School lunchbox police

[Beyondbeliefsometimes]

Just after some input on others thoughts. Kids have come home from school that they are to have a healthy snack at school. The last few years my kids have been taking a fruit and the youngest also 3 cream crackers with a slither of butter (she doesn't like much butter). My youngest only eats fruit for breakfast, so 3 hours later she is hungry and does need a carb of some sort. Occasionally she will have bread sticks.
She has now been told that she isn't allowed butter, it is not healthy, she is to have dry crackers.
Their lunch consists of a sandwich, a yogurt and a small fun size bar. They have been told there is too much in their lunch bag... On a Friday when school dinners are hot dogs or pizza, they occasionally, very occasionally get a jam sandwich as a treat, they have been told this is not healthy enough. Yet if I paid for school dinners they could eat the healthy alternative of pizza or deep fried chips and sausages... Make it make sense to me! Also not allowed sugar free squash which they will still be getting as my youngest has constipation and needs lots of fluids to help and that doesn't happen when drinking water only. They have also been told their lunch bags will be checked. Yet dinner always involves a cake of some sort!

It is the dry crackers for me... Is this bat crazy or am I so out of line that they dry crackers is suitable. Jeepers we used to dare each other as kids to eat them dry it was that hard to do

(both my kids do afterschool sports 5 days a week and gymnastics at weekend. Both always need their clothes taken in as they waist size is much smaller than their height, you cna count every rib they have from across the room. So definitely not over weight. We are also in NI so back to school already)

No one has said they must eat dry crackers though. You can pack any other healthy snack, or find an alternative topping (maybe a slice of cheese or ham). You said she sometimes takes bread sticks, so that a good alternative, or maybe rice cakes?

When you say a fun sized bar, do you mean a chocolate bar? If so they kind of have a point. Maybe replace with a biscuit or small cake.

What utter bullshit. And the sheer hypocrisy of criticising your dc's packed lunch while serving hotdogs and pizzas

These people haven't a clue about healthy eating anyway. I went to a tasting session once for the new caterers' at my dc's school. The flapjacks (labelled 'no sugar' were surprisingly delicious and very sweet, so I asked what they sweetened them with. 'Golden syrup!' they said proudly

Reminds me of going to a local secondary school's Open Morning (20 years ago). The school was on a split site. After we'd had a talk and a tour in one building, we were sent off to visit the other one down the road. Halfway along was a newsagent. Most of the parents and prospective pupils disappeared into the shop to buy crisps, sweets and drinks. Not all of them rejoined us. Then we were told about the regular visits of the community police officer. We didn't send him there.

I’m just imaging Max & Paddy style bouncers. Undercover staff reporting who bought Maltesers in the Tesco Express. Seriously, they have zero input once the kids are out of the gates.

I'm not a fan of "never did me any harm" anecdotes, but here is mine anyway. I'd actually more or less forgotten about this.

In the 1970s I went to an excellent grammar school, which served what I suppose would now be considered decent school lunches. But I was a fussy eater and didn't like them (not helped by primary school lunches having been mostly minging). My mum was a good cook. I usually had a cooked breakfast and we always had nice suppers. But the school food smelled and tasted grey.

I put up with the school lunches for my first year. In the second and third years I sold my lunch tickets for a small discount on the face value and went to the tuck shop. From the fourth year on until A-levels I cut out the middle man and just spent my lunch ticket money in the shop.

Every school day from age 12 to 18, my lunch consisted of a paper cup of Pepsi-Cola and a packet of crisps. It didn't stop me getting all top grades and passing Oxbridge entrance. 🤷‍♂️

(Note: I absolutely do not recommend this approach to teenage nutrition!)

Oooh! We had a tuck shop in high school. Used to get a Rolo bar (sad times when these were discontinued) every day.

I’ve noticed this. We were told ‘Nothing unhealthy in packed lunches, no chocolate nothing’. Yet the school dinners are pizza or chips and always have a sugary dessert to follow. It makes zero sense. I think it’s a marketing ploy. I do make healthy packed lunches but I think it’s crazy that the lunches they serve are so poor.

On a loosely related note, I knew a parent once who claimed that their child had a thriving business going at secondary school organising some of the younger pupils to hold places in the lunch queue for older pupils who didn't want to waste their valuable time queueing up. They paid the budding entrepreneur a small fee and he paid an even smaller fee to the queuers, creaming off the difference - coining it in, apparently. I often wonder what became of him.

Bat shit crazy especially how many eating special needs kids have these days in this country

Butter isn’t unhealthy! Actually, if they want to be accurate, the butter is far more nutritious than the crackers.

If you were sending them with a pasty, three biscuits and a can of coke, yes I’d expect them to intervene.

By that logic kids shouldn't take anything dairy into school, or gluten

I wouldn't expect them to intervene even if they did bring pasties and coke. its not their child, not their lunch, not their business.
Kids go to school to learn, not to be policed on what they can and cant eat

People generally don't go into anaphylactic shock due to airborne particles of gluten or dairy. I know some coeliacs have to be very careful of cross-contamination, but nut allergies are another level in terms of consequences.

Every school day from age 12 to 18, my lunch consisted of a paper cup of Pepsi-Cola and a packet of crisps.

All I had was a fag from the local corner shop. Had to buy just the one as we all had daily lunch money rather than weekly. Used to see our teachers in the pub as we walked back and they all had either pints or wine, not a single soft drink between them. I wonder why 🤔😂

I hope whoever drew up this mad list of banned foods has checked the staff rooms thoroughly. From memory they were awash with chocolate, biscuits, crisps, Cola and loads of sugar in tea and coffee and the unwashed cups were a health hazard.

Your children, you feed them how you want. It’s the overall calories/fat/sugar they consume coupled with exercise that gives an accurate picture— not one lunch box.
Britain is such a nanny state.

Airborne allergens typically dont cause anaphylaxis though, usually they're just mild symptoms like runny eyes.
But thats where the allergic child should have an epipen. It isnt fair on the other childrens to be banned from eating foods just because one child happens to be allergic to it

Yes to this^
It’s absolute madness.
I’m glad they DD out of school now tbh. She always had butter on her sandwiches and I would rather take her out of school than listen anyone what to put in her lunchbox.
We have extensive list of uniform, now approved list of foods, restrictions on hairstyles, what next???
Some of the restrictions are sensible but we are losing sense of them as there are so many.

My great niece suffered with an eating disorder. Had a lot of treatment, both as an inpatient and therapy. The school sent her mother a letter about her other kids packed lunches. I so wish I could send you her reply. She basically said there is no bad food and that she monitors her children's food intake so butt out. Never heard another word from them.

I'd check with the school to make sure what you're being told is actually what they're saying.

When my kids were at primary, there was much talk amongst the parents about banned foods. I went and had a chat with the school who clarified and if was all very fair. They were just trying to stop the few parents who were sending their kids in with 2 packets of crisps and a mars bar for lunch. They had no issue with a sandwich, yogurt and a kitkat or similar. Break times were fruit only though as when they allowed other stuff, parents were sending in sweets.

Talk to the school, I bet they will be far more sensible than you think.

If they're not, then I would speak to the headteacher about the damaging effects of telling children that certain things in their lunch box are unhealthy, rather than trying to educate on moderation and a balanced diet overall.

I'm sure OP would be told if it wasn't permitted due to children having allergies in the school.

I agree with you that them complaining about some butter on crackers is madness. But I totally agree with the school that a sandwich, "fun" bar and a yoghurt is a crap lunch. It's like one main element with two desserts and no fresh fruit or veg at all. As is children seemingly being unable to drink plain water. DDs are 7 and 5 and this is common in their school cohort too with parents sneaking in clear squash into their school water bottles. Fussy eating has gone into absolute overdrive and it is just pandered to in my opinion. So I don't really blame the school trying to instill some healthy habits, even if they are being a bit ham fisted about it.

I’m a teacher and I absolutely hate this ridiculous policing of kids food. I’m in London so the majority of our kids eat school dinners, as do I as they’re really good. I cringe myself inside out EVERY DAY when I hear a member of staff tell a child to eat something ‘for me’. Why?! It has no impact on you whatsoever! Children sometimes ask me if they may go. If there’s still food on their plate I ask if they’ve had enough. More than once I’ve had the answer ‘I don’t know’, because they think I’m referring to an arbitrary amount of food I want them to eat rather than what they’re own body is telling them!
Regarding snacks and lunchboxes, I recommend a note in the box saying something like ‘I am happy for my child to eat as much or little of this food as they like. Please phone me if there are any issues with the snack/ lunch’.

OP, I'm a school governor in NI and yes, some schools take the 'unhealthy' lunchbox too far. We are not nutritionists. Ask for a list of banned items and where the nutritional guidelines come from!

We don't know what's in the OP's children's sandwiches. We know that very occasionally she gives them jam sandwiches. This implies that mostly they're not jam sandwiches. They could be packed with salad for all we know.

It's tricky, I know, because quite obviously some parents are giving their children far more calories than they need, and many of these same children aren't burning off calories by running around or walking to and from school. But children do need energy from their food. All the people saying that sandwiches made with white bread are rubbish and provide no nutrients - come on. Of course they do. Possibly not much Vitamin C and fibre, but plenty of energy and probably some Vitamin A, B and D. Some iron depending on what the filling is. Any dairy element in the packed lunch is providing calcium and more vitamins as well as calories.