciabatta, olives (low salt) home made savoury cheese biscuits, more exotic fruit rather than the standard apple and orange.
If they’re eating it, getting some of their five a day in, minimal ultra processed foods, then I can’t see the problem. More worrying are friends who rock up with two chocolate bars and two packs of crisps every day.

How middle class IS this site. People are struggling to feed their kids and others on here are making out smoked salmon and steak is perfectly normal in packed lunches.

if I didn’t get such a laugh at the belters posting on here it would be a waste of time coming on. I really miss the old Mumsnet when people weren’t up their own backsides.

The saddest thing I ever saw was a child who brought in a packed lunch of quavers and custard creams all mixed together in an old biscuit container- he was so embarrassed when he opened it and said ‘ mum was too busy to make anything’. We reassured him it was fine and you criticise healthy packed lunches from mums who do find time.

My son is on a specialist diet due to bowel issues too but it actually tends to involve more unhealthy food as he needs low fibre and to avoid food that can be poorly digested so we have to avoid wholemeal, raw veggies, dried fruit, berries, hummus etc.

So ham on white is a nice, simple lunch option for him.

no more op, one and done kind of post

Nothing wrong with a ham sandwich and crisps in themselves! The packed lunch is only part of a daily diet, which needs to take into account individual needs.

DD hoovers up veg, my challenge is to get calorie rich foods into her!

Plus those processed foods are often just as expensive as things like smoked salmon!

People might assume I go over the top with my child's lunches but there are reasons for it, she's on a specialist diet due to IBD. The typical packed lunches will make her poorly. Add to this that we avoid processed foods as much as possible.

I really don't think it's something to judge about, especially as it's benefiting the child.. whole foods, nutrient rich & not processed crap.

Tbh I often feel for the kids where I see loads of packaged processed junk that their parents believe to be healthy ie - fridge raiders, snack wraps, lunchables, peparami, frubes, petit filous etc. It's no wonder they're tired & irritable with all that added sugar & sodium.

Just keep in mind that some children actually need different things to be healthy for medical reasons.

My son has a limited diet and is under a dietician. Ham sandwich & crisps etc is the perfect lunch for him to keep him healthy. Steak would land him in hospital.

Sounds like a lovely packed lunch to me .
I am older so when i had to make packed lunches for my 3 children I was fed up thinking what to put in that would last in a (usually too warm ) classroom .
i did put little cool fridge packs in the basic lunch boxes they had and tried varieties of sandwiches , wraps , pasta salads , bean salads , noodle salads .
Little individual yogurts , cherry tomatoes, cucumber sticks , dips , small fruits 🍇
Little individual wrapped plain cakes or homemade cakes wrapped in cling wrap .
I think one staff member objected to my putting homemade soup in a flask as she said it was too messy

I pack similar for my child and we are not rich nor mortgage free. You can chose to feed your kids healthy nutritional meals or you can feed them crisps and ham sandwiches.

Should children only be fed processed cheese and ham sandwiches then? If I had some salmon and steak in my fridge, I would put those in a sandwich for my child.

I’d love to be able to send in things like that. My DS7, while he’ll eat like that at home, only wants cheese sandwiches because they’re quick to eat so he can go out and play.

This is such a British thing. Even lunch boxes are linked to class - in France or Japan healthy lunches like this are the norm. Here it’s something to be sneered at as being posh. It’s a good healthy lunch and we need more of it!

I found this post really depressing to read. Children should be eating this sort of varied diet which is likely to be left overs from a home cooked dinner. Why do people feed their kids dumbed down food?

What a judgmental person you are. Each to their own. Maybe worry about the ones with just a bit of bread and marg.

Are you jealous of a five year olds lunch op? ;)

At 5 they are entitled to free school meals which are just awful. How do you know it’s the rich kids anyway? It could all be bought at Lidl and one of the council house kids.

I used to try and give my son a nice lunch. He refuses to eat 90% of it. Very frustrating. My daughter likes a Chicken wrap and fruit and biscuits

You say he’s a fussy eater, is he a vegetarian as well? Does he like meat?

My daughter has always been a little foodie. In p2 she started taking smoked salmon sandwiches for lunch. She would have little pots of olives and cheese with breadsticks and fig chutney. At 8 she would ask for the duck in restaurants. Some children don’t like rubbish food.

What are you the food police? This has actually made me feel genuinely irritated.
My child’s favourite packed lunch is a smoked salmon sandwich. They have severe allergies so options are more limited. I’m happy to give this - I’m always reading about how kids don’t have enough oily fish and omega 3s and luckily my kid loves salmon, mackerel, tuna, sardines etc. But that shouldn’t even matter.
perhaps you need to examine why this has bothered you/ made enough of an impression on you that you noticed it at all never mind posted it on here. Ruby Tabdoh has a good book on this. And why should food be ‘too extravagant’ for a child? If they enjoy it? They are a growing human being. Are they worth less?

Are you sure you are suited to your job op?

I think its awesome. Treat them keen and always be clean. I wish my Nan and mother did this for me, i had normal school meals. I loved the smell of the dinner hall at lunch time though. Its good to treat children like first class citizens, although i would admit its a bit costly to do this everyday for children. But as you said 6 figure salary.

Or was expecting everyone else to laugh along when the bully pointed her finger, and then scuttled off when that didnt happen.