to think we should be able to choose what our kids eat for lunch?

[Cuddler]

My friends son is starting school in September and she has been given a whole list of things he isn't allowed in his lunch box.Not just for allergy reasons,i understand those,but things like,no cheese sandwiches,as thats dairy and carbs together,and no ham as its processed,no yogurts if they have sweeteners in them.No tropical fruits,only berries,apples,pears and peaches,they are better for concentration.no white bread.No pasteurized juice.

I'm not saying that the above isn't true,my kids don't have sugary yogurts or white bread sandwiches,BUT i would like to think they could have them if they wanted to,and i do think that this is going about things in the wrong way?In the grand scheme of things,a cheese sandwich,a frube,a banana and some apple juice isn't that bad is it?I mean it could be worse?

DD has brown bread sandwiches alternating ham, cheese and peanut butter, fruit yoghurts like Little Yeos, juice, raspberries. If I followed this list she'd be allowed the bread with no filling and the fruit and nothing else.

OP - can you tell us what the sandwich filling alternatives were? Thank god dd doesn't go to that school. She'd starve. Ironically I've only just taken her off school dinners because they're un-nutricious slop e.g. cheap sausagemeat squares and powdered mash. Why do schools make rules about lunch boxes that they don't carry over into their rules for school meals?

I think Jamie tackled the wrong issue when he so naively tried to tackle school meal issue. Now instead of chips which contain potato they get powdered mash. He should have tackled the issue of what is spent on kids meals. School kids meals cost the school way less than prison meals cost per person. They should spend more on higher quality food.If they did, I wouldn't need to give dd her packed lunch.

Oh and that school is nuts - name and shame!!!!

And the fruit thing - how do they manage the state provided snacks that all infant classes are entitled too every day? They include bananas, oranges, strawberries (when we are lucky), raisins, pineapple...

My kid's Brighton primary bans peanut butter in lunchboxes and I think that's about it. Suggest either your friend has misread suggestion for healthy lunchboxes or she is winding you up. There is a lot of alternative stuff round here, yes, but a lot of bolshy parents as well who'd rip any school to shreds which attempted to enforce anything as woo as this.

I can understand the School not wanting particular thongs in lunch boxes after all the teachers have to deal with colouring/sugar/E number hyped up kids. However that list is very restricting and takes the mick to be honest. Most yogurts are rendered unsuitable by those standards and if they r worried about dairy and carbs together then y not ban yogurts all together or butter for that matter. When u look at food wheels a complete meal does contain protein/ carbs/ dairy vitamins etc. They have most definately gone overboard and do they not serve Mac and cheese as a meal cos that would break the rules too. :(

Thongs? Things dam phone

On the Brighton school menu there is ham and there is a welsh rarebit - isn't that cheese on toast?
As for dairy and carbs - can I not put butter on my bread then?

We're only restricted as nothing with nuts in, no chocolate bars (they melt). You can have, say, a chocolate chip muffin though.

Sardine may be right to smell something fishy (?)

Seriously?

Does anyone take any notice of these things anyway? I am more than happy with my own understanding of nutrition. When I get occasional given-out-to-all-parents-because-they-can't-be-seen-to-be-targeting-anyone-in-particular reminders about the school's healthy eating policy I usually just add it to the recycling and promptly forget all about it. Isn't that what most people do?

Certainly the ones who are sending in their child with Nutella sandwiches, coke and a packet of walkers aren't even going to give it a cursory glance are they?

Not true.

What is this school? Gillian McKeith Junior High?

At dds school if you have something on the "not allowed" list the dinner lady takes it away and you get a letter home reminding you what it and what is not allowed.

HAHA! DS would starve. Cheese (Dairylea no less) sandwiches are the only ones he will eat.

Re Ham, perhaps they should have stipulated only naice ham

Bloody hell. Ds s lunchbox is nearly every day thus:

Han sandwich on white
Banana
Penguin or wagon wheel
Banana
Yoghurt
Carton of apple juice

I've never heard anything so ridiculous as that list in my life. If its true. Which I find hard to believe.

That is the school getting it wrong. We live in the area and the only packed lunch guidelines at DD's primary school are fairly sensible - nut free school because of the allergy problem, no sweets and crisps (although I think they make it clear, this is not as strictly enforced as the no nut thing). And the school meals include macaroni cheese!

Just asked on FB and she said she has spoken to the school and they said its not rules,it is recommendations!Whoops sorry!I must of read it wrong,it definitly came across as not allowed.She thought it was rules too so not just me.

is this a state school? what a cheek! they have been feeding our kids slop for
years!

lol

nice thread cuddler

phew and all that for your mate though

Glad to hear she has checked with the school - recommendations is ok (though that list is barely practical even as that...)

Even as recommendations that list is stupid.

i dont think its bad to make recommendations-it gets people thinking

True. I am mostly thinking "what on earth do primary school children in Brighton eat? Quinces? Couscous? Polenta?"

i lived in Brighton for 6 months-never again!