Packed lunches for nursery

[NoNoNoOohmaybe]

Apologies in advance for the really boring, and done to death post...

My 3.5 year olds have started pre school and have to take a packed lunch. I am struggling with how much to send them in with.

Tomorrow they're taking 2x falafels, houmous, veggie sticks, 2 crackers and cheese, apple and grapes, apple, yoghurt. They can't heat anything, they can't have anything unhealthy including crisps. Other days I substitute the falafels, houmous and crackers for a sandwich.

Is this about what others do? It's way more than I eat for my lunch but they always eat everything. I think I'm getting paranoid about encouraging good portion control and not conveying the food issues I got from my parents on to them.

My son would love that lunch. If they're happy and your happy then carry on.

Thank you for the reassurance, much appreciated. Somehow a lot of my maternal guilt and second guessing seems to have focussed on these bloody lunches!

I started a thread about this yesterday. My 3 yr old today took one slice of bread and butter, cheese and cucumber. Grapes, pear. 2 slices malt loaf. One yogurt. 5 mini rice cakes. We too are not supposed to send unhealthy food but I was told by one of the workers that almost everyone does. Today the lunch at came home with the pear and some malt loaf uneaten. The pre school provide a snack too so I was quite surprised at how much was eaten!

Sounds similar to my just turned 4 year old. He has a yogurt, cheese, fruit, veg sticks, wrap either plain or with chicken in, breadsticks and sometimes some cereal or a second type of fruit. Occasionally he'll have raisins too.

My nearly 3 year old would like that lunch and eat most of it most days (though she’d want to have the apple as a snack an hour or so after lunch ideally), so sounds about right to me.

My 4 year old takes
Cream cheese sandwich made with 'thins'
Yoghurt
2 or 3 bread sticks
Banana
Tub of strawberries and blueberries
Apple or pear
Sometimes some crisps or healthy ish popcorn or a biscuit

(Pancake or scone or oaty bar for afternoon snack)

Definitely not perfect but I struggle with what else I could give.

Interesting, glad everyone's doing similar.

Does popcorn count as "healthy"? I mean no judgement by that, I find the rules a bit arbitrary and mine deffo eat more foods on the naughty list when they're at home!

I'm worried now that I haven't given mine enough. She has a ham & cheese sandwich (1 slice of bread), pot of blueberries and strawberries, pot of tomatoes and cucumber and a dairy lea bread stick drunker (not sure that will clear the lunchbox police). The nursery also has a fruit table and milk available.

I'll probably add in some cocktail sausages next week or an egg or crackers.

I found some popcorn that doesn't have much salt or sugar in it. Better than crisps or a biscuit I think Homemade popcorn with nothing added would be healthy I guess but not that tasty.

I wish mine ate salad stuff and hummus.