to think this is NOT an unhealthy lunch

[ohhifruit]

DStS's teacher (he is in Junior school) pulled me aside after school to say his lunch was deemed 'an unhealthy lunch' and their first step was to give me a 'verbal warning' before writing to me. She even said 'I'm sure you can understand why we think this.'

This is what he had -

• Small pot of home made hummus
• Large wholemeal pitta cut into strips
• A hardboiled egg
• A handful of celery sticks
• A handful of carrot sticks
• A small pot of raisins
• Matchbox sized lump of chedder (which he saved to eat on the way home)
• Satusuma
• Small yoghurt

We've given him sandwiches and he never touches them but dippy types of food are always eaten and he reports how much he enjoys them. He isn't messy, almost to a fault, so I can't see them being bothered about a 'bits and bobs' lunch making a mess.

Is this unhealthy? I am racking my mind to figure out how on earth this is unhealthy? She wouldn't specify, I expect because it wasn't her who saw his lunch but rather it was reported back via lunch time staff.
I feel really annoyed to be told off by the teacher, she was pretty sneery and it wasn't until I got home I realised I should have asked to speak to the head.

She's confused your lunch with someone else's, or he's swapped it with the kid who has wagon wheels dipped in nutella for lunch. I can't see a way to make a packed lunch much healthier than that.
Maybe you're showing up the others who have taken dairylea dunkers and belvita breakfast bars?

That is possibly the healthiest packed lunch I have ever heard of. The teacher is either bonkers or has mixed you up with someone else.

Yanbu! That's an amazing lunch. :) Are you sure that he's not trading his with someone else at school though? Do you know for sure this is the actual lunch the school saw him eat?

Wow, OP, I'd love a lunchbox like that!

Are you sure the teacher didn't get your DS mixed up with another child? That sounds like one of the healthiest lunch boxes ever (presume he had a drink, too?)

Cheese is full of fat, raisins full of sugar? Clutching at straws over their unhealthy claim here!

How the hell is it the schools business what is in his lunch!

I personally would tell them to shove their opinions up their arses.

It is an exceptionally healthy lunch, especially for a child, keep doing what you are doing, what can school staff really do?

The only thing i would see as 'wrong' is that perhaps its not very calorific. But im really looking for bad points there!she must have you confused with someone else!

I can only think they've got his lunch mixed up with someone else.

Did you ask her which bit was unhealthy?

I think that's rather a lot of food and the sort of food that takes a long time to eat, but if he can eat all that, its very healthy IMO.

has there been a miscommunication between teacher and dinner lady and they have got the first name right and the wrong surname, something like that? so the teacher has spoken to the wrong parent?

It doesn't look unhealthy to me. Was the teacher mixing you up with another parent? I can't see the objection to anything you've got in there, nor anything missing. I'd go back to the teacher as a first step and ask what exactly it was she objected to, and take it from there.

And the language of 'verbal warning' is completely inappropriate. Yes, by all means have a word with a parent before sending a letter, in the interests of sorting things informally wherever possible, but why on earth call that a verbal warning? Maybe it's just the turn of phrase used by this particular teacher, but it makes the school sound hugely bureaucratic.

I hadn't even thought she might have mixed me up with someone else. In my pregnancy hormones I've been wondering if I missed some kind of news article about the horrors of hummus.

I'm very lucky in that all my DC will eat anything I give them!

He didn't have a drink packed because he helps himself to the jugs of water.

Oooooh a verbal warning, a letter, how scary ! Idiots...

To be honest I want you to make my lunch for me every day
They must have him mixed up with someone else.

That sounds a very healthy lunch to me. I really don't get what's to complain about.

I actually don't mind that school's do some degress of monitoring of what is in packed lunches. However, if they are going to do so, they need to not be silly about it.

I'd go back in and have a chat with the teacher. Sometimes it's helpful to think "Why would a reasonable, rational person have said what they did to me?", instead of going in all cross and ranty. In all likelihood, she probably didn't see the lunch box, or she got confused with another child.

Drop her a note telling her what you sent in and ask what she saw your child eating. WIth a photo of your child, in case she's confused who belongs to who...

Oh GOD this kind of thing boils my piss.

I'd email and ask them to explain in writing why they think it's unhealthy. Then I'd go back and challenge every single bloody word they say.

Irrational

Hmm, maybe it's just not as healthy as the turkey twizzlers offered by their canteen

I would ask for clarification, because if that's deemed unhealthy I have no idea what you'd ever get past the lunch box police!

I loved the thread on here once where someone said that they put fruit in their dc's lunchbox every day, it never gets eaten but it keeps the lunchbox police happy.

I think it sounds a great lunch...yes I would go back and talk to her again...I would not accept a verbal warning for that lunch at all...

Hmm, i think the message probably got muddled between the dinner hall and the classroom, or it's mistaken identity. If anyone has raised a concern about that lunch it's about it being insufficient

I would take this very seriously indeed, OP. Give the school a written copy of everything you have given him for lunch. Request that the lunchroom staff and the classroom teacher 'sign off' on his lunch. Tell them you are terrified of ruining your son's health with satsumas and hummus. Make sure he is not given any chocolate by a friend, too, as heaven knows that will lead to obesity and crack addiction.

Stealth boast.

Are there any calories in that? It looks like water to me. It's the sort of thing I would eat on a detox diet (minus the cheese)