packed lunch police

[AuntiePickleBottom]

my son lunch today, is ham salad brown bread sandwich, yogurt, an apple with a carton of orange juice..he also take a bottle of water to have in the classroom.

due to policy no sweets, choclate and crisps are allowed.

just looked on the menu for school meals and today it is Sausages with
Mashed Potato Green Beans and Gravy with the dessert of Pineapple Up-side
Down Cake with Custard

on aibu to think that ds should be allowed to have a little treat in his packed lunch seeing as the other children has cake and custard

Yes they need calories but they don't need portion sizes that most parents think they do. Also it's better to give them calorie and nutrient dense foods like protein, carbs and starches (including fruit and veg) rather than the nutritionally-desolate lunch of a jam sandwich, cake and crisps. Not much there but refined sugars and hydrogenated fats - calories yes, aplenty; nutrients - not so many...

I think we're going in circles here! I would agree with you but if your child won't eat anything like you are suggesting at school , then you have no choice other than for them to eat nothing at all during school hours and i am not propared to entertain that .

Ah whenI! damn! i totally agree with you though, and i think they could police (privately not directly at the child) CERTAIN lunch boxes better. I'm waiting when DS starts nursery next week that they pull me up for not giving him enough to eat..........sigh.

But my son never craves to snack on these things. He is a milk drinker though, well has a cup in the morning and one at night - sometimes 2 in morning. He would then eat maybe shreddies or porridge and if I'm lucky a tiny sandwich at lunch.

I guess i cope with his fussiness because he does eat lots of fruit, loves going to MIL where there are raspberries and blackberris a plenty in her garden. he often comes back purple

and yes, it is contradictory to be serving bloomin cake and custard in school and not allow it in packed lunches. (even if it is VILE at school dinners - I always wanted to ask the cook at my last school, what was in it but she was VERY scary!)

If your child eats healthy food at home why will he or she only eat crap at school?

Can I just point out that these policies have nothing to do with teachers - we don't set them & we don't police them. So those who are chuntering about bloody teachers sticking their noses in - we don't.

Where these policies exist, they are set by governors or the LA & passed on to lunch supervisors to enforce. They're generally pretty busy making the lunch service run smoothly, so guidelines do tend to be 'broad brush' ('no chocolate' for example), which is not ideal.

I can tell you which of my year 7 tutor group has lunched on two bags of Monster Munch, a Mars bar & a can of Relentless simply by her behaviour on afternoon registration. She does need someone to talk to her parents about either providing a halfway sensible pack up or putting her on to school dinners, because sending her to the bus stop with £3 & instructions to by herself something really isn't working.

I agree lots of school dinners are crap (not as crap as the Monster Munch option but still); it made me furious when my own dd was ticked off for having a small piece of chocolate in her lunchbox whilst surrounded by schoolmates scoffing choc concrete in choc custard!

Come back Jamie Oliver, all is forgiven....

Seeker because children are contrary like that

Yep. So because " children are contrary like that" we give in and give them white bread and chocolate spread for lunch?

Presumably you advocate giving them the same for breakfast and supper if that's what they ask for?

How dare the school dictate what goes into a packed lunch. I'll be popping down to the school if I EVER get a phone call about what is inside my daughters packed lunch. She gets crisps and a v. small chocolate bar in her lunch as well as other stuff including sandwiches and fruit. How bloody dare they. If they want to come to my kitchen and make the thing then fair enough but they can piss right off otherwise. Cheeky beggers.

Seeker I think you are reading far too much into this. IMO we have a lifetime to eat a balanced diet. We dont have to cover all the major food groups in perfect balance and harmony in every meal.

When children are going through major changes at school (eg year change etc) I think that giving them comfort foods is a kindness.. In the grand scheme of things it really doesnt matter.

seeker
because of the environment.
because of sensitivities.

My dd2 had huge issues with eating at school - or anywhere else outside of the home. She did have food issues at home too but put her in a noisey or unfamilar environment then she would not eat. She was a thin, tired, tantrumy child because she never ate a thing during the long school day. It was the smell of food and the noise of the dining hall that overwhelmed her.

seeker until you've had a child who has food issues you will find it hard to understand that this is not a parenting issue. I have 2 children. My dd1 eats very well and is a lover of fruit and veg. I raised my second child the same way and yet she is very different in her approach to eating.

You can not force a child to eat what you think they should eat. You can encourage and lead by example only.

So all the kids at our school who have two packets of Monster Munch and a mars bar in their lunch box have "food issues" do they?

someone's been eating all the blue smarties...

This whole issue winds me up! turns up late and joins the fray
I spent 2 years at catering college. I am quite capable of planning a packed lunch. I'd take serious issue with any member of school staff who interferes with my DCs lunch.
My Ds headmaster tried to tell me I was giving her too much SALAD! Apparently, in his house, they have small portions, so children can always clear their plates.
I pointed out, that I think that that is a bad eating habit, and would rather that my DCs eat until they are full, and are able to leave what they dont require, and that I would be grateful if he would mind his own business.
There is a place for fat, salt and sugar in a balanced diet, and if there are a few halfwit parents who cannot manage to work out what is good and what is bad, thats not my childs fault.
DCs primary school had a school dinner revamp when Jamie Oliver did his stuff. We went from turkey twizzlers, to pizza, sausages and fishfingers...very healthy!

(sorry if that was a bit rambling, just worked 34 hours in 3 days, V v tired!)

am feeling very shocked by this, DS has just started school mid Aug (scottish system) i've not heard of anything like this here and am going to ask around the other packed lunch mums tomorrow to find out if they are "policed"!! i would be so mad if the dinner ladies confiscated small, sensible treats ....

As I posted upstream, the sad truth is that the issuing of dictat has no effect on those children who's lives are chaotic, where they are simply given a couple of pounds to buy their lunch from the local store. Taking the packets of crisps off these children simply means that they go without. Nothing more.

Not always, GnomeDePlume.

Sometimes the bunging of a few quid isn't coming from a chaotic home, it's coming because (qv. the secondary where I teach) there is a jolly nice bakery in the village where the buses drop off, & lots of busy but quite affluent parents are fondly imagining their offspring choosing a lovely sandwich, bun & juice each morning to take into school for lunch.

Kids being kids, this tends not to be how it is spent.

I've been bollocked 3 times last year - my kids are primary - for: left over pizza (VEGGIE pizza, bloody laden with veg), chocolate coins (Xmas leftovers, one per dc) & Fruit Shoots (THAT was dh. I have my limits when it comes to shite parenting...).

It is a PITA & I resent it, but I don't think I'd like to see the Monster Munch/Mars Bar/Relentless combo go wholly unchallenged for 11 years either.

I am dreading high school next yr as we then have to send in money each day for kids to pick own choices of lunch, and they can go off school grounds during lunchtime. I do (fairly) healthy lunch boxes at the moment,one small treat in per day etc, but I wont be able to do so next yr so easily. Yes, I could send a lunchbox in with them each day and no cash, but I have already been warned by other parents that this often leads to bullying of the child in question (and dont get me started on the anti-bullying thing either, thats another complete problem!)I know one son would pick reasonably healthy food, but his twin would pick junk! considering i bought them up with the same food, and it was 1 bowl, 1 spoon 2 mouths when they were little, I cannot see how people can say parents choices are the root cause of poor/fussy eaters. It is definatly nature over nurture in my case.

Of course there will be a tiny number of children who have particular food issues. But the vast majority of children who have completely junky packed lunches are thos whiz's parents are ignorant,or don't care, or too busy orworn down by poverty to give them anything better, or who are too worried about the child not eating anything to stand up to them and say " this is your lunch, eat it or go hungry til tea time" Of these groups, all but the " don't cares" would be potentially helped by guidelines. And for those of us who already provide our children with a healthy lunch, don't waste time being outraged or patronised by the guidelines, just thank whoever you thank for the fact that fortune and/or life choices have put youin a place where you don't need the. And move on. There are more productive things to be cross about!

School could always send the kids home for lunch like they did when I was there. That would prove interesting nowadays....

Seeker -please can you explain the sense of spending, what £10 a week sending in a healthy packed luch for it all to end up in the bin?

Maybe if you send food in for a week or two that ends up in the bin, but the child learns that by not eating and holding out for a lunchbox full of shite doesn't work and so starts eating what you as a parent wants them to eat (i.e. not shite) then it is worth it?

(And it doesn't cost a tenner a week to do a lunchbox for one child).