Kids lunchboxes and sugar

[HalloHello]

I've just had a phone call from nursery to say these kiddilicious fruit drops link aren't suitable as they have 10g of sugar in! Same as a freddo. I am absolutely horrified. Fair enough I should have checked the label but just assumed as they're made by a baby food brand that they wouldn't be the child's entire allowance of sugar in 1 snack!? Am I being unreasonable??

What do you put in your kid's lunch box?
My nearly 4 year old gets a sandwich of some sort, a couple of bits of ham, a baby Bel or cheese string, carrot/cucumber/pepper or tomatoes, some kind of fresh fruit, a yoghurt pouch and usually one of these dried fruit snacks but won't be buying them again 🙈

2 Marmite sandwiches, chopped apple, raspberries, chunk of cheese and a biscuit or 2

Sugar in whole fruit is processed differently in your body. So the sugar in a banana isn't like the sugar in a sweet.

I mean kids should be eating all of it IMO. Their teeth will be fine unless their drinking sugary drinks and eating sweets every day, brushed, and dentist visits. Otherwise lost foods have good and bad things about them. But mini cheddars are not intrinsically better than more sugary foods. If it's a battle between processed carbs and processed sugar i am not sure who would win health wise. Same insulin spikes, same teeth damage.

I'm daily shocked at the amount 2-4 year olds bring in their packed lunches (and how much is chucked!). The healthiest kids have a sandwich, piece of fruit or 2, half a packet of crisps or cheddars. Or savory rice, houmous and bread sticks, cucumber, yoghurt. Or toasted sandwich, apple, raisins, single wrapped biscuit like digestive.

Many lunches are FULL of processed crap. I mean like nearly all, if not all, of the lunch. 3 year olds eating processed cheese, crisps, very sweet yoghurt (eg. Frubes), sandwich on white bread, chocolate biscuit, whole bag of mini biscuits.... And 2 bites out if the apple they've been given, none of the tomatoes. Well what a surprise... Not eating the fruit and veg when there's a ton of 'nicer' stuff full of addictive additives.

I thought everyone knew those dried/fruit sweetened kids snacks were full of sugar. It's just concentrated from fruit juice but it's still sugar. Ella's kitchen oat bars are another that are basically a full sugar flapjack marketed to kids.

In my child's preschool lunch

• ham sandwich
• box of salad (assorted carrot/cucumber/red pepper/beetroot/cherry tomatoes
• piece of fruit
• yoghurt

Nuts aren't allowed or I would provide some as my children love nuts.

Bottle of water.

Ds is younger. But if he needs packed lunch. Usually stick to:

Sandwich ( cheese)
Pot of cut veg - ie cucumber, yellow pepper.
Pot of fruit - whatever we have, chopped or peeled ready.
Pot of mixed ‘snacks’ - ie few mini pretzels/ bread sticks/ biscuit/ cracker

I leave yogurt for at home. It make a mess, and I think they don’t need it twice a day

@Indecisivemumof3
Yes thanks! Reading this thread has made me realise I’m putting to much in! I’ve never expected it to all be eaten but thought giving ‘choice’ might get them to eat something. But it might be having the opposite effect as you say…

Also genuinely worried the teachers are judging me for it now 🙈

Try making up a lunchbox for a child who is dairy and gluten free and hates fruit!

My two are older now, but they bring a ham/Chicken/Cheese wrap/sandwich/roll. Or tuna mayo/chicken mayo/red pesto chicken pasta, or the same protein with salad (I always over cater for pasta, so it's good to use up next day in lunches). Sometimes I do pizza and salad instead.

Then for their snacks they always get 2 bits of fruit, or 1 fruit and 1 veg. Sometimes a cereal bar, or a biscuit, or a piece of cheese. One of them will take a yoghurt if we have them, the other won't. They don't have all of the above at the same time. I find if they have a decent sized "main" there's no need for a lot of little snack bits. And they choose one snack from their lunchbox for their morning break.

Has anyone recognised sweeteners as a dose of shit? Since excluding sweeteners from my diet and banning them from crossing my threshold, I've had hardly any headaches. They're in too many things and are bloody poisonous. Tell 'em that

My 5 year old has a sandwich and a yoghurt tube, A bottle of water and a handful of grapes/a sliced kiwi/ cucumber disks.. She'll only occasionally finish it all. Normally she'll have the sandwich and either the yoghurt or the fruit, never both.