What to put into school packed lunch?

[IShitGlitter]

My DS4 started school this week and am worried hes not eating enough he can be fussy at times anyway.....

I am going to put him onto packed lunches he loves this kind of dinner anyway and regularly asks for sandwiches.

Is this too much
Ham and cheese roll or tuna pasta
Cheese string/cheese peices/cooked meat or cocktail sasuages
Mini chedders/pretzels/crisps
Homemade flapjacks/small cake/cereal bar
Yoghurt
Fruit

Ok written down that sounds alot

At primary mine had:
Sandwich/wrap
Fruit - strawberries/grapes
Yoghurt
Small biscuit item
Drink

Secondary:
Much the same minus the yoghurt

I would do

Ham sandwiches, cocktail sausages a yogurt and some fruit

I'd miss out cheese strings list and crisps list and the rest would be plenty

DSD takes something like...

Crackers
Ham/Chicken
Cheesestring
Fruit
Yoghurt

And I'll occasionally put a little brownie or something in there :)

Sometimes she'll take a sandwich instead of crackers. And sometimes I'll cook up some pasta and add meat/sweetcorn for a change.

She's a fussy pants! Feels quite hard to mix it up both those are my fail safe options.

Mine always had, one main (sandwich, wrap, pasta, etc) one portion of fruit, one of veg, a yogurt/jelly/custard type thing and then a small treat.

Mine usually have:
A sandwich
A piece of fruit
Some chopped veg - cherry toms, carrots or cucumber.
A yogurt
Something else savoury, maybe a veg muffin, sausage roll etc.
On a friday a bit of cake or some biscuits etc.

You don't want to put in too much or they won't have time to eat it.

One main "thing" - sandwich/wrap/pasta salad/pasty
1 fruit/veg snack - chopped cucumber/pepper, cherry toms, cut up fruit, fruit cup/jelly
1 proteiny snack - cheese string, yoghurt, cold sausage/chicken, pepperami, nuts
1 carby snack - crackers, pretzels, cake, snack crisps (e.g. mini cheddars), muffin
(Prob of above categories 2x savoury, 1x sweet as "pudding")
Drink

Depending on what is allowed with healthy eating policy.

My DC found lunchtime very stressful at first and barely ate anything. They had big breakfasts and a snack after pickup to compensate. I would go with small , easily opened and tackled portions of things you know they like.

Tuna/salmon pasta with sweetcorn or ham and cheese wrap
Cherry toms
Strawberries
Pepperoni
Yoghurt
Babybel
Mini roll or cake.

These ideas are great this morning he wanted pasta so I put in
Tuna mayo pasta with grated cheese ontop a kiwi, strawberries and raspberries all cut up into a Tupperware and a flapjack.

All sounds fine to me (but may be too much at once) and also my dc are not allowed crisps so double check that with the school.

I'd check the school policies. Our local ones all say no cake/chocolate and crisps are discouraged. Only water to drink.

I'd do main - sandwich/wrap/pasta salad
savoury - crackers/cheese cube/veg
sticks
fruit
frube type yoghurt - keep in freezer so it stays nice and cool.

When mine got sick of sandwiches I would do soup in a small flask with buttered bread as the 'main'.

Today mine (4&7) had:

Ham and cucumber roll (brown)
Crisps
Grapes
Apple
Soreen bar

The eldest will eat the soreen mid morning and I don’t put crisps in every day. They are starving at pick up and I’ll often give in and give them a sweet treat 🙈

I have 2 at school, year 3 and year 5. They both take a bento box type container which has 3 compartments. In the main compartment I'll put in one of the following:

Sandwich/wrap/roll
Pasta salad
Muffin pizza
Savoury scone
Savoury muffin

They then get something like pretzels, popcorn or cheese biscuits in the 2nd compartment, and either fruit or carrot sticks in the 3rd.

I also pop a sweet treat in, like cookies or iced gems, that kind of thing.

I think it sounds like a lot OP, but all kids are different. My 2 are older but still in primary. They eat a hearty breakfast and say they don't get much time to eat at school. Something like this:

Morning break snack
Piece of fruit

Lunchtime

1. Peanut butter/cheese sandwich OR couscous with veg and halloumi OR cheese and crackers
2. Cucumber, tomatoes, pepper or olives (or a mixture)
3. Crisps OR cereal bar OR juice OR yoghurt drink

They don't seem to come out of school starving, and are usually happy enough to wait until dinner at half 5 or so. They sometimes have a piece of fruit after school or a biscuit or finish off scraps from their lunchboxes!

Sandwich
some fruit
yoghurt
fruit juice
small treat. The school only objects of pure chocolate but cake, crisps, biscuits are find. DD only got crisps or popcorn for trips so it was normally a treat size bag of biscuits or a piece of homemade cake.

Check for nut policy and ensure your child can open all packs and containers himself.

He left some of the pasta and the strawberries today so it was too much, Tomorrow we have
Ham and cheese roll
Pretzels
Yogurt
Rasberries with a nutrigrain type bar

Sounds like a lovely lunch! I’ve always stuck to a rule of 6 with mine unless it’s a school trip and I give them a treat.

I’ll put in:

Sandwich/pasta/wrap ect
Some fruit
A yogurt/yogurt drink
Some crackers or similar
Cheese/jerky/egg
Graze/belvita ect treat

They also get to take in a snack for break time so I usually pack some dried fruit, an oat bar, granola bar ect.

Better to pack too much and have the leftovers as after school snack than to not pack enough and have them hungry!

I also often do a cooked breakfast rather than cereal/porridge or toast such as beans on toast, scrambled egg on toast, bacon sandwich ect. 2 hungry boys!

I've got a boy that is forever hungry so the quantity wouldn't worry me too much.

He's 9 now and I'm trying to encourage him to have the odd hot meal but he's just started middle school and he says the queues are too long.

He alternates between cold quiche and wraps. He will only eat salad in a wrap.
I put cherry tomatoes, carrot sticks and a babybel with it.
He has a smoothie, some cheddars, some grapes and a cereal bar/belvita/mini Jaffa cakes/soreen bar/mini cookies with it.

He will not eat a sandwich. I'm tempted to try pasta but he can be fussy about that too, and I'm worried about tuna getting smelly... (I do include an ice pack)

It depends what your child will eat!

My eldest eats salad, sandwiches, fruit.
My youngest is very fussy and has crackers, a small ham roll, fruit and yoghurt.
Only water is allowed in the school and they are not allowed crisps, bars, cakes unless they are home made and even then on special days only eg birthday, last day of term.

My DD is 4, and I would pack:

• Sandwich (made with one slice of bread folded over) or a mini tortilla wrap with ham/tuna/cheese
• Half a packet of some sort of crisps/tortilla chips in a little pot
• Carrot & cucumber sticks
• Little pot of hummus for dipping
• Some sort of fruit
• A mini granola bar/flapjack

She will usually eat most of it, sometimes leaves the granola bar.

I’d rather pack too much and her bring stuff home, than not pack enough and her be hungry