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Original poster

Prue Leith wants to ban school packed lunches?

221 replies

SneakyGremlins · 29/03/2019 18:08

Good luck with that.

www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/amp/47733670

OP posts:
GodolphianArabian · 31/03/2019 18:50

For me it's not even the food I find canteens really stressful places to be. For some people the noise is just too much and I'm NT so for some children with ASD it must be hell.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 31/03/2019 19:12

I work in a prep school where everyone eats school lunches. Yes we have some fussy eaters but it’s amazing the progress even the fussiest eaters make over time. It’s quite relaxed, and always plenty of choice, always at least 2 meat or fish dishes, a veggie dish, jacket potatoes with toppings, a pasta and sauce station, salad bar with protein options (hard boiled eggs, cold meats, tuna, etc) and fresh bread. Basically no ones starves, there plenty of smiles, it’s pretty healthy with the odd treat and all dietary requirements are catered for.
I suspect similar could be seen in any school with one proviso.
They have a jolly big budget!

hazeyjane · 31/03/2019 20:36

Sheogorath
But shat about kids...

My favourite auto correct of the day!

we have some fussy eaters but it’s amazing the progress even the fussiest eaters make over time.

There has been lots of posts like this on this thread....if children eat with their peers...give them time....if they were just offered a better range of foods etc etc.

My ds (and I know he is not the only child like this) finds the whole experience of lunch stressful...he has to be in a crowded room, there are smells he hates, it is noisy, there are adults that will say 'eat your sandwiches first' and 'hurry up with that food', he has to get packets or boxes open which he finds tricky or even worse use cutlery he finds hard, he has to sit with children he doesn't know so well who will be eating food that turns his stomach (because apparently sitting with his friends from the special needs class doesn't look enough schools fucking tick box version of 'inclusion')

This is before we even get to eating.....he has severe reflux and gastric ulcers so needs to eat small amounts often, so his lunch is small and sometimes he can't even manage that. He used to have a sandwich, but because a member of staff told him he had to eat all his sandwich before he could have his yoghurt, he now doesn't have sandwiches (I found them squashed into balls in his pocket) so he has 10 mini breadsticks with 2 triangles of Dairylea and a squeezy pouch sugar free yoghurt and that's it for the whole day.

Ds is below the bottom centile line for height and weight. He is supposed to have supplemented foods to build him up, but he won't eat or drink them, he has a very short list of safe foods. Eating with peers, having foods given to him repeatedly to try, eating as a family (all good home cooked food).....none of these things have helped, sometimes they have made things worse.

I think fussy eating is the wrong term for the issues that ds has, the anxiety he has over food combined with his digestive issues mean he has delayed growth and he sees a dietician every 3 months to assess him. It is beyond...'oh he's very fussy, but he'll eat school dinners and it has taken years for school to get on board, with many fuck ups along the way.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General education
hazeyjane · 31/03/2019 20:37

...sorry for immense post. It is something that dominate quite a big chunk of my brain!

Sirzy · 31/03/2019 20:52

Don’t apologise hazey! I know from previous threads like this we are in quite a similar position when it comes to eating. I think until you have lived it you don’t realise how stressful it can be.

Ds takes a croissant, a pack of crisps and a bag of apples to school. That’s it. Nothing else will be considered. Before school if we are lucky he will eat a pear.

AtleastitsnotMonday · 31/03/2019 22:29

hazeyjane Hang on before you have a pop. You are putting words in my mouth. I said made progress, not resolved all issues. For what it’s worth, I understand more than eating difficulties. For a child with real struggles progress can be being able to sit in the same room as others at meal times, sitting next to another child eating one of their fear foods or putting a new food on their plate. I must have seen around 8000 children go through the school, and everyone has school lunch. Yes maybe some eat more than others, some may eat the same thing day in day out and some have their lunch arrangements tailored to their needs, a different menu, a different room etc but it is a valuable part of our school day. Yes I appreciate some parents may not choose the school because of that but many take the chance and most celebrate their child’s progress alongside us. We look at more than just the nutritional value and at the whole social side too.

hazeyjane · 31/03/2019 22:54

Thankyou Sirzy.

I honestly am not having a pop. I'm just tired and I think lots of people don't get the complexities of having a child with complex needs.
If I thought ds would join in dinners at your school I'd hunt you down, sell a kidney and enrol him....

AtleastitsnotMonday · 31/03/2019 23:11

How old is your ds? I’m talking long term progress measured over many years. Children are with us for 10 years. There is scope for massive change in such a long time.

YouBumder · 31/03/2019 23:48

For me it's not even the food I find canteens really stressful places to be. For some people the noise is just too much and I'm NT so for some children with ASD it must be hell.

This with bells on. My son would not cope

RebeccaWrongDaily · 01/04/2019 00:06

one of mine is enormously fussy we've tried and failed miserably We decided they'd stay on school dinner after the free infant trial ran out thinking, as is often said, they'd come round to eating what their friends ate.

I used to pick them up furious and hungry about not being allowed a plate of plain pasta or rice and a side salad/some cheese (we weren't delighted with this but it was better than nothing) one day a week they did a roast dinner (that she'd eat), She told me they insisted on putting 'the sauce' on the carb and therefore she'd eat nothing as the sauce would make everything wrong. We spoke to school and they wouldn't go along with it, so we make her a packed lunch, if we're making one we might as well make 2. At least that way we know what they're having- our packed lunches are pretty good/healthy/balanced.

Natsku · 01/04/2019 06:03

That's not fussy eating hazeyjane that's a medical issue, I'm guessing the reflux and gastric ulcers have caused food aversions due to the pain? Your poor DS :(

SimonJT · 01/04/2019 06:10

The lunch at nursery today is lasagne and garlic bread followed by lemon sponge and custard. So not only are they trying to inflict type two diabetes and tooth decay, they are also failing to provide fruit/veg.

My son will have in his lunch box today spiced rice with scrambled egg, peas, french beans, okra, onion and shredded spring onion. For his ‘pudding’ he has a banana.

Snack everyday is something toasted, bread crumpet etc with margarine. Today my monster is taking humous with veg sticks and a chapati.

Until places offer healthy balanced meals, no child should be eating them!

floribunda18 · 01/04/2019 06:20

I'm all in favour of it - if they ban shite school dinners.

foxyfemke · 01/04/2019 09:01

Wow.. school dinners don't exist in my country, every child brings in a healthy snack, lunch and a drink. They do just fine.

FartersDay · 01/04/2019 09:21

Yeah hell will freeze over before I spend a tenner a day nearly on the crap offered at school.

FartersDay · 01/04/2019 09:24

Ds takes a croissant, a pack of crisps and a bag of apples to school. That’s it. Nothing else will be considered. Before school if we are lucky he will eat a pear.

He brings a bag apples a day or for the week?

No judgement, just curious! Sorry

Kazzyhoward · 01/04/2019 10:15

For me it's not even the food I find canteens really stressful places to be. For some people the noise is just too much and I'm NT so for some children with ASD it must be hell.

As a child, I refused school meals for similar reasons. Added in to that all the drama/stress about where to sit if you're not in any cliques and the bullying you suffer if you sit in someone else's usual place.

HoustonBess · 01/04/2019 10:21

State funded, actually good and nutritious school dinners. Would go a long way to improving health and preventing picky eaters.

Works in places like Finland and France. The kids take food seriously from a young age and learn to try new things and think about what they eat.

www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/karen-le-billion-french-children-eat-anything

Fazackerley · 01/04/2019 10:23

Mine are at a private school and two different state schools and you can't have packed lunches at either of them.

Fazackerley · 01/04/2019 10:24

I can understand complaints about the cost but picky eaters I have very little sympathy with. There's always bread and fruit if they really hate the main course.

HexagonalBattenburg · 01/04/2019 10:32

Mine have school dinners at the moment because they get infant free school meals - and our school dinners are pretty decent - I've eaten them while spending the day in school as a governor and it was really really nice (and not just a one-off - I've seen the school dinners in session numerous times and they've always been decent). The cost though means mine will be going onto packed lunches when they hit the juniors - DD1 wants to have packed lunches anyway at the moment but I've said no as she just does because she fancies a pretty sequined lunch box with unicorns on.

Sheogorath · 01/04/2019 10:41

"can understand complaints about the cost but picky eaters I have very little sympathy with. There's always bread and fruit if they really hate the main course."

So parents are supposed to pay £2+ for their child to eat nothing but bread and fruit everyday? What if they're intolerant to gluten?

PhilomenaButterfly · 01/04/2019 11:03

Children with sensory issues are not "picky eaters". DD used to retch from the smell of the lunch hall on Fridays.

Fazackerley · 01/04/2019 11:37

By picky eaters I mean picky eaters. Not children with issues.

At the state schools mine go to you pay for what you eat, so if you have a bread roll and an apple that's all you pay for. It won't kill them to have a light lunch if they have a good breakfast.

That French article makes complete sense to me.

Sirzy · 01/04/2019 12:01

But often you don’t realise the level of the issues at first so they would just be labelled as “picky”

I was labelled as a picky eater and when I was younger but now I am older and with all I have learnt from Ds is is actually pretty obvious that I have a host of sensory issues!