Does your child’s packed lunch contain a treat everyday?

[Mrssheepskin]

Currently DS4 takes a packed lunch 3 days a a week to preschool.
He has a sandwich/wrap (always cheese although hoping to broaden the range soon!), salad bits, fruit and a piece of homemade cake or biscuit (shortbread, cookie, lemon drizzle, cupcake etc.) If he continues packed lunches when he starts school, would it be bad to have a sweet treat like this everyday still? Not sure what to swap it with if not.

Mine usually get half a chocolate brioche or a little mini choc chip muffin. They're quite small and it's not like a chocolate bar, it's just a few choc chips in a bread based snack.

I figure that they get dessert with school dinners every day, ice cream, sponge cake, jelly etc, so in comparison it's not too bad!

Yes, mine do (older than yours)

when I’m on the ball I make it, like banana bread. When I’m less together it’s a penguin

They also have a hummus roll, baby cucumber, baby corn, bit if cheese, and a piece of fruit, so I think it’s fine

No, they are allowed one small treat on a Friday only so it's always made up of a carb (pasta, sandwich, roll) some fruit and a yoghurt.

Yes, mine always did. There’s nothing wrong with it - everything in moderation is the best message to be putting out to kids

Mine always did when having packed lunch at school.

Yes, and we don't call it a treat either, we just call it all food! Lifelong food issues for me though, due to controlling parental behaviour around food, so take with a pinch of salt.

Yep, always!

Yes...and he's 18😂

He obviously makes his own lunch, but I generally sneak something fun into it while he's not looking... I get a kick out of it, and he's always very grateful.

I'll miss him when he goes to uni!

No 'treats' allowed in my DCs packed lunch.. School are so strict on their packed Lunch 'rules'! I can get away with sneaking a Breakfast Biscuit or Granola Bar but that's as exciting as it gets. Otherwise they have sandwiches (cheese / ham) rice cakes, cucumber and tomatoes, squeezy yoghurt and piece of fruit.

No, banned at school.

Definitely the right way to be doing things! Seeing so many schools on this thread banning ‘treats’ is genuinely quite alarming to me. How on earth do they expect kids to be able to grow up and regulate themselves to eat a balanced diet when they’re actively alienating food?

DD’s prep school tried this.. it lasted a week before they backed down as parents were having none of it, and rightly so.

I don't think it's alarming at all. I fully support the school in this. On a normal non school day they wouldn't have a bar or cake every day so it's all the same

Yes this is what I’m not sure about really. He doesn’t currently have cake or biscuits every single day so unsure whether to start it when at school 5 days a week. Just not sure what to replace it with really!

When kids with school dinners are getting a dessert everyday yet kids with packed lunches couldn’t even have a biscuit or two in what world does that make sense?

Not every day, no. Everything in moderation.

You don't need to replace it with anything do you? A normal lunch at home would be sandwich, salad and fruit so give the same.

Yes, although I alternate between including a savoury treat (crisps) or a sweet treat. I also agree with everything in moderation and it’s always just a small treat. The school dinners include a pudding every day.

I work in a primary school though, and also cover lunchtimes for a 90 child year group. I would be hard pushed to think of more than a couple of children who don’t have at least one sweet treat in their lunch box every day. Many have multiple treats eg 3 different chocolate bars plus crisps plus some other crap. It is hard not to judge sometimes, some of the lunch boxes are honestly appalling.

Perfectly fine for some dessert of some sort. I always gave my DCs similar to yours and a penguin biscuit or something similar. Totally agree with @MaloneMeadow school dinners offer biscuit/pud so no difference really!

Yea that’s what I’m thinking maybe not everyday but a couple of times a week.

Mine aren't allowed sweets but can have a biscuit so usually have a kitkat or a penguin or similar. Got told off when DH made their lunches and put in a mini bag of Haribo.

They love having cut up cucumber, carrot or fruit so that balances it out imo. Along with a sandwich which can be either ham, chicken or ham and cheese usually.

No school dinners where I am.

Op I know what you mean about what to put in but I try to make the main component of the lunchbox filling enough that I'm not adding it too many extras. Tomorrow's lunch is a tub of pasta cheese sweetcorn and ham , a banana strawberries and a yoghurt so plenty to keep them going.

Tuna and sweetcorn wrap
Banana
Kit Kat
Carrot
Crisps

Aged 8

My children have a small treat every day after their lunch and tea. I do too. This includes their packed lunch.

Sons packed lunch example would be -

A wholemeal sandwich/wrap
Carrot sticks
A piece of fruit
A yoghurt
A treat (a Freddo or a biscuit)

On the days they have a packed lunch I always put a small cake or chocolate biscuit in it and I don't give it a second thought. They have a well balanced diet with plenty of fruit and veg and partake in lots of sports. Sometimes they have McDonald's , KFC, Indian or Chinese takeaway, it's not something I give head space

Mine's in reception and tends to get something most days. He's not a big fan of most sweet stuff so normally still has toddler biscuits (the Gruffalo ones are the biggest treat to him in the whole world). He's not so good on fruit other than bananas and he gets those at school too. I should say that we also live in London where they get free school meals so he sometimes mixes and matches between the two.