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?

I dont live in Brighton,i live nearby though,i do like it,or parts of it,but it is too busy for me now,i like the alternative parts of it,but then i am a bit of a lentil weaver-and proud of it!

I still am mystified by the no dairy and carbs together recommendation. That has no basis whatsoever in nutrition afaik.

Our school's healthy eating policy has a blanket ban on nuts (allergies throughout school) but none on eggs (serious allergy sufferer in DD's class).

In general, it is about healthy eating. Preferably brown bread for sambos, ideas for non-sambo snacks sent home occasionally (like wraps, pasta salad, carrot sticks/breadsticks and humus or salsa in a tub etc). Plain biscuit or home baking is allowed, but no crisps, sweets or chocolate in general. We allow a treat on a Friday and school has not said a word about it (like maybe a choc covered rice cake - DD likes them - or a caramel wafer biscuit).

There is a lot of emphasis on fruit and veggies - the whole school did the "Food Dudes" programme this year again, they grow veg in the school garden and it's part of the active healthy eating promotion they do.

No fizzy drinks, but water or squash or fruit juice is fine.

Cheese is great. Yoghurts are ok, but they prefer not to have them in the junior classes (junior and senior infants, aged 4-6ish) as the teachers end up having to open 27 pots for the kids and no one has time to finish them then so big messes!! They recommend not sending milk, purely because it can go off so quickly in the heat.

DD has brought a wide range of things. We've never had anything rejected, dumped or sent home by school. (She, on the other hand, can be fussy and reject half the lunchbox!!).

Things like chunks of cheese (good days) or cheese dipper/dunkers (less good days) are relative staples. Sometimes a sambo, other times crackers with a tub of ham or chicken pieces, or grated cheese, or tuna/sweetcorn mix to put on the crackers. She loves carrot sticks and salsa. She loves whole tomatoes to eat as a fruit. She'd have apples, bananas, pears, grapes, raisins or strawberries as other fruit. Occasionally she'll have yoghurts (she is able to open them herself) - either a M*ller corners one (bad mammy days) or the tubs of fruit puree for babies (like a pot of yoghurt only it's pure fruit - she really loves those and calls them her yoghurts). She'd usually have a sports bottle of squash to drink, or plain water, occasionally she'll have an Innocent smoothie.

Its not that difficult,its not very balanced.

This is one of the worries i have about ds starting school.The healthy eating advice seems wrong to me.And i dont like using the word treats,i dont use food as a treat or a threat or a bribe.The just eat what what they eat,i dont buy crappy stuff,if we go to a party or something or they go to someone elses house and they eat sweets then fine,i dont make a big deal out of it and neither do they,because to them its not a treat.

And by that i dont mean that they should be told all that stuff of the list i posted from my friends school.But i just think they make such a big deal out of it,i think its going about it the wrong way.

That no-carb-and-dairy-together thing. It's not a legacy from the old testament about how you mustn't boil a kid (baby goat, not child ) in his mother's milk, is it? Oh no, that's protein and dairy.

No. That's not even dairy. Forget I ever said anything.

Cuddler - a cheese sandwich isn't very balanced? I'm sorry, I don't understand that.

Then again, I don't think a raw vegan diet is very balanced :o

What dont you understand?

Actually,im not a raw vegan,or even a vegetarian,but it can be very balanced if you eat properly.You can get all the protein and clacium etc you need from other sources than dairy and wheat.

I would say she should let the poor child have school lunches, he might then find something to eat that he enjoys...

I want a cheese sandwich now. With coleslaw. Or even on its own.

A raw vegan who eats cheese?

I don't believe a word you are saying!
Did you have fun?

I'm amused to see that from a third hand report of the lunchbox restrictions at one single school, Brighton appears to be taking the blame. Still, if it keeps you Brighton haters out of the city, there's more room for us locals what love the place!

I'm in two minds about the whole lunchbox restrictions thing though. Because somewhere along the line, someone has to do something to promote healthy eating. Primary school seems like a sensible place too. Only I distinctly recall, when ds1 and 2 were at primary school, some children's packed lunches were nothing more than a bag of Monster Munch, a can of fizzy pop and some sweets. All of this bought (by the children in question) at the corner shop en route to school. Sadly, most of these children were not fed a healthy diet at home either.

Where it gets out of hand, imho, is when arbitrary - and often inadequately researched - bans on food are put in place by individual schools and enforced in ridiculous ways. Often by people keener on rules than they are in informing themselves of why their rules exist. Nut allergy needs to be taken very seriously but to prohibit cheese sandwiches is ludicrous. As, I would say, is a total ban on home-cooked biscuits and certain fruit. Since the whole the aim is to encourage eating a healthy and balanced diet, the key is encouragement rather than mystifying blanket bans on items that most people consider do make up a balanced diet. And importantly, are items that children will eat since there's no value in an uneaten lunchbox.

A raw vegan who eats cheese
and yoghurt

cantspel Tue 10-Jul-12 13:22:46
Knowing brighton i can well believe it as brighton is full of your lentil weaving, green party voting loons.

what utter bollocks
I have never eaten a lentil or weaved one in my life.
I do love the way people make up utter crap about a place/
ds went through all his years at school in brighton with his peanut butter sandwiches.
IF you want to blame someone for the crap rules, blame the parents who allow schools to tell them stuff like this.

Bananas might possibly be banned because a child has a latex allergy.

And if a school has that many rules about a lunch box,then I'd be telling them that they can supply the lunch,because I certainly wouldn't spend time analysing every label in the supermarket,unless I absolutely had to e.g if my child had an allergy.

Schools ban bars of chocolate but choc biscuits are ok??? What idiots make up these rules - both are full of sugary crap - ban both or ban neither. Fizzy drinks banned but sugary squash is ok - both are full of sugar. Rules for the sake of rules.

MetalliMa Just because you dont know any lentil weaving, green party voting loons doesn't mean they are not there. You are not the only one who lives there or has children who have gone through primary there although i have now moved to west sussex.
And peanut butter was the number one thing on the banned list in my childs school.

cantspel in both primary and secondary, nothing was banned at ds's schools.
so making blanket statements about a town, is rubbish

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

A: quinoa

I'm normally a bit up my own bum in terms of healthy eating for my children and do try really hard to give them the best, but that list of banned items would so seriously get on my tits that I'd want to send them in with a froot shoot, a bag of monster munch and a cheese spaghetti sandwhich.

i have now moved to west sussex.

Yes, and there's a conference-worth of material you could write about West Sussex. But I will desist.

Personally I would not stick to a policy that had no sound reasoning for it. As far as I am concerned a cheese sandwich is healthy. A perfect balance of carbohydrate, fat and protein IMO.

The white bread thing makes me laugh - when will people understand that all brown bread is, is white bread painted brown (unless it is proper wholemeal bread and you can see the bits in it).