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?

dan, your context is ignorant. It's food! If you use your brain (pot, kettle, black when it comes to dim) you'll soon deduce that food is not the enemy and that even foods that don't have a lot of nutritional value have been enjoyed by the human race in small amounts for many centuries without grave overall effect on survival. But carry on being insulting when someone doesn't agree with you, it makes you sound so credible.

Must be quite runny, that omlette. As to not washing the pan . . . erm, okay

the food in the top British Public school is GRIM is that clearer?

I am agreeing with the OP.
I love food and do not consider it the enemy. It was a quick shorthand port FGS.

Goodbye.

Regarding sugar police. There is lots of sugar in foods we wouldn't expect and easy for a child to go over their daily allowance just on breakfast (sugary cereal and juice).

Op you'll end up baffled by mumsnet advice on healthy eating, because everyone's got different opinions. If I were you I'd look to the NHS website or your gp for advice on food and exercise.

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

Everyone is telling op that school dinners serve tiny portions but do we actually know that ops daughter is at a English state school that follows the school foods trust standards? If it's a private school or academy they will be exempt.
If it does follow the guide lines the meals should be fine as part of a balanced diet.
Can you link to the schools menu op?

Um, okay, goodbye then, dan. Have a nice day!

Thank you Bluntness

It was the girls my sister mentioned in particular, actually.

Shocking when parents are paying 30,000 a year.
Anyway, the point is, that is extreme with all food provided by the school, not just lunch.
I totally believe the lunch meal could make a difference over a year, on its own.

Barbara, why don't you wash your omelette pan?!

AtleastitsnotMonday this is one of them.

It changes every week.

To be fair, I'll try and look at sugar intake then, as I can't say everything she has is low in sugar.

Because I treat it the same as how you are supposed to treat a wok or Yorkshire Pudding tin. You aren't supposed to wash them, just wipe out and re-oil. I learnt that from St Delia or other foody person of similar standing. I use Filipo Berio spray oil.

After cooking (a fully solid omelette btw) there is no trace of food in it, just a film of oil, so I have a drawer that the pan lives in like that to stop the cats licking it clean.

I have an omelette nearly every day and just spray the pan with oil, put in a knob of butter and heat up. It gets very hot every day, so is never going to have germs in it.

I don't wash mine, either Collage

Just wipe it with kitchen roll. Also yorkshire pudding tins, wok and frying pans.

Pans then develop a patina which keeps them non-stick and they cook much more efficiently. I've been not washing them for 40 years and no-one has died yet.

I live in Ireland so no such thing as school dinners all kids go to school with their own packed lunch. Healthy eating policies in most schools so you are not allowed give any sweets/ chocolates crisps etc. Schools designated disadvantaged do get extra funding to provide breakfasts and dinners.

Anyway back to op. My dd is also 9 and nothing has changed in the amount of exercise she does or the food she eats but I have noticed in the past 6 months she is getting more developed and less skinny iykwim so I think it is probably hormones and body changes happening with your daughter too. My dd is very active and has always been very skinny so I can see no other explanation for body change.

Fair enough barabara! I've not heard of that before and Couldn't cope with that myself but I can see the logic. 😀

My grandma told me if I washed her frying pan she would kill me

It would probably explain why my Yorkshire puds are so shit!

OP, that'll be the same menu that lots of other kids who are not overweight, are also eating 5 days per week.

Also, a far healthier looking menu that the one we ate at school in the 70s, when overweight children were a very rare sight.

It's really down to parents to get the correct balance at home, rather than blame a small school lunch.

I don't wash my frying pan , wok or yorhire tin either my GrandMother & mother always told me not too

Your daughter has a healthy weight for her age - she is also 9 which is may be the start of puberty where breast development etc will lead to a weight gain (I was shopping for a 32C bra for dd2 when she was 9). So the it may be puberty rather than school dinners that are accounting for this gain.

Please - and I mean this supportively - try not to be the parent that obsesses about weight. My mother was like this (I was dieting at 6 because of her obsession and fears about having a fat chil). Your daughter will certainly pick up these messages - I certainly did (the "shame" of having steroid treatment at 8 because it caused weight gain and I never had a normal relationship with food because of this. A healthy weight is healthy - so tread carefully

My grandma told me if I washed her frying pan she would kill me

Ha ha. Glad it's not just me. DPs sister once washed our teapot (you're not supposed to wash them either - the tannin stains on the inside contribute the flavour) and he moaned about the ruined teapot for months until the tannin had built back up again.

It depends on the area, but the meals in my county are really carefully balanced and the portions are not very big. Also most children don't eat every thing on their plate anyway so don't get the full calories. The meals should be healthy and some days in particular they look a bit stodgy to me but I don't think you can blame 1 of the e meals she has each day on her weight.

OP if she is eating school lunch at 12 then not having her evening meal til 6pm than she needs a largish and relatively filling lunch to get her through the 6hrs. Especially if she is active in that time.

Id shrink her evening meal portion.

Barbara
Now I don't have to wash my teapot either.

Some kids come from poor families and ONLY get a free school meal to eat in a day - (when I was young we had A weetabix for breakfast with a splash of milk and some water, free school dinner and an apple with a small chunk of cheese for tea - we were often hungry, but pretty healthy) they have been designed to be balanced over the week to provide the vitamins, minerals etc needed.

I sent mine with packed lunch because we always eat a cooked evening meal together.

Confused by the menu (and consequently this whole post) OP. There is clearly yogurt and fruit on offer every single day... so not sure how you can criticise the school for the menu of cake every day as it clearly isn't compulsory?