what do you put in your child's lunch box?

[DimpledThighs]

Was putting it together and just wondered how 'typical' it was. I must add that if it deviates in any way from the below I get repremanded!

Juice box (apple or orange)
sandwich - protein and a vegetable, usually tuna and sweetcorn
yoghurt (tube, was frubes, now yeo valley yeah!)
fruit (varies, kiwi today)
biscuit (usually jaffa cakes)

Doesn't seem like much to me, but they don't complain.

Be as critical as you like!

sandwich, normally cheese (he doesnt eat meat)
a bottle of water (his choice)
packet of crisps
an apple or banana (or he takes money and buys fruit there)

DS1 had a ham sandwich everyday last term, this term it's marmite everyday!
Plus
A carton of smoothie or milkshake
An apple
A dried fruit bar
A piece of cheese
No variation, only repetition!

DD is 4 and in Reception, she has..

organic apple juice carton (ponce!)
sandwich on brown (filling varies)
small handful of grapes
apple or banana
small pot of fromage frais

on fridays the apple/banana are replaced with a treat - small cake, biscuit etc

oh I am on my own with the biscuits. Maybe I should replace with dried fruit bar - this looks much healthier. Also would stop the dreaded sugar high.

DS complains that x has crisps and chocolate spread sandwich etc etc....

I don't think the dried fruit bar would stop the blood sugar peak, they are full of sugar, albeit the natural kind

them dried fruit bar are yeuk

have seen some terrible lunchboxes when i was working at ds1 school, there was kids that would have like 2 dairylea lunchable things and dunkers and loads of choc.

Think ds1 takes a variety and will have school dinners once a week.(normally the day they have lemon sole.)

Before DS1 started school i explained that he wouldn't be having crisps or chocolate in his lunch box, and he accepted this. When i have offered him jaffa cakes, to bulk up his lunch a bit, he refused!

That sounded a bit poncey! He's allowed crisps and biscuits at home

The local LEA have quite strict rules about what is/isn't allowed in lunchboxes. The teachers can confiscate anything that breaches the rules

So it's pointless fillig a lunchbox with fruitshoots, wotsits and mars bars

Home made bread sandwiches
Pitta bread
Cheeses
Ham
Grapes
Cherries
Strawberries
Blackberries
Rich Tea biscuits
Rice cakes
Go ahead range
Water

Not all at the same time!!

when ds1 goe to nannas for the day, (2 yrs) i pack him

a ham & cheese spread butty with cucumber on wholemeal bread,

a fromage frais

a banana

a pear

a buiscuit/ or packet of quavers

and a juice

Ds1 has a filled roll - could be ham, cheese, egg mayonnaise, tuna and sweetcorn, tinned salmon, smoked salmon, pate (salmon or tuna pate, he's not keen on meat pates). He will eat lettuce (no other salad vegetables) so I often put lettuce on.

Breadsticks/cheesy biscuits. Flapjack or a scone. Carton of orange juice.

Much to my frustration he will not eat fruit - not any kind - so I don't think his lunch box is particularly well balanced, but he eats most vegetables so I make up for it at dinner.

Ds2 has the same roll - though he will have cucumber on his as well as lettuce.

The rest the same...but he loves fruit so I have a little lidded box and he has apple, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, orange segments etc.

I also sometimes put chunks of cheese in - and will put cheese, chunks of cucumber, and grapes in ds2's little box some days.

I occasionally ring the changes with wraps and filled pittas.

we was informed that at dinnerladys we are not allowed to confiscate anything out of a childs lunchbox, we just have to explain to them that its not health, (mine you in the school where i work they are likely just to tell you f*ck off)

Ds1 has a bag of green seedless grapes, a sandwich - either cheese, lemon curd or marmite - if lemon curd of marmite it will be eaten, if cheese it will be half chewed and some of it left, with a complaint at home time! Also a couple of cocktail sausages (frozen, so defrost during the morning), a jammy dodger. Sometimes he will have a hot cross bun or something like that if we've got any in the house. And sometimes a carton of fruit juice, but I'm happy if he just has water.

dd is 5 and a very picky eater

she has

a cheese sandwich (brown bread, cheddar)
a "squeezy yoghurt" (actually fromage frais)
a biscuit (M+S no hydrogenated fats)
half a raw carrot
apple juice diluted

she gets a bottle of tap water and some fruit (apple or grapes) for "snack" and usually doesn't finish them

She will not contemplate any change to the routine. Every so often I offer her something else in her sandwich or a different sort of yoghurt, and all hell breaks loose! On her birthday put a couple of chocolate pennies in as a surprise, and they came home again untouched. Odd child.

ds1 loves pitta breads maybe i will try putting them in, he has a school trip next week might try and jazz his lunch up a bit.

It takes DD about an hour to eat her lunch and used to bring most of it home. So now her lunch has been reduced to

A wholemeal sandwitch (filler varied)or a pot of homemade pasta with various bits and bobs.

A piece of fruit, a yoghurt or a dried fruit bar.

A juice box orange, pineapple or apple.

Not much but lunch bag is almost always empty now.

snack is an apple

packed lunch

p.butter sandwich, sometimes star shaped, some time bear shaped, sometimes triangles,

salami in tiny tub(sometimes)

grapes in small tub, or clementine

parmesan cheese(sometimes)

cheese biscuit or bread stick(sometimes)

small yog, petit filou or similar HAS to be strawberry and fecking Vanilla

sometmes I put a few hula hoops in a tub
small pack of jammy dodgers or iced gems in a small tub

I put a bottle with half water half fresh fruit juice, which she never drinks

ooh, tortoiseshell, like the idea of frozen sausages- might try that!

Today they had

a tortilla with houmus and cucumber (they have that alot !!)
a hot cross bun
yoghurt (I buy a big pot now and spoon it into baby food pots to cut down on yog pot waste)
a banana
grapes
water.

Today, a typical day, she has:

an innocent smoothie carton
2 little sandwiches cut into bird shapes with a pastry cutter on wholemeal with red leicester cheese
some carrot and cucumber cut into little sticks
a necatine and a handful of grapes
5 little pretzels

Other things I often include are:

homemade chicken nuggets that I cook that morning so they are cold but fresh
bit of cold pasta ()penne works best cold I find) with a tiny but of dressing or soemthing on
cream cheese and breadsticks (those little philly pots of laughing coew things you can buy)
strips of red pepper
yoghurt covered apricots or raisins
dried apricots
those yoghurts that you can squeeze out straight into you mouth, Sainsburys make them
hovis biscuits and carrs water biscuits etc with bits of cheese
the odd fig roll gets chucked in
oh and I do sometimes give her a couple of coctail sausages or bits of chicken breast if I have a spare one and remember to cook it the night before.
She's also had the odd mini cornish pasty when she has a I'm not eating sandwiches at the moment phase.