Are the packed lunches I provide really as outlandish as ds claims?

[notagainnellie]

I send some kind of wrap/sandwich with cheese spread, ham, tuna or hummus; a salad pot; sometimes a packet of Chedds or a cheddar stick; a piece of fruit or tub of fruit in Greek/natural yoghurt and a piece of malt loaf or, rarely, homemade muffin etc.

Occasionally I put treats like mini cheddars or - shock - something with chocolate on, but this would be a monthly, rather than weekly event. According to ds, no one has anything like it and he gets comments sometimes such as malt loaf being 'poo' or 'err' at his yoghurt pot. Everyone else has crisps, juice, something like a kitkat or mini roll, yoghurts in tubes and jam sandwiches are popular. Obviously kids will say that, but there is no policy on lunches at the school so it could well be true - I don't think he is making up the comments tbf.

I have looked into some of the items he has listed and am shocked by the salt and sugar content of them. I can't find any 'fun' type yoghurt that isn't full of crap and I can't bring myself to buy them for daily use. He's not that fussed and says he likes being 'different' , but I feel like he's going to get more and more bothered - he's 9 now and mentioning it more this year than ever before.

I'm not that strict about food, but I just don't think a lot of this stuff is suitable for daily use. AIBU to keep his lunches as they are?

Whether she needs or not, Midsummer.

I've always felt that vitamins are over-rated myself . . . "scurvy chic" - that's the new trend now in our house. A bit like heroin chic, but your skin flakes off . . .

Sandwich, cherry toms, mini babybel or similar, yoghurt or cereal bar, piece of fruit. A treat would be a flapjack or Tesco yoghurt covered strawberry bites. Maybe some mini cheddars or pom bears.

Shame on you Midsummer - where's the Gregg's sausage roll?

Aye - you need that. It's full of Vitamin X - vital for the maintenance of acne and obesity

Took the kids on a school trip once. Some of their lunches explained why they were all hyped up in the afternoon.

One boy brought a 20 pack of brownie bites with him. We didn't let him eat them all funnily enough.

Maybe at 9 he could be planning and prepping (some of) his own lunch? My best friend at that age used to make her own sandwiches and her mum's. Heartbreakingly she always had jam, because chopping the cheese made her hands tired so she'd do cheese (her own fave) for her mum and jam for herself :-(
I wouldn't grace this with too much angst, in a couple of years he'll be at secondary and spending his lunch money on chip butties from down the town or going hungry and spending it on fags (newsagent nearest my school sold ciggies out a jar on the counter for £1 each, clearly aimed at the lunchtime schoolchild market)...

DS2 has:

Tuna sandwich
Cucumber tub
Frube
Kit Kat / Breakaway or a newly discovered Trio!
Bottle of squash

That seems about right with his friends.

Wait until your son hits High School... my skinny barely eating son has suddenly gained the appetite of a grown man and can't be filled (which is a good thing considering how thin he looked in Year 6)

My 2 generally have a sandwich or wrap, some veggie sticks, a yoghurt or piece of cheese and some fruit. I will sometimes put half a bag of crisps or something in, sometimes I'll make savoury muffins or pasta salad in place of the sandwich too.

I wouldn't give them a chocolate bar with lunch at home so cant understand why I would in a packed lunch. Saying that, my daughter tends to have school lunches and my son is at nursery

I think the malt loaf sounds a bit unusual for a kid's packed lunch but the rest sounds fairly innocuous.

My kids mainly have cheese or salami sandwiches, a fruit pouch, a bag of dried fruit and nuts or a musli bar and sometimes a pan au chocolate type thing if they're staying late for an after school club so they have enough to eat something between end of school and the club.

I worry that mine get too much processed meat but there aren't many sandwich fillings they like aside from processed meat, cheese or sweet spreads so they get salami too often - sometimes ham or cheese.

I used to put whole fruit in but it always came home untouched even though they eat apples as eagerly as little ponies would at home, so the proper fruit stays at home and is eaten after school.

You ought to see what some of the DC at my children's school have! It's a notoriously hippy area and the amount of seed based snacks is shocking.

Yogurt is seen as bad because it's over processed. Loads of the kids are dairy free...many are vegetarian.

My DD has homemade muffins which her mate regards with wonder. DD shares them with her as "all she has is salad, fruit and a lump of bread her Mum makes"

Mine have:

Sandwich (cheese or chicken on wholemeal)
Apple
Fruit roll
Ds2 has frube, cheesestring, yogurt raisins
Ds1 has mini pepparami, rice cake, fruit flakes
Both have a mini biscuit of some kind - so ice gems, one finger twix, penguin etc
Water

No one has ever complained and they eat it all. They never ever ever stop moving though, so burn it all off.

It's not the contents of packed lunches these days - it's the volume. All you need is a sandwich, a snack and a drink. You don't need a yoghurt, fruit, crudities, cake ON TOP of that.

Disclaimer: I'm guilty of this as anyone. DS pointed out that he has about 10 minutes to eat his lunch.

I always send in what I think is a standard lunch -
Sandwich/pasta
Fruit (usually chopped up)
A 'treat' thing. Sometimes homemade, sometimes a biscuit or crackers
The reception teacher told me that they're always intrigued and fascinated by my ds' lunch
I wondered what the standard lunch was in that case.
Your ds may well be right!

My ds1 is in year 6 and still doesn't have crisps or chocolate in his lunch box daily - he's used to it and knows why. He used to be more bothered when he was younger tbh. He'll have:
Wrap, sandwich or roll with chicken, tuna or cheese, or sometimes pasta;
Some kind of veg - carrot, pepper etc;
Grapes or dried apricots;
Maybe a babybel
Something sweet - homemade flapjack or cookie, sometimes shop bought cereal bar or similar. He doesn't like yogurt.
I think your packed lunch sounds fine but maybe you could compromise a bit if it's bothering him. We used to have crisp Friday!

Ahhh Mumsnet is like another world sometimes

Here is what the kids I know (including my own) have for lunch

Sandwich (cheese/ham/jam )

Crisps (quavers/slips)

Carton of orange/apple juice

Small chocolate bar (penguin or similar)

Occasionally a banana that never gets eaten and disintegrates I'm the lunchbox

Speaking as a dinner lady(lunchtime supervisor if you want to be stupid about it) your ds lunch sounds pretty normal to me. I see a lot of variations, from the sandwich, yoghurt, crisps and chocolate bar crew, to the healthier options. I have even seen cold burgers, pizza and wedges before,much to my surprise. As long as he is happy, and can eat it all in the time provided, don't let him worry about what everyone else is eating, chances are he is only seeing a small sample of the whole school anyway.

As an aside, I hate those yoghurt sticks, they either explode all over the child, or the tabs break off, or they end up all over me!

I'm really surprised at how many people are putting chocolate in - is that every day?

We couldn't even if we wanted to as the school has a healthy lunch policy - I can see why now!

We're hardly food saints, but surely people know that giving your child chocolate for lunch every day isn't ideal?

Anyone else rendering 'my big fat Greek wedding' when she was telling how her mum made her take 'eoooow, moose caca!' to school for lunch - Then when she went to night classes she triumphantly bit into her bland white bread and plain cheese sandwich?

My son (aged 6) has -

Ham sandwich
Fruit (either grapes, strawberries or a satsuma)
Mini chedders
A couple of slices of pepperoni (or a mini peperami if they're on offer)
Cereal bar (depends what's on offer in supermarket)
Small chunk of cheese
Bottle of water (occasionally flavoured water)

• thats his usual packed lunch, it's never all eaten - he'll leave either the chedders or cereal bar each day which is fine as it's packed and can be used in next days packed lunch, I add both just because it's nice for him to have the choice depending on what he fancies.

I put in my kids lunches pretty much the same as I had in mine as a kid (I am a healthy weight and have a healthy attitude to food, so my DM must have done something right!)

Sandwich (cheese or ham or marmite)
Cucumber chunks
Crisps or cheddars
Cheese chunks
Flapjack or cake bar
Fruit juice carton

Never had any complaints from school or my kids and they are both perfectly formed!

My dcs have never said that their lunches are any different to anyone else's.

Sandwich or wrap with ham/cheese/salami/homous.
Cucumber or carrot sticks and sometimes homous for dipping.
Fruit usually strawberries or grapes
Yoghurt tube
Sometimes crisps or biscuit but that's not a daily thing.

RitchyBestingFace if I only gave my DS a sandwich, snack, and drink, they would be climbing the walls by 2pm. DS1s teacher even lets him snack in class (seeds and fruit) as his ASD is triggered terribly by hunger (yes he's been tested blood sugar wise)

I'm constantly shocked at how much money can eat - but tbh at 10 and 8 and nearly the same height as me, with very active lives, maybe I shouldn't be!

Money can eat? Mine can eat! Though the money side makes me wince.

"Healthy" eating has become such a middle class badge of honour , look at all you lot with your carrot sticks and home made humous.

The majority of my dc's lunch is similar to yours. The only difference is that they do have a treat every day. But they've never said that theirs is particularly different to others.

Typical would be:
A wholemeal chicken or tuna sandwich.
A tub of salad (cucumber/carrot/celery/pepper/radish)
A tub of blueberries
A natural or greek yoghurt
Some pieces of cheddar or brie -sometimes half a boiled egg instead of this.
A treat - a mini roll/penguin/muffin (not homemade). Sometimes a packet of crisps instead but they enjoy a sweet treat more.

I am a little suprised at the number of people who send a frube/tube yoghurt daily (in addition to a treat). A frube is pretty much pure sugar, it's not something I ever buy.

My (not skinny) nearly six yo has a tuna sandwich and some blueberries or strawberries. I'm always amazed how much some children on MN can eat! Some of these lunches seem enormous.