AIBU to think school dinners are too much (food wise)?

[DragonPies]

There's always something like fish & chips, pie & mash, etc. and then a desert!

DD then has a dinner (around 6pm) and I feel like it's way too much. She's even getting a bit chubby.

I appreciate that I can stop school dinners (which I will be doing) but they shouldn't be giving kids stuff that could make them put on weight, surely?

No one does need 2 cooked meals a day Well lunch for me today will be jacket potatoe with beans and a pot of chopped fruit salad then tonight for my dinner I will have a chicken stir fry.

Why does it matter both my meals are cooked? Why isn't that allowed? You know you can just as many calories in a sandwich, yoghurt, banana, apple packed lunch don't you? COLD FOOD HAS CALORIES TOO

2 small cooked meals each day will NOT make someone fat

What is the problem with having two cooked meals a day as long as they are balanced. In the holidays my kids often have three cooked meals a day, I think that's when they eat the healthiest.
The packed lunches mine take are ok but made around what is cold, quick to eat, won't make much mess and won't get an "ewww" from their peers rather than what is the healthiest option.

Pinkheart I don't think the amounts a 17mo and a 6mo can be compared to a 9yo. Also 9yos are much more likely to over eat than a baby (although not saying that's the case here, more that your comparison is unhelpful).

My dd has school dinners then either has a baked beans on toast type tea with fruit or a small portion of a more traditional dinner such as chilli and rice or spaghetti bolognese.

OP, you are her mother and if you feel that adjustments are required to either meal, make them. No issue. I always feel a bit of concern when a parent describes their child as chubby, just projection on my part as I am aware. My own parents loathed the idea of a pound of excess weight and it was always obvious that they hated it if I was more than a little underweight, but at the same time I couldn't leave the table until I had cleared my plate. I developed an eating disorder and, once I was free to do what I wanted at university, put on a significant amount of weight. Whatever you decide, as long as your DD has no idea why, no problem.

Lots of kids go through a puppy fat stage and it's usually to do with growth spurts. They shoot up and all of a sudden are slim again. Yes there is the outlying cases where there is an issue. But at this stage I wouldn't be giving her a complex about it yet by focusing on it. Before you know it she'll have a growth spurt and you'll be concerned she's too thin.

Lots of kids do activities every night

But then it transpires their parents don't know what a child sized portion of breakfast and dinner looks like, and that they're driven everywhere.

So many people wouldn't dream of doing a 30 minute walk when they have a car, and especially when it's raining - which in the UK is very often.

Have you posted about this before PP? I'm sure I read another post like this not so long ago.

What do you want people to say? School dinners are just food. It's not like they're stuffing your daughter with lard and sugar cubes!

From what I've seen at my dc's school yes the food is unhealthy but the portion sizes are tiny.

After many years working in a primary school I never failed to be amazed at how little food the children had on their trays and wondered how it could keep them going all day. The parents would have been upset to see how little they ate, especially the little ones. They were so desperate to get out to play with their friends.

I really wouldn't worry OP. If you're imagining a big plate of fish and chips, the reality will be much smaller and in proportion.
Does the school have a 'school meals' open day?

Before you know it she'll have a growth spurt and you'll be concerned she's too thin.

Or her child could join the 1 in 5 kids who leave primary school overweight/obese.

Yes our portion sizes are tiny. Dd is always starving at 3.30

What does she have for breakfast?

There's some pretty good evidence that packed lunches are much more difficult to provide in a nutritionally balanced way. Not all schools are great at it but school meals should be designed to provide roughly 1/3rd of what your child needs, with minimum and maximum allowed amounts. So for the "good" stuff they need to provide at least x amount and the "bad" stuff no more than x amount. And the puddings are great ways to sneak more of the good stuff into the kids - custard is a great way to up the calcium levels and a lot of the desserts will probably contain very high levels of fruit.
Obviously it's up to each parent what they want their child to have at lunch but, unless your school is particularly rubbish at school food, it will be hard to provide the nutritional range and balance of school meals with packed lunches.

I wasn't trying to compare what a 17 month old and a 9 year old eat my point was 2 cooked meals a day if you are 17 months, 9,15 , 25 or pushing 80 will not make you fat on its own

Cooked food doesn't have a secret power to make you fat that cold food doesn't have. A 9 year old could easily eat the same calories in a COLD packed lunch as in a hot school dinner

'I've already said she has an activity every night... I think she may actually be doing more than your DD.'

Then get her to the doctor, because EVERYONE has told you the school dinners are not big portion sizes. Mine does all that sport because she loves it, we are all very sportive in our family. We are also hillwalkers and she comes out walking with me, too, at weekends and in holidays. She's never put on weight (she's definitely going through puberty now) and has loads of muscle mass.

PLENTY of people need 2 cooked meals a day or the equivalent in calories. Plenty of them. Some due to the activity level, some due to their metabolism and build, others due to medication they are on.

You seem determined to pin it all on one thing.

I feel so sorry for some of DD's friends whose mums are already putting them on the road to very disordered eating.

I had a roast dinner at my local primary school last month and you could literally have fit it between 2 small slices of bread.

Dragon pies - but what is a normal lunch?

What you consider a normal lunch will be very different to someone else. Many people do have a bigger hot meal in the middle of the day and a smaller dinner at home for example.

School dinners in their concept haven't changed since I was at school in the 70s except they've got a fair bit healthier. It was always two courses back then too.

School meals in England at least have to follow very strict nutritional guidelines as to fat, sugar, portion size. Deep frying is limited to two portions of food a week, I think. So fish and chips would be the two for the week. It's highly unlikely that school lunches are making her put on weight.

Yes top end of healthy weight, I think it's better to notice weight gain before it does tip into overweight. They do chop and change though, ds has been upper end of healthy weight, now he's lower end of healthy weight tall and slim.

I know at ds school a 'roast' dinner is a slice of meat, two roast potatoes and a scoop of veg, then a tiny cake for pudding. Even pizza and chips is one slice and about 5 chips. So for us I wouldn't necessarily think a sandwich was any better.

'So many people wouldn't dream of doing a 30 minute walk when they have a car, and especially when it's raining - which in the UK is very often.'

This! We live in the north where it rains often, 2.5 hilly miles to walk or 3 miles to cycle on flatter ground into town. We only have one car in the family so one or the other of us is either walking or cycling to get to activities or to visit friends. DD prefers to cycle to hers so gets the ride in on top of the sporting activity.

My sister works in a posh public school. She says the children who board all get fat from the food within a term, properly fat. She will not eat the school lunches, says they are so unhealthy unless she always has the baked potato!

My daughter went to a posh school (boarding). There were a lot of overweight kids but I put this down to the fact that they were given cakes, biscuits and other crap every single day as snacks.

But expat, surely you know kids dissolve in the rain

My sister works in a posh public school. She says the children who board all get fat from the food within a term, properly fat

So all the kids go from being completely slim, to being properly fat within about 12 weeks?

Really?

DanTDM - then your sister ought to be raising this as an issue with the school as if all children are getting properly fat they school needs to address things. This would be unusual in most schools so your sister needs to report it as a safeguarding issue.

Also independent schools are very different regarding rules to state schools. State schools in England have strict guidelines to follow.

They are also not boarding schools so the type of state school the thread is about is the type which only feeds the children one (small) meal a day, 5 days a week.