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?

@PigInADuvet Hiking through the Andes for a week 🤣🤣🤣 Yup!

Lol... frubes were the " devil's frubes" when I was a dinner lady! Nothing to do with the sugar (better than a mars bar)

Imagine 90 (3 form entry) four and five year olds trying to open them on their own on the first day at school.... with 2 dinner ladies supervising.

I think most of us know what we should/ shouldn't be eating. Too much fat, salt, sugar and UPF isn't good for us. Fruit and veg (particularly veg) is. But that doesn't mean it is easy to eat the right things all the time and there are a whole range of factors which impact on what we consume including cost, and availability. Throw in allergies, intolerances, fussy eating, additional needs etc, then it is even harder.

Did you bother reading the OP? All this pearl clutching over a bit of lunch is ridiculous.

This.

@CarrotPencil

A carrot pencil is....

A carrot. I can't be bothered to chop it up, so I just wash one, put it in the lunch box and call it a pencil for marketing purposes.

I'm very sorry that I seem as I'm a pearl clutching budget Jill.

I really did think Fridge Raiders were for dogs because the only time I'd seen them was when a friend gave them to her dog on walks.

I was giving my example of DC's lunches as may have been some ideas to adapt.
I wouldn't say that olives, cornichons or salami were healthy choices - just things DC like to eat.

Back when I waa at school, we had an ice cream van in the playground for the whole of the lunch hour ,and loads of kids want to the local chippy, this was the 80,s the Ops packed lunch sounds far healthier.

Thank you

It's not a joke unfortunately

Shee would rather just not eat than eat something out of her comfort zone

Ohhhh I hate these threads. Those of us with autistic children come away feeling like shit parents

Especially once the 'UPF' crowd turn up

True. DN has autism and literally only ate home made aloo matar curry and Fruit shoots for 5 years.

@4offPlease I was the kid that virtually lived off jam sandwiches for about 3 years 🙂

I think people just want to show off their perfect parenting ,
My autistic child isn't too bad about trying new foods
But i know some who have a very limited diet it must be hard.

Me too. Unbranded "mixed fruit" jam. It was cheap. Would say it did me no harm, but I had a heart attack at 53.

Popcorn instead of crisps? Don't give fridge raiders. They're absolutely vile. Sorry.
Would he eat salami, chorizo? Just for variety in the sandwich. I certainly didn't eat tomato or cucumber as a child. I don't think that's unusual.

If you make a fresh smoothie put spinach in there. If you have a juicer you can sneak lettuce, cucumber, celery, kale juices on mixed with sweet things like beetroot, carrot and apple.

The problem is that we do have a big issue in this country with overweight children and high percentage of diet being UPF. The diet of an average person in the UK is 50+% UPF v 10% in somewhere like Italy. Not processed food, ultra-processed, Nova Group 4 stuff. We can't just ignore that because some people whose kids have understandable requirements and limited diets get upset 🤷‍♀️ There are a huge number of children who don't have SEN who are being fed poor diets, and we know that poor nutrition affects a whole manner of things. There's plenty of actual evidence about it and the poorer health outcomes as a result.

It's clear that a lot of people don't actually understand what healthy and wholesome food is. And that's not their fault in the most part, it's that we've had years of being bombarded with advertising, low-fat this, sugar-free that, which we've been told is good for us. It's very hard to unpick it all.

A lot of people have a bit of cognitive dissonance about it too, or are just unaware of what they and their kids are consuming.

No one is suggesting no UPF ever, but 50% of daily calories being from ultra-processed food on average in the UK is pretty shocking. Plenty of kids are eating like this.

Don't forget Wagon Wheels - these were the ultimate treat in a lunch box (child of the 70s)!

This is my idea of heaven in a lunchbox.

My kids are same age and have:

Ham croissant
Piece of fruit
Homemade muffin
Crackers
Cheese
2 X cookies
Homemade apple sauce

Or sometimes pasta/chilli/Mac n cheese in a thermos

I think it's very different for those with additional needs and/or specific dietary requirements. OP doesn't mention any of those though.

I agree @Leavealightonforme. "We have a culture of ease and convenience at the expense of ourselves" hits the point so clearly. It is so much more effort to make things from scratch or think outside of the ease of premade food but our health and the health of our children should take priority and time and commitment.

Exactly this.

And even for those with restricted diets due to SEN - the restricted diet consists of UPF with minimal nutritional value because of the piss poor food culture we have in this country. If the default wasn’t to expose and feed children mostly UPFs, their diet would still be restricted but not to just these items. There are ND children all over the world - why is the diet restricted to UPFs predominantly in UK and USA? We should be mad at the manufacturers, the government and our society, not making other parents feel guilty for doing their best.

Maybe she did but I am sure it wasn't store bought jam and bread which. The bread and jam I make for my children is full of real food, not sugar and fillers. It is a big difference.

🙄