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?

@C25kBecky

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 🤷‍♀️

I remember those days!

@BertieBotts

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.

Cheese straw = string cheese in a plastic wrap. Not the elegant 80s cocktail snack. I don't know why they call them cheese straws but they do.

Why can't you just be less vague and say 'I made or my husband or wife made was it too much'

@ifyouturnonthelight

Why can't you just be less vague and say 'I made or my husband or wife made was it too much'

Well, the usual reason, because I thought it'd be less biased to put it neutrally.

My partner made it; I subbed out one of the chocolate eggs for some carrot sticks and removed one ribena and one pack of hula hoops.

From the responses I think probably it's not a big deal as it is a one-off meal, but also definitely won't be starving DD to give her a bit less/different.

My 5 year old takes the following

• cheese and ham wrap (I do try to sneak some very finely grated carrot in...)
• yogurt pouch
• cake bar
• pot of chopped apple and strawberries

-cheesestring

• some cooked chicken
• banana
• a large water bottle.

She has a nibble on everything but rarely eats it all.

Not ideal day to day but as a one off it doesn't matter.

I would have made similar swaps to yours OP. I also happen to think that the original wasn’t that bad as a one-off. Eg if we take the kids to a museum, stay for lunch and they choose the “kids lunch box” option, it’s usually pretty awful nutrition wise but hey it’s a day out and it doesn’t matter.

Typically my 7 & 5 year olds take pretty much the same for their sports club packed lunches

• ham sandwich (two rolls)
• sliced cucumber or carrot sticks
• pot of grapes or chopped fruit
• yoghurt pot
• pack popcorn / hippeas crisps
• a “treat” which, as they’re not really allowed chocolate tends to be quite uninspired, but a kids flapjack bar or equivalent

7 year old has all the above, but is more active. 5 year old will leave one of the rolls and probably ignore the cucumber but I tried.

They also have to take several snacks for 2 x snack stops - so that’s yo-yos, organix bars, dried fruit etc

DS has a packed lunch for school as he doesn't like the meals - he's 5 and has;

• sandwich (ham and cheese made with two bits of bread)
• cucumber slices
• packet of pombears
• grapes
• yoghurt
• kitkat

Why no fruit or veg?

It’s not a good lunch OP. Not enough fresh stuff. No way do they need 2 packets of crisps. I go by:

1 ‘main’ item - eg sandwich or pasta salad. They tend to choose plain ones like cheese with no veg. I try to use at least half/half bread (one much prefers white to brown).
A pot of veg - 2 different types (if they ate healthier sandwiches with veg in then I’d be happy with 1. One of them likes hummus with her veg sticks which is useful.
A pot of fruit, again 2 different types.
A savoury snack which might be cubes of cheese or a meat, crisps would be very occasional and only if there were poor quality ‘sweet treats’! Today they don’t have this as they already had sausage in their sandwiches and I don’t want to give them crisps.
A sweet snack/pudding. Today is a small piece banana bread and a mini yoghurt. Often I do flapjack as they like it but also it keeps them going a bit longer than just a biscuit.
A drink - not always but usually a carton of smoothie. They always have water bottles.

@Pinkflipflop85

I think you're being intentionally goady.

Why? She didn’t say a packet of Haribo and bottle of Coke.

Yes it sounds like a crap lunch. Not the absolute worst but bad.

Packed lunch for my toddler goes along the lines of
Cream cheese or peanut butter sandwich on whole meal bread
Sticks of banana
A fruit purée pot/pouch or chopped strawberries
Yoghurt

@Organictangerine

Packed lunch for my toddler goes along the lines of Cream cheese or peanut butter sandwich on whole meal bread Sticks of banana A fruit purée pot/pouch or chopped strawberries Yoghurt

They weren't allowed peanut butter, FWIW (though this thread has given me loads of ideas, so plenty to go on).

I'm very relaxed by mn standards but I don't think anyone should be having two packets of crisps a day, or for that matter three raisins and two ribera, having multiples is excessive.

I always put in an extra half a sandwich, if they are genuinely hungry they will eat that

Raisins - really bad for teeth!! My dentist told me his child had cavities because of raisins as they had given thinking they were a healthy choice & when you think about it, it makes sense - very sugary, very sticky & they will get stuck in tooth crevices! Much better to give cut up grapes or real fruit as opposed to dried. Cut up veggies / fruit could replace some of the packaged stuff in this lunch box - just get some little containers to put it in.

Unless you mean they have adopted this name locally, they don't. Assuming you mean these, they're called cheesestrings.

(they are awful, but my kids also like them)

You obviously know that it's not an ideal or particularly healthy lunch or you wouldn't have posted about it. Just have the conversation at home. There's really no need to involve mn.

@Oldtiredfedup

Remove 2 of the packs of raisins and 1 pack of hooks hoops and add fruit and veg. Remove cheese from sandwiches and replace with hummus and grated carrot/ham and tomato/chicken salad.

Since when was a cheese sandwich the devil's work 🤦‍♀️

I think it depends on what your kid will eat as well tbh. Whenever I send my 5 year old with fruit or veg sticks in his lunch box they come home untouched. He used to eat a ridiculous amount of fruit but now it's raisons or nothing. His lunch box looks sad and beige but I'd rather that than he eat nothing all day. Having said that I wouldn't send doubles of stuff like crisps, Raisons, or squash either. I don't think it sounds nutritionally useless though, a cheese sandwich is hardly an unusual lunch food. If you're looking for alternatives to nut butters you can get some nice seed butters. I get Sunflower seed and pumpkin seed spreads, also Tahini is good if you can find one that isn't too bitter. Anyway, I'd probably have done the same as you and quietly replaced a few things, but I wouldn't make a big deal out of it, especially as a one off.

Not great.

Far too much sugar in all of those raisins and Ribena is a no go.

Water.

Could do with more sustaining carbs and protein. Any chicken bites as a snack or quorn sausages etc?

A better carb option than just sugar such as oat bar (nuts are usually a no go at camps). A banana would also be a good option if not a great fruit eater.

Humous and crudités another good option or even a cheese dipper would be better.

Agree that adding a little treat isn't unreasonable.

I think what you swapped it out for was fine OP. Multiples of juice/crisps/raisins aren't necessary.
For comparison my 15 yr old DD will take for lunch a pitta bread, one babybel, some veg (carrot sticks or similar) a box of juice and a water bottle. Something sweet like a cake car and either fresh fruit or dried fruit like apricots. She eats most of it, comments that it's more than most of her friends have and they don't have much time to eat anyway. A snack would be one thing - a cake, or a piece of fruit.
Think of the size of her tummy at this age. It's not very big. You want enough fuel to keep her going but if she's doing sports too much food will make her feel sick.

If it's a sports based holiday club then I'd say they need a lot of food, DD goes to one where they do all outdoor pursuits stuff and she gets really hungry.

In terms of quality it needs some fruit and veg but it won't be the end of the world for one day.

I think it depends on what your kid will eat as well tbh

I agree, my toddler won’t touch fresh fruit bar bananas and strawberries (she’s a huge fan of veg however). So a compromise is giving her a fruit purée pouch, it’s not ideal-ideal but better than no fruit at all.

Sorry should have posted what we did for lunch box.

Sausage roll (she won't eat sandwiches or wraps)
Cherry tomatoes
Couple of mini cucumbers
Strawberries and blueberries
Mr Kipling unicorn cake
Babybel
Yoghurt pot
Bottle of squash that gets refilled with water through the day.

It's not very healthy but as a one-off with a healthy meal later it's not really an issue. Quantity-wise it's hard to judge because they might be hungrier than normal if doing sports all day. I wouldn't have put in two packets of crisps.