Boring, but talk to me about this as a packed lunch for a five year old?

[SarahAndQuack]

The five year old is going off on a sport holiday club today. They're asked to bring two sets of snacks and a lunch (but will be home before tea time).

Packed lunch was:

• cheese sandwiches
• two cheese straws
• three snack packs of raisins
• two mini chocolate eggs
• two bottles of 250ml ribena
• two packs of hula hoops.

What do you think?

@KatyN

My 6 year old has half of that (water I sutras if ribena) for her school packed lunch. (She also had a hunk of cucumber and a fruit snack from school)

My issue would be the boring of two snap meals! I’d give pizza as one meal instead.

She's not meant to be having two meals - they said two snacks and one meal.

It's a bloody awful lunch for a 5-yr-old, but no matter for a one off.

You're missing some water. And ditch the raisins. They are awful for teeth.

Thanks for all the suggestions for other things to put in!

I have looked up guideline portions for her age, but I am finding it hard to figure out what most people do as she's an only child

Ignore guideline portions because you know why your child needs to eat.

No child needs two lots of chocolates or two bags of crisps. Replace one of each with an apple and some cucumber sticks.

Send water instead of ribena.

Sounds fine to me assuming the 2 mini eggs are literally 2 of them and not 2 packs.

Sandwich fruit and crisps pretty standard as a lunch.

But people here think anything more than salad to last an entire day is awful.

So you won't get normal answers here.

Two bottles of Ribena and two packets of crisps is too much - even an adult wouldn’t eat two packets of crisps ordinarily. I’m pretty easy going with packed lunches but that’s a bit…lacking. Rule of thumb is, one carby or treaty thing is balanced by one fresh thing. So sandwich + pot of cherry tomatoes. Crisps + piece of fruit. Biscuit bar + box of raisins. I only give water or juice cartons to drink. (They’re used to this at school anyway so no hardship). If you don’t know how much they’ll eat add stuff that can be used again like a bag of mini breadsticks, a Babybel, etc. That way it’s sort of self-limiting.

Is that the lunch and the snacks, otherwise why double up on so many things?
For a 5 year old I'd split it so they know which is snack so it doesn't get eaten at 10am!

Snack: juice and raisins
Lunch: sandwich, crisps, juice, raisins
Snack: sweets, cheese straws, another drink, either water or a little carton of milk.

If it was everyday I'd only have 1 bag of crisps, swap 2 of the raisins for fresh fruit or veg, I'd swap the cheese straws and chocolates for a cookie for afternoon snack.

It's a one off and not worth an argument imo.

Half a litre of Ribena for a 5 year old 🤨what about some old fashioned water!

Too much sugar in this lunchbox. My 7 year old wouldn’t eat all this and definitely would be a different child if she drank 2 bottles of Ribena.

@girlmom21

I have looked up guideline portions for her age, but I am finding it hard to figure out what most people do as she's an only child

Ignore guideline portions because you know why your child needs to eat.

No child needs two lots of chocolates or two bags of crisps. Replace one of each with an apple and some cucumber sticks.

Send water instead of ribena.

Ha, I totally don't though!

One of the adults in the house was brought up by a parent who was hugely into health food - everything home made, never any sugar, chocolate is the devil, etc. etc. The other was brought up by parents who didn't have much money spare. Both parents tend to equate treat foods with affection.

@ouch321

Sounds fine to me assuming the 2 mini eggs are literally 2 of them and not 2 packs.

Sandwich fruit and crisps pretty standard as a lunch.

But people here think anything more than salad to last an entire day is awful.

So you won't get normal answers here.

Your post is pretty contradictory if you think 2 mini eggs constitutes a snack

• As in, both the parents, me and my partner, now tend to equate treat foods with affection. I wish we didn't but we do.

It's a bit odd to double up on the crisps, raisins and cheese straws - and personally I don't give Ribena, it's full of crap.

I would swap out as below -

• cheese sandwiches
• one cheese straw
• one yoghurt
• one snack packs of raisins
• two mini chocolate eggs
• water or squash
• one pack of hula hoops
• carrot and cucumber sticks
• a tangerine

My 5 year old has exactly the same asks at her sports club this week.
I have sent:
Cheese and ham bagel
Yogurt
Grapes, blueberries, watermelon
Chocolate mini roll
Banana
Water.
She is thrilled at a mini roll as on school days they aren’t allowed!

It’s not the healthiest (and I am far from being a food Nazi!) - I would remove one bottle of Ribena and replace it with water, one pack of Hula Hoops, one cheese straw and one box of raisins.

My very fussy 6 year old takes packed lunches to school and her lunchbox looks something like this:

Fruit smoothie/boxed juice
Gluten free roll with ham
A pack of crisp type snacks - pretzels/oaty snacks/Pom Bears
A pot of freshly chopped fruit
One biscuit or a small slice of plainish cake, eg small lemon muffin

Snacks are always fruit or raisins.

I know people will say I shouldn’t be giving her the smoothie, crisps or sweet but I think anything is ok in balance. She’s also got mild additional needs and can’t eat gluten which limits options considerably.

They seem to be starving and very active on school trips or holiday clubs, so I think packing loads of food is fine.
For a five year old it’s a bit crappy (and lazy - packet of raisins rather than chopping up something). But as a one off it’s really fine.

With my kids I wouldn't put chocolate or even crisps in because they would only eat those things and leave the rest. Also they take so long to eat a packet of crisps they might not have time to eat anything else.
Savoury sandwich, portion of fruit, juice box plus bottle of water, cheese and crackers, soreen bar/ granola bar/ similar.
But if its a one off event then I would just make sure there was something healthy in there and their not going to go hungry.

Sandwich with either tuna, sliced cheese, cream cheese, deli meat depending on what child likes.

Chopped up veg, celery, raddish, cucumber, 2x cherry tomato. Literally a bit of each.

Few chunks of pineapple, watermelon or kiwi, apple, pear. Or handful of blueberries.

Cheese string or a mini yogurt

Handful of homemade popcorn or packet of crisps. Alternatively a rice cake, chocolate or yogurt covered.

Water. No juice.

Your packed lunch is okay-ish as a one off but not amazing.

I think its fine if it's a once in a blue moon lunch, because it's an event or day out etc.

But then I was raised on 80's packed lunches of white bread sandwiches, monster munch, a trio and umbongo 🤷‍♀️

That’s not going to keep her full and fuel her adequately.

Fresh fruit is better than raisins (and 1 pack of raisins in a day is plenty)
Where’s the vegetables?
More protein is better than carbs
Too much sugary junk - 1 treat, not 4. And I’d class the yoghurt as sugary junk too.

I wouldnt be happy with this box.

I would ditch the Ribenas and replace with a bottle of water and maybe an Innocent fruit smoothie.
Ditch the raisins as bad for teeth
One packet of crisps
Cheese
Cucumber and carrots sticks
Apple slices
1 ham sandwich, 1 cheese sandwiches

Other things I put in:

Olives
Breadsticks
Rice crackers
Cubes of cheese with a small pack or crackers
Cheese straws (easy to make with shop bought pastry)
Piece of homemade cake
Piece of homemade banana loaf
Muffins
Hot cross buns

HTH

My understanding of what a cheese straw is must be different but for a packed lunch I'd do

Sandwich, wrap or pasta salad (main item)
Fruit or veg, single portion (veg)
Small pack of crisps eg hula hoops or pot of mini pretzels (crunchy)
One more item eg raisins, more fruit or veg, cheese string (extra)
One sweet/treat item. Eg club Bar, 4 Jaffa cakes or yoghurt pouch (sweet)

I wouldn't double up on snack items as these are intended to be one portion. It seems a lot of food and I would expect them not to have enough time to eat it all. So the snacks would likely get eaten and the sandwich left. Not great.

I think squash is fine and 500ml not an unreasonable amount but if providing a commercially made drink I'd do a child's sized one so 200ml carton or sports bottle. And then a water bottle separately for the day.

It sounds like the kind of lunch DH puts together and I get slightly annoyed by.

It’s not great but if it’s just one day and they eat fruit and veg at home then I’d forget it.
My dc never eat fruit in their lunchbox. All they eat is a cheese sandwich and Kit Kat. Seems very unhealthy but they will eat fruit with their breakfast and after school and eat all their veg with dinner.

It’s nutritionally useless but you’ve been told that umpteen times by now on this thread.

What I would add is that the way most holiday schemes work, and the way most 5 year olds work, mean that in order to make sure the food and drink is spread out properly during the day, you should supply 3 packages of food/drink and show/tell your child that one is morning snack, one is afternoon snack and one is lunch. If you give a five year old 500ml of Ribena in distributed across 2 bottles then there is a good chance that they have no drink left by the time afternoon snack rolls around. None of it shows much common sense.

Last year my 10yo took on Sport camp...
Sandwich (2 slices of bread)
Crisps (ate half)
Flavoured water (also her water bottle for during the day)
Mini packet of biscuits
Fruit
Carrot and cucumber
Fruit yo yo.

Not the healthiest, but a balance.