Kids loosing weight in lockdown - no school lunches

[Assgone]

With all the lockdowns and other exercise related commitments people have had to stop (swimming lessons etc) I am surprised to see that my DD is looking a little trimmer round the waist line (if only I could say the same for me!). She isn’t being underfed or anything like that but it does make me wonder if when at school with the free school meals she was over eating? She was a big baby and a chunky toddler as she wasn’t quite as active due to underlying health conditions and so is probably slightly clinically overweight compared to her peers. She has always been a really good eater and at home we do try not over feed and so it does make me question why she actually eats and portion sizes at school lunch times. She isn't sat round all day but she isn't running daily marathons either, just normal playing round the house in the garden and 1 normal daily dog walk.

AIBU to think she is over fed at school?

One of mine is trimmer - for us it’s not the lunch it’s the before and after school clubs where they serve plentiful stodge that is the issue for me. In our usual day you have breakfast, lunch and tea. It’s a hobbit feast with the school club with breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, pre tea, tea...

Can I just remind you all that whilst it's important to keep healthy, it ISN'T healthy to be watching your young children's weight like hawks

This can lead to lifelong self-esteem problems if this is kept up. Try not to reduce your children's worth to a few pounds of weight. x

School lunch portions are usually puny. That's based on my experience of being educated, a decade in teaching (including supply) and the voracious appetites that my DCs have when they come out of school. That's quite a lot of school dinners experienced

5 year olds should be lean and ribby. They naturally stretch out and lose the chubby toddler look around the age of starting school. Looking at DS1's class photo from when they were 5, the ones with the softer toddler look then are the ones that halfway through junior school are clearly showing excess fat building up in places like their hips, tummies, and in the boys where puberty isn't a factor, developing boobs.

Mine are eating a bigger lunch, but not having the mid-afternoon tea due to activities. They are missing out on activities like parkruns, daily mile, matial arts and swimming lessons, but not going out in the evening means that they don't need the boost before an activity and dinner time. All the little extras like sweets for X's birthday have stopped which added up surprisingly often.

Keeping them fed all the time and losing all my walking around to and from school/ activities umpteen times a week is not so good for me though!

Do you all not choose your child's meals for them? We use a website called school meals online

Linlinds my children are at a small school, there is only one option.

other than no trips to Grandparents

Please don't ask for school meals to have fewer calories. For many children, that is the only nutrition they have all day.

If you have realised that what you're feeding your child combined with the FSM is causing weight issues, then reduce her dinner portions.

@Assgone I know I was fuming. They have a choice of cooked, cereal, fruit, toast or some off everything. He's only 9 so goes a bit mad when given free reign. I dread to think how much he's been eating since going there. I've been cutting him back because of how much weight he was putting on and couldn't work out why it wasn't helping until she said that.

Yanbu op my Dc is the same. At school they go to breakfast club (where it’s waffles, pancakes, chocolate cereal etc), then (as it’s a low income area) school gives them a breakfast type snack at 9 like toast, bagels, crumpets etc. Then is fruit for snack time then lunch where they get little guidance on what to pick. Sometimes both dc will choose a lunch solely consisting of carbs with no veg or protein. And then the school send us snotty letters about healthy eating

@BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz DD does also have Semi Skimmed, and she loves milk and will still drink it towards bed time so she is fine with what she has as it suits her.

The school dinners at my younger child's school are small and when my older child was there it wasn't enough so he always had packed lunch. My 12 year old has eaten a lot less junk since being at school because he has free rein over his dinner money and will eat up to two cakes a day and slices of pizza at school every day. My children are slender anyway but I'd say they are eating better/healthier by not being at school.

It’s more likely that normally you don’t walk /exercise with her.

amijustparanoidorjuststoned

I agree. Healthy eating and keeping active are both important but sometimes people seem to think that the recommendations for an adult on a diet also apply to children, they are really very different.

And don't give children anything which is a low fat version of a food (or skimmed milk) give them a suitable portion of the full fat version.

DS is putting on weight. Not much, he’s always been so skinny I can’t get trousers long and narrow enough, but a bit.
He’s doing exercise but he eats the lunches I give him, he doesn’t eat school food 😂

@LittlePesto our primary school definitely does have daily pudding and custard. We are sent the menus.

Obviously some suppliers will be healthier than others. But it absolutely is a thing.

My other children’s nursery is the same.

@Seriouslyconfused3 I think ours may be similar as there is a lot of options at school, a couple of hot meal choices on rotation, Jackets and various other things, sandwiches can be pre-ordered and there is always a proper pudding of some form.

It seems it really does depend on what your local council is as to what the school offer for lunch.

My 3 & 7 year olds have definitely lost weight. It's so strange because they have been constant snacking on the stuff we've baked, and the long, long walks to school and back (which includes a huge steep hill) have obviously stopped. Swimming lessons stopped. My 7 year old has abs again!

I quit the home cooked healthy meals every day when I flipped over the amount of waste. 90% of their plates were full when they'd finished, and they'd be in tears about eating a bit of broccoli. They just get simple stuff - brown bread eggy bread, pizza with quorn chicken & sweetcorn on, baked potato cheese and beans, quorn sausage and sweet potato mash and tinned peas) None of this is wasted and they have full bellies of food every night. It's not the best diet though, but it's pretty much my diet when I was their age to be honest!

I've gained half a stone. I'll deal with it later.

Definitely @Assgone sometimes ds chooses a sandwich with spaghetti and roasties etc it baffles me. In a way I wish they guided them more or let us choose in advance for them but I know that wouldn’t be the most feasible.

Oh and I forgot most day’s it’s someone’s birthday and there’s cakes and sweets etc

Really, who cares?

@RuffleCrow exactly. Setting kids up for a lifetime of self-esteem problems!

@amijustparanoidorjuststoned

Setting kids up for a lifetime of self-esteem problems!

Not really, surely its quite the opposite to be aware of what your child eats and ask the opinion of other adults. At no point has anyone said they have frank discussions with their children about it, the point of the post was to see if others are in a similar situation.

It would be bizarre not to notice, I notice when their hair grows and feet change size too. The evidence in local high schools does not convince me that we have a problem with noticing a few pounds but rather that as a society we are allowing too many fat children grow into fat teens with all the poor health outcomes that is associated with.

Once kids are old enough to dress themselves surely you only realise that they need the next size up when their clothes don't fit them right anymore?

My youngest is 13 and I swear that every time I look at him his trousers are too short.

Highly unlikely OP.

As a school governor I've eaten many a school dinner in various primary schools and they really are just a light lunch.

She could have had a growth spurt. My DS 5 y.o is a solid DC wears 6-7 clothes he was over 99.9 so off the scale. Sometimes he looks like a skinny lolly after a stretch, his head is massive.