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Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

what's in your Childs lunchbox?

71 replies

FunnysInLaJardin · 06/07/2019 22:22

So my children have;

ham wrap
yoghurt
cereal bar
apple
mini cheddars or crisps
water

This to me is entirely normal, however some folk seem to disagree.

Straw poll really as to what folk feed their DC for school lunch

OP posts:
FunnysInLaJardin · 06/07/2019 23:35

so my conclusion is that most DC have a similar type lunch.

Why then on a previous lunch box type thread was the mother roundly condemned for giving her DC just what we have demonstrated here to be an entirely normal lunch

Someone even added up the grams of sugar and concluded that a sandwich, a yoghurt, some fruit and a cereal bar was 25 ggs of sugar Confused

OP posts:
PickAChew · 06/07/2019 23:36

Sandwich, cake and sausage roll, do do do do do dooo.

PickAChew · 06/07/2019 23:39

He's 13 and an autistic eschewer of veg, btw. Sometimes it's pork pie instead of sausage roll, but that doesn't scan.

Poetryinaction · 06/07/2019 23:39

Cheese and pickle wrap
Cucumber and tomatoes
Piece of fruit
Biscuit

Hmmmbop · 06/07/2019 23:40

2 fruits (grapes, various berries, melon, pear slices or half an apple usually)
2 veg (pepper and cucumber usually)
A 'main' (sandwich, pizza, pinwheel, sausage, cheese)
A 'side' (breadsticks and hummus, malt loaf, crisps, crackers etc depending on the 'main')
Water

PodgeBod · 06/07/2019 23:41

DD is 4
She has a wrap with ham, cheese, cucumber and tomato (she loves this combo, so has the same thing every day.) Maybe extra cherry tomatoes/cucumber slices on the side.
Frube
Fruit (apple, banana or mixed berries)
Treat (mini oreos, jelly pot, mini cookies, 2 mini muffins)

anothernotherone · 06/07/2019 23:43

Nothing, because it's Sunday

hopeishere · 06/07/2019 23:44

Yup. Mumsnet is mad about the packed lunch.

Every child I know gets sandwich / cheese strings / crisps / fruit / crackers / biscuit.

FunnysInLaJardin · 06/07/2019 23:54

hope I would just love to know who these folk are who says that a normal lunch is shit.

No-one here Sad

OP posts:
mamaduckbone · 06/07/2019 23:56
  • Chicken/ham and salad wrap
  • chunk of cucumber / carrot sticks / cherry tomatoes
  • dried apricots / grapes / strawberries if we have them in
  • something sweet (homemade or shop bought...wagon wheel, muffin, caramel wafer etc)
  • crisps / mini cheddars / lentil or pea snacks for the older one, only occasionally for the younger one.

They come home starving but would rather have a big snack after school than any more in lunchboxes as it takes too long to eat. They're 9 and 13

anothernotherone · 06/07/2019 23:56

We have absolutely no packed lunch rules. Lunch club ladies asked me to stop paying 5€ a day for ds3's cookedd lunch because all he was eating after a full year was apples, picked from the trees in the school garden, or provided by lunch club out of season. Absolutely nothing else ever unless they had carrot soup, which happened about once every two months. He'd eat gallons of carrot soup though. Not any other soup, not carrot and lentil or carrot and coconut, obviously.

He has 2 peanut butter and jam sandwiches and 2 salami sandwiches split between a snack box and lunch box (school starts at 7:45, he's picked up from after school club between 3pm 4pm) and apples and fruit puree squeeze pouches and rice cakes now. In winter he has yogurt, but it's 35 degrees atm and packed lunches are not refrigerated at school.

No crisps. We live in Germany and putting crisps in a packed lunch would be as weird as putting a deep fried hamster in...

GeorgiaGirl52 · 07/07/2019 07:24

Son (15) when he asked for a packed lunch:
sandwich -- ham and cheese, pimiento cheese, or PBJ
string cheese or carrot sticks
fresh fruit - apple, pear, or grapes (don't cut them anymore)
small bag of potato chips (crisps)
small piece of cake or two cookies
bottle or water

Crunchymum · 07/07/2019 07:28

My extremely fussy 6yo has

  • beef or ham wrap / sandwich / roll
  • yogurt
  • cheese
  • mini breadsticks
YouJustDoYou · 07/07/2019 07:28

One bread slice sandwich, some sort of veg, a protein like slice of ham, yoghurt, piece of fruit, sometimes a packet of crisps now he's older. No crisps when he was younger.

ATrampsVest · 07/07/2019 07:30

Ham sandwich
Mini babybel
Carrot sticks and small pot of hummous
Fruit
Yogurt

I don't put treats in because they get enough of those from their childminder / after school play scheme and we like to have pudding in the evening Grin

HicDraconis · 07/07/2019 08:15

DS1 (13) usually has leftovers in a thermos flask.

DS2 (11) has 5 minute pizza (tomato paste and basil on a tortilla with chopped ham / sweet corn / mozzarella under the grill) with grapes or.a satsuma.

Fundays12 · 07/07/2019 08:21

Oldest is autistic and a terrible boy fussy eater so his lunchbox is not great.
Dairylea dunkers x2
Big tub of cut up strawberries
Custard
Crisps
Waffles x2
Water
He is such a poor eater the school keep weetabix I gave them for him and just use his account on the snack bar for milk.

Toddlers lunch bag
Cut up cheese bits
Ham or similar type sandwich
Cut up Fruit x2 (he likes any which is great)
Bread sticks
Crisps
Raisins
Water.

gingajewel · 07/07/2019 08:29

My dd9 has:

3x crackers
Cheesestring
Yoghurt
Fruit
Crisps
A biscuit

I’ve never really thought about it to be honest! That’s what her and all her friends have!

yoursworried · 07/07/2019 08:33

Cheese sandwich on brown bread
Small yoghurt
Banana
Strawberries
Sometimes some carrot sticks

Probably not good enough in mumsnet world but this is what he will eat 🤷‍♀️

SimonJT · 07/07/2019 08:37

Left overs stuffed in a roti, which on Thursday was veg machoosi.
Veg sticks with a little pot of hummus.
Bit of fruit
Half a bag of pombears
Bottle of water, or squash on Thursdays as a treat.

Bicnod · 07/07/2019 08:38

All three of mine have similar:

Sandwich with cheese and Marmite or cheese and pickle or cheese spread.

Yoghurt.

Crisps or cake bar.

Carrot/cucumber/pepper sticks in tub.

Sometimes Apple juice carton, but they usually just have their refillable water bottles.

Youngest (4) eats everything. Eldest (10) hardly eats anything. Eldest two usually end up eating the veg when they get home and I empty their lunchboxes and discover it untouched Hmm

rosybell · 07/07/2019 08:43

Ham or tuna mayo sandwich
Yoghurt tube
Fruit (strawberries/melon/nectarine)
Mini cucumber
Kit Kat

BangingOn · 07/07/2019 08:48

All children have school dinners as DS’s school, but he does need a packed lunch during the holidays. I struggle during the holidays as he will eat anything and everything the school cook makes, but is fussy outside of that.

Typically he has:
Ham sandwich or cold chicken nuggets (homemade)
Two pots of fruit, usually satsumas, sliced apple, grapes, raspberries and strawberries (one for snack, one for lunchtime)
Cucumber
Crisps or popcorn
Smoothie
Water

Yinyen · 07/07/2019 08:53

I let them make their own but they have to follow these guidelines:

  1. Sandwich or wrap (normally humus or cheese) or a hot pot with either egg fried rice and veg, chilli, jacket pota or leftover tea.
  2. A piece of fruit or 2 if we have enough in
  3. 2 types of veg (usually carrots, peas, cucumber, pepper or sweetcorn)
  4. A biscuit
They get water to drink at school, Juice everyday is expensive and two of them react to aspartame so not worth the fall out.

On a Friday they can have a bag if crisps.

bedunkalilt · 07/07/2019 08:55

We got a very detailed packed lunch policy last year. Not that it has been enforced! I’m sure they would say something about crisps, nuts or chocolate (as they’ve been ‘banned’ for ages), but we also got stuff about only having occasional sausage products (like sausage roll, cooked sausage) and needing a source of omega oils etc... they haven’t gone so far as to write home about stuff like that. Both of my DCs are a bit tricky to feed for lunch (both autistic).

Eldest is easier to cater for, he takes a mix of things - usually grapes, strawberries, tomatoes, breadsticks, yoghurt, then the final item will vary; sometimes cooked sausage, sometimes hummus, sometimes pumpkin pie.

It ‘looks’ good, but actually I don’t see how that would be better than a ham sandwich for instance, he just won’t eat a typical packed lunch and doesn’t touch much of what’s on offer for school dinners.

My younger one will have yoghurt, cocktail sausages, crackers/breadsticks, Soreen... it starts to get tricky after that!

If he’d eat a sandwich and crisps etc reliably then tbh I’d probably be sending him in with them, given there’s little he’ll reliably eat at school, although he doesn’t complain of hunger and he’s not underweight so he clearly makes up for it before and after school!

Both take water bottles, getting them into that habit was more important to me because for ages they refused water but I didn’t want them to live on squash - I don’t actually think it’s awful, but I don’t want them needing everything to be sweet and they’re both fine drinking just water now. However when they were very little and not drinking, especially in hot weather, I just gave them the squash! Things can be a work in progress, I don’t think children need to be perfect and unfussy at 4yo and it’s more about regularly offering and modelling the variety of food and them seeing things like fruit and veg as part of a normal diet and not overly relying on things like chocolate biscuits for sustenance.