To be annoyed with what happened to DC at school today!

[SpagBolgs]

DC have packed lunch and usually their lunch consist of Water a cathedral city snack, sandwiches and some sort of fruit usually apple slices. I packed DD lunch which was water, cheese snack bites, apple slices and sandwiches. When DD went to lunch the dinner ladies look in her box and told her she couldn't have her sandwich as it was unhealthy it was a BLT with cheese as they deemed it to be unhealthy it was confiscated!!! DD came home in tears and was pretty upset. AIBU to complain? DD has allergies so the school meals do not suit her that why she has packed lunch.

A BLT sandwich is fairly balanced - it's got protein/carbs and some veg in it. OK it's quite high in fat but kids need more fat than us. It's also a damn tasty sandwich!

If the MTA ate the sandwich that is gross misconduct.

You need to check what happened exactly, not saying I don't believe your DD but children can easily misunderstand. If it's as she says, take it further.

Sad to say that in his last school DS was told his lunch was unhealthy and not to bring the same again, by a MTA who is morbidly obese. DS was and still is extremely thin, well underweight though a good eater.so all sorts of idiocy can happen.

Bloody hell that ridiculous -yanbu.

A sandwich is now being lunch-box-policed? FFS. Soon children will be given nothing but raw vegetables for lunch.

I'm fairly non-complaining but I'd complain about this.

Our school has confiscated an infants sandwich on at least one occasion.

I'd be furious too, I've never encountered this, ours must be one of the few schools by the sound of it that don't police lunchboxes. I would go in tomorrow and calmly ask for their version of what happened (just in case my DC had somehow been mistaken). If they really are confiscating food at that level and it wasn't an error by one misguided individual I would be making a formal complaint.

If they left your child without food, I'd go to the newspapers about it.

What a shit thing to do to her

I was a dinner lady up until very recently and this just seems shocking to me! I would never take a child's sandwich away, unless it was mouldy ( I once took my own DS's sandwich away for that exact reason, never did live that down..) And i would always replace it with fruit or something from the school dinners. If I was ever really concerned about lunch contents, (or constant lack of ) then you take it to the head and they take it to the parents, never the child. I would complain, loudly!

What do you do when your DC is a food-avoider and you pack the lunch box with the foods that they'll eat? Knowing that anything else will be refused.

Some things are none of the school's business (with the exception of the box filled with chocolate biscuits only...)

I don't know how/why anyone would consider this sandwich unhealthy. I would cite it as an excellent example of a healthy lunch. Miles better than mist pl and school meals

Wow. Just wow. That is the most ridiculous example of this kind of thing I have ever heard.

I wonder if there's more to it than this, OP? Did the staff say anything to you at the end of the day?

I can believe it's happened. Years of working in schools I've seen all sorts.

People seem so hung up on 'rules' mad policies lately they let common sense slide completely.

DD told me she had entered the dining hall and the lunch lady came up to her and told her she could not have her sandwich and should not think of opening it or she would be sitting outside the staff room for the whole of lunch! DD told the lunch lady that my mother had packed it as a treat and the lunch lady told her she didn't care and snatched it of DD! DD then asked if she could have the school lunch and was shouted at and embarrassed and told her she was greedy and should sit down as some children get no lunch!! DD class were eyewitness and have told me the same DD is very sensitive just wished she could stick up for herself!! What annoys me is some children come to school with doughnuts,cupcakes and cookie and nuts and they don't get told off!!

That is just awful and I would be going into the school first thing and requesting a meeting with the head teacher and the dinner lady in question. You're poor daughter.

Crazy! And unfair!

YANBU. I was furious when dds lunch was confiscated, she came out of school crying because she was hungry.

I had given her a wrap with some chicken I'd stripped from the chicken I'd roasted and some bits of chopped up pepper. It was confiscated because the wrap was white. The fun sized yoghurt was confiscated because it wasn't low fat, the five grapes were confiscated because they were too sugary. She was left with the few carrot batons I'd cut up.

I cried myself that night. The rules for lunch boxes were so strict I got to the stage I cried most nights over trying to make a lunch she'd eat. I was ill at the time and trying to pull myself back from the brink of a nervous break down the extra stress just wasn't what I needed. It helped me feel more sure about my decision to move dd's school.

I would go nuts.

I look at threads like this with disbelief (not that I don't believe you) - it seems like crazy behaviour. This kind of thing seems to come up a couple of times a week at least.

Either schools need to employ dieticians as dinner ladies or they need to butt out.

I'd put something very polite in writing to the head about dignity and point out some of the research that confirms hungry children don't learn.

How old is your dd? When I think of the crap we were made to eat at school because of the starving in India it makes my blood boil.

My DCs school were very early lunch box nazis and the best bit was that at least 40% of the staff were morbidly obese. I had to bit my tongue so often.

Can I just say that while I agree completely that the confiscating of children's food is bang out of order that I doubt that any dinner lady is acting without the schools authority

In fact if this is the case a lot of them probably have a problem with enforcing such draconian rules, but for some people a jobs a job especially if the rules in the school have only become this strict over the last few years

DS's school so far (he's in reception) seems fairly sane, but this is worrying stuff.

Are all the school staff who are doing these things not aware that children need some fat and carbs in their diets and that children shouldn't be on a fat free veg only diet unless under the auspices of a dietician?

Bloody hell.

How can anyone take a child's lunch away, knowing that that child is going to be hungry for the rest of the day? Especially from the poor kids who bring in cold takeaway etc: how exactly is taking that off them at lunchtime is going to miraculously make their diets better overall?

Crikey. I would be absolutely raging. I would take this a lot further. That woman is clearly not suitable in the role she is in.

I would be asking the school, who is the qualified nutritionalist who is advising the lunch time staff on what is considered a "bad" food. I thought children were being taught about the healthy plate and balance. Very few single items should have an outright ban.

I would be sitting outside theHeadteachers office until she/he saw me.

I would really want to go and shout/belittle the person who confiscated the sandwich in front of everyone but would behave and not do this.

My son is 6 . Noone has their lunch confiscated at his school and there are some where they should be eg sausage rolls, chocolate and cakes.

Your poor DD - she must have felt awful

Threads like this make me furious!

Primary schools go to ridiculous lengths to instil healthy eating into DCs who are too young for low fat, low sugar, zero calorie food.

Then they go to senior school and have bacon butties or pots of processed pasta everyday.

There is almost no veg and the hot dinner queue is very slow. There is fruit, but it's ancient and expensive.