in thinking this is a totally suitable lunchbox contents for a 2.5yr old?

[LifeIsButtercream]

I send DD to preschool with a packed lunch - several people have commented that I don't put enough in there (a friend was round once while I was packing it, and I discussed it with someone else - don't ask me how we ended up talking about it!)

Her lunchbox today contained:

• sandwich made with one slice of brown bread and cream cheese
• 3 cherry tomatoes
• matchbox-sized piece of cheese cut into cubes
• carton of watered-down apple juice
• 4 mini Organix gingerbread men (ones from the little bags) - ok one didn't have a head lol!
• packet of raisins
• Innocent smoothie tube
• yogurt

Just to explain - DD is a fruit-fiend, if I had put 4 bananas in there she would have been just as happy - it's hard work to get any carbs or protein into her sometimes! I do vary her lunchbox, and serve her something similar at home (and she rarely eats all of it) - someone commented that I should "chuck a pack of crisps in there to make it into a proper lunch" - in my experience DD would eat a whole pack of crisps, the fruit, and leave the rest........

She is a healthy weight and height.

Water would be better as there is so much sugar in what you are giving her already. Or ask the preschool to sign up for free cartons of milk, wish I'd known about that but did you know all under 5s are eligible?

What about peeled carrots slices, pepper, cucumber in a little tub? Mine love rice, tinned mackerel and mayonnaise 'sushi' , shaped then wrapped in cling film.

Boiled eggs, potato salad, cous cous with lemon and coriander, chicken and lettuce tortilla, avocado with prawns all cheap and cheerful and nutritious (from Aldi!)

Thanks for the permission to take the smoothie tube and gingerbread men out and eat them myself

I'd always put my daughter down as a small-eater (she rarely finishes what's in her lunch) - but the nursery are good - they serve the savoury part of their lunches first and then the pud afterwards - but she still often comes back with her sandwich vaguely chewed but otherwise intact!

Would she eat breadsticks, crackers or rice cakes to help with the carbs? Or maybe a little pot of pasta
I think that her lunch does sound quite sugary but not at all terrible. Crisps unnecessary.

Sounds good to me, agree maybe yoghurt or smoothie and gingerbread occasionally? Would she eat a wrap instead of sandwiches sometimes?

Where the wild things are- why mention how much fat adults should have? Not relevant to a toddler. 2.5 year olds need fat to develop properly.

"but she still often comes back with her sandwich vaguely chewed but otherwise intact!"

I which case I definately remove all of the last three items and send her with just a protein based sandwich, the cheese cubes, some fresh fruit and a drink. She will learn very quickly that she eats or goes hungry. She's eating the treats because you pack them! (I do think you are not unreasonable in not packing crisps though)

That is fine for a full day if no snacks are provided by nursery but is a huge amount just for lunch!

DD2 who is 3.9 gets
sandwich with 1 slice of bread
small tub of berries/ grapes/ piece of fruit x 1
1 yoghurt
cheese string/ cereal bar/ healthy eating bar/ choc biscuit occasionally x 1
1 carton of diluted juice as she doesn't drink water and dehydrates/ gets constipated.
They get fruit at morning snack
She has snack when we get in at 330ish.

I would give organix puffs instead of crisps but not as well as the above!
1 sandwich (protein + carbs)
1 fruit (healthy sugars + vits)
1 dairy (protein, minerals, vits)
1 biscuit type thing (fat which is needed and carbs)

I gave her a wrap once - she thoroughly dissected it - and according to the nursery worker - declared that she "shouldn't eat leaves" (maybe I went a bit overboard telling her not to eat the houseplant's leaves) and rejected it - I had put lettuce in it.

She will eat breadsticks - but the salt content in a pack that I found scared me a little - I bake bread at home and have experimented with making rolls with things added like olives/pesto/cheese/herbs etc - she likes the pesto ones a lot! I even resort to cutting her sandwiches up with cookie cutters, which resulted in her telling an old lady in the supermarket that she "had elephants for lunch and ate their bottoms first"

A cream cracker in her lunchbox came back intact but thoroughly licked to remove every last trace of cream cheese.

I thought it was a great lunch box. My DS would eat all that. Would have left out the smoothie, only bec he wouldn't like it.

Maybe some fresh fruit. Banana or apple. Yes fruit has SUGAR GASP, but no one is going to report you to social services for giving out one of her five a day.

Cucumber sticks? Chopped Peppers?

Those gingerbread men are TINY and made of flour and grape juice so wouldn't get my knickers in a twist over the badness of those.

Raisins, yes there is some sugar, but is also a fruit, not a fruit shoot!

Cheese spread sandwich, good call. Only sandwich DS will eat. Tried houmous and carrot-nope, grated cheese-nope, cucumber-nope, banana-nope, but will eat items separately (contrary beast) so maybe try packing individually?

Food police I tell ya. Probably wouldn't pack juice every day, just water. But frankly you deserve a halo as I think it's a lovely lunch and lucky DD.

When I was at school it would be, sandwich (Jam, Cheese or cucumber), crisps, Club or Mini Roll and apple with squash to drink. I was a regular streak of piss.

DS is a large child though. In age appropriate clothes and not fat, but BIG, has been since birth.

There is nothing wrong with fructose fgs.

I didnt know froot shoots had been around 20 years. Blimey!

I was panicking when I read your OP until all the other posters pitched up

I thought it was more than enough and healthy to boot (well, would have said otherwise if the third gingerbread man had had a head )

My ds is 4 and his (I'm thinking maybe paltry) consists of-

Ham or cheese sandwich, full size
A yoghurt
Carton of juice
A "school bar"- one of those things that look like a sweet but is really fruit
A banana/apple- this is rarely eaten but has fruit at snack time anway

He has never been a big lunch eater, more of a dinner eater.

I wish my a ham sandwich(1 slice of bread folded over) 6 grapes of which 3 will be left, cereal bar, squeezy yoghurt and a carton of juice DD2 would eat some of these. Mostly I get large amounts of crust back even with this.
She is impossible, apart from pasta, ice-cream and a bit of fruit ( when not in a hurry to go out and play) she would live on fresh-air.
She is exactly the perfect weight and hight for her age, she's ten, fit strong and beautiful. It's really anoying.

Is anyone on this bloody thread going to admit to giving their child ordinary food....

Mine gets school dinners so his is WAY ordinary lol

squeaky what is ordinary? I don't see the things discussed as exactly exotic ....sandwich? fruit? yoghurt? cheese?????

Someone must have a lot of time on their hands if they are going to sushi shaped things, cous cous etc. I am generally bunging something together last minute. I think it is rather a lot-mine wouldn't have wanted to sit still to eat it all at that age.

I have to admit that I find the salt and sugar panicking quite amusing.

Yes squeaky the food on the thread IS ordnary....honestly..how is ham cucumber, raisins etc not ordinary?

that sounds like my 23 mnth ds lunchbox minus the gingerbread men he likes bread sticks and a pureed fruit pouch. he is very fussy, how about chopped up cucumber my ds loves that.

God but I loathe these lunchbox competition threads! This is not the stuff of AIBU for fuck's sake - this is just you all hoiking up your judgey pants and stickybeaking how much sugar or fat or salt or whatever everyone's feeding their poor malnourished hard done to children!

Do I get a full house for when someone fesses up to

Quarter of a slice of bread from home made yeast free spelt flour organic rainwashed loaf
Half a Fairtrade banana blessed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
6 raisins - or are they rabbit droppings? Who can say.
300 air dried cucumber sticks
A handful of organic chick peas

Oh and a small pot to be sick into!

for a successful packed lunch, I would have to provide my dd with, cucumber, carrot sticks, ham, grated cheese, boiled egg, oat cakes but i doubt she would eat all of it! I wouldn't put a cake, crisps or biscuits in though, but then I am a mean mummy for that kind of thing.

That's loads.
At home my DD2 (2) gets a half slice of bread sandwich, gherkin, olives, fruit and yoghurt. DD1 at school and 4 gets the same, but a whole slice of bread, raisins and nuts in a box that have come home the past 2 days and sometimes an oaty bar instead of a yoghurt.

All children are different and eat different amounts, like different things etc.

My DS (7yo) goes through phases of having an appitite and then not. (related to growth I think?).

Some days he will eat your DD's lunch spread over a day and others would eat it in one sitting and still be starving according to him!.

Normal lunchbox for him is:

2 slices of bread with ham (sandwich)
grapes
flapjack/ cake (whatever I've tried to make made at the w/e)
apple/banana/carrot (he chooses in the morning)

Sometimes he will have crisps aswell.

Personally I don't buy the tube yoghurts etc but give DS the petit filous type yoghurts with breakfast or after dinner.

If it's carbs your worried about (and that was my concern at that age as DS wouldn't eat sandwiches until he was 5 yo) have you tried giving DD a pasta salad? DS loves cold pasta with cucumber, pepper, tuna and carrot sticks. Tomato is nice too but he doesn't eat them.

TBH if your DD can control how much she eats, so can stop when she's full and not eat because its there - and it sounds like she does - then the amount won't matter all that much.

Bats that has to be post of the week!!

And sadly there's more than an air of truth about it Lol...

Its not panicking squeaky it's people trying to give their DC healthy food that's also appetising.