School complaining about dd perfectly normal packed lunch.

[Juk3]

The class TA came out to talk to me yesterday (from a distance) to discuss dd unhealthy lunch and the lunch box policy. The dinner lady assigned to dd raised it and the TA did say she wasn't in the class room during lunch so was just passing on info she had been given. She asked me to have a look on the website for the lunch box policy and try to adhere to it if possible, she was perfectly pleasant and I took my telling off but after reading the policy dd's lunch has not broken any rules. I try to make a variety of different lunches as I wouldn't want to eat the same thing every day myself. If I list yesterday's and today's lunch below could you tell me what's so bad about them as I just don't get it. I am wondering if the there has been a mix up with kids not that I will bring this up with school.

Yesterday:- grilled chicken breast with mayo on a mini wrap with lettuce, cucumber and tomato.
Carrot and red pepper sticks with a single serve pot of humous.
Pot of honeydew melon.
A tube yogurt.
A square of homemade shortbread.
A bag of sliced apple (she usually will have this at break).
Carton of juice

Today:- sliced boiled egg sandwich on 50/50 bread with crusts removed.
Pot of sliced red grapes.
2 mini cucumbers and celery sticks with a single serve pot of humous.
Small bag of mini pretzels.
A bag of sliced apple (usually eaten at break)
Carton of juice

She is 8 (9 in dec) in year 4 perfectly normal height and weight.

Maybe you are putting the other mummies to shame on such a varied, yummy lunch ha ha on a serious note I was advised re juice so as some of the other posts have already mentioned could be that but not sure why they can't just tell you what the issue is instead of you having to guess!!

The world has gone mad!!!!

Perfect lunch. Absolutely nothing wrong and everything right. I'd write down a list of the lunch box items for both days and ask for more clarification (in a pleasant way).

My youngest adored school dinners, the turkey twizzler kind. Then Jamie made them all healthy (he still bears a grudge against him!) and refused to have them. So off to packed lunch we went. He religiously had the same ham and cheese sarnie, with fruit, crisps and the apparently now evil fruit juice carton. He’a now a 6ft 1in graduate who does all sort of active sports, good teeth and a job!
Yes, schoolchildren definitely need good nutrition. But perhaps schools should be concentrating on the ones that are not eating well out of school hours.

send her in with a white bread chocolate spread sandwich, a bag of wotsits, a mars bar and a can of pop next week and see what they say!

So many allergies, how can you cut them all out, you would be eating fresh air. Nuts, egg, milk, wheat, celery, tomato I even met someone who couldn't eat paprika

This lunch sounds good to me (I do work in packed lunch hall). If everyone had a lunch like that I’d be impressed. Some people think it’s ok to have a big ‘grab bag’ of crisps and several packets of biscuits for lunch.
All I can think of is ....hummus? Although healthy, they maybe have a nut and sesame seed free policy? Or is it too much for them to eat in the time allowed? Some children have so much to eat that they don’t get any playtime outside.
I suppose it could be the juice but have you read the policy? Did it say no juice?

That sounds like a very healthy lunch. I always sent mine off with sandwich, crisps, biscuit/cake and fruit. Mine wanted the calories, especially in the winter. I'd be really pissed off is someone at the school had words with me. Like really pissed off. I think you are taking it well.

I truly can't believe that lunch was flagged as problematic ... We get cold chips, ketchup sandwiches and all sorts... The worst 'lunch' I've seen was a cold fried egg in a plastic bag. The Earth is doomed.

For the people who have missed it, the offending item was pizza, and a case of mistaken identity.

OP, will you make packed lunches for me please?

I would like a cheese and tomato sandwich please, only can it be an open sandwich please, can the tomato be tomato puree and the cheese have been melted?🍕

No one sees their freedoms dissipating and the government slowly strangling the life out of everyone. Shortbread Fridays? Are you kidding me?

This is so ridiculous, that lunch looks pretty perfect to me. This is like Big Brother yet again watching what we are doing and eating. On the one hand you have these dinner ladies or TA's following some stupid rules, then on the other hand you have Martin Rashford petitioning the government for school vouchers because children are starving. Thank goodness my children have all left school!

When they were kicking off at my granddaughters school, I pointed out the really unhealthy options they could choose from the school dinner menu!

I knew a mum when DS was in primary, whose child had a medical need for a certain diet, I think it was high fat.

She had a battle with the Head, who even ignored a consultant's letter explaining the medical need for the diet and insisted the child followed the school lunchbox policy. I think a lawyer had to be involved in the end.

As this healthy eating stuff is in every school, I'm sure that more idiots like that Head are around, especially as I recall a thread from a mum with a similar problem. One where a child has a special dietary need, yet the school insists on sticking to the school food policy.

It's easy enough for schools to see there's a problem if a child has an allergy and most schools do work well there, but they can fall down when the food issue is not so obvious, but is equally a real need of the child.

And generally, most kids will go through a phase of restricted eating, and inflexibility on the school's part doesn't help. I also worry that eating disorders will become more common given the way healthy eating is pushed in some schools.

It sounds lovely. We've never heard a thing from the school about lunches. Mine takes in a jam sandwich, cheese string, yoghurt, piece of fruit, mini milky way bar and bag of Doritos 😂 Same thing every day! If I pick the school to give her a free lunch, they offer them a jam or cheese sandwich and giant cookie every day 🙄 until they go back to hot meals.

If ppl could click on read ALL for OP, they will see it was mistaken identity!!!

[quote Heartofglass12345]@AestheticWitch she is having fruit, it's not as if she's sending in a sharing bag of haribo [/quote]
It is all still sugar ! Sugar is sugar, no matter what form it takes. Fruit is better than juice though, because of the fibre and the body absorbs it differently. A child does not need two servings of fruit, yoghurt and shortbread (fat and sugar) in their packed lunch. I'm not saying the school lunches are any better by the way (pizza and chips anyone?) but it is usually one sweet item on offer, not four.

Am I not the only one that thinks the op should tell the school to F**k off? Sounds like a great balanced lunch to me.

I had to email my sons school a few weeks ago to justify his kitkat. A biscuit coated in chocolate is okay but the TA pulled him up for it thinking it was pure chocolate. He also has fruit, yoghurt, crackers etc.

I agree @Mylittlepea. My children will eat whatever I choose to send. Thank God schools in Aus choose to focus on other things - my last is just finishing school and I haven’t seen a lunchbox policy yet!

Am I not the only one that thinks the op should tell the school to Fk off? Sounds like a great balanced lunch to me.

I'm with you. Thank goodness I'm not a parent, but if I was I would seriously be looking at home schooling if schools were telling me what my child could, or could not, eat for lunch.

Mine has squash concealed in a coloured thermos type water bottle otherwise he just doesn't drink enough. I stick in a bar of chocolate on a Friday too. Its a joke - they serve chips with smiley faces, cake and custard but are alarmed by a carton of juice!

I do love cold pizza - wonder if it would have been ok if it was hot as the school often serve pizza!

The only thing I can think of is it sounds like a large quantity of individual items for a child’s lunch, I remember having eg a sandwich, drink and 1 snack (inc fruit) at the most.

Cold pizza?

DC2 went back to school in June, and the kids were given school pack lunches instead of hot meals.

He would come out with a little paper bag containing the uneaten food, and one of the things frequently left uneaten from the school pack lunch? A slice of cold pizza.

Does your DD have any ideas? Did anyone mention anything at the time or was she aware at all of anyone looking in her lunch?