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.

Bats, I think you missed out the water... preferably hand drawn from a well in the organic valleys of the back of beyond,

depends on the child.

Mine takes:

Sorry, white bread, ham sandwich/roll x 2
Yogurt
baby bell
8 baby tomatoes
a large carrot (sliced)
20 odd grapes
Apple &/or tangerine
rasins
chicken drum stick.
a 'sweet treat' - ie a museli bar
and yes, dont care a packet of crisps.
frequently if on special offer, a pepperami as well.
OMG I should hang myself now - a nasty juice drink.

Thats for lunch..... porridge for breakfast (1) - god alone knows what he gets an hour later at a school for breakfast (2).

Have no idea what they feed him a t after school club ...but he gets a fruit salad comprising 1/2 melon, apple, banana, pear, tangerine/satsuma to keep him going until evening meal.

evening meal will comprise a beef lasagne/bol - he hates potato so everything is pasta based where I hide things like spinach/ courgette/mushrooms. maybe a chicken based curry and rice.

then he'll surf some more fruit before bed.

D'ya know what Squeaky - I believe I did. It would be there but it's currently undergoing toxicology tests at the Institute of Making Things More Difficult Than They Really Are.

Would some wheatgrass juice - hand pressed of course - do instead?

It really does bring out the competitive mummies! I think that someone could make a comedy sketch out of it. I wonder if the reality always adds up to what is posted.

"Blessed by Desmond Tutu"

I don't mind them (threads that is) only having the one ds I desperately need all the pointers I can get :)

looks ok,
much like many of the lunches I see kids eating in reception and Y1 at school.
Has carbs, protein, fruit/ veg and a drink.

smoothie AND Yoghurt AND juice.... maybe a bit much to similar.

My mother didnt worry if I ate a bag of crisps, or a bar of chocolate and we had sweets after school most days.

A packed lunch would be a beef spread sandwich with lettuce and cucumber on it, a slice of home made cake (yes.. cake!!!!) a banana and a tupperware container with orange squash..

Salt was added to food.. because yes, it does make it taste better..

Breakfast was porridge or cereal, with sugar on it.. because it stops it tasting like bland wet cardboard.

I have all my own teeth 40 years later, and have enjoyed great health with no allergies, and never had the flu.

Salt and sugar, in moderation, are not poison. Unlike many of the artificial additives which are put into food.

I think it sounds great!

DD (3) had a packed lunch today which consisted of:

ham
pickle cut up (not Branston pickle, dill pickle!)
black olives
cheese
juice box

She was full and didn't eat the cheese!

The thing is, if you've ever helped out at school or been on a school outing...you begin to realise just how little time the kids have to eat their lunches. Also, they got straight out to run around and play.

My 8yr old has a ham sandwich (two slices of bread)
1 piece of fruit
1 yoghurt

That's its...1 sarnie and two other things.

He's already had breakfast and he'll have a good dinner when he gets home so he doesn't want a banquet fit for a King considering all he wants to do is get out and play football.

bats at your post, but some people can manage to type what they would give their child whilst balancing it out with common sense. Not everyone is competitive and the way MN is going at the moment stating you shit daily will be stealth boasting/ competitive shitting.

Personally if my DS would just pick an amount of food he needs in a day and stick to it my meal/ packed lunch shopping would be easier.

Exactly as it should be worra - and I bet you don't beat yourself up all day about it either!

Lmao @ 'competetive shitting'

When my DS complains of being hungry between snack and dinner I tell him to finish his lunch from school.

He does though!

That's a whole other thread worra and one that frankly I think I could do rather well at!

Of course not Bats I beat him up if he doesn't finish his fruit. Spare the rod spoil the satsuma as they say

Or something like that....

Yes! Crazy high salt content in breadsticks! And people look so smug giving them instead of biscuits.

I think that is a lovely lunch. But then when I was little, I used to get a cheese or ham sandwich, a breakaway and a packet of tangy toms. I used to enjoy my lunch.

If I had batsupmenightie I'd be a champion shit ting myself er.

Fuck the crossings out didn't work. Killed that joke!

If I had batsupmenightie I'd be a champion shit ting myself er

tried again but probably less funny the 2nd time

worra does your DS get onion overalls for tea?

Yeah Boo - they don't help I can tell you!

I have a daughter the same age and it's what I'd put in. But I also know that my dd eats a massive breakfast (2 weetabix, yoghurt and fruit), a big lunch and then only picks at supper. So I try to make lunch a main meal and if it's a packed lunch then it tends to look big, because she doesn't seem to want to eat much in the evening. And it will contain as much of a variety as I can manage but because packed lunches tend to be infrequent and spur of the moment ( I don't like them because I prefer her to eat properly at lunch time as it is difficult to get good food into her later on) it is often a random selection of what I have in the fridge, rather than a carefully planned, purchased and so well-balanced meal.
I'd almost certainly get the same comments as you but ultimately I am the person who knows what the eating habits are like and I also know my dd is a good height and weight with plenty of energy etc, so bugger what anyone else says!

I consider my 2 year old a massive eater but wouldn't (probably) give him that much for lunch. My 9 year old and 4 year old have significantly less than that in their lunch box's but I think older ones often eat less. I won't tell you what they have because I will be castigated.

Yes, onion overalls but made with natural fibers of course

God there are some bitter sounding people on here! Why all the sarcasm? Not everyone feels "smug" about trying to make healthy lunches....and many people really DO give water instead of juice. They don't NEED juice for lunchtime every day...mine prefer water! They have juice sometimes....and even coke as a treat...but I won't give them prcessed shit to eat for lunch.

That obviously makes me a pretentious twat.