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?

Mine have pretty much the same as yours OP. They get a bit of stick (DS is called "salad boy") but they're not that bothered.

They do a bit of swapping and trading though; through this DS has discovered the delights of malt loaf (equivalent to a Mr Kiplings or 2 Jaffa cakes apparently) and I'm having to buy a slab every week, though apparently you can get cake bars of it now too.

I'd be talking to the teacher if other dc are commenting so nastily about his lunches as it's obviously bothering him to some extent as he's talking to you about it more.

THIS ^ ^

We had this with DD in primary too, looking back, it was the beginning of a very long & very nasty bullying campaign, which included tricking fiercely veggie/pescetarian DD into eating meat, something that gave her nightmares for months she also had allergies, so potentially dangerous too

Hers was a healthy eating school too, so lots of lunch box police & bar her having allergies meaning I had to make her stuff like Spanish omelette, make my own wheat free wraps or Maki Rolls & of course her not eating meat, it wasn't so different given the very mixed area the school was in & it looked the same as others with wraps, or bought Maki rolls

But apparently her salad, peppers etc was stinky & made them all feel sick

My DD insists on a HOT packed lunch every day! If you try to fob her off with a sandwich or similar she looks sad, and says it's not a "proper" lunch! Apparently school dinners, although she concedes are hot, are also not a "proper" lunch! So we send in things packed in thermoses like:
Spaghetti bolognese
Chicken korma and rice
Cottage pie and peas
Pork dijon with mushrooms
Sausages and mashed potatoes etc
Then I add a side of fruit or raw vegetables, sometimes yoghurt, and water or an Innocent Smoothie. We also go swimming on Saturdays, which requires another "proper" hot packed lunch to eat before gong on to gymnastics, so that's 6 hot lunches a week! Thank god for Sundays. Usually it's reheated leftovers, but sometimes I'll get up early and make from scratch.

Your ds packed lunch sounds uncannily like what I gave my dds at primary school. Nobody ever gave them grief about it, although I'd sometimes get complaints that 'all the others have chocolate and crisps every day'.

I don't deprive them of the above btw - they are free to choose them as a snack after school if they want.

Bacca - did I misunderstand? You sometimes get up early to make one of those things from scratch? 😮

I don't know if I think you're weird or hope you live near me so you can stick a couple of extra portions in the early morning pot...

I had a kid in my class complaining about their healthy packed lunch last week. It looked amazing though...was tempted to ask him to swap for my boring sandwich

My child has the same packed lunch every day and has done since reception. The only deviation she allows is having a wrap instead of a bread roll.
She has a ham and cheese roll, a tube yoghurt, a piece of cheese, a few cubes of chicken and a cereal bar. No fruit is entertained and she has orange squash to drink.

Boundaries - no, sometimes I really do get up early and make things from scratch :) My husband and I work from home so you guessed right- sometimes we eat the same thing later for lunch - you're welcome to come over and join us!

Some of these lunches sound so fiddly to eat in a school lunch break.

Blueberries and cucumber sticks and something to dip it in, plus numerous other items.

How do they have time to eat all these fiddly things in the 15 mins they have to eat before spending most of lunch time outside playing?

Why have a separate salad pot and dips to a sandwich. Wouldn't most people as adults eat a salad for lunch or a sandwich with a salad in it for a packed lunch, not faff around with 5-7 different items, including a bowl of tiny berries?!

I don't think I could eat some of these lunches comfortably in less than 45 mins.

Of course a 9 year old doesn't need to me more than me! Are you quite mad!?

I think it sounds normal OP.
Im really surprised at the amount of people putting kitkats and crisps in the lunch boxes. In my dds school theyre not allowed either of those or cereal bars, no fruit shoot type drinks etc.

Or

Of course a 9 year old doesn't need to eat more than me! Are you quite mad!?shock

Well I have just been shopping and got some Soreen Halloween themed cake bars (similar sugar content to most sereal/ small kitkat type bars)and some new 'healthy hoola hoops- baked not fried! I will mix things up a bit, though I do think he is happy enough and always eats it all. He says he tells any kids that comment that they are boring to care what other people have for lunch, and I don't think he's too bothered by that, but am always monitoring it in case it does slide into bullying.

I am under no illusions about the sugar content in chocolate bars and cereal bars being similar and sometimes lower in chocolate, but I don't send cereal bars often anyway. What gets me is the amount of sugar in the yoghurts aimed at kids. I really don't think having those everyday is great tbh. I would find it a lot easier to get something prepacked as faffing with the Tupperware containers is a pain, they often go 'missing' when the dc stay at their dad's, which causes me untold despair, but no way are they taking stuff with 3 times the sugar content of a penguin.

I also think it's depressing how some children are so blown away by the sight of a some salad in a pot (no it doesn't take long to eat, why would it? ) or some ordinary yoghurt with fruit in it that doesn't come in a garish tube, that they have to comment...

notagiraffe your comment made me .

My slim 10 year old eats more lunch than me though. I would have something like a chicken salad wrap and a glass of water. My DS would have the wrap, a banana, a yoghurt, a kitkat and a carton of juice. Maybe even a babybel too.

I eat a much bigger portion than him for dinner though so it all evens up.

Well that's good, as long as people don't think their children should be eating more than an adult

My DS is a fussy sod. It doesn't matter what I put in my DS's lunch box as 80 -100% comes back home uneaten. I tend to bung in a cherry tomato, carrot sticks and cucumber to please the lunch box police but I know he won't touch any of it, if he's not in the mood to. (No school meals here and a very short lunch break).

My DH puts in crackers and cereal bars as these will get eaten but I'd rather him starve at lunch time and eat his tea instead because he's feeling hungry.

They ran a healthy eating campaign at school last summer term with stickers as a reward for trying food but ended up giving him the stickers anyway as he still refused to try anything. If he goes on play dates I have to explain to the parents that he might not eat their offerings but not to take it personally!

Thing is, he ate everything when he was weaned and up to about 3 yrs old but then suddenly started refusing food.

He won't touch veg other than peas & sweetcorn and refuses all fruit. It's massively frustrating. :-(

" mummyoflittledragon

Dd is only allowed one carb in her packed lunch."
Is that to do with her medical condition or a school rule???

Also to a pp why is sushi sugary rice? The stuff I buy isn't

DS who is a teen has 2 ham/cheese/tuna and salad wraps
cheese/ scotch egg
Cucumber or carrot
Crisps
Chocolate a couple of times a week

Fruit is a no no because apparently if you take it in you get called gay I know and we have had a discussion but he eats it when he gets in and refuses to take it.

Stealth. No lunchbox police at school. All me because dd is always hungry and eats such a lot that I try to get her to consume foods, which fill her up for longer. If she has a pepperami sausage, mango and crisps that's already quite a substantial amount of carb. And it also helps to balance out the amount of carb she has at parties and the childminder, who feeds her stuff like pesto pasta, biscuits and jelly.

Phew!! And no issues with you as her parent doing what you know to work best. I would be annoyed if your school had a blanket "one carb" policy though :o

When I was at school got a rank sandwich with cheapest brown bread and apple. I didn't eat the sandwich and other kids used to pity me and give me things from theirs! I don't know why I had this austerity lunch as I was allowed other things at home. I did get bullied a bit too.

OP, your lunch sounds fab. I am fairly strict with my daughter's diet, but make sure the food is always plentiful and fun even if it is healthy! We tend to give her Yeo Valley organic fromage frais or Longley Farm yogurt. She's not at school yet, but when I give her a pack up, it's usually a smoked salmon (she's obsessed with it!) and cream cheese or cheese and chutney sandwich, cucumber and cherry tomatoes, fromage frais, a couple of fruit options, and maybe some Organix crisps. She usually leaves one thing, but I like her to have some choices.

So much stuff in these lunchboxes! I used to have a sandwich and a piece of fruit. Why do kids get crisps and choc type bars as well?

It's worth remembering when reading these threads that the majority of children in the UK are overweight

Some of these boxes are enormous! Pasta and popcorn and cake and fruit and yogurt?

It's worth remembering when reading these threads that the majority of children in the UK are overweight
If they aren't yet, they certainly will be.
Apart from competing with what other kids get in their lunch boxes, parents seem obsessed with packing in far too many items. They don't need the crisps and choc bars.