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?

Talking of the 90/10 rule - shouldn't that be enforced in schools? So kids eat fresh veg, quality protein and a variety of pulses for 90% of their school meal and then processed food/refined products/sugary items for only 10% of their school meal.

I don't see why school gets to provide all the poor quality food, while parents have to provide everything healthy.

School dinners portions are tiny at my DCs school.

Have you ever been in for lunch at her school?

The thing is as well, if the adults in a household also have really large portions (even though they may not realise it), when the kids go from child portion to adult portion (usually around age 12 or 13ish), that means they're also going to be eating a massive amount.

I think that could be another reason why so many overweight parents end up with overweight kids.

They might all be 'skin and bone' in primary school, but most kids stop tearing around the playground in senior school and will for example, spend break times sitting on a bench talking to friends.

A lot of them will also drop dancing/sporting activities as they get older, so they're eating huge adult portions, but burning it off even less.

A child who eats every school meal they can will have 190 school meals and 905 home meals per year.

School meals are tiny, I'm yet to see a normal packed lunch smaller than a school meal. Fishfingers with mash and peas usually means 1 fishfinger, a spoonful of mash, a spoonful of peas. Plus a piece of sugar free cake the size of a fishfinger.

I'm worried that there has been an increase in weight. Surely you should just wait until they're 'fat' to begin to worry?

Are you sure it is chub and not her entering puberty? 9 is about the right age these days.

Also spring is around the corner, fewer wet breaks and more running around time.

The mini Muller Corners that school canteens serve contain 95 grams of yogurt and topping. 14 to 18 grams of that is sugar (depending of which topping)!

Ds needed to put weight on so iv sent him to school dinners. I keep evening meals light

You should see the portions in the school where I work. I think parents would be appalled. 'Chicken goujons' is a single goujon!

Allthewaves, I can't see that working then really.

That means he'll have a really light lunch and a light evening meal.

How will that mean he'll put on weight?

MN food threads are a never-ending source of joy. This one features people who scoff at the idea of school dinners 5x a week making ANY difference to weight, but are adamant the Fruit and Fibre will be making her fat and has to stop

A 9 year old getting chubby is usually because their physical exercise isn't up to snuff. She needs to get up and get moving.

Astoria, have you even bothered to read my posts??

There's a massive difference between how much a child, or adult for that matter can eat and how much they should eat.

My in laws think it's great that when they look after my kids the 6 year old will eat a bacon double cheeseburger meal, three bowls of cereal or five sausages and my four year old is somehow defective for not having the same massive appetite. It's not appetite though, it's greed and at the moment my six year old will burn off the extra calories.
At home he eats much less but is still satisfied and not regularly hungry between meals.

OP should've explained everything you wanted to say. I don't have the patienc to wade through 10 pages of drip feeding.

How is it drip feeding? This wasn't a "why is my child getting fat?" Question. I asked about the school dinners. If you wanted to comment a relevant answer, you really should read at least my comments. Most people on Mumsnet agree.

I am in awe of your dd managing to last out until 6pm for tea.Mine had school meals and like you I was.a bit🤔at the cab content.But she always came through the door starving so she had easy to sort food then and a snack for supper.At least I knew that I couldn't upload the gaps' nutrition wise at home and she loved the school puds(I'm more a piece of fruit person).
In high school now on packed lunch and it is very hard to balance lunch and keep it interesting.But our choice as parents though I am lucky as although eating like a horse DD is slim.

Just to buck the trend the meals served in the school I work in can be v large. Particularly towards the end of service if there is a lot left over but that does tend to be the older ones. The little ones seem pretty sensible. That said there seems to be lots scraped into the bin too.
Don't get me started on the salad bar though, if left unattended (poor lady needs to top up the tomatoes for example) children seem to want to cover their meal with grated cheese (full on roast included🤔)

No wonder school dinner portions seem tiny when the alternative packed lunches posted on here are like a sandwich, 2 portions of fruit, a portion of veg, yoghurt, sometimes biscuits too. How do you manage to eat all that and still have time to go out to play? My packed lunches as a kid were a sandwich, cereal bar and crisps everyday- enough to fill me up not not enough so I was having to sit for 30 minutes every day demolishing a feast of a packed lunch.

Some of dd's friends have three or four slices of bread for sandwiches. It's more than I'd have, twice their weight.

I work in a school kitchen. The meals are small.

Maybe you could give Dd smaller meals at home?

Even if the meals are big at your dds school that's not a bad thing some children only get that school dinner and nothing more at home.

In about 30 years of eating school dinners regularly, I've always maintained a healthy weight. That's despite going home and cooking a dinner at the end of the day

Being about the size of a 12 year old, so fairly small compared to the target audience of a secondary school canteen, I get served the standard portion. By 5pm, I'm getting hungry again. This has been consistent across umpteen schools in many counties over many years.

I tend to find at Brownies, that the 9-10 year olds often chunk up a bit ready for a growth spurt. By the time they move on, many of them have stretched and look quite leggy.

At that age there may also be changes like playing less active games and standing chatting more. Extra curricular activities can often involve a lot of standing and waiting for a turn rather than being consistently active.

OP, looking at that menu, it is very similar to my kids' school menu. I'm not happy with it recently tbh as it seems that since the free school meals for KS1 came in, it is all stodgy crap every day. Before, it was much healthier, well balanced meals. But I understand they are having to do a lot more with a lot less, and I can't afford a packed lunch every day for DS2 as I really am that skint. He eats very healthily at home though and does pick a sandwich/jacket potato option regularly at school.

The portions given are tiny though, hence I am not concerned from a weight point of view with DS2. I have to do a packed lunch for DS1 as he is 11, 5' 4" and eats four times as much as I do! He could eat five school dinners and ask for more (obviously having a massive growth spurt atm!). He does grumble that if he eats as much as he needs to feel full, he has no time left to play outside though...

I should point out that DS1 is very skinny, tall for his age, hasn't always eaten such a massive amount, and does stop when full. He isn't eating so much from greed as such, and I'm not proud he eats so much (more despairing of my bank balance!) - I assume when this growth spurt is over his appetite will settle back to normal (god I hope so!).

Perhaps he needs more protein Roomba?

Fitton - the nutritional standards that were in place for school dinners are very low. Out of the many savory and sweet wheat products that are served, they only need to serve just one portion of wholewheat per week. Put an endless mass of refined white wheat products next to reconstituted protein and limited veg. Not ideal really. Give me a healthy lunch box any day!