Just been on a school trip and boy,you should have seen the crap that emerged form the lunch boxes....

[moondog]

Fruit Shoots,cheese strings,those cartons of 'meat'(sorry,industrial slurry) and cheese,weird yoghurts that don't need to be refrigerated and have a 'best before' date of 2018.
The healthiest thing was probably a plastic bread sandwich with some sort of processed chicken slice in it.

When I see their little shining faces and strong bodies,exuding energy ,and then see what they are fuelling themselves with,I want to take said cheese strings and garotte their parents.

Tigermoth, your post made me That's where food obsession goes horribly wrong. Stupid bloody PE teacher

I've been thinking more about this - I'll be giving DS2 food to play with soonish another month or two (he's 5mo now and I'm in no hurry shall we say!) and I'm interested to see what he makes of it.

DS1's approach to food is to eat like a horse - he sits and wades through a plate of dinner (dinners are his favourite thing - he's a meat and several veg boy), but he knows when he's had enough and even if there's only a mouthful left, if he's full, he won't touch it. I think this is the healthiest approach to food going - and as such I will not let anybody say to him "Oh, go on, DS1, it's just one more mouthful!" because I think it's dodgy when the "I'm full up" signals get turned off or go a bit wonky.

Which HM (as you obviously know) is the danger with bottlefeeding,the urge to get the baby to drain the bottle.

I don't understand accusations of judgement if/when i see a lunchbox full of crap.
It's not my prejudiced and ill informed opinion,it's a fact

I do think its not good to judge though. For us, DS1's big trigger food is salycylates. Not something you find in crisps or sweets or shite, but in raisins, apples, citrus fruits, tomatoes, apricots, etc etc

combined with a dairy allergy our selection is limited- no yoghurts cheese etc either

so whilst Ds2 and ds3 have very healthy lunchboxes, how could someone seeing ds1's lunchbox (as healthy as I can manage) make a fair judgement?

Fortunately as si said before, ds1 loves his healthy foos and likes green peppers, pears, pineapple, olives so we manage. But I have days where I can't get hold of what he has to have, or am just exhausted. I'd love the freedom most of you have, but I don't have it (he also won't drink water and we have been advised not to try any more by dietician, its an As thing, so he ahs coloured soya milk- the only calcium he has- or orange juice from conventrates, all I can afford)

Just got his rreport- no days sick last year. He's dping alright with an odd bit of crud.

Not read all of these as I am actually busy at work today (thud thud) BUT dd1 is staying for her first packed lunch at playgroup today after months of me trying to persuade her to and she has the following:

2 small chicken sandwich on brown
2 small cheese as above
soft cheese and breadstick thingy from Sainsbury's
grapes
apple
Petit Filous (sp?) yoghurt
raisins
Freddo Frog mini chocolate bar
Organic apple juice carton

She said she 'needed' all the above, although no doubt only the sandwiches and choc will get eaten.

She doesn't realise yet that what she sees on TV actually exists, bless her, so I have not yet had the supermarket battles.

Everything in moderation is my motto and remembering that you can always say NO.

Who is the boss eh? Not a 3 year old anyway fgs.

I agree with the person who said that the school trip lunchbox was probably not usual. I would give ds more treat-y stuff on a trip. As a child, it was the only time I got stuff like that!

Ds has today gone to school with 4 party rings and some twigletts in his lunch-box, but also has a marmite sandwich and raisins. Surely it's about balance? Or am I a crap mother? I just know that he won't eat fruit except grapes, and it's too hot for yoghurts in the place where the boxes are kept.

Oh, and a babybel.

Dior, I keep Frubes in the freezer - if you put a frozen one in the lunchbox in the morning it helps keep the other stuff cooler and is not over-warm by lunchtime. (They're often on BOGOF so I stock up then.)

I discovered this morning that DD1 has been at my frozen Frubes (I thought they were disappearing). She eats them half-frozen. She is 24 FGS!

'Scuse the ignorance but what exactly are party rings?

out of all the things listed in those (imo fine) lunches, the only things I could give DS would be party rings and twigletts. Sigh.

Any suggestions ofr dairy and salicylate free lunch boxes (no fridge or maicrowave available) welcomed

I'm not asking for sympathy and its not a get out as I do manage to give him good lunches actually, but they're so repetitive! He ahtes marmite but anything with iron, as he is badly bruised and I think deficient.

but Franny, what HMC is saying (and I do agree with her) is that it is valid to put those values BEFORE nutrition. that is not to say that you (or anyone)is neglecting them - just that the overemphasis sometimes seems a little unbalanced / skewed persepctive.
I think some of the issues is to do with what each ofus thinks as "eating healthily" - for me, that includes a healthy attitude to food issues, a healthy scepticism regarding a great deal of the pseudo crapola science and bogus overstated research that seems common currency, a healthy persepctive on the place of food/eating in life and in parenting, a healthy enjoyment of the odd party ring without thinking it is a slippery slope, the healthy enjoyment of the odd Freddo Chocolate bar in the lunch box.
and, most of all, a healthy regard for moderation.
maybe I feel differently because I have girls. And I personally think it is a doddle to find healthy things to eat in the supermarket. I do it every single day, pretty much. The shelves are stuffed with healthy stuff. Fruit, vegetables, rice, pasta, bread, meat, fish, cheese, milk, juices, eggs.

\link{http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com/biscuits/previous.php3?item=89\I can't believe I am googling party rings...}

Oh them, thanks HC, I'm sure dd will want them as soon as she becomes aware of them!

they are the nectar of the gods, Carmenere.
every day is a party wtih Party Rings.
despite being brought on them myself and feeding them to my daughter on occasion, we both of us seem to have avoided juvenile delinquency so far
JOKEJOKEJOKE

fio here is always an unseemly scuffle chez HC over the pink ones
if you let the sugary bit rest on your tongue, it melts and goes all crackly
mmmmmm

Joke about the juvenile delinquency surely HC??

We bloody LOVE party rings, well we used to. Can't get them over here . You're right about the pink ones

Anyone remember Sports Biscuits, like malted milk with pin men in sporty poses on one side. Ahhhh.

dd2 will only eat Party Rings

refuses all other biscuits

and doesn't like sweets AT ALL, prefers carrots

but she is only 22 months so I know the Fussy Devil is dusting off and waiting to emerge shortly grrrrr

biscuits over here are rubbish, this is sending me in to a malaise

wot abarrrt Tim Tams (or whatever they are called?), the Penguin ripoffs?

I just don't care enough about this issue to have yet another boring argument about it. Anyone left on the thread after me is clearly a weirdo with loose morals.