Just got RL flamed for the packed lunch I did for DS

[AClearShotOfTheStreet]

Lovely friend is here. Didn't know how but got on to the packed lunch I did for DS, who is 6, today for a holiday camp.

Apparently it's not enough, no wonder he is skinny and I am starving him (mostly lighthearted but kernel of truth?)

He had porridge for breakfast with a cup of milk, semi skimmed. I have given him an apple for morning snack, a ham and cucumber sandwich on seedy bread for lunch with a yoghurt, and a small bag of hula hoops for afternoon snack. He will have cottage pie with veg for dinner and a tangerine for afters, possibly a bit of Easter egg with a cup of milk just before bed.

This is OK right? Hula hoops are a bit of an anomaly as we are having the kitchen knocked down and It's what I could find. But this IS a reasonable amount of food for a 6 year old? He's very sporty and slim but I don't think I need to feed him any more? He rarely complains of hunger and if he does is directed to fruit bowl or slice of toast with peanut butter etc.

I can’t believe people think that isn’t enough!!! Three meals and three snacks! I am actually shocked right now. Most days my kids (4,7) would eat that minus the snacks.

Absolutely bonkers that people think that’s too little.

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I’m a TA in a Primary school and am constantly amazed at how much food parents pack for their children. All school milk is semi skimmed btw so that’s also fine. Calcium is the same in all types of milk and that’s what children need in their diet.

There was a thread on here a few days ago on a similar subject. Her 8 year old DD had yoghurt and berries for breakfast, Mini Pitta, and 6 Mini Breadsticks with a spoon of Humous and a spoon of Gucamole, her friend commented her lunch wasnt enough to satify her growing needs but she was growing well and I think if the child is active, thriving, growing and isnt complaining of hunger then its fine. :)

NHS recommends 1649kcal for a 7 year old boy.

Apart from the fact that we don't know the portion sizes this child is eating, surely children vary? They're not all going to need exactly 1649 calories a day.

I'm shocked at the people who seem to eat crisps as a part of a daily diet and give them to their kids as if they are 'essential'.

As a family I never bought crisps, we don't eat them, my DCs now fit and healthy adults, don't buy crisps.

There has been research into eating crisps and chips and women who eat a lot are at risk of having babies with small head circumference and being underweight.

Crisps should be a once in a blue moon treat, not a daily addition to lunch boxes.

It is similar to what I would eat in a day, so I imagine for a 6 y o it is fine.

I have a talll for her age very slim 5 year old and that wouldn't be enough for her, she can easily have 2 bowls of cornflakes banana and grapes for breakfast then if she has a sandwich for lunch on brown bread she will have 4 slices with filling with babybell and 3 small yogurts and for dinner she will have a balanced meal and maybe some ice cream for pudding. Even though she has all that she will still ask for snacks in the day and it's not greed she's really slim and I don't know where it all goes but she would be raiding the cupboards if I gave her any less

It is similar to what I would eat in a day, so I imagine for a 6 y o it is fine.

It's similar to what my 14 year old takes to school, he wouldn't eat anymore than that during the day, it would only end up coming home. He's a healthy weight, very fit and active

That would work for my eight year old though I'd chuck in some carrot sticks and maybe a bit of cheese for the afternoon if he was doing a lot of exercise. I don't understand this idea that children need to eat every 10 minutes.

My 6 year old typically eats...

Breakfast - 3 wheatabix or large porridge sachet with fresh berries.

Snack - cereal type bar

Lunch - tuna sandwich on the smaller bread, fromage frais, fresh fruit, cheese, a small treat eg popcorn or a mini hot cross bun/ muffin sometimes carrot and cuecumber.

Snack - chicken, cuecumber, cheese and crackers.

Dinner - proper meal eg shepherds pie etc with fresh veg ( a kids ikea plate full)

Before bed snack - milk and biscuit.

He's diabetic and under a dietician who has worked out how many carbohydrates he should be eating daily (50 breakfast, 60 lunch and 80 dinner with three 19-15g snacks) he's tall for his age and skinny but not too much so.

My 6yo dd doesn't particularly want breakfast, so usually has half a slice of toast, or a small portion of porridge and berries, or when she doesn't want anything a mini wrap with nutella.

She has a piece of fruit mid morning, then for lunch a sandwich, cheese cubes, cherry tomatoes and cucumber.

We eat at 6.30 in the evening so she'll have something mid afternoon - this could be fruit, or yoghurt, or a couple of biscuits or sweets if there are any.

Dinner is a balanced meal, which she doesn't always want much of.

Any other time fruit or yoghurt only.

She'd be hungry on that lunch - but mainly because of the tiny amount of breakfast she has.

I’m noticing these threads are repeatedly showing up.

Don’t take this the wrong way please, but why do you need the validation of mumsnet for the welfare of your child?

Ask him if he has had enough to eat or would he like something else, I don’t know how large his sandwich is, his porridge for breakfast could be in a tiny bowl or a huge bowl so how can I say your giving him plenty or your starving him.

Some children are full after eating one boiled egg, others can eat more than an adult.

So how about you talk to him rather than us?

The 8th centile is not normal at all

Of course it's normal. You don't understand centiles.

This is the nation of obesity so people's ideas are skewed. Keep on keeping on if he's happy with what he's given and is healthy!

I'd have said sandwich, yoghurt and hoola hoops would be lunch and then give an afternoon snack.

My typical lunch as a kid was sandwich, crisps, yoghurt and fruit.

It's also similar to what I would eat in a day and I'm sure many adults. Yes he's a growing child but if he is growing and needing more, he will surely feel hungry and ask for food.

Generally portion sizes for children are far too big, have a Google you'll see what dieticians recommend. All appetites are different though ask him if he's still hungry after lunch, if not then it's perfect. And the whole milk thing, NHS guidance is that if they have a balanced diet semi skimmed is perfectly fine from 2 onwards. I don't understand why people don't know that it's on all the feeding your children literature the HV's hand out.

My dc have packed lunches at school

They are 5 8 and 10

They get a sandwich, fruit and a yogurt

I used to pack more but it was never all eaten and it was just wasteful

My health visitor tried to tell me I needed to serve a pudding with every meal for my then 1 year old (this was only a year ago) and I just laughed and said 'why would I do that?'. She was quite bristly about it like I was trying to starve him or something too.

She said at the very least it should be a 'two part meal', whatever that means.

Crazy.

Sounds fine to me. My (tall, stocky) nearly twelve year old is at an activity that needed a packed lunch today. He's taken a cheese and tomato sandwich, water, and a packet of crisps. He had a bowl of cereal (semi skimmed milk) for breakfast, will probably get a snack at some point later, and then tea at his dad's tonight. If he was in all day he would try to snack more, but when out they're generally more interested in the activity than in eating (and probably even more so at six).

Seems fine to me.
My 6 year old had half a big bagel for breakfast with butter, Philadelphia and blueberries on it, extra blueberries and a glass of milk.
He has milk at morning break.
Lunch is a large size wrap with grated carrot, lettuce, cucumber, peppers, olives and chicken, two gherkins and two big cheddars.
There won't be afternoon snack today as we have dinner early due to clubs.
Dinner is fish pie with broccoli and peas, yogurt and fruit afterwards.
He'll have a biscuit or something at club.

If that's what he'll eat then it's fine. I'm sure he'd tell you if it wasn't enough.

It depends slightly on what the holiday camp is for (football would need more energy than crafts) and how long (10-3 is only really 1 meal, 9-5 would need quite a bit more for my children)

I was the child who survived all day at primary school on a drink and a digestive biscuit as that was all I'd eat at school. If I was given more I didn't eat it.

But all my children would have needed more than that for a holiday club. They'd have come home ratty and launched into food upon getting home. Why don't you put an extra sandwich in? If he eats it, he probably needs it.

My ds would have eaten that for just his lunch at 6!

Then another piece of fruit and something like a mini muffin over the 2 snacks.

He was a really thin kid and always 'starving' .

He's no different now at 13