What does your 6/7 year old have in their lunch box, honestly?

[Tidyhousemessyhouse]

6yo wants to start taking packed lunches and I'm a bit out of the habit so I'm just trying to get an idea of what others do.

Today he was given a tuna roll, a yoghurt, carrot sticks, an orange and a babybel.

He's a really good eater and I don't think dh thought there was enough food.

She won't eat sandwiches or wraps, we follow the formula below.

Sandwich alternative
Piece of fruit
Piece of veg
Pack of crisps
Dairy something

So:

Crackers with butter and cheese/rice cake with cream cheese
Satsuma/pot of berries/pot of grapes/cut up apple
Mini cucumbers/cherry tomatoes
Rainbow tortillas/breadsticks/crisps
Cheesestring/yoghurt/babybel

We find she doesn't often eat everything at lunch, she's learned that the quicker you eat the longer you get to play so eats just enough to not be hungry.

In the winter we have a kids thermos food flask and do:

• Mac n cheese
• ravioli
• sausages/fish fingers/chicken nuggets and a wrap or bread and butter on the side
• spaghetti hoops/beans with bread and butter on the side

My 6 year old has a ham salad sandwich, small yogurt, pot of chopped up fruit and either a mini Soreen loaf, crackers or mini rice cakes. It gets eaten and he's not starving at the end of the day.

My son has two pieces of cold marmite toast, a packet of crisps and 4 fruit shoots to drink throughout the day.

Peanut butter in a Warburton thin (not a nut free lunches school)
Cucumber, carrot and cherry tomatoes
Cheese string and frube
A small dark chocolate bar (odd but she's a dark choc fiend)
A handful of those little cheese savouries (crackers)
An apple (basically it goes on day trips all week to school and back ti the fruit bowl)
Water

Ham or chicken sandwich
Cheese string
Grapes
Cookie

Sandwich, banana, grapes, babybel & oat bar (homemade). It's always the same, but I don't feel bad as he only has it twice a week and on the other days he has various school dinners

A wrap, we always did pepper she loves them. With either margerine or hummus as the spread.

Strawberries or some fruit that won't go funny during the day, in a little tub.

Banana.

Sandwiches are easy; marmite, crisp and marmite, biscoff spread, hummus and pepper, grated carrot and hummus.

a bar of some kind. packet of crisps or biscuits.

pasta salad, which was:

• cold pasta tossed in lemon and grated parmesan and black pepper


• in a separate compartment, cucumber slices and mini tomatoes


• a cake bar thingy

My DCs are ridiculously fussy, 2 barely eating anything healthy

1 Child
Ham sandwich/wrap, or shredded chicken, instead of bread or wrap it maybe H or C with breadsticks or large lidl pretzel. Cold pizza ( cooked that morning), dough balls, cocktail saussages
a couple of yogurts and a smoothie
popcorn or pretzels
wont eat fruit or veg

in winter we have a hot lunchbox, usually pasta, rice/egg fried & hotdogs.

2nd child
Ham sandwich/wrap, or shredded chicken, instead of bread or wrap it maybe H or C with breadsticks or large lidl pretzel. Cold pizza( cooked that morning), dough balls, cocktail saussages, will also ask for cream crackers & butter.
no yogurt, smoothies, fruit or veg
only pretzels or popcorn for snacks.

beans for hot lunch

3rd Child
Ham sandwich/wrap, or shredded chicken,
grated dairy free cheese
H or C with breadsticks or cold pizza or naan bread
ritz crackers
pretzels
cucumber, carrots, grapes, raspberries (these are a must everyday) and a smoothie.

not very adventurous but it’s what they like and we know they will eat. We do try slipping things in occasionally but they never go down well.

We stopped doing packed lunches because DD was picky. She would have:

Philadelphia wrap, usually with cucumber or ham
Apple or banana
Crisps
Yoghurt

If we gave her any other vegetables they'd just come back uneaten even if she usually likes them. She went off breadsticks and cheese dip type things, wouldn't eat carrots.

She's quite good at eating what's on her plate without being too picky but with lunchboxes she got really restrictive so we've gone back to school lunches!

I'm with you. I work on a 4 item lunchbox (5 if you count the bottle of water).

A "main" (sandwich item, or occasionally a sausage roll)

A piece of fruit

Some veg crudités

One sweet item (yoghurt/soreen/raisins/fairy cake)

I personally think this is a fine amount for an adult, let alone a 6 year old.

DD is 4. She has a sandwich, cucumber sticks and cherry tomatoes, either an apple or a banana, strawberries/blueberries/raspberries and one ‘treat’ item - yoghurt pouch, jelly pouch, flapjack, raisins or similar.

Mine used to have a wholemeal sandwich with cheese and ham, cucumber or carrot sticks, an apple or banana, a frube, a smoothie and a small bag of crisps or crackers.

Mine has something like a tuna and sweet corn or cheese and ham sandwich, a yoghurt, some carrot or cucumber sticks, grapes or orange and a packet of crisps. Sometimes he might get a couple of biscuits or a sausage sandwich/leftover pasta salad but normally it's tuna or ham sandwiches. He likes to play a lot so normally half of it comes back uneaten anyway!

My 6 YO usually has school dinners but if she does take packed lunch it would be something like:
ham sandwich/pitta
carrot
cucumber
crisps
malt loaf bar

She is allergic to milk hence no dairy. She would eat it all.

Is mine the only child that takes a boiled egg? Not seen anyone else mention them. He doesn't take one every day, but does ask for one a couple of times a week, he obviously doesn't care if it stinks the area out 😂. He usually has, ham or laughing cow sandwich, apple or banana, crisps of some sort, a little yoghurt drink, and a choc digestive or cookie etc. Tends to leave something every day, usually the crisps, so they just go back in the cupboard.

My dd sometimes takes them but she says she always gets comments on them so would prefer to just have them at home.

Sandwich - ham/tuna/cheese (or tuna pasta)
Pot of veg (cucumber or tomatoes or pepper)
Yoghurt tube
Crisps
Mini cookies or a biscuit
Fruit (pot of grapes, or apple slices or a banana)
Mini carton of fruit juice

She doesn't eat it all for lunch, she's too busy talking or wants to go out to play. She normally eats the crisps or fruit on the way home but it all gets eaten in the end. She's 5 and her appetite is huge.

I asked him if anyone says owt to him about the smell, but he says not. I'm sure that will change at secondary school!

For comparison I went on the school trip recently and the packed lunch that school provided for them
was:

Sandwich (2 rounds of bread with ham/tuna,etc)
Piece of fruit
Yoghurt
Pack of gingerbread biscuits
Bottle of water

Some wanted extras but most didn't finish, all 5 year olds.

A cheese and mayo sandwich
chopped up fruit/veg
maybe a squeeze yogurt
a penguin or a Kit Kat or something

Ham/Cheese wrap
Piece of fruit
Box of raisins
Yoghurt Tube
Fruit Juice
Snack pack biscuit e.g party rings

And school dinner on Friday.

Mine both take approx 4 items

6 year old-
ham wrap
cucumber/carrot sticks
fruit eg satsuma/grapes/strawberries
cereal bar/soreen/oaty bar

4 year old- same but ham sandwich instead of ham wrap, and is more adventurous with veg.

agree with others, some crazy amounts of food being listed in this thread, and people saying their kids don’t eat it all. So why not give less food?
also the amount of processed food and plastic waste! I know my lunches aren’t perfect but just imagining all the little plastic packets 😩