Packed lunch police

[penneforyourthoughts]

DD’s school has changed their packed lunch policy and no longer allows them to have juice cartons of any description.

I know that there are bigger problems in the world but it’s made me pretty cross. DD is quite food avoidant and I do my best to pack a sensible lunch for her but I like the fact that I can give her fruit juice (flavour, texture and one of her five a day, I think).

I don’t want to make a fuss because it’s a great school but AIBU to raise it with them?

I’ve always only allowed juice with meals then water the rest of the time. My dc also have crisps or cake some days (not both). I got told off for home made quiche due to egg allergies (yet omelette was on the lunch options). My dc are all well below average weights and dd1 officially underweight so I am now totally chilled and focus of balanced diet rather than restrictive. At one point dd1 was having Nutella sandwiches. She was so underweight it was worrying. She’s now 5’3” and size 4. Her waist is what a 7yo should be. Much of this is her build and she rarely snacks. These school rules focus on obesity and ignore other eating issues. Is hate it!

one of her five a day, I think

You're kidding me? It's just sugar.

Surely she can drink water and you can give her an apple when she gets home?

Do what you want - you will anyway.

@NellieBertram

Lots of schools are water only.

Dental health is now a big issue for Ofsted.

I wouldn't get into a battle with the school over juice - just give it to her as a snack after school.

It’s actually better to have juice with a meal in terms of dental health. A snack of fruit juice isn’t a great idea.

My children are both older and nearly out of school (U6) but when they were in primary and secondary all the children had school meals at school, just interested to know when all these packed lunches became so popular? I could never have got 2 boys ready for school, myself to work, leave the house in a reasonable condition AND make 2 packed lunches!! Plus, I costed it once and it was far more expensive to make packed lunches than let them have the school meal. We all had school meals as kids but ADHD and allergies didn't really exist then....is it not easier to just make them eat what is put in front of them?

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy
Certainly is one of your five a day, this is Sainsbury’s apple juice from my fridge…

I use black water bottles and put In apple squash, it's clear.
No teacher goes near them due to covid (they used to sniff them years ago!)
It's all mindless rubbish while the teachers have cups of tea and the dinner ladies serve up sponge and custard.
They get money from the government for buying into a sugar free existence (which only seems to apply to drinks!)
Mine are 7 and 10 now and old enough to say nothing.
We had lots of years of eldest being constipated and me arguing with the school. Then we used to take juice for lunch and water for the classroom and loose hundreds of water bottles
Now its clear apple squash, black bottles easy life!

I'm having this issue with my son, he refuses to drink water at school and goes a whole day without a drink because they will not back down on the no juice rule but still no success getting him to drink. He is autistic and I think it's something to do with that, he will drink water at home which is the strange part. Annoying how stringent they are about it especially when it puts a child's health at risk making them go 6 1/2 hours without anything. Hoping the pediatrician will provide a letter to say to the school to allow juice at school which is pathetic we have to waste the pediatricians time that way.

is it not easier to just make them eat what is put in front of them?

Nope. Not if you have a food refuser. If a teacher or a dinner lady supposed to force-feed your kid?

@felizdia

My children are both older and nearly out of school (U6) but when they were in primary and secondary all the children had school meals at school, just interested to know when all these packed lunches became so popular? I could never have got 2 boys ready for school, myself to work, leave the house in a reasonable condition AND make 2 packed lunches!! Plus, I costed it once and it was far more expensive to make packed lunches than let them have the school meal. We all had school meals as kids but ADHD and allergies didn't really exist then....is it not easier to just make them eat what is put in front of them?

For me, it’s because the school dinners are £2.85 per day (primary) and they are crap.

A hot meal which is either a tiny, over cooked jacket potato with minuscule amounts of topping, or some kind of fish finger or sausage with drab veg. Possibly a curry thrown in now and again.

Cold option is a grab bag which is a choice of sandwich (jam, cheese or ham) with a small yogurt and a piece of fruit.

That’s almost £15 a week.

I can provide far better quality packed lunches for dd for less than that so I do.

(Me or dh, whoever is cooking, do it the night before while cooking dinner and put it in the fridge).

Water is fine, juice, squash and fizzy drinks just at weekends/when out. We've never had squash or fizzy drinks at home, they just drink water, not an issue. Also always done school dinners, never pandered to packed lunches despite pleas. All the kids I know with packed lunches are "fussy" around their parents, but less do around other adults. My niece is s nightmare with food around my sister, raises the anxiety right up by refusing food. However at ours she eats what's put in front of her. Yes I get ASD/Sen/ sensory issues but water and school dinners are fine for a lot of children.

This is the most absurd rule I have read about school packed lunches on MN for months.

The school is talking absolute bollocks if they think that fruit juice is bad for children. Christ Almighty, what fuckwits. Fruit juice is sometimes the only way to get anything resembling vitamins and minerals into kids with food issues. It counts as one of your 5-a-day. Or 7 or 10 or whatever floats your boat.

the school dinners are £2.85 per day (primary) and they are crap

Agreed.

I bet they will be banning meat soon 🙄

Juice is not one of her five a day..it’s just not.

My kids have sensory issues, one is particular about reusable bottles. He’s no Greta Thunberg!! Packed lunches are enough of a challenge without saying they can’t drink juice. Mine hate fizzy drinks anyway but no-added-sugar juice cartons or Tropicana orange they do like. School meals are rubbish and don’t meet the school’s own policies of “no baked goods for break time” - cake, custard, shortbread fingers etc are regularly served. Weekly “buffet” of cocktail sausages (suspect pork scraps and wood shavings 😝), pizza and chicken nuggets and hotdogs with chips, etc other days. I pack wholemeal wraps with chicken, a fun size orange and melon cubes as a typical menu, along with no added sugar Ribena type drinks. I’d challenge any teacher who dared criticise.

My lunch everyday at secondary school was a bag of doritos and a can of fizzy bought from the shop on the way there.

Mine was 10 Regal King Size and a sausage roll (I had £1 to spend).

It doesn't mean that I brought my kids up with unhealthy meals.

@ChocolateDeficitDisorder

My lunch everyday at secondary school was a bag of doritos and a can of fizzy bought from the shop on the way there.

Mine was 10 Regal King Size and a sausage roll (I had £1 to spend).

It doesn't mean that I brought my kids up with unhealthy meals.

I don’t either, far from it. I was just telling another poster how my experience was the same as hers.

Is it about reducing plastic? Schools don’t get recycling collections like you do at home. My school only recycles paper as we don’t have the budget to pay for plastic collection.

It’s ridiculous. Sugary cakes and flapjacks and sandwiches soaked in thick layers of butter and salty processed meat are fine… but 100% fruit juice isn’t…

Speaking as a lunch time supervisor I don’t have time to police lunch boxes, we are all too busy. However can I please request that you don’t send capri suns. Getting the paper straw in is near impossible even for us.

@AnkleDeep

Make a fuss. They are there to educate her not police your choices of food.

This.

@NeedAHoliday2021 She was so underweight it was worrying. She’s now 5’3” and size 4. Her waist is what a 7yo should be. Much of this is her build and she rarely snacks.

She needs to see a doctor. She’s either not eating enough calories (2000 a day) or she has an underlying health condition. It’s not healthy to be 5’3” and have the waist of a 7yo. If she ate 2000 calories a day then I doubt she would be that thin.

@Derbee

I am left wondering if some contributors here have had children!

Or ever met a dentist?

Yes. This.

@penneforyourthoughts my dentist told me recently that fruit juice is just sugar and acid that just rots teeth. I wish I had never had any fruit juice. Much better to have the piece of whole fruit washed down with plain water than swigging fruit juice.

It also triggers an insulin response far quicker than chocolate.
Some diabetics take fruit juice instead of a sugary snack during a hypo. A piece of whole fruit with the pulp, skin and fibre slows that down.

Just water for lunches.

The policy is needed as there are hundreds of deluded posters here who think fruit juice is a healthy choice for kids. It’s just not.