Does this sound like a weird packed lunch to you?

[marialuisa]

DD (nearly 4) has gone back to having packed lunches as she has finally decided that bread isn't the food of the devil. She came home quite bothered yesterday as 3 of the nursery staff apparently stood round debating the "weird" contents of her lunchbox. She then told us that they do this most days.

So, do you think the following is worthy of comment?

Smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwich on brown bread

Little tub with cherry toms, carrot, red pepper celery and kosher sausage

banana

yoghurt drink

water

(BTW: this also contains her after school snack, she picks what she wants to keep for later)

The thing that worries me most is what kind of rubish food may the children be normally feed at the nursery if they are not able to recognise the contents of your DD's lunchbox!. Great you're sending packed lunchs.

In a lighter tone you may explain that your daughter is having a "mediterranean diet" that has been used for centuries within your family to educate the taste of future gourmets. (Well, that's why my very mallorcan MIL would say, though she will definitively accept that there's no way to get salmon cought in the Puig Major!)

correction... that WHAT my MIL would say... and fish may not be CAUGHT in the Puig Major.

My dd (6)has stopped wanting certain things as the other children say their weird and i think she is then embarassed to eat it, and we are only talking a kiwi fruit, or as the other children said 'green gunk, yuk'. I think it is very hard when other children take a snack attack or lunchable whatever.

Marina-these are qualified teachers in a private school so their salaries aren't qute as bad as a nursery nurse's! One of them was telling me about her w/e in New York on Monday .

I have calmed down now though and will think of a jokey way to raise it this evening, glad you don't all think we're freaks though!

maybe you should have said it's lox Marialuisa!

Obviously she had not travel with American, otherwise she would have already had an oportunity to try smoked salmon on board.

Ignorance is sometimes soooo overwhelming that sometimes we don't know if to cry or to laugh .

I'd have a word. Blooming cheek!

FWIW mine has: peanut butter on granary or cheese on granary, cherry toms, carrot, and a small piece of fruit (plum, apricot). Water and usually something indulgent (today she had a Mr Men cupcake we had made from a mix yesterday).

Sounds lovely! And I can guarantee (from working in a day nursery) they obviously thought it was "weird" in comparison to usual kids fare! One girl at nursery used to have 2 packets of crisps, various chocolate things ie Kitkats, Twix, Penguin (all in one day), no fruit whatsoever, smallest sandwich ever!

My 2 DDs would LOVE peanut butter in their school lunch boxes - unfortunately peanuts/peanut products are banned in school.

Like granarybeck, ds1 started refusing to take certain things in his packed lunch because "none of the other children take stuff like that." He wouldn't take a tub of rice or pasta salad, or stuffed pittas, or houmous and carrot sticks (even though he likes all those things) - mainly because I think most of the other kids had Dairylea Lunchables or a sausage roll, crisps, Panda Pops and chocolate. He has school dinners now but I hated sending him with the same, boring stuff every day. It's bad enough when a child is made to feel different by their peers - but for the teachers to do it is appalling.

What appallingly bad manners! My parents taught me never to comment negatively on another person's food. Not to mention, of course, making you dd feel uncomfortable in front of her peers.

And what a marvellous lunch! My ds's standard is peanut butter sandwich (wholemeal thankyou ), lump of cheese, token gesture of fresh stuff (carrot or sweet pepper etc), token gesture of 'sweet ppudding' (dried fruit or biscuit usually) and I feel on the one hand guilty that it's not a more 'proper' lunch, on the other hand delighted that I've found something that he'll eat. Mind you, even his nursery staff (whom I love) think me weird that he doesn't get a carton of juice. After all, they supply water, so I saw no need to send a drink. Eventually, ds got fed up of 'Mummy forgot to pack you a drink' comments, so I pop a bottle of tapwater in his lunchbox. What's weird about drinking water? After all, their rules state no pop, no crisps, no sweets.

Umm, Beetroot, sometimes raw mushrooms are ds's 'veg' course !

Not if you packed a little mushroom brush with them.

Dh calls a packed lunch - "packin' up" As in "don't forget your packin' up."

Now, that's weird.

marthamoo - is your DH a yorkshire lad by any chance, cos thats what we call it around here.

No, he's Welsh!

WOW!

I bow to you and your DD Maria.
I would love it if my DS's ate even cherry toms, carrot etc. I f I put it in DS1 lunch box he would come home hungry as he just would not eat it. He has the same sandwich every day-cheese and salad cream (bluuugh) and a yoghurt or biscuit.

Ds2 will be even worse when he starts school next Jan. He'll only eat chocolate spread, sardine & tomato paste, tuna and mayo or mackerel. The poor boy is going to have the smelliest lunch box at school beacuse there is no way he's getting choc spread. He only eats quavers, and jaffa cakes. If anyone could get him to eat a bit of fruit I would be enternally grateful.

I'm really jealous of you actually, I hate the lunch I have to do.

Message withdrawn

My dd calls salmon barbie fish!!

I've been sending peanut butter sandwiches with dd to nursery on a regular basis, and have only just discovered from the welcome pack I've been given for ds that nuts are not supposed to be brought in to nursery. Oops! It caused a problem this morning though when dd wanted pb and we said she couldn't have it. Of course she wouldn't accept any alternatives, until we suggested 'surprise sandwiches'. So, like Paddington Bear, she had marmalade sandwiches today. (And a packet of Quavers, a box of raisins and a banana).

we used to get same comments with our DS's lunch box - nothing outrageous unless you think nuts and seeds and smoked salmon, vegetable crisps, wholemeal bread are off the wall foods -- I think they are great - good sources of EFAs etc...

The dinnerladies used to comment all the time on his food and then we found out later used to finish off anything he had left over!!

sounds wonderful and very healthy.. perhaps they comment because they are not used to seeing such a healthy lunch/meal packed for a child..

Wow, what a great lunchbox, I wish I could persuade dd to eat half of that (but there is time, she's only young!) ss would certainly love it! Probably the nursery staff being uneducated...