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.

They are only allowed one processed thing in their lunch boxes. Sometimes they choose ham or cheese spread or those little sausages on sticks (meat or veggie sausage). Sometimes they choose white sliced bread, a packet of crackers, a brioche roll or a packet of crisps. Sometimes they choose a muesli or cake bar. They get a treat every day but that doesn’t necessarily mean a sweet thing. Treats this past week - things they have specially asked for and/or have actively looked forward to - cubes of cooked potato. Pesto pasta. Quavers. Melon. Soup (they love taking a hot meal and I don’t always have time to make soup, so this was a treat). Flapjacks that we made at the weekend. Feta cheese. All treats.

They don’t always have something sweet but they are always welcome to choose something sweet if they want to.

Pesto pasta and melon are treats?!

Typical lunch for my daughter (age 9 but has had similar for years) is ham roll/sandwich, cucumber, pepper, blueberries and cereal bar or yo yo snack.

Yup, pudding is fine. Normally a bit of flapjack or a shortbread finger. Sometimes a mini roll of I haven't baked. (2 at secondary one at primary)

Yes… dd11 lunch is
crisps
sandwich/sausage roll/ chicken bites
fruit
snack cheese
frube/ jelly
cake/biscuit
drink

ds16 is the same except he doesn’t have cheese and he either has a mousse or jelly and has 2 choc snacks.

Mine both have mostly the same thing. One at primary one at secondary
Chicken sandwich thin
Crisps
Choc biscuit bar/snack pack
One has fruit x 2 (satsuma and grapes)
One has pepper and cucumber and eldest also has a fridge raider bag
They eat it all, they're both healthy weight wise and activity wise
For a full day at school (including both walking approx a mile each way) I really don't begrudge them a chocolate bar.
And if I'm honest I don't have the time (and can't be arsed) to make banana muffins or flapjack when all 3 of us agree a penguin is nicer.

Well, I never let my DCs have anything past a solitary cherry tomato in their lunch boxes, and they consider that enough of a treat...

Some of the responses on this thread! 😂

IME most DCs have both crisps and at least 1 sweet item a day.
DD2's school doesn't allow sweets or chocolate bars, but cake or a chocolate biscuit is fine. IIRC, the policy says 'a small homemade cake', but in reality the school doesn't care if it is bought or homemade, and what constitutes 'small' is very loose. I tend to rotate between crisps, choc biscuit or yoghurt each day, but I am lucky to have DCs who'll eat whatever is sent in and I can get away with it. It also means I can give them a different treat after school sometimes without feeling guilty that it is eg their second packet of crisps for the day! If they were fussier eaters, I would send more of the treat foods to ensure they ate enough to get them through the rest of the school day. The current lunch box biscuit choice is a Viscount and I have a box of Tunnock's tea cakes lined up once they've gone, although I've never understood why those are fine, but a KitKat isn't?
9yo DD1 is now at middle school, where there are no packed lunch rules about treats (other than no nuts) and they have access to hot savoury junky snacks at breaktime from the canteen too. She hasn't been fussed at all about having sweets or chocolate at lunch, but has taken full advantage of the (lack of) rules to take throat lozenges in when she's had a sore throat and is rather partial to a breaktime sausage roll... However, she's very active and has an otherwise healthy diet, so I can't get worked up about it. Her lunch box contents has stayed the same as what she was getting at lower school in terms of variety and balance, but she does tell me in horror sometimes what some DCs have brought in (eg 3 packets of crisps and a sharing-size chocolate bar) - I can see why lower/primary schools try to keep at least some control!

We do call them treat foods, but also teach that treats have a perfectly acceptable place in our diet in moderation.

Yes. I don’t know why they wouldn’t be? Something you are looking forward to eating, something that you have specifically requested.

Pasta in the lunch box is a treat for one dc as it is their favourite and as it takes more prep than slicing bread, they don’t always get it and when I have time to do it, it’s a treat. Melon and soft fruits are just about edging back into affordability, we don’t have these over the winter. And a melon takes more prep than bunging a banana in, it needs slicing, deseeding, the rind taken off, chopping up and then I need to find a Tupperware with a matching lid. Having a melon this week has been a lovely treat. We can’t wait for the first strawberries.

My children always took a treat in their pack ups, everything in moderation. I think it's ridiculous when schools ban "treats" in lunchboxes.
I work in a school - you should see the staffroom table at lunchtime!

Very rarely. Once a month maybe. Usually something they've made at the weekend - cake, cookie, brownie, etc.

Apparently most of the class have a couple of treat things every single day (chocolate, jellies, crisps, corner type yogurts, etc) but my lot have never seemed too bothered that I rarely put something in. If they kicked up a fuss, I would prob add something more often.

But, similar to a pp, they see awkward and/or expensive lunch items as treats - strawberries, raspberries, melon (such a pain to prepare). And smoked salmon is a big win - with the price of it these days, it's a very rare treat.

Personally I would just regard things like pasta and soup as a very normal lunch option for DD but each to their own.. Nothing that I hate more than making sandwiches, it’s a faff but I still wouldn’t call them a treat

DD4 has a cheese sandwich or pasta and cheese (currently won't eat meat, her choice), a fruit, a vegetable (cucumber or carrot), and a yoghurt. I see the yoghurt as her sweet treat. She eats everything but the crusts usually.

For forest school day her school ask for more carby snacks, so that's when she might have a fruit with a couple of biscuits or a chocolate chip brioche.

Personally I would just regard things like pasta and soup as a very normal lunch option for DD but each to their own.. Nothing that I hate more than making sandwiches, it’s a faff but I still wouldn’t call them a treat

I think that’s part of the problem I have with dividing food into treats and non-treats. Like @KThnxBye my DS loves pasta for lunch and he does consider it a treat at lunchtime because I don’t always have time to make it. A chocolate biscuit feels less like a treat because he will have one most days with his lunch. Saying “treat” when I mean something sweet places a value on particular foods that I don’t think is beneficial.

depending on the circumstances a treat might be DCs favourite meal, summer fruits (I too don’t buy fresh berries in winter) it means my DC think of a treat as something they enjoy and look forward to, not necessarily something sweet.

So much variation between schools! I'm lucky that our school has a very commonsense approach - mine have a sandwich (granary bread, cheese and salad) apple/satsuma, and often a packet of crisps (small bag from a supermarket own multipack) AND two custard cream type biscuits every day.

"Strict" criteria are pointless, you can still put together and even less healthy lunch- cheap ham on processed white bread, raisins (banned in our house by the dentist!), cereal bar/flapjack with more sugar than a couple of biscuits, mini cheddars/rice cakes with more salt than a small bag of crisps etc etc.

DS5 has a cheese sandwich (crusts cut off) 2 yoghurts, a packet of crisps (normally Pom bears or skips) and a small treat either a small pack of jammie dodgers or a barney bear. I've had a letter home a few times when the small treat was a mini roll because that's all we had in but I would never not send him one in

It’s not a treat if it’s daily. It’s just a sweet item in their lunchbox. Chocolate every day isn’t great though.

We are not allowed cake or penguins etc. I do put in a fruit winder, or some kind of dries fruit thing like bear paws as these fall under fruit. It irritates me a bit as my own sugar free banana muffins are bad, but a fruit winder is grand? Does not make sense to me.

That’s cute 😊
You’ll have to send him treat food parcels

Pesto pasta and melon would definitely have been a treat for my now 24 yr ds. He had a very varied diet of good and bad, but Pesto is still one of his favourites. He naturally doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth I guess, unlike me.

Tbh I’m quite surprised at the number of people who refuse to use the word ‘treat’ but also put chocolate etc in lunches every day. I don’t personally see that as a healthy approach to food. I do agree with not using the word ‘treat’, but it’s a juxtaposition to me. I could be a weirdo though. In fact, I am a weirdo, so it’s more I could also be a weirdo in this sense.

Mine do most days as like someone above said they would also have a dessert with school dinners anyway.

DC has a thermos flask thing for his lunch so packed lunch normally consists of something like chicken, rice and broccoli, veggie straws, strawberries&grapes, a yogurt or some cheese and then a homemade mini cake or jelly

I always put a small treat in for my DS’, of course it’s fine when balanced with a healthy lunch. School should not be dictating whether a parent can pack a treat in a lunchbox.

School meals are free up to p6 in Scotland so my youngest has that. It includes soup, salad bar/breadsticks/fruit, main meal and then a cake/jelly/ice cream after.

My oldest ds I make a packed lunch and as the school deem a pudding okay after school meal, I also include a home baked item or if haven't had time then a chocolate brunch bar/penguin.

Won’t he get a free school lunch?
a treat every day is too much. Mine gets one about once a week if that. School actively discourage daily treats and ask that packed lunches contain fruit, veg and protein.

Most schools don’t allow nuts in packed lunches.