To think the school has a point about packed lunches

[Rebeccaslicker]

I'm not sure about banning parents from the premises, but is it a bad thing to say no chocolate, sugary drinks etc in a primary school lunch?? (My DD is only 2, so I haven't had the lunchbox decisions yet, v interested in people's views!)

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/now-mum-48-banned-school-1108690.amp

Instead of questioning the sanity of school dinners, why not check the menu? I’d be really surprised if a school dinner consisted of three portions of carbohydrate and nothing else, but you’ll only find out by checking.

Thankfully ours can take their own water bottle in now Miow otherwise DD would probably be the same!

Does anyone know why schools/caterers spend all this time on making sugarless cakes/fatless chips/saltless pizza etc and then dictating to lunchbox parents? Why instead don’t they lead by example and make real unmodified healthy food that would inspire parents to mimic in lunchboxes and that wouldn’t confuse children over what is ‘healthy’

I would have no issue with squash if it wasn't sticky when spilled. As it is, I don't like it in my classroom.

On healthy lunches: I think a general guideline is good but some schools really go too far. I think planning a lunch menu for a school must be difficult, as while there's a great argument for introducing new foods, some children just won't eat new things. So many schools play it safe with Bolognese etc to make sure the children eat something.

Class birthday treats have been more of a problem than packed lunches ime. I think most parents want to send a nutritious lunch, but come birthdays some people think it's ok to send an entire cake and expect the teacher to cut it up.

The multipack of Haribo is the go to for birthday treats at ours

I also couldn't drink water as a child - it tasted too strongly of an odd sort of muddy taste. I'm okay with it now, but it's not my preference (though I have my squash very very weak and dilute down any fruit juice I still have). Like some other people I don't find it very refreshing and I wonder why on earth that is, because I can't see any logical reason for it.

Why don’t you write to some school catering companies and suggest that, veterinari?

No point contacting the school unless they design the menu themselves, which most don’t these days.

South i don't know the science to it but it was suggested to me that it was to do with the lack of sugar. Something to do with the way the body absorbs it? Haven't ever looked into it properly tho

Packed lunches shouldn't be banned.

I've one with Autism who wont eat school dinners, he has the same thing daily and we have special permission to not abide by the schools healthy eating policy.

My DD used to have school dinners, but they were giving her diarrhoea because I don't use oils to cook in other than a smidge of extra virgin olive oil and I don't season either, its very 'clean' of additives..etc (Again a thing because of DS's special needs) and the school food was just too rich for her... so she now eats packed lunch.

Where was it suggested that packed lunches should be banned? Was it in the original article?

The school & head are not well thought of & apparently several Parents have moved their children. I've heard the school serve Ribena with the school lunches. They are advocating change for life rules for packed lunches. Proper nutritionaists hate change for life as it advocates low fat & artificial sweeteners for growing children.

I brought both of my children up on healthy, home cooked food from toddlers. I rarely used processed except the odd fishfinger. Ds who was small to start off with became severely underweight & under-developed. His junior school had similar rules, he used to just not eat which impacted on his behaviour & concentration. My neice at her school began to get multiple water infections as she would not drink water.

Now he's at high school what I send Ds with would horrify many but it's all carefully thought out such as high protein chocolate milk, lentil crisps & buttered bread rolls totty & keep his protein intake up. He eats lots of veg but not in a packed lunch.

What peoppe need to see is that schools go down the route of precise rules because common sense approaches haven't worked.

E.g. Uniform says plain black trousers for girls. Leggings, fashion trousers and clingy trousers are not allowed.
Most parents follow it. Some decide it's my child and thry'll wear what they like. So school decide that single supplier removes the discussions and debates over whether something is technically clingy.

Same for lunches.
Most parents will understand that juice is not water nor flavoured water. But some will decide vimto is ok. Say juice is allowed soke will send their 11 year old in with cans of monster energy drink (and then is an arsehole to staff when we confiscate it).

Same for ssnacks. some parents get that a 2 fingwr kitkat is fine but others will send a grab bag of minstrals.

fuckit

Why not write to the school and suggest they ban puddings? Got to be worth a try, surely?

Interesting what water tastes like to everyone. I think water tastes sweet most of the time, apart from in some hard water areas but even then I'll drink it.
I hate squash though...especially warmish out of plastic cups.

My DS is only a toddler but making packed lunches sounds such a hassle....School approved + DS likes it + ok not in the fridge + not the same everyday. I'm pre-emptively making DH in charge of any future packed lunches.

Or am I being naive PFB mother of a toddler??!

Just a little. It is a bit pointless anyway, kids eat 17% of their meals at school, and only primary schools get to be picky. Many nurseries feed whatever they like, as do after school clubs and secondaries and of course people at home. Infants get free meals, so it applies to very few. Once at secondary, school canteens make a roaring trade in chips and pizza slices. So all this hoohaah for Y3-6 kids for 17% of their meals?

I don't understand how you let them get to the stage of not drinking water?

No idea, but it isn't my (or your) business. Nor is it the business of school teachers in my opinion.

I agree with a ban providing it is consistent and informed well in advance.

Hmmm. I'm not sure it's nobody else's business when the stats for overweight and even obese children in Britain are so bad. There were reports in the press last week that future generations could have decades taken off their lives There comes a point when it is a social problem, surely?

If every parent were making smart food choices, there would be far fewer overweight children.

Very interesting how people see water! I drink loads of it, but it has to be icy cold and preferably Evian. Room temperature water makes me want to heave (think it reminds me of saliva!).

At 18 months old ds1s favourite meal was chicken livers, swede mash and onion gravy. DS2s was pork and butterbean stew and rice. Now they eat fuck all. DS1 eats dry bread on the days i send him with no pack lunch and the teachers say to me they don't understand my problem as 'he eats really well'. What they are doing is confusing well with lots . It's true ds1 is the tallest in his year and has a massive appetite, but eating 6 pieces of dry bread and nothing else all day is not eating well. They are trying to encourage me to make him have school dinners instead of being the only one with packed lunch. But i'd rather he ate a hot dog sandwich/cold greys sausage roll and hula hoops and an oat bar than just dry bread.

DD is now 15 months and her favourite dinners are macaroni cheese with spinach, cauli and broccoli and salmon and pea risotto. I'm putting money on her refusing any decent food by the time she's 3 - just like her brothers did. I was so fucking smug till ds1 hit 2.

I work in a school and the cake barely resembles a cake. It has no sugar in it and literally every variation of cake tastes exactly the same. Stodgy and not at all like the lovely slabs of cake and custard you are imagining.

I'm not sure it's nobody else's business when the stats for overweight and even obese children in Britain are so bad.

It still isn't anybody else's business unless you want to introduce the restrictions for all, not randomly pick 8-11 year olds. As I said 17% of the annual meals for 5% of a person's lifetime isn't going to make anybody slim or fat.

DD2 goes to school with a healthy packed lunch every day (school can't cope with her multiple allergies so hot lunch not an option). Every day when it comes back the 2 tiny cookies are missing from it - nothing else. She goes all day on 2 mini cookies. We are stuffed if her school bans sugary items!

It's weird to me that if a child were being starved, everyone would agree something should be done. So it would be seen as other people's business.

But if a child is being fed crap, which will potentially set him/her up for a lifetime of ill health, that's apparently nobody else's business.

I don't know what it's going to take, but the enormous climbs in obesity all over the world are horrifying. I know I've only sorted myself out in recent times because of gestational diabetes and the very real threat of being permanently type 2 in my not too distant future - plus wanting my DD to be healthy because now she's at an increased risk too - that's what it took for me to wake up. Nobody wants that shit, trust me. It horrifies me that even young children are now being diagnosed with it because of poor diet and lack of exercise.

Me too MrsKoala. All lovingly prepared from scratch, lentils, spinach, chickpeas, there was nothing in our lovely organic veg box my two wouldn't eat. In our case it all went to rat shit once they started Reception. They will still eat vegetables, but not the same vegetables, so cooking for them is a pain in the arse. Id ds2 had his way (which he doesn't) he would subsist on Lucozade, Monster Munch and KFC. DS1 wouls happily live on olives, black coffee and Ferrero Rocher. Don't get me started on the ordure they serve up in the Sodexo canteen at school. I do packed lunches about 2/3 of the time and I have to compromise on what's in them, or my kids will just borrow money off their friends for waffles and pizza. I do variations on home-made pasties, hummus/cheese wraps, tuna mayo baguettes, pots of olives/feta for ds1, Peperamis for ds2, individual cheddar portions, crisps, flapjacks, always a piece of fruit or a few cherry tomatoes, mini cookies or cake bars, little bags of nuts for ds1, fizzy water or flavoured water for ds1 and Capri-Sun or Yazoo for ds2. It's not perfect but they'll eat it and it's better than the canteen. Meals at home are better. It's also tricky because ds1 is skin and bones and ds2 is well-covered (not fat) and will squawk if there's more calorific goodies in ds2's lunch than his. Sigh.

The school in the article is in stoke, which is one of the worst places in the UK for childhood obesity - 1 in 4 kids there is obese.

www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/what-really-blame-childhood-obesity-666133.amp