To be worried about putting ds on sandwiches?

[Pinkhoodie]

Ds 9yo wants to take sandwiches to school instead of dinners. I wouldn't mind and it would save me money, but I'm worried about him getting a varied diet at lunch time.

All he wants to eat is cheese or ham sandwiches. I can't think what to give him.

He will eat bread, cheese, ham, chicken, yoghurts (certain ones), cake, crisps, biscuits (not allowed), apples, bananas, carrots, breadsticks and can't think of much else.

Won't eat, tuna, salmon, cold boiled egg, salmon, peppers, tomatoes, hummus, cold pasta, fruit apart from apples and bananas.

I think he's imagining cheese sandwiches and penguin bars everyday which isn't going to happen.

Loads of people eat the same thing for breakfast and/or lunch every day. And actually his taste seems fairly healthy if he'll have carrot and fruit etc.
Also, it means you don't really have to think about it, if he was asking for hand-rolled sushi and macronutrients it'd be a nightmare!
Dsd2 has the same ham, cheese and cucumber wrap most school days. She'll even make it for herself of a weekend. She eats a wide variety of food in general and is perfectly healthy.

It’s 5 meals out of 21 a week. If you at it like that, it really could be the same 5 sandwiches.

Get a food flask and left overs such as stir fry, pasta and rice etc (make extra, pop in fridge, blast in microwave in the morning) I've even done sausage mash and gravy and it's stayed piping until lunchtime. Soup is also a good one, as are noodles and veg. Piece of fruit and a drink- packed lunch sorted!

For sandwiches, I rotate between wraps, bagels, sandwich thins, bread and mini baguettes or rolls. Keeps it interesting and varied. Then they have a bag of crisps, an oat bar and I send in small pots of natural yogurt, handful of blueberries / chopped grapes/ summer fruits.

As an aside, @georgedawes, how do you get lasagne into a flask??

DD has packed lunches in the spring and summer and school dinners when it's colder. She has a lunch box with 5 sections. I put a wrap or a sandwich in the main section with a juice box, then a variety of chopped carrot, cucumber, sweetcorn, celery, coleslaw, pizza, mini sausage, ham, cheeses, egg, cold pasta, rice salad, leftovers, hummus etc in the other sections. I try to make it a little bit different each time but sometimes she requests the same things again and again.

Seriously, three pages in and I'm the only person that read the thread title and visualised a kid between two giant slices of bread?

I went the whole way through primary (and most of secondary) school on a marmite sandwich, crisps, a frube and a Cadbury’s mini roll and was absolutely fine.

My ds (now 19) had exactly that menu from the day he started primary till the day he left! He is very healthy

What is wrong with cheese sandwiches every day? Mine don't eat at school at all and never have. I never did either.....

The lunch sounds fine but I'd suggest a compromise (if allowed). At my son's school they can see the menu in advance and my son has sandwiches twice a week and hot lunches three times a week.

Hot lunches are better I think. Lots of things that you mention can be lunch or snack or even breakfast (bread etc) so a hot lunch leaves all those other things as options for other times of the day.

Plus eating with friends will hopefully encourage your child to try stuff which is provided by school.

If school will not allow sandwiches on set days then I'd take it up with school, as its not helpful to parents and kids.

And I'd probably say to my child - I'll allow sandwiches for summer term but hot meals how!

Sorry if this has been mentioned, not read all posts.

For those feeding daily tuna sandwiches: Children shouldn't eat more than one tin of tuna per week due to the mercury content. www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/306246.php

We alternate between cheese and jam sandwiches and then add cheese, vegetable sticks/tomatoes and yogurt. Nothing wrong with it when other meals will be varied as PPs have said.

What about mackerel, it's lovely. Although to be honest I would not send a child to school with fish sandwiches, unless they will be refrigerated.

We get through A LOT of Baby Bell in our house!

Sounds fine to me. My children have no choice but to be on school lunches (no packed option at their schools) but, as an adult, I have taken exactly the same lunch to work for the past 10 years. I also eat the same 2 or 3 almost identical dinners almost every day. I really don't care. As long as it's healthy and balanced, I can't see why it would matter.

Seriously, three pages in and I'm the only person that read the thread title and visualised a kid between two giant slices of bread?

Yep, me too!

I'm not sure either, Goldmonday

Made me laff though

Can't believe someone sends their kid in with sausage, mash and gravy in a flask, brilliant

I think a lot of children like the relative predictability of their packed lunch tbh, especially in primary. I mean it will always be the type of bread/cheese/whatever that they like and are used to, no risk of an unpleasant surprise or having to choose between two or three not very appetizing (to them) options.

There's nothing wrong with a bread based lunch every day, children do need carbs and bread isn't the evil some people seem to imagine. A sandwich with a piece of fruit and whatever veg sticks he'll eat is perfectly fine as part of a balanced diet.

I ate the same two types of sandwich for lunch from age 12-16 every single day, my choice. My mother woukld make anything I wanted, I just liked two kinds. And I am still eating those two types of sandwiches, but I do also eat other fillings as well now. I love sandwiches.

cochineal7 "It’s 5 meals out of 21 a week. If you at it like that, it really could be the same 5 sandwiches."

The OP may not mind at all.

But if he has the same 7 cold cereal or bread breakfasts (like my son does) that means over half the meals a week are mostly cold bread/cereal etc.

It's certainly not the end of the world but my son is very restricted in his diet (fussy) and I like the fact my son is introduced to new foods at school as well as at home.

???? I am old so this is not reflective of today’s youth but when I was at school EVERY single child took a vegemite sandwich for lunch every day (I am in Aust). Unfortunately not a multicultural place back then. We all grew up fine.

One of my teens takes a vegemite and cheese sandwich every day. Every day. I do make sure we have decent bread though. They have a very varied diet for dinner each night and on weekends make themselves lovely salad combinations for lunch. I think it’s really odd and would hate it myself (although it would have been gourmet in my day, we just all had plain vegemite on cheap white bread) but they claim it’s just super easy to make as a sandwich in the morning and they are happy with it.

Weirdly my husband also makes himself a vegemite sandwich each day to take off. The thought blows my mind. After having them every day for lunch as a child who the hell would want to still have it for lunch 50 years later? Not me. Point being, simple sandwich for lunch has never hurt anyone.

1 tin of tuna when mixed with mayo will do a few sandwiches so you could have it 2 or 3 times a week and still eat less than a tin.

Mine have the same lunch every day. So do I!

He's nine though, he can make his own packed lunch.

Mine have the same lunch every day. So do I!

He's nine though, he can make his own packed lunch.

My dd will only eat 2 things on sandwiches and usually has the same thing every day. Either tuna and sweetcorn with mayo, or salad, which is lettuce, tomatoes, peppers and cucumber. She will either have it in a wholemeal wrap, or brown seeded type bread. With that she will have an apple juice, fruit, sliced peppers and toms and a flapjack.

When she was on lunch, she had jacket potato and beans every single day, which made teas difficult as I tried not to include potatoes in the evening meal and jackets are a very handy tea.

Teach him to make his own ☺️. He gets his way, and learns life skills at the same time.

We stopped school dinner because DS2 was picking jacket potato everyday and I was paying 2.25 for them! Would much rather he took packed lunch even if it’s a ham sandwich with a piece of fruit, some cheese and a cracker every single day.