to ask if your DCs school has a healthy lunch box policy and what you think of it?

[NorfolkBroad]

Is it "enforced"? Do you find it annoying and intefering? Does your child eat what you put in their lunchbox? I'm asking as a mum but also as a teacher.

Its PC gorn mad! Wholemeal wraps! Batons! Grapes !

I don't mind there being a policy but it should be an overall policy ie covering school lunches too.

I was proud of dd last year, I sent a piece of birthday cake in her lunchbox on her birthday, as you do, the dinner supervisor told her she wasn't allowed that and made to take it away. DD kept hold of it and said 'so you'll be stopping all the lunches children having that chocolate sponge and custard then today?' dinner supervisor didn't say anything more

I wouldn't usually encourage disobedience and cheek in my dc but I made an executive decision to overlook this one and say well done, that's my girl not mention it again

It's the hypocrisy that annoys me. I do understand the need for it, I'll never forget on one school trip a little boy came in with his lunch which was 2 packets of chocolate digestives and a can of coke. He refused the sandwiches and apple we tried to give him instead. :(

I think the main problem is that it's not because schools really care about what your children eat, but by introducing a healthy eating policy they can claim their "Healthy School" certificate. It is a joke! My dd has school dinners because she knows she can have chocolate sponge, jam buns, shortbread etc
I grew up in the 70s/80s with schoool dinners and we weren't all fat so school lunches cannot be the root of the problems.

Some of these school do sound bonkers and illogical. My school is not like this

Right I will get flamed, by dd has just started reception and goes in with Pepperami, mini chocci bar, mini muffin, Fruit shoot and crisps in her lunch box. As well as fruit, and a roll. She has SN and finds mealtimes at school really stressful and has melt downs in the lunch hall. As a result of her transition meeting with the head, she has given me the go ahead to put whatever dd likes in her lunch to minimise that stress. More often than not dd does not eat all of it. At home she eats a healthy and varied diet, I homecook from scratch various dishes from around the world and provide her with fruit and healthy snacks. It wont do her hard to have one meal at school full of that crap if its going to minimise the stress

piglet - you make an interesting point. food = security for some children, especially little kids. It sounds like your head is very understanding. Do you have plans to move her on to other things as time goes on?

Hopefully, I don't put all those things at once, I vary them. More often than not she still comes back with a near full lunch box as she has stressed about lunch so much she does not want to eat. She is a little thing who is quite slight. I still have to feed her meals or she would not eat, give up after a few spoonfulls. I put fruit in, and dry cornflakes or special K as she loves to snack on them. They come back to me untouched. The two regulars that she could not do without in her lunchbox are her half a pepperami and a carton drink or Fruit Shoot. Thats all she touches in the lunch.

you could water down the fruitshoot, gradually

I also think schools are on dubious legal grounds when confiscating food esp at primary level and esp if they offer no alternative.

Yes or put diluted juice drink in the empty bottle which I probably will do She just likes the bottle, cant do that with a carton tough.

There is a child in DD2's class that has a packet of Mentos and a bottle of water in his lunch box. And another one that has a sausage roll, bag of crisps, Mars bar and can of Coke.

Oh dd would love coke but I draw the line at fizzy psychadelic looking drinks. DD loves cooked brocalli, so might boil a bit of brochelli and put it into her lunch box.

Sorry all, have only just been able to get back to the thread. Thank you all so much for taking the time to comment. You have given me some really good ideas. I would never sanction some hideous policy that demonised certain foods and resulted in young children's lunchboxes being confiscated....hideous! Minus, is that for real?!

As a school we have held cookery competitions, done assemblies, made a recipe book and this works for a period of time but soon gets forgotten. It is more than "one or two" parents that need support in our case to be honest.

Stepaway thank you so much for your ideas, the lottery one was really interesting and different. Thanks also to lovingthecoast for your comments, I do understand what you are saying and have felt similarly in relation to my dds school lunch policy.

piglet funnily enough I was having this very conversation with our Year R teacher yesterday when we were wondering whether to hold off until next term when the little ones have settled and are less stressed in the dinining room, that is a very good point.

oneftcat I think the main problem is that it's not because schools really care about what your children eat, but by introducing a healthy eating policy they can claim their "Healthy School" certificate. It is a joke! My dd has school dinners because she knows she can have chocolate sponge, jam buns, shortbread etc
I grew up in the 70s/80s with schoool dinners and we weren't all fat so school lunches cannot be the root of the problems.

I don't think that's true, schools do care, a healthy schools certificate has to be worked for and why would a school do this voluntarily just for a certificate if they did not care? they are just sometimes going about it the wrong way, kids need carbohydrates so school pudding is ok so should be a similar equivalent in a lunchbox but some people interpret healthy food for kids to be fruit only, water only and NO cakes etc... not so. and schools are not dieticians which is why they should take sensible advice when setting policies and food should never be taken away from pupils that is sooo wrong in so many ways.

It is hard norfolk I do vary it to incude some junk items and heathy ones in her box. The list I gave is not what I put in her box every day, I will put 2 itmes plus 2-3 healthy ones. I just wish dd would behave like the others in the lunch hall, she is doing less time at school, gradually increasing the time to full so as not to overwhelm her. As she is home for 1pm i make her eat the rest of her lunch box at home, incuding the healthy items.

When I was at school, all I had were sardine or cornbeef sandwiches, and diluted squash in my Muppets Thermos flask.

yes, I definitely do care stepaway I want to make a difference in any way I can but I dont want to achieve it in a punitive way which alienates families. I think your last paragraph is very pertinent. Thank you all again, it has been a very illuminating discussion.

thanks norfolk good luck, PM me if there is anything you think I can support with re: healthy schools.

Yes it happened for real norfolk. She is at a different school now (not because of the lunches) and the only things they have banned are fizzy drinks and nuts.

I think healthy lunch ideas, even in a cookbook form wouldn't be a bad idea. However the cynic in me suspects that the parents who give the horrible lunches wouldn't be interested.

DS moved to a new school this week, they hold a healthy eating award and were very unimpressed at his lunchbox contents. Unfortunately, his diet has to consist of high fat and salt intakes so after much discussion with the HT, she has allowed us to pack his lunchbox as we see fit.

Apparently his teacher has made a few comments, but we aren't deliberately trying to flout the rules. Needs must. Blanket bans just penalise the children who have different dietary requirements.

I hate the idiotic policies on this at my DS's primary school. No nuts is fair enough, there's a LOT of dc there with nut allergies, that's fine.

But even if they have a cereal bar for their snack at break - it isn't allowed to even have a drizzle of chocolate on the top. The weetabix Oaty bars are the lowest sugar, least 'bad' cereal bar I can find for the dc - but they are not allowed them - OR Go Ahead bars - because of the drizzle of chocolate on the top.

If they have 'cheap' ham then their sandwich gets confiscated - something to do with too much water and nitrates in it - but the school are not exactly queueing up to PAY for naice ham...no jam, no chocolate spread, no cheese spreads either - including philly. No white bread. No home-baked flapjacks or biscuits or cakes. No Crisps - ever. No processed cheese (don't disagree with this one too much tbh, what's wrong with a block of cheddar or red leicester?), no meat snacks ( i.e. pepperami etc).

Schools suggested lunchbox - Wholemeal pasta salad. Carrot sticks and houmus. Two different fruits. Water.

Yet the school dinners that I inevitably end up sending my dc's for, as it is bloody impossible to put together a lunchbox that both meets the school's 'healthy eating' criteria, AND is filling enough for very active children, AND my DS2 will actually eat (food issues, he has asd), well the dinners have a cake of some sort with custard for pudding every day - and the portion sizes are so small that my 9yo (very tall, size of most 12yo's) is chewing his own arm off every day by the end of school. Even with an apple and a cereal bar at break, and a huge bowl of cereal in the morning.

On a Tuesday, my 9yo DS1 has swimming in the morning, Outdoor PE in the afternoon, and 90 minutes of football after school. I have to take almost a full packed lunch to eat on the bus home!

Why the school can't accept that it would suit me, on a Tuesday, to be able to send DS1 in with a packed lunch - with some higher calorie food, as he is doing sport for the best part of the day, is utterly beyond me. I don't think that telling dc that all sweet food is bad is helpful either - I truly believe that you can eat what you want as long as it is in moderation is a much healthier way to live!

Our school's policy is to ban chocolate and sweets. Which is fine except it goes against medical advice.

Current advice is that chocolate etc should be eaten after meals. Which is what we have always done. So DD may have a little chocolate coin at the end of the meal, but not as a snack. This is the advice by most dentists and nutritionists etc.

So then, if children should be eating their chocolate after meals, why ban it???

I find it even more annoying when the school then allows children to hand out little packets of sweets / chocolates for their birthdays.

So it ends up that the school does the complete opposite to the 'healthy' approach recommended by the experts. They say children should eat chocolate after meals, but not as a snack - but the school ends up banning it as part of a meal, but only ever giving it out as a snack. Now how is that healthy???

Hunty!!!!!!!!! i am sitting here aghast!!!! Excuse my language but bloody hell! What happens if you digress from the "rules"? This is so extreme, I feel livid for you. Is this a sudden policy change?

MowlemB that is a very good point re the hypocrisy of the birthday sweets thing.

Sorry to say it but i feel a bit depressed that there are so many oppressive, inflexible schools out there. Reindeer how dare your DSs teacher make comments about his lunchbox particularly when he has specific dietary requirements. This has been a real eye opener for me. I have been at my lovely, child centred, championing the individual, diverse, school for many years and did not realise that other schools behaved like this. No wonder lots of parents are up in arms.