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?

Stealth. I think schools go by the food pyramid/healthy swaps. I couldn't imagine a one carb allowance per meal. Imagine all the children's sad faces if puddings were banned. This is a school, where they serve meat or veggie option or a jacket potato daily.

Ambivalent Do you have a child, who asks to eat sweeties and sugary food all the time? If you did, you'd realise how unfair your last comment is.

So I'm only allowed an opinion if I have a child? Sorry I'm infertile, what an arsehole I am.

not I don't agree with you re 'they don't need to be so skinny.
Go away in other countries not as affected by obesity and look at the children there.
My dcs who are 'all skinny' here just look normal in France or in Germany.

We've lost the image of what is a healthy weight, both for children and adults.

Ds3 and ds4 get
a sandwich on white bread, usually ham, chicken or tuna. I gave up on wholemeal bread because the little feckers never ate it. Sometimes I give them a roll or wrap instead.
a cheese string, yoghurt or rice cake. Ds4's dentist prohibited frubes, by the way.
a bottle of water. Again, the dentist prohibited all other drinks except milk and I just give them milk at home.
a tub of berries or an apple or clementine. They used to like kiwi but unfortunately a child in ds4's class is severely allergic to them so they can't be sent into school at all.
The school does not allow chocolate, crisps or fizzy drinks but there are some kids who still bring them in. If caught they are told they are not allowed to eat the offending item.

DP makes DS's lunch. He packs as if he was sending him off for a week - at least 3 separate Tupperware boxes each with what I would consider enough lunch for a 4 year old. DS eats a few bits and pieces but seems happy.

Plastic ham on white bread sandwich, no butter (his choice)
Cucumber sticks and a peeled satsuma
Mini malt loaf
Crisps
Water

Every day for 5 years! Dull. But he eats it all so no waste and is a healthy weight.

ambivilantgirl I have two DS and I agree with you. Though am in the minority on MN!

homemade sw 50-50 white/brown bread with cheese or ham or hummus
banana and diced grapes
handful mini cheddars
some raisins or other treat
bottle water

i try to keep it simple, its not a picnic - just lunch!

In our school they can only have water to drink and no crisps or chocolate are allowed ( although home baking is!). I sometimes put a couple of m&s treat size cake snack things in and they seem to be ok.

But generally we do a sandwich, piece of cheese, a yogurt and a pot of chopped up fruit.

My two have the American thing everyday, any variation and there are complaints/uneaten food. At recess DS1 has a green apple and DS2 has a pot of cherry tomatoes. At lunch the have a vegemite and cheese sandwich. Dark grainy seedy bread, plenty of butter and two slices of cheese.

They will sometimes have a snack when they get in after school but not always. They do eat large breakfasts and dinners though.

I wanted to put extra stuff in but apparently it takes too long to eat and they would rather be doing something else.

Not sure where 'American' came from there, I meant 'Same'.

A penguin would be better than malt loaf for their teeth.

I'm from the States and have never heard of a penguin bar until later in this thread, so I laughed hard thinking you meant an actual penguin.

Ambivalent, there are plenty of us around who would agree. With you wholeheartedly.

I am one. It constantly amazes me how many on here are "shocked" and "horrified" by this, that and the other. If we admit to giving kids utter horrors like crisps or a bit of chocolate with lunch we are fair game for those who enjoy ripping people to shreds.

I have to say that I no longer care. My kids have grown into healthy adults who are not at all overweight and eat a healthy diet despite my apparent inadequacy as a parent for letting them eat some of this apparently unspeakably evil stuff. None of them even have any fillings.

There is a lot of pearl clutching that goes on.

Total stealth boast.

1 x Dairylea on Mighty White bread with half an inch of thick cold butter..
1 pot of carrot sticks or pepper slices OR
1 pot or packet of nuts or nuts and raisins (it was the 80s, they hadn't invented nut allergies then)
yogurt (not a 'special sugary kids one' again. see 'it was the 80s')
piece of fruit
water.

I got actual beatings because my lunch was not a jam sandwich on blackpool milk roll, accompanied by a packet of crisps, a mint Viscount biscuit or a Toffy Trio and some cake, and chocolate milk to drink.

I still feel the trauma of that today.

Oh, not the point of this thread. Meh.

Yay stealth boast! Can I join in? My DS has food allergies and is ASD and health obsessed so he likes things other kids wouldn't normally have. A typical lunch for him is as follows:

Sandwich, pasta salad or homemade chicken goujons.
Cherry tomatoes or pot of cucumber slices.
Crisps of some description.
Dairy and nut free cereal bar/chocolate rice cake/other dairy and nut free treat.
Piece of fresh fruit
Fruit winder/yo-yo
Sugar free capri sun (which he complains about but school has a sugar free drinks or water only policy)

He has had 'ew' comments, but doesn't care because he thinks everyone else's lunches are 'gross and unhealthy'. Frankly I'm just glad he's eating at this point even if the homemade goujons and pasta salads are a total faff.

Mine had ham or hard salami sandwiches in whole grain bread, something sweet or crisps or raisins, and a sugary drink or dairy milk alternative or water (their preference as they could sip water during class too). When I sent fruit it always came home again. They had a short lunch hour - 20 mins actually, including time spent getting to the lunch room and clearing up when it was time to go outside. Not great (understatement) but at least they ate what I sent and it could have been worse - well slightly worse anyway

Total stealth boast
Why? People are allowed to ask what others put in lunches and to gauge popular opinion. Doesn't make it a stealth boast if they have different ideas to you.

I use bento style boxes for my two.

Today they went to school with -

10yo - 3 mini sausages, boiled egg, cucumber slices, capsicum slices and a pear.

5 yo - 3 mini sausages, cucumber slices, cherry tomatoes and a cheesestring.

They get a sandwich about twice a week.

Always just water.

These threads make for weird reading.
Ds2 keeps asking to change from school dinners to packed lunches. These types of thread confirm why I am dreading making such a move.

LadySaladini don't they like sandwiches?

I am still lol at food 'not being suitable for daily use'.
You are a veritable paragon of virtue op. I'd give you a biscuit, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be suitable either.
God knows what my kids take. They forage in the fridge and cupboards and knock something together. I don't particularly care as none of them are starving and none are in any way overweight. The only day I know what they eat is Thursday and that because the school feeds them pizza as a fundraiser.
At least two of them slice up peppers as I frequently have to clear up the garbage littering the kitchen surfaces, but I'm pretty sure another one exists solely on granola bars or oatmeal blocks. The fourth is a hybrid model and I think does like a sandwich. I do love a good primary lunch box thread though. It always makes me nostalgic for the days when I thought it was important enough to care about as well.

How do your kids have time to eat all that? Mine gets a ham sandwich and a satsuma, and half of that comes back sometimes.

Mine eats school lunch mostly, but when I pack I do a sandwich (either peanut butter and jam or lunch meat with mayo), fruit, veggie sticks/baby carrots with ranch dip, and then one more thing...crackers, granola bar, string cheese. Something like that. He buys a carton of milk at the cafeteria. He's 9. I don't do crisps and chocolate at home so I wouldn't send them in. I'm not opposed to them (and I'm fat so really it's not like I'm a paragon of health :o) but I was raised with them being "party food" so that's how I think of them. I just don't buy them really.