Kids packed lunch for a whole day (snack, lunch, tea)

[Pascha]

How much do yours eat? Ds went on a cub adventure day at the weekend. 8.30 - 5pm. Drinks provided but nothing else. His packup consisted of:

Midmorning snack: banana, raisins
Lunch: ham sandwich, quavers, babybel, flapjack
Afternoon snack: cheese, crackers, grapes.
Extra: popcorn, small pack of biscuits.

This seemed loads to me, I thought it would be more than enough but he was ravenous when I picked him up.

What would you put in?

I'm not surprised he was ravenous!Think about what you'd give him to eat if he was at home but you couldn't cook. I'm sure you wouldn't give him popcorn or a packet of biscuits.

Banana and/or apple
Two rounds of sandwiches, wrapped separately
Two small pork pies
Two fairy cakes
Grapes
Lots of water.

An alternative to one of the sandwiches could be a cold pasta meal ie with chicken and bacon and mayo.

Especially as its an adventure day he'll have needed more calories. For tea I've have done a pasta salad with protein, a couple of youghurts, fruit and biscuits. For lunch add an extra sandwich.

That's a bit more than I would give my 9yo, so I don't think you've starved him :) He probably had a busy and active day - it's good that he came home hungry for dinner.

Presuming he had breakfast and evening meal at home, I would have probably done something like:

Nuts and fruit snack.
Cheese sandwich, salad/veg bits and crisps lunch.
Cereal bar or flapjack snack.

Plus drinks.

It's not that much longer than a school day, so just the afternoon snack is extra on top of what I give my 9yo for his packed lunch most days.

Looks like enough to me. On a school day in those hours my 8 year old would have:
Satsuma for morning snack
Ham sandwich, baby bel, quavers, grapes, frube for lunch
Crackers and a banana for an after school snack.

It's more than I would give DS for a similar time period (school plus running club afterwards). I pack him a similar lunch but only fruit plus one non fruit item (crackers, cereal bar) for a snack x 2, one for morning and one for afternoon.

A second round of sandwiches wouldnt have gone amiss i can see that now. The cheese and crackers was quite a substantial amount. I thought that would be good protein. Cold pasta would have been ignored as would anything like chicken or bacon or pork pies or sausage rolls or any stodge really. He hates yoghurt too. The popcorn and biscuits were a treat. Don't you ever put treats in?

He said some kids had whole packs of cake bars. I put that one down straight away. I think i will just go with a second sandwich and more flapjack next time. The biscuits will stay.

Did he have dinner at home in the evening?
If so, I don't think he would need two rounds of sandwiches or pasta/pie etc. What you gave him sounds fine, but maybe more 'treats' than I would give even on a special day out. Like I said, I would have given my son crisps and a cereal bar or flapjack or similar, so yes I give treats.

Yes we had lasagne for dinner at six. I think that the physical activity did warrant a little extra food. I'll know for next time.

I have 6, 8 and 11 yo kids and I would give all of them way more than that though I'm known to over indulge when it comes to packed lunches because my own mum couldn't have given a shit. I regularly went hungry as I had the nastiest, tiniest lunches as a kid. A warm soggy unidentifiable meat paste butty and a quenchy cup was my usual lunch.

In your case mine would have been a cereal bar plus crisps or a bag of mixed fruits for snack.
Lunch would be sandwiches, a pepperami (they love those!), a Frube yoghurt, some cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and cucumber slices, a tub of grapes, blueberries and strawberries, a packet of crisps, bottle of fresh OJ and maybe a small chocolate bar for treat.
Then dinner (tea) would have been something fairly substantial too such as a good size pie, sausage roll or sandwiches again along with another bottle of juice, some snack treats like raisins or a flapjack bar and something like another packet of crisps or a banana, apple or tangerine as well as the cheese and crackers.

Adventure days are hectic and they need a lot of food to keep their energy up. The last one my dc went to was catered and the kids were like locusts, hoovering up every scrap of hot soup, sandwiches and bacon rolls on offer. There was more than enough but they snaffled it all. It's hard being a kid canoeing, climbing and all sorts.

Sounds ok to me, but you know your son. I don’t think it’s a problem if he was hungry though, he was about to go home for tea!

It sounds like a normal amount to me...it would be plenty for some children and not enough for others. My ds is a bottomless pit...he could eat constantly and still never be full My dd would struggle to eat that much though.

It's not dissimilar to what I'd give my 3.5 and almost 5 year old. I usually add boiled eggs to lunch boxes, and yoghurts (the ones in squeeze pouches).

Honestly he had more than enough food, no need for 2 rounds of sandwiches that’s just over feeding a child. Presumably he had breakfast before he left and then he has lasagne once home for crying out loud he wasn’t starving

why would he need more food than he has on a normal day? I just don’t get it