to think that if school dinner puddings are unhealthy EVERY DAY, then I can

[CocktailQueen]

give my dc a gingerbread biscuit in his packed lunch??

School is cracking down on 'treats' in packed lunches. So no crisps, sweets, biscuits etc. except for one treat on Friday. Fair enough. But they have kept 'unhealthy' school dinner puddings - chocolate crispie cake, chocolate pud with custard, etc.! How is that fair?

Now, my ds is skinny and always on the go, and he needs some fat in his diet! So I gave him the gingerbread biscuit yesterday and he said he had to hide it to eat it in case the dinner lady saw him and took it away!

The world has gone mad! I don't understand it all. Can you send a packed lunch and pay just for dessert? All I can think of, is that they want you to pay for school lunches - I'm sure that the money pays for, or at least subsidises the lunchtime supervisors

Mental!

I agree about the puddings everyday at school but ask yourself whether a gingerbread is as necessary as you seem to think. Biscuits are really not the best source of fat if that's what your ds needs.

How ludicrous!
Whilst those options are offered on school lunches I would soon be telling them to butt out!
My DC are grown up now, at varying times during their school years they took packed lunches otherwise had school dinners.
This obsession with lunchbox contents seems to be the fastest way to set some children up with an unhealthy relationship with food.

Quite agree.

It also bugged me because as part of a healthy diet, DD was ok for one unhealthy choice a day and that was always used up at lunch time.

A homemade gingerbread biscuit isn't bad... Probably better than bought cakes/crisps.

What would you suggest, 1919? (I do find myself running out of inspiration for healthy yet interesting packed lunches!!)

DS usually has one round of sandwiches, box of raisins/breadsticks/carrot sticks, apple, yoghurt tube. And sometimes one small treaty item. He is always starving when he gets home from school.

I think that's ridiculous. I'd take it up with school. Our school is great in that you can't have sweets or choc but if you want to take some homemade cake or a kitkat you can. I completely agree cos all the puddings are stodge. Wholesome stodge but still have lots of sugar in.

And I would rather that school concentrated on educating ds - I'm his parent and it should be up to me to decide what he can eat!

Sadly, the school can't reasonably have different food rules for every individual child so they're taking a scatter-gun approach to the child-obesity problem.

They mean well but if your son is skinny then God bless him and good luck to him. He'll probably enjoy a lifetime of gorgeous grub without ever gaining an excess pound.

Let him have his biscuit.

I hate the packed lunch police. Childhood obesity is a problem, which should be tackled with education about nutrition, but they're in danger of going the other way and making kids feel bad about eating! Feeling like they're naughty for eating a treat and they have to hide it in case they get into trouble isn't healthy! The message should be moderation not no crisps, sweets, biscuits etc.

I have just had this conversation with DH. I am all for healthy packed lunches. But fail to see how the schools give such unhealthy puddings everyday, whilst refusing to let other kids have something.

As it stands dd doesn't have sugary snacks/ crisps etc but I still don't get it.

I've got this to come in the future and I'm dreading it. My dd is a good eater, not fussy at all but naturally eats far more at lunchtime. She's very active and is constantly on the go so eats more. I really don't fancy using school dinners.

My DS's school has the same rule. Chocolate cake a plenty for school dinners but nothing cake/sweet/biscuity allowed in packed lunches. Although he has school dinners and doesn't like chocolate anyway so doesn't affect us but I entirely get your point. Is daft.

I was grumbling to a primary school teacher friend about the healthy eating policy at the one DS attends, because I think it's insane (fruit or veg only for a snack - they confiscated his savoury homemade oatcakes as they were outside that policy... they don't serve meals at all and the Reception kids are all ravenous by lunch and beside themselves by pickup).

She said that as the previous poster commented they have to have a blanket rule. Her school brought one in last year, because one child would have such appalling packed lunches it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I asked what she meant by appalling - once, her packed lunch was a massive bag of candyfloss. The only fruit/veg she ever had was that the school provided. So kids with sensible parents are being caught by a policy aimed at kids who won't get anything else healthy outside the school.

I sort of understood, at that point. It's annoying, but if it means those kids get some basic nutrition they otherwise wouldn't, then I get it.

But I agree with the healthy eating policy for packed lunch and think they shouldn't be allowed. Its the sugary desserts they feed the others everyday.

Just to be clear, the candyfloss wasn't a treat. It was the only item provided.

Yeah I agree that's stupid. DS gets treats, of course he does, but not every day. We usually give fruit for pudding. He doesn't know any different - pudding to him is a thing for Sunday lunch or when he has a friend over, not the default.

This sort of policy annoys the hell out of me TBH.

At the end of Year 6, my 11 year old DS2 could not take a biscuit to school. 6 weeks later, in September, the same 11 year old DS2 was quite welcome to buy himself chips, a sausage roll, a bacon roll & as much chocolate, fizzy pop & packets of crisps he could afford at secondary school .

There is nothing wrong with one chocolate biscuit a day for a child, or any other 'unhealthy' foods in moderation as an occasional thing.

I also agree that it should be completely down to parents to decide what their DCs can or cannot have in their packed lunch. Of course, it would be appropriate for the teacher to have a word with a parent of a child who was bringing a cold kebab & a can of coke type lunch every day - just as they should be asking questions if a child was coming in with no food, or just an apple (for example).

Healthy eating should not be taught by force.

Yanbu. I get some of the restrictions but when schools serve cakey/custard puddings every day I don't see why a biscuit in a packed lunch is an issue.

When they serve something edible I might consider a school dinner. Til then my dd's packed lunch is my business we aren't all junk food obsessed.

That's all well and good except when a child is getting 2chicken wings and a kingsize mars bar. The parents are spoken to and it carries on, regardless.

Yes this happened.

Whilst I agree with not policing school lunch boxes but it should be pointed out that the cakes etc they serve up in school canteens are often low sugar. That is why they taste so vile.

I would rather my children had a bit of chocolate.

I was INCENSED the other day when I read a leaflet recommending low fat cheese for packed lunches.

Say something, you are right about the school dinners, I'm lucky that my days dd will choose a yogurt or fruit over tge pudding.

Say something, you are right about the school dinners, I'm lucky that my days dd will choose a yogurt or fruit over tge pudding.

I live in Wales and luckily, there are no rules about packed lunches in our school and no one checks. I see plenty of kids arriving with juice, haribo and crisps in their lunches. None of my business, but I don't send DD with that. She gets homemade cake and cream cheese and breadsticks, plus salad and a couple of sandwiches or wraps, plus water.

But I have huge sympathy for the OP as our council bangs on about how brilliant its school dinners are, how healthy. Yup, sure are! So, on a regular basis they offer (to primary school children aged 4 and up) a 'big breakfast'. Bacon, sausages, baked beans and chips. Luckily DD hates it so it's packed lunch day then. The thought of all that salt and no veg!
They regularly advertise it's 'rice pudding and fruit puree' for dessert but DD tells me it was a choice of rice pudding with jam, or a biscuit. Guess what she chose?
The puddings they make are full of sugar and the meals...if she had dinners every day on one week, she would get red meat served to her on 4 days out of 5 (spag bol, sausages, roast dinner, big breakfast, burger and chips).
Drives me mad.