8 year old lunch box

[MrsIsland]

Just packing up DS lunch for tomorrow alongside my own and realised I'm giving him more food than I am for myself. Wondering if I'm giving him too much? He's a healthy weight and size but never seems full and however much I give him would come back eaten.
Anyway he has:

• Chicken and cucumber sandwich
• Crisps
• Apple
• Pot of Strawberries
• Cereal bar thing
• Banana for snack.

In comparison I have the sandwich the crisps and the apple.

I pack a sandwich, a drink, a packet of crisps , a box of raisins, a babybel and some sort of lunch biscuit. The raisins always come back and we laugh about them going out for the day. Mostly he'll eat the sandwich, the lunch biscuit and the babybel , as well as have the drink and mostly doesn't eat the crisps. I used to send a yoghurt but that also always came back.He says they don't get much time and doesn't want anymore anyway. He is 11. I'd rather put more in and he can just leave it if he doesn't want it. If your child is a healthy weight I'd just give as much as you want and he can either eat it or bring it back. He clearly must be hungry or he wouldn't eat it. My son is quite a small build so has never eaten huge amounts.

Mine are slightly older and get a main, veg sticks, fruit pot, mini cheese and treat like jelly/cake/crisps/biscuit.
They don't often take snack for break time as they have to sit down to eat and prefer to play.

Sounds similar to my DD in year 5.
She has sandwich/wrap/sausage roll
Portion of fruit (usually an apple chopped up but sometimes grapes or strawberries/kiwi)
Portion of veg (cherry toms/pepper sticks/cucumber etc)
Cheesestring or similar
Tube yogurt
Biscuit or cake
Crisps
And occasionally a pepperami
Always water no juice or squash

If she leaves anything it's usually half a sandwich

I wish my DC would eat that, she just about gets through a sandwich

I've given ds similar, minus the crisps.

My 8 year old has a sandwich or wrap, some cubes of cheese, an apple, cucumber or pepper strips, a biscuit and some crisps. It all gets eaten and he’s very slim and very active. He grazes through the day though, so has a snack at morning and afternoon break, his sandwich and crisps at lunch time and eats whatever’s left en route to aftercare (where he gets another snack).

It would be too much to eat in one sitting but given it’s his food from 8.30 until 4.00pm, it feels ok.

Fruit (Banana or Pear), few strawberries or raisins. Either Ham or cheese Sandwich / 6 cream crackers or wrap, a small yoghurt. School 8.30 home by 3.
Lunch policy does not allow crisps, biscuits, cereal bars ...

Yea mine gets similar: a sandwich with a range of fillings, some crisps, a mini cheese, a mini salami, a small yoghurt, a cereal bar and an apple. Some of this is for their break time snack and the rest is for dinner.

@853ax

Fruit (Banana or Pear), few strawberries or raisins. Either Ham or cheese Sandwich / 6 cream crackers or wrap, a small yoghurt. School 8.30 home by 3. Lunch policy does not allow crisps, biscuits, cereal bars ...

These lunch policies are ridiculous. If you want to pack a packet of crisps go for it. No one I know actually sticks to them. I mean, they don't fill the lunchbox with crap but a packet of crisps isn't a big deal like they make out.

As a teacher, if the lunchbox regularly comes home empty please keep putting it in! It’s amazing how much some kids eat at lunch but they are whizzing around everywhere and working so hard, you really notice the difference in the attention/learning of a happily fed child and a hungry one.
You’ve said yourself he is a healthy shape/weight, the fact your lunch is smaller is neither here nor there as you aren’t growing, he is, you probably also aren’t running around as much as he is. His lunch box sounds lovely and just right.

Only do packed lunches for summer camp so they're a bit more of a treat than if they were every day.

Ham and cucumber sandwich
Salad sticks (pepper, carrot etc)
Grapes
Mini rice or jelly
Pom bears
Couple of flapjack squares or similar
Water

If I switch anything there's hell to pay. He's slim, active and still has all his own teeth.

My children have,

2x sandwich squares (ham or cheese)
Crisps.
2 types of fruit.
a yogurt or a jelly pouch.

They are only 5 & 6 though.

It's more "puddings" than I'd put in. I tend to think cereal bar for snack and a piece of fruit OR pot of fruit salad for lunch. But then we have never done the unlimited fruit thing.

But the idea of too much fruit is an impossibility to some, and at worst a very first world problem!

9yo DD has

• sandwich
• cheese string/babybel
• fruit (either a banana or grapes which she eats at snack)
• crisps or mini cheddars
• biscuit/cereal bar

Sometimes the crisps come home, I’ve just asked that she try’s to eat the stuff I can’t reuse the next day first… like you I’d rather pack more than her being left unsatisfied

We do sandwhich/wrap/pasta salad/pastry/ soup and bread
Fruit
Yoghurt
Some sort of cake/ muffin/ flapjack thing/ popcorn/ cheese pastry sticks

That does break too. It's usually eaten and if it's left it's because they were lateout for lunch and didn't have enough time to eat it

My 11yr old son has:

•tuna, egg, ham or chicken sandwich
•grapes, apple or rice pot
•banana for break
• water

I think it's not that much compared to others, but he's says its plenty. He is tall and skinny like his Dad and very active.

My 9 year old girl has:
Sandwich
Mini cheddars/crisps
Fruit
Yoghurt tube
Choc/cake bar
Water or juice.

Usually eats it all and is very active.