Is this a healthy packed lunch for DS9?

[mincepietwentytwo]

DS9 just switched from school dinners to packed lunch but I get stuck for ideas.

Won't eat:
Cucumber
Peppers
Tomatoes
Fruit (apart from raisins)
Tuna
Chicken (won't eat sliced chicken in the sandwich)
Marmite
Hummus
Nothing with a skin/pips

Will eat:
Ham sandwiches (50/50 bread or a bagel)
Crackers/rice cakes
Frube
Smoothie
Fridge Raiders
Crisps (only give every now and then)
Cheese cubes (won't eat the cheese in the sandwich)

He eats cooked vegetables at dinner and has a smoothie after school so not doing too bad?

Sounds fine to me. My son is very picky with certain 'normal' foods. Doesn't like butter, cheese, most meats, most sauces that would go on breaded things and I can't bear to send him in with a dry ham sandwich! He doesn't like most of the school lunches either.

He now takes a flask in with a mixed bean chilli or meatballs with pasta, or homemade vegetable soup then a handful of tortilla chips and some biscuits or something like that.

He likes his hot meal at lunch! Fairly easy aswell as can do a few days worth and then just heat up!

Well isn't this a horrible little condescending thread when all the OP wanted was advice rather than judgement.

OP listed the items her son won't eat I think I can infer from that that he is relatively fussy. She didn't need to take out a full page advert announcing the fact.

OP I would try warm lunches if you can. We used to have a thermo pot and would send in noodles, pasta, soup, beans, mashed ip jacket potatoes etc. That was more filling than a sandwich and so they didn't need much else. Hard if he won't take hot lunches though.

My priority is to not be an insufferable snob about other people's life choices but to each their own.

Thank you. Very sensible post.

Can you ask him? What other things would you like in your lunch box? I'd like you to choose a fruit which one? Other than ham tell me one thing you would like in a bagel/sandwich. Give him the control and even if it's only one new thing a month it's progress.
With the smoothies can you show him how to use a blender and make his own after school? The carton ones can have a lot of sugar and preservatives and it might encourage him to experiment with flavours a bit

He won’t eat fruit at all? That’s challenging.

Would he eat a hot lunch in a flask? Pasta, soup, etc?

FWIW my dog won't eat fridge raiders he only eats steamed apple

With a drizzle of local honey?

I think your list sounds very varied but I know when you’re making the same things all the time it doesn’t feel like it. My 11 year old has the same packed lunch every day.

Cheese sandwich on brown bread (will not entertain ANY other sandwich filling or anything like a wrap, pitta, bagel)
A pot of fruit (to be fair he’ll eat any fruit, today was satsumas and grapes)
A fruit winder
Cake bar
Cheese string

I know this is not great but try as I might be wont eat anything else. He won’t even eat crisps or sausage rolls or breadsticks. He won’t eat any kind of cold veg eg carrot/cucumber/peppers. He’s always been extremely fussy with ‘on the go’ foods and has only eaten the sandwich for the last couple of years.

Its also nowhere near as beneficial as a whole apple.
When you stew fruit down you break down the fibre and basically turn it into mostly sugar and it's really not that amazing.

Would your DS eat a boiled egg? A hard boiled egg is a must in my DS lunchbox! Plus popcorn, baby bel, soreen bar /bear yo-yo. He’s good with cut up fruit/veg but changes what he likes on any given day (I think just to catch me out!) but sometimes surprises me with what he will eat. As Pp said, pop something new in every so often and just see if it gets eaten.

Thanks @HousefulofIkea but as the pectin released from stewed apples is better for gut health I am happy with the slight drop in fibre from stewing them.

I wouldn’t worry too much. Fed is best By the time DC goes to secondary school, they’ll be eating greasy pizza and chips everyday 😁

Sounds like this dog has great taste.

Why would I feel threatened? I actually do have about seven types of honey in my cupboards. But unlike many on this thread I'm aware this is a privilege and am able to put myself in someone else’s shoes.

Not everyone has the time for cooking from scratch for packed lunches every day. Not everyone has the money to buy organic locally sourced produce. Not everyone has a large roomy fridge and freezer to store mountains of freshly prepared food in Tupperware and not everyone has a child who will eat what’s put in front of them.

So attempting to make them feel bad as they’re giving their children basically flavoured yoghurt makes you look incredibly unaware of the wider world.

As a non-Brit, the one thing I always find surprising in school lunch boxes or meal deals for adults are the crisps. Not a lunch thing where I am from, but something we might eat late afternoon as a more aperitif type thing. It also isn't necessarily an every day thing, but a treat food. Clearly the crisps producers have gone hard on branding in the UK to normalise it as a respectable lunch food.

Don't know if I can bring myself to put it in my kid's lunchbox though when the time comes. It has no redeeming features nutrition-wise, really. Although my kid would probably insist and want to be like their mates! One of those cultural differences.

Am one of those ignoramus. I didn't think that frube sugar content is mist of daily allowance but thought it was probably sugary and ultra processed. We do eat ultra processed but I always thought best to avoid. Am also so ignorant I think fridge raiders are too salty.

@mincepietwentytwo This wouls be my edit.

Ham sandwiches (50/50 bread or a bagel)
Crackers/rice cakes
Frube
Smoothie?? Depends what you put in. Can end up high and fast sugar
Fridge Raiders
Crisps (only give every now and then)
Cheese cubes (won't eat the cheese in the sandwich)

At hope, will he eat peanut butter? Even from a spoon? Cream cheese on the bagel/sandwich. Great that he eats cooked veg.

From my understanding it's about limiting the amount of upf, red meats, processed meats especially with nitrites.

https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2024/08/01/bacon-ham-hot-dogs-salami-how-does-processed-meat-cause-cancer-and-how-much-matters/

79g a day associated with 32% Inc in cancer

https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/1in3cancers/lifestyle-choices-and-cancer/red-meat-processed-meat-and-cancer/#:~:text=The%20World%20Health%20Organization%20has,of%20bowel%20and%20stomach%20cancer.

Ham among meats classified as group 1 carcinogen.

Perhaps they are lying to scare mumsnetters. Who knows.

To be clear, I still eat far too much red meat and bacon. That's because am weak

Just to be clear on edits. You don't necessarily have to take them out completely. You can reduce frequency. But I also understand. If you kid is fussy fed is better than not

Non-Brit here too. Was surprised when this was offered in our local cafe as part of kid's lunch box. But I also learned that the ones branded low salt or specifically targeting kids were not the most low salt. I don't put it in kids lunch but they do eat crisps so not my hill to die on ( does it matter that much what time they eat them?). My kid's meals are not brilliant but they survive 🙀

laughing at this thread, I have a picky eater. KS2 and she just needs to be fed!

She has ham or jam in a sandwich or wrap. Or she will eat cold pasta bake but only pasta bake from a jar, not any old pasta and sauce. (I'm probably poisoning her if some of these replies are anything to go by!)

She also has the devils frube, some fruit (kiwi, grapes, melon are pretty much the only option), a disgusting protein option of sausage rolls, mini sausages, mini pork pie or fridge raiders (the horror!) and she will have a penguin or similar.

If there's no fruit she'll have cucumber but will only eat 2-3 slices.

Tbh I'm just happy she's eating! The only school dinner she will have is the Christmas dinner and she usually only eats the meat and Yorkshire pudding.

Don't get me started on my 17 year old who has ARFID. Most days she doesn't eat lunch as it's too stressful.

I’m horrified I didn’t know this applied to ham! Knew about bacon etc but have been making ham sandwiches in lunch boxes for years

This has made me properly laugh out loud!! I'm of the same generation!

And when you got on the school coach, you'd be straight into your mammoth lunch bag, swapping bits with your friends who also had mammoth 'school trip' lunches! One of my friend's mum only bought food from M&S so her lunch bag was always raided and swapped out with soggy cheese and cucumber sarnies and a dozen penguin bars 😆 This was early 80's.

Thanks! I didn’t know ham was class 1 😬

Nah, sorry not buying it. I've got 4 kids, I volunteer and I work FT in a school dealing with behaviour every single day. I've also worked in young offenders and prisons. I'm very aware of wider issues and honestly I think diet is symptomatic of wider issues with lifestyle and it will have repercussions on health. If you have knowledge, capacity and awareness then you have a responsibility to think about it. We have a culture of ease and convenience at the expense of ourselves. The only people it is good for are the companies which profit from it.

Diet has an impact on mood and behaviour. Most of these lunch choices are basically refined high sugar carbs and UPF and yet we expect kids to be able to learn and behave after filling them full of crap.

Noone needs to have seven types of honey but it's as easy to stick a small amount of cheap honey in some full fat greek yogurt with some blueberries and you've got something which is pretty nutritious.

Sandwich
Fruit
Crisps
Small choc bar

They all swap food so no matter how healthy you are packing that lunchbox they will still get the food they prefer from others