To just send what he eats to school?

[Millennialpause]

So my son, aged 7, just eats a sandwich and maybe a piece of fruit every day, meaning I’m sending in snacks every day that don’t get touched. Aibu to just send in a sandwich and a piece of fruit? He says he doesn’t have long to eat lunch, so the snacks just come home untouched (and often if it’s a yoghurt or something it needs to go in the bin which seems a shame)

Sandwich and a piece of fruit would be enough for me and my DC for lunch. I'd just send that in, seems silly to waste food just for appearances.

But there's nothing wrong with a sandwich and fruit? If it was just a chocolate bar and a packet of crisps fair enough to raise it but no one in safeguarding would be concerned about a sandwich and a piece of fruit.

It’s fine. Sandwich and fruit is 300-400 calories minimum which is normal lunch for a child or adult. Why are people acting like kids need a 700 calories minimum lunch to get through an afternoon ?

@IggyAce You responded to this comment with much more grace than I could have mustered.

My son often eats the minimum to take the edge off the hunger so that he can get outside with his friends at lunchtime. I just give him whatever is left for a snack when he gets home.

Ha, was he sitting next to my daughter! She did that! I felt dreadful for the poor mum subsidising her greed😂

This! 64 here, we had snack! A bottle of milk with a straw and a choice of a shortbread biscuit or a few crisps. In autumn we could also have an apple or pear off the trees in the school field. My kids always had morning snack at school and afternoon were given a piece of cheese.

An average seven year old uses 1400-1800 calories. An average cheese sandwich is 450 calories. So that sounds about right as he will also be eating breakfast and an evening meal. Try him and see how he gets on. You can always pop a note in his lunch box just in case school think you forgot.
is it a white bread sandwich? I am a grown woman with a huge appetite but I find them very difficult to eat quickly, the bread seems to stick at the back of my mouth. If I do manage to eat bread quickly I get hiccups. No solution just that I don’t agree with those who say he does have time to eat it.

I have been sending the snacks in for appearances, but he maybe eats one cheese string a week, everything else is wasted and just because I don’t want somebody judging that I haven’t given enough. At home I would absolutely just give a sandwich or wrap, and a piece of fruit or some cut up vegetables. He has plenty of energy, doing well at school and does afterschool sports and has an active time on the weekend. Getting taller (constantly!). So he’s eating enough overall, and I’m just throwing snacks away. I think I will try and find a long life equivalent so I can send the same snacks in every day, just to keep up appearances!!

I’d probably stick an extra bit of fruit in just in case and he can have it at home after school if he doesn’t eat it or maybe something else that can stay in his bag for the next day if he doesn’t eat it (breadstick or oatcakes maybe?)

I vote try just packing what he eats for a while.

I was like your son and remember a conversation or 2 with my mother about why I hadn’t eaten all of the contents in my lunchbox. There was no rhyme or reason either - sometimes I wouldn’t have eaten all the fruit but other days I’d have eaten all the fruit but not a bag of crisps.

I can remember saying something like, “I didn’t have time to eat them,” to Mum and thinking back it makes sense to me why I’d said that. At both primary and secondary schools, our morning breaks were so close to lunch that if I had eaten some food then and again an hour later at lunch, I wouldn’t have been hungry enough to e finish off the lunchbox. It was rare for me to feel hungry again at afternoon break and then before you know it school’s over and you’re back home.
The school day wasn’t long enough for me to have felt hungry again and eat more food, therefore, “I didn’t have time to eat them,” does make sense 😂

I think its fine.
Gave up on snacks and fancy lunches after they kept coming home.
All kids got sandwich - two slices of bread plus a piece of fruit.

I dont even remember having snack when I was at primary. You had breakfast at home then lunch at school. After school might have got a jam sandwich pre dinner

I think it would be fine not to send in snacks if he's not going to eat them. A sandwich and a piece of fruit for lunch sounds fine to me. IMO there's no reason to add something processed like crisps or a cereal bar, they are just empty calories and generally unhealthy (though I see that your son's school doesn't allow crisps, good on them). It's good for children to understand when they're hungry and when they've had enough. From all you've written, your son is well aware of how much he wants to eat, and the snacks are unnecessary.

I don't know when it became normal to attempt to over feed kids, I got a sandwich (one slice of bread folded) a packet of crisps and something like a club biscuit for my packed lunch and that was more than enough, I often didn't eat all of it. I see some parents packing 6 or 7 items just for lunch, no wonder so many kids are obese now.

I work in a school and if your child ordered the sandwich option at school that is all they would get - a sandwich and a piece or fruit or a piece of cake, so only two items. So I don't see why it would be an issue as a home packed lunch.

My son will either eat loads of hardly anything as his medications suppresses his appetite.

We put a tub of raisins and some breadsticks/crackers in, which will last a few days if not eaten and can also be eaten later/at home.

My son is a really bad eater at school. He says he doesn't have time to eat as he wants to play. I have stopped sending in snacks as all he eats is 4 pieces of cucumber,2 baby tomatoes, a pepperami, smoothie and if I'm lucky half a sandwich.

It's government policy that cracks you up then. It used to be milk time. Maggie Thatcher removed free milk in the 70s but I definitely remember most of us drinking milk at school in the 90s.

In 2000, the worry was less about protein and calcium and more about vitamins. So the government introduced free school fruit for 4-6-year-olds. This is still a thing today. Hence having a fruit snack in the morning has become quite typical.

I would just send the sandwich and fruit.

But, as a long life suggestion, what about those pots of jelly/custard/rice pudding that are kept in the cupboard/shelf rather than the fridge?

Or, if he would like them, mini cocktail sausages although these would need to be kept cold.

If he's in primary school pop in a cereal bar or something else with a long shelf life and send the same one all week. Or all term if need be. At least he'll have the option if he's hungry and no one will be concerned about him not having enough food.

I love the idea of a ceremonial pot of custard that a child takes to and from school for a year just to make sure that no one thinks his mum is depriving him.

For some reason, the jelly and rice pudding don't tickle me as much.

So my son, aged 7, just eats a sandwich and maybe a piece of fruit every day, meaning I’m sending in snacks every day that don’t get touched. Aibu to just send in a sandwich and a piece of fruit?

I was wondering if this was a trick question at first 👀

Of course you should just send him with a sandwich and a piece of fruit if that's all he eats!

I'm a grown woman and that's all I eat at work. If wanted more I'd take more, just as I'm sure you'll give him more in future if he asks for it.

Good job I shove a chocolate bar in with his half a sandwich and packet of corn snacks!

So the snacks they aren’t allowed are crisps, cakes, chocolate bars, anything which is deemed ‘junk food.’ They aren’t meant to have processed meat every day, I used to send a Peperami but apparently that’s not ok every day (even if it’s the same one making return journeys!). He likes to follow the rules, he only takes water to drink, and I am pleased he eats the sandwich and fruit that’s what I would serve at home anyway, so it is just for appearances. But I would really rather not have an awkward call about his packed lunches, and avoid any unnecessary attention from the pastoral or safeguarding people at school, for the sake of a wasted cheese string or yoghurt I think I would rather just pay that ‘tax’ but it does seem silly to me at the same time to be wasting things, when a sandwich and piece of fruit is a normal lunch in my book!