Sandwich and fruit

[polkadotsrock]

I fear I overreacted this morning. DS (5) keeps bringing home his packed lunch with the fruit still in there, even if it's his favourite. So today I sent him with just a sandwich and fruit. He has an egg wrap, an apple, a banana, some strawberries, a mixed bowl of raspberries and blueberries and a packet of raisins. Wasn't my finest moment was it??

That sounds like a lovely lunch. It might not be your finest moment but hopefully out of all that fruit he'll decide to eat at least one.

Of course he might suddenly decide to eat all the fruit and end up with a mega tummy ache

Nothing wrong with what you did in principle. Sandwich and fruit is a nice lunch.

Bit of a waste of money if you have to chuck all those out of season berries however, but it's only your money you're wasting.

That's one heck of a lot of fruit! A lot of sugar if he decides to eat it. But a sandwich and fruit is a perfectly acceptable lunch. As long as he's getting the rest of his nutritional requirements at other times of day.

I don't I understand.....

I don't get it. Does he usually eat the sandwich and nothing else, or does he have yogurts/crisps/biscuit etc thatcher also eats and then leaves the fruit?

thatcher = that he

My son would still have ignored the fruit, except perhaps, the banana. And he would be STARVING when he got home (no change there then).

My younger son would have ignored the wrap and eaten ALL the fruit, and ended up with vicious stomach cramps and wind.

Good luck.

If I ate all that fruit at lunch time I'd be spending the afternoon running to the loo, goodness knows what it'll do to a five year olds digestion! I'd be preparing myself for getting underwear handed to me in a plastic bag at pick if I were you.

I think that's fine. Egg has the opposite effect of fruit, doesn't it? I must say my kids eat loads of fruit and have never suffered with any of the symptoms described here. Hope he eats some anyway op.

He normally has cheese, yoghurt, malt loaf etc but I'm at the end of my tether with wasting fruit so I'm hoping he eats some today, and stops with the silliness tomorrow. He loves fruit normally so I'm not understanding, I'll return to a more balanced compromise tomorrow.

I did the exact same thing just last week. Sick and tired of DD coming home having left half her grapes and not touched her apple or carrot sticks (all of which she claims to like) -- actually I tell a lie, she had nibbled a 5mm chunk out of her apple and left the rest. So the following day she had a sandwich, drink, apple, grapes, carrot sticks and raisins. Plenty of food for the day, but none of the usual pom bears, bear claws/yollies/school bars ie the 'fun' stuff.

Sometimes you have to do these things otherwise they will eat all the carby stuff and sweet stuff and not touch anything fresh, and they know full well that's the good, nutritious bit. It's not unkind to send your child to school with a healthy lunch, it's just thinking of their health. If you had sent your child to school with a packet of pork scratchings, a pot noodle and a mars bar then that would be another matter altogether. You sound like a great mum to me.

Reintroduce the 'fun' food as and when you're confident your child can also be trusted to eat their fruit too.

I just get dd to eat fruit and veg in the evenings and for breakfast. Her friend takes in fruit and makes everyone else eat it.

He will probably eat the rasins and sandwich and leave the rest

That sounds like a ridiculous amount of fruit. If he doewnt eat it at school then just give it to him at home, no need to go ott just because he isn't eating it. He's 5. When my DD doesnt eat fruit if she takes a packed lunch, i give it to her after school. How they eat ay home wont be the same as at school because they are more interested in playing.

At home my 8 year old will eat sandwiches or toast, 2 pieces of bread, strawberries and grapes, a yoghurt and usually some cheese or ham. At school he will have a sandwich, 1 piece of bread and a pot of strawberries and grapes. If he puts anything else in like a frube or a cheese string, he ends up bringing it home. He would rather go out and play. Ultimately I cant control what he does in school so i let him get on with it but I also let him know he cant come home and raid the cupboards just before tea because he is so hungry from not eating much dinner.

Also another thing I do sometimes is whatever is untouched from her lunchbox (providing it's still fresh) I will give her as her snack when she gets home from school, so if she has left her apple that will be her after school snack, if she has left her crackers then I'll give her those with a bit of fresh cheese etc. Then it reduces waste. Certain things like soft fruits which don't keep long do have to be chucked though.

If he is not eating the fruit at school can you not leave it out of his lunch althogether? I know it sounds bad but why waste it? Keep the fruit for eating at home where you can supervise more carefully.

It does sound like you have put a lot of fruit in a five year olds lunch today though!

If he doesn't eat fruit at school but does at home, don't give it to him for school-give it to him at home. Problem solved.

He probably doesn't eat it at school because it takes along time to eat and he wants to get out to play.

Ooh can you make me lunch please op? derails thread and forgets works from home
Most likely he will eat some of it and come home complaining but lesson will be learned (my dd would)

Too much fruit IMO, I would go with the recommendation of saving most of the fruit for at home. I would give a sandwich and one of the following rasisins / apples / yoghurt.

One of my DC would have gobbled up all that fruit, no problem! Another would have only eaten the 'easy' fruit - which would include the berries if he didn't have to open a pot to get to them, and also any fruit that was ready peeled and segmented. I don't think the amount of fruit was excessive for a fruit lover. But for someone who is not that keen at the moment, I'd be inclined to prepare a smaller amount and make it very easy to eat.

I don't like fruit that's been sat in a sweaty lunchbox all morning - IME it just tastes funny and I find I rarely eat it. Luckily as an adult, I have access to a fridge/shops at lunch, but as a kid I never touched the fruit in my lunches.

Can you not just give her the fruit with breakfast and as a snack, and give her food you know she'll eat at lunch? It seems a bit of a waste to keep sending food in that doesn't get eaten. One meal without fruit/veg won't kill her!

I would do as others have suggested, uneaten fruit as a snack on the way home.

My youngest loved fruit but wouldn't eat it from his lunch box so I gave up and let him have it when home. I did ask him and he said he didn't like the smell of fruit in his lunch box and he wanted to eat quickly so he could play.

Could one of his lunch buddies maybe have teased him about the fruit?

I'm just asking, as when my daughter had a packed lunch, a little boy once laughed at her for having a petit flous(?) yoghurt as "they are for babies" she never went near them again after that.