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Original poster

Lunch box inspections-Nanny state gone too far

119 replies

troll1 · 30/01/2007 21:38

Am I the only one in feeling annoyed when my 4 year old comes home with a sticker for having no chocolate or crisps in her lunchbox. I am a fan of healthy eating but if I choose to send her with a packed lunch surely it is up to me what goes into it. Cant stand the thought that she will be in effect punished by not having a sticker because I have put a small chocolate in for a treat-despite the 2 or 3 items of fruit she has as well. However what is really upsetting DH and I is that at 4 she is coming out with "too much chocolate makes you fat", "have sausages got fat in them?" etc at FOUR. We eat very heathily at home and I understand that the schools have got to try to educate everyone but I feel this is the Nanny State going too far or am I just being blardy minded?

OP posts:
Judy1234 · 30/01/2007 22:39

At my twins' school you are not allowed to take in a packed lunch so everyone has to have a healthy mid day meal. You take in fruit or veg for break and water and that's it. Works very well.

cat64 · 30/01/2007 23:12

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cat64 · 30/01/2007 23:12

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Tortington · 30/01/2007 23:21

lower class?

i think the wider principle is being ignored for an immediate low cost solution.

PeachyClair · 30/01/2007 23:27

One of mine was criticised for cke today. Home made cake made with bananas, sweetened with liquidised prunes with a small amount of unsalted butter and gluten free flour. WTF is wrong with that???? I mean, he's AS, I'm just glad that he eats

Milliways · 30/01/2007 23:31

Some teacher told my DD that MILK was fattening, too much was bad etc & she stopped drinking it overnight. Used to have it as a drink at breakfast & warm at bedtime, but now only ever on cereals

JanH · 30/01/2007 23:37

Crap in school lunches is hardly a new phenomenon (although teachers' diktats may be ).

DD1 was at primary school with a Very Large Child who used to have eg 2 Mars bars and a can of Coke as part of her packed lunch - this was 15 or more years ago. Her mother was a very intelligent woman, with no common sense at all, who said "oooh, if I don't put these in her lunch she'll have a tantrum".

Plus ca change...

PeachyClair · 30/01/2007 23:39

When I was at school it was white bread with sandwich paste, crisps and squash as routine. We ahd fruit, most didnt, yoghurts were a treat.

I think its mainly better these days.

There are limits and where kids are very (as in dangerously)large it even borders into child protection, but if the children are thriving and bright and healthy- whats the point?

JanH · 30/01/2007 23:39

Packed lunches, not school, sorry.

hunkermunker · 30/01/2007 23:50

Jan, I read that as teachers kitkats and thought "blardy hypocrites"

Caligula · 30/01/2007 23:55

I'm in two minds about this. I think it's fair enough for schools to demand that children sent into their care are properly fed. But I have no faith in the intelligence of the people who decide, to arbitrate as to what properly feeding a child is.

Cheese being unhealthy FGS. Or good home made cake.

JanH · 30/01/2007 23:55

lol, hunker

(They smoke the confiscated fags too you know)

MissesF · 31/01/2007 00:42

BUNDLE....

2 of my sons are autistic...they attend a mainstream school...as the system sees them as 'not meeting the criteria' to be educated at a 'special school'...not my choice by the way...

LUNCHTIMES are a nightmare for my sons...and like many autistic children they eat a fairly limited diet....and my choice as a parent is zero.
i send them to schhol with choc spread sandwhiches and crisps (ds2 age 10) , packet of jaffacakes for ds1 (age 13)...and THEY EAT IT...or i send them at 8.30 to school with a HEALTHY LUNCH and they bring it home at 3.30...untouched.....and they have ate nothing.

So...you mention home-Edding as if it were a solution to mealtimes at school....

All i want is for someone to encourage my sons to eat full stop......yes....healthy would be fantastic....but just eat.

i can accept the fact that its unfair for other kids to have carrot sticks if my son is flaunting chocolate....but if the schools really cannot cope with the dietry differences of my Autistic sons...then i wish they'd stop assessing my sons on their bloody achedemic successes...and let them be schooled somewhere where they could eat a bloody healthy lunch (as they do at home) instead of eat the stuff i have to pack for them because noone is there to encourage and support them.

hope this makes a little sense... i just get so peed off with these food threads...i just want one of these tv chefs etc to do a series with autistic children...and stop forcing this 'every one eat this...that...the other'....it really is NOT as simple when autism is involved ( and i can think of loads of other special needs that have 'special diets'...that would be DISCRIMINATED against if LUNCHBOX patrols and stickers became the norm.

ps BUNDLE...this rant was not ALL in reply to you!!! (i got carried away!)

twinsetandpearls · 31/01/2007 00:59

I teach at a secondary and after we have checked planners, signed merits and ahd thought for the day I do a lunch box check and regularly confiscatetwo litre bottles of coke, cans of red beer and varios caffeine drinks thatkids ahve been sent to school with as their lunch.

Today I was dealing with a particulalry difficult child and at then end of my lesson (this is 10.10 in the morning he proceeded to finish of a litre bottle of some blue "energy" drink that was breakfast, he had two more in his bag, one for break and one for lunch and a few bags of crisps!

twinsetandpearls · 31/01/2007 01:01

Before you accuse me of starving my kidss I have bottles of water to replace their caffeine drinks and regularly find myself in the canteen trying to blag their lunch for them.

twinsetandpearls · 31/01/2007 01:03

Dp laughs at me whenever I take the kids on a trip as I pack a rucksack full of individual packed lunches as it shocks me how many kids are sent on trips with no packed lunch and 50p to get themselves something from the cafe!!

MissesF · 31/01/2007 01:33

50p!!!
what can that buy from a cafe!!!!???!!!

school phoned me last week ref ds1 coming home for lunch...i explained that i wanted him to eat a proper lunch...

they have a 30minute lunch break...and due to his AS and having ADHD...him coming home and eating is brill....we only live outside the schoolgates.

then she queried whether he was 'missing out' on social activities......

i said..."NO,this means he is not being teased etc in the tutor room" (last term kids paid "10p a kick")

so...though i dont really want to be tied to him coming home for lunch every day....it seems that if this means he eats well...then that is what i will have to do.

Judy1234 · 31/01/2007 08:53

cat, yes it works because it's ap rivate school and the contract between school and home and the basis on which you enter is you are forced to have the school meal each day and pay for it whether you like it or not. They have a choice every day. They cate specially for kosher meals, hindus, vegetarians so there are no dietary grounds on which you can get round the rules. There is the occasional boy with very bad allergies and I'km not sure how they deal with that (he brings a packed meal to children's parties for example), I suppose a parent in a state school has more rights then? But couldn't the state schools do the same - say if you want to get into this prestigious sort after C of E school you eat this healthy food we prepare or you don't gain entry or you get thrown out? Is there something in law which stops the Govermnent legislating for that?

Obviously children with a problem like autism (rather than just fussy chidlren whose parents pander to them who should be forced to eat good stuff) then you need to make accommodations may be with a note from the GP backing up that point.

DominiConnor · 31/01/2007 09:22

I would be deeply embarassed if my school found it necessary to correct my parenting by vetting my kids lunchbox.
I can see why some people would blame the school, not themselves.

Health education has been a battleground on and off for over a century, and schools have had the task of fixing defects in what their parents tell them on many topics. Food is just the latest. Never have the resisting parents been on the side of the angels here.

Parents are failing to educate their kids about food. Young kids simply do not have the power to make themselves obese. Many parents give them far too much crap, and not enough good stuff.

There are subtle points about the right amount of fatty acid to consume, and the way that children actually need a different diet to their parents. But fatburgers, lots of chips and chocolate are not evidence of smart parenting.

Many parents like Troll1 want to give treats. So do we. As it happens the "treat" is when they eat all of their balanced meal at home. Can't see how you enforce that with packed lunches.

Madora · 31/01/2007 09:49

Do not underestimate the power of children to influence their parents - at my childrens' school the points system whereby a point is rewarded for a healthy lunchbox has significantly changed what parents send for their kids. The kids have started requesting healthy food - I sometimes volunteer at lunch time and was staggered to see a boy happily munching into a whole green bell pepper just as though it were an apple.

geekgrrl · 31/01/2007 09:57

some of the children are my dc's school bring a cold half-eaten McDonald's meal...
some nothing at all...

(I know this from being a governor, not hear-say passed on by my 7 year old, btw)

really don't think there's much the school can actually do. The school lunches are quite nice, but evidently some parents are completely useless f*ckwits.

figroll · 31/01/2007 10:08

I think this is dead silly. Why don't they actually teach children how to cook healthy meals at school, rather than teach them how to design packaging. I feel this Government is full of total nutters. There is something printed in the Daily Mail, so next day we have legislation (Slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean!!).

I was taught to cook at school in Home Economics - my eldest dd has had 6 weeks of cooking at school and she is now in year 10. Yet, she is being taught how to be a citizen of Britain. She finds this excruciatingly boring and moans on endlessly about it. Now she is going to be taught how to be British (ffs, she is British, so what does that mean). It might be more useful to learn how to cook vegetables or roast a chicken. But no, it is more important for some 50 year old fuddy duddy to teach her not to graffiti on walls - is that really going to make much difference. At 10 they taught her how to snort cocaine with a credit card (yes, she actually demonstrated to me!!!!) - whatever next!

(rant over!)

figroll · 31/01/2007 10:10

By the way - I have taught her to roast a chicken and cook vegetables, but I do wonder what some children learn about cooking from home. Particularly the ones with Chinese Takeaway sandwiches ( this is totally true!)

juuule · 31/01/2007 10:57

Not the school's place to say what is in lunchboxes or not.
School dinners, yes. Lunchboxes, no.

Caligula · 31/01/2007 11:12

Even if what's in the lunch box is a mars bar, a packet of crisps, a packet of opal fruits and a can of coke juuule? This has been known to happen. And if a child is given a meal like this, it will affect his / her concentration and behaviour in the classroom and therefore the rest of the class and the teacher's ability to teach. Surely the school has a right to have some say over that?

It's not the principle of this I object to, it's more the practice. Where you've got staff who can't tell teh difference between a decent bit of cheese or home-made cake, and e-number shite, and who have no understanding of the different dietary needs of kids with SN, then you can't really let them loose on kids' lunchboxes, because they appear to be no more qualified than idiot parents.