Are these school lunchbox rules particularly nonsensical? Or are they all this bad?!

[Nevertimeforcake]

So according to my (primary) schools ‘healthy’ lunchbox rules I can give my child a kitkat (biscuit based chocolate bar) but I can’t give them a small chocolate coin or some cubes of chocolate as these are solid chocolate. It seems to make no sense to me - indeed the whole policy seems to be a box ticking exercise so they can be considered a ‘healthy school’ by County. Does anyone know of guidelines/ rules that make more sense? I’d like to make a suggestion on improvements rather than just complaining!

It looks quite reasonable to me. I doubt they are checking whether you do actually put in a kit Kat or Mr Kipling every day either, or if you have a portion of fruit and veg.

My Dd takes 2 portions of fruit and then has carrot and cucumber with peanut butter when she gets home (much prefers her veg sticks with peanut butter, nuts not allowed in school). I would be a bit irritated if school made me send the veg in for lunch instead, but I can't imagine any schools actually would.

Our school has a rule about biscuit bars vs chocolate bars too - but it wouldn't stop me from putting something small like a chocolate coin or single square of chocolate in there, (as those aren't bars either). I wouldn't put a whole bar of chocolate in regardless of the rules.

Ours doesn't say anything about doughnuts. I don't really see any difference between a doughnut or a slice of cake, but maybe it's the size.

How is it remotely sensible?! The KitKat has more chocolate on than in a chocolate coin, and is the inside of the KitKat supposed to be somehow healthy?

health 'rules' are made for people with the lowest IQ/ common sense.

Absolutely. When I was at school there was still monitoring of lunch boxes, no 'formal' rules but dinner ladies would take food they deemed unhealthy off us, like if someone had a share bag of crisps or whatever- chocolate was banned too aside from things like club bars.

And what about fussy children? These kind of lists seem so rigid

@baubled

Ours is a pretty straight 0 tolerance on anything deemed to be a treat, no chocolate/crisps/sweets/cakes whatsoever. I know it's better for the kids and I wouldn't be giving that 99 times out of 100 anyway but it does slightly bug me that the school decide what can and can't go in a packed lunch.

see, I would have no problem at all with that. it's consistent and it makes sense.

It's the ridiculous option where parent must check the list carefully but it makes no sense that bothers me.

And if the school diner were healthy, that wouldn't hurt either.

I’d love to see my kids’ faces if I tried to put lentils, kidney beans, quorn or chickpeas in their lunchboxes

What is the demographic of the school OP, out of interest? I'd assume a school would only send a list like this if they need to. I have also worked in a lot of different schools and have seen some awful lunches like a precious pp, cold McDonald's, everything in there chocolate etc. At my kids school the PP is only 5% and there are zero school lunch rules, but I'd assume the only bad lunches are those with food aversions, not because the parents don't know better. Unfortunately in some schools some parents really do need the rules. It's unfortunate that is affects those children with severe food aversions but I'm sure schools can make allowances in those circumstances.

@Thepilotlightsgoneout

I’d love to see my kids’ faces if I tried to put lentils, kidney beans, quorn or chickpeas in their lunchboxes

I don't know why you seem rather pleased at this fact... It's very sad.

@lazylinguist they are all aorund 100kcal treats. Its basic portion control. Its really not that ridiculous

Yes maybe one chocolate coin has less chocolate than a kitkat, but they are hardly going to put an exception for one chocolate coin. I reckon 2 chocolate coins is equal to 1 kitkat, and realistically if you allow an exception for one chocolate coin its going to end up more than one.

Primary schools can be pretty anal about things like this. Ours was and often did try to police it. Pissed me off no end, especially when one dinner lady complained that the frube I had given to my daughter was frozen and would give her "chilly tummy", whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean! Their own school dinner menu wasn't that great either though.

Secondary schools had healthy school policies but never bothered policing it. Much less in-your-face, and I preferred it that way.

I am no fan of the lunchbox police in any form.

I fucking hate this sort of approach. Labelling food as treats just makes them sound special, therefore more appealing and goes against all modern advice.

All foods are OK in moderation / balance IMO and it should be a matter for the parents/ guardians to determine what is suitable for their children. DS came home one day insisting pizza was unhealthy - I said not necessarily - depends what's on it and how often you eat it.

From your list you can have extremely sugar heavy so called green foods (i.e. toffee yoghurts) but not two chunks of dark chocolate. Nonsense. And a lot of these so called healthy lunches guidelines take fuck all account of children with allergies or intolerances e.g. dairy

Yabu.

It really irritates me when people are irritated by these rules.

Some parents give their food shite. Everyone surely knows this? Anyone who has worked in a school can tell you that the shite is exactly what's written in the red column. So, the rules aren't for you, they're obviously there so that these parents aren't singled out. It's fucking obvious. Just stick to the rules, it's not difficult.

@Thepilotlightsgoneout

I’d love to see my kids’ faces if I tried to put lentils, kidney beans, quorn or chickpeas in their lunchboxes

When mine were primary school age they would have brought those back untouched.

When I was at primary school back in the early seventies most of us would never have heard of those things.

I can't understand the outrage at being told not to put full size chocolate bars in your child's lunchbox 🤷🏻‍♀️
A chocolate coin?? Why is this so important to you?

My sons school have never sent home a letter like this, it’s known that there’s a no nuts, no chocolate or sweets policy.
My daughter is in her 20’s but when she was at primary anything went including fruit shoots, she had a particularly kind teacher in her last year who handed out mini bags of haribo on Friday afternoons.

@Tararararara surely not allowing packed lunches takes the control away from the parents even more than giving a list of acceptable foods to choose from, no?

Write to the head saying the lunch rules are incompatible with your religious beliefs.

The trouble with saying a chocolate coin is only about 100cals, similar to a biscuit so should be allowed (which I do agree with in theory) is that you really can't say 'treats of up to 100cal' are allowed as some people honestly don't know what that means or how to find out, and if people don't understand the rules they'll just ignore them totally, plus you really really don't want teachers calorie counting the contents of each and every lunchbox.

I do agree it feels harsh that the coin was sent home and the trouble with these 'blunt instrument' rules is that they tend to only be paid attention to by the 'anxious middle' who are largely already doing the right thing, the people who for reasons of inability to obtain/prepare suitable food or sheer fecklessness or somewhere in between are sending their kids in with chocolate for lunch are unlikely to pay much attention - but at least the school feels its doing something I guess!

@Chickenitalia

Oh cross posted, if you’re involved with the PTA be very careful over selection boxes. Most of the big names can’t guarantee nut free. Nice easy way to shut that nonsense down. Bung ‘em all a mini bag of haribo and walk away 😁

Haribo isn’t veggie / vegan / halal. Not that simple....

@sabrinaq

I worked in public health for a while and a senior public health person told me that health 'rules' are made for people with the lowest IQ/ common sense. Hence no drinking at all in pregnancy rule. Also a midwife told me some horror stories about people blending up MacDonalds meals for weaning. So I think / just go with it.

Blended McDonald's 😱🤮

There are quite a few studies out there suggesting that dairy is actually really bad for you, plus it won't fit in with anyone who's vegan or lactose-intolererant (which is more people than you'd think!), so I don't personally think this should be listed as a must-have. Nuts are also super healthy as long as you don't go mad and eat a ton of them, but I guess they're a no-go in case of potential allergies in the class so that seems fair enough.

I do think it's strange that chocolate isn't allowed when biscuit-based chocolate bars are, is this based on sugar content or something? What about a couple of squares of dark chocolate included with the fruit, would that be okay? (Dark chocolate is actually pretty good for you in moderation, I think it contains iron and magnesium and a load of other micronutrients as well.)
I'd also love to know what is so special about Kipling cakes in particular?

I'm not against the idea of having guidelines though after hearing what some people will send their kids to school with. Personally, I remember my parents normally giving me a white bread sandwich (ham, cheese or honey/jam, no salad), crisps, chocolate bar, and very rarely any fruit or veggies - so I think having some better guidelines back then would have been a good idea too.

It seems a much more reasonable list than some I've seen. You're always going to be able to pick holes and find things that don't make sense (choc coin v kitkat). It's obvious that they're trying to say that some less healthy things are allowed but please don't send your child in with a cold big mac and family bar of dairy milk.

Schools have these lists because some parents send in completely inappropriate lunches. I'm not sure what you want them to do.

YABU op. My dd had lunches in primary, which followed this rule. The school gave zero guidelines out and she was not happy that lots of other kids got chocolate bars daily etc. I stuck to my guns though. From what dd told me, she was in the minority to get veg and fruit every day.

@northbacchus

And what about fussy children? These kind of lists seem so rigid

This is always my point with these lunchbox rules. DS has taken packed lunches every day from Reception to Y11 because he has ARFID due to his autism and wouldn't eat school dinner. This would just have led to him leaving half his packed lunch every day.

I'm in my early 30s and my mum recently joked that she's so glad these rules weren't enforced when I was in primary school, considering she sent me and my brother in every day with a cheese spread sandwich (white bread) crisps and a chocolate biscuit. We ate loads of different / healthy stuff at home, but packed lunches were just whatever was convenient (and cheap, probably) and don't remember any other kids having much that was different to be honest. I'm hoping when my ds goes to school we can just get him to have school dinners so I don't have to worry about The Rules!