to show you these pictures of Danish children's packed lunches?

[wallyfeatures]

I've followed a few of the lunchbox threads and thought it might be of interest to mumsnet to see what is allowed and typically given to young children here in Denmark in schools and kindergardens. I am a member of a closed facebook group where Danish mothers share ideas on packed lunches. The photos below are a typical sample of what is given to children from 3+ years up. The food shown would be enough for lunch and a mid afternoon snack. Happy to answer questions about what is shown.

I don't make kids' lunchboxes anymore, but I made DP two corned beef sandwiches on white bread for his lunch today. Shall I post a photo of it?

This one, for a bit of balance, seem to be a bit more 'processed'. It is for a 6 year old.

@GinAndOnIt yes please

Gads I'd be starving my 2.30pm

This is quite amusing.

In my job I cater for a Danish school group for a two week period each year. Ages 15-18.

We are instructed by their teachers to be very liberal with fruit and veg.

They have to make their own packed lunch (with us providing the ingredients) - bread/cooked meats/salad, water, fruit and a flapjack or brownie.

They are all on a residential course with us and are free to roam our town after college each day. They spend this time guzzling ice cream, chocolates, sweets, fizzy drinks and anything else as unhealthy as you can think of.

Interesting. Would also be good to see more of the Asian lunch boxes the PP showed. I like the idea of trying different things, not just for the kids but for my OH.

As for the snotty replies, seeing some of the dross on here this thread is infinitely better.

@Crispbutty I'm not surprised. The kids when they come for birthday parties do go a little crazy for the sweet stuff.

@user1478860582 thanks!

I like getting new ideas from things like this. I do dislike the undercurrent of all Brits are ignorant about food and eat crap whereas other cultures all feed their kids healthy food. I find it quite offensive. My dc would have a sandwich or wrap, cucumber, peppers or carrot batons, a yoghurt, fruit etc...Not much different to the photos shown.

@Crispbutty interestingly the adults packed lunches are very similar. Where I work nearly everyone sits down at lunchtime and gets out their rye bread with salami or fish or pate, their chunks of cucumber and raw carrot. It is very very boring and samey, but they seem to take comfort in the familiarity. I never see anyone getting out a chocolate bar or a fizzy drink, it is always coffee or water. I have worked in the same place for three years now.

You should see German ones. I walked into the kindergarten a few days ago and one of the three year olds had a doorstep salami sandwich and a croissant sat in front of him. For his breakfast.
They're starting school dinners in a few weeks, we've subscribed, I'm starting to worry. We just found out the name of the caterers is "Wurststube" something. I'm hoping they can make like actual meals and the kids aren't going to be getting Bratwurst with pommes every single day...

Please someone post a picture of a packet of pom bears, a cheese string and a Capri sun...! Lunch of champions.

I loved it when one of the newspapers(can't remember which one now)showed how different lunches were for school children from all different country's,some of them were quite surprising.

Our DC(we have 5)mainly have school dinners now but when they were having packed lunches we used to get comments some times from the lunch time controllers.
Some of them used to be surprised if there was alot of homemade items in a packed lunch and the day I sent in child safe flasks with soup in it was talked about for weeks after but it was freezing cold and the children loved it and managed with the flasks fine,a few of the teachers started doing the same afterwards.

@formerbabe really there is no undercurrent and it was never my intention to promote such a view. You will see from my comments that we have discussed salt content, the processed nature of the meats, the eating of sweets in great quantities on a Friday. I have my own mixed opinions about the food and diets here not all positive and not all negative. And the same with the UK.

No packed lunches here but here's typical school lunches in Finland - don't look so pretty but its good food.

@toomuchtooold crikey!

My ds (7) has sliced chicken in his warburton thins for lunch (was sliced ham but I saw that the chicken was lower in salt). What's a better alternative than this? He also takes in fruit, a little Yeo yoghurt (as less sugar than petit filous, snack a jacks or walkers baked crisps and a no added sugar Capri Sun. I feel like his lunch is a less shitty version than shit! Help!

at DDs secondary school there's hardly anywhere to eat sitting down, especially if it's wet, so every lunch needs to be finger food only, sandwiches need to be able to be held in one hand. Also needs to be able to be eaten part at break, part at lunch (as lunch starts at a ridiculous 1.30), and nowhere to keep anything chilled. Also limited in size of lunchbox as they have so many books to cart back and forth, they'd need a trolley case to fit in one of those lovely bento style boxes as well.

DD2 at uni makes a cooked lunch for herself most days by contrast

Sooooo pretty. Agree though with others very similar to uk lunches but more heavy on the processed pate etc. Love the japan ones. more photos please. There was one person who does a different scene every day. Very cool but i wouldnt have the time.

Can i just add As an ibs sufferer can i say brown and rye bread is evil 🚽and i can just about take good quality white bread. My sister was advised to not give brown bread till 5 as childrens gut cant cope with it until then and ive just been told the same at a nhs weaning chat. (My dd is 6 months so no where near bread yet). Id therefore never judge the colour of the bread just the quality.

@Natsku interesting, thank you for posting. Are lunches provided by the institution? What age group is the lunch aimed at?

I'm in Sweden and food is provided by kindergarten (forskola.)

Fruit at 9:30 after first outdoor play session. Regardless of weather they are out. Full waterproof/snow proof stuff etc. Fruit cut up with a seriously sharp knife that'd never be allowed in the uk ;)

Lunch, varies, but usually fish and potato/meatballs and pasta type stuff. Swedes seem to dislike vegetables. Lots of dairy and bread. Followed by hard bread and butter.

Mellanmål (2:30 ish) is rye bread/soft bread with toppings like liver paste (gross) processed meat, cheese, cucumber etc.

Swedes have a serious sweet tooth. but there does seem to be a big emphasis on moderation (the concept of lagom) and they are outdoors a lot.

No one I work with brings sandwiches - they all have a proper hot lunch. There's fika (cake and coffee ) a few times a week.

They're all trim. I guess moderation and plenty of activity is the key.

I always find these lunch boxes interesting !

@londonrach I've heard that about brown bread before. But here even the small children from about a year up eat little bits of rye bread. It makes for some spectacular nappies.

I was on a similar UK group when the DCs were littler, but that was a bit smugger, with Japanese inspired prettiness, no juice or cereal bars ever, lots and lots of vegetables, bread was a rarity, and seaweed and pumpkin seeds were regularly seen.

Sorry, not rtft as heading out now, and don't know if anyone's said this, but young children def shouldn't have whole grapes. Exactly the right size to get stuck in their windpipe, and the texture of the skin means they're very hard to shift. Last year 4 children choked to death on grapes in the UK. They just need to be cut in half. I learnt this on a first-aid course last week.

It may well be a group of people sharing lunches but jif a) you're the type of person to join a facebook lunchbox group and b) share photos on said group you're obviously not going to be just taking any old photo, it's a bit like people that share photos of their food (why why why??) how representative really are those groups of typical diets? they may well be, but people keen to share food ideas aren't a very broad view of any group.