Does this seem like a lot? DS's Packed Lunch (long)

[gscrym]

DS has been taking packed lunches to school everyday for ages. I swapped him after weeks of him having nothing but a butter sandwich, crisps and a carton of fruit juice at school lunches (£1.15 for the priviledge). I've been giving him-

A small roll or sandwich with dairylee, chicken or ham.
A little carton of juice
A fromage frais tube
A fruit pouch, squidgy thing

He also gets a packet of crisps and a banana, one a each of his breaks.

Every day, the bag comes home with the squidgy and sandwich half eaten or ignored and the banana left. These are all things he asks for having at school. When I ask him about why they aren't eaten, he says he didn't have time. They get almost an hour for lunch. He's a pain at home for eating and has been known to fuss with a sandwich for hours. Unless it's chocolate spread. Then it hardly touches the sides.
He's 6 and a fussy eater. I'm just wondering if I should chat to the lunch ladies and see what they say about it.

HEllO!! not seen you round here in ages!!! how are you?

They get an hour for lunch but you will find that about 15-20 mins is in the lunch hall and the rest is playing outside.

My ds is 6 and he has a sandwich, mini fromage frais, cake and a carrot/cucumber that he eats at break and juice as well.

That seems to be the way it is at school and although I would love him to eat more he says he just cant!

I also told ds that if he didnt eat his sandwich then tomorrow I would JUST send a sandwich and that did the trick!!

Today he has been told to eat his yoghurt before his choc crispy cake - we shall see!

My DS regulary comes home and says he didn't have time to eat it all and sometimes it is not down to him, makes me a bit cross, they only get half an hour. They should be allowed to finish their lunch if they need to.

I'm fine, we do seem to hijack threads for having a little wave to each other. How's your lovely wee boy, he must be getting near to starting school. If so, where's he going?

Ruby, I think I will cut out the crisps. There aren't any foods that aren't allowed in school but I agree should maybe lose them. He comes home hungry. First question is usually 'what can I have to eat?' To which the answer is 'did you eat all your lunch? No, then nothing till teatime.' Doesn't seem to make a huge difference other than a bit of a strop and winge.

Dd1 gets, 1/2 a cheese sandwich, handful of blueberries, fromarge frais, juice and a baby-bel.

She comes home with most of it still in her lunch box and says she didn't have enough time to eat it (they get half an hour to eat).

Shes almost 5.

my dd has a 2 slice sandwich with ham, a fromage frais pouch, some fruit e.g. grapes/strawberries, a drink and sometimes a wee extra snack e.g. snack size milky way or a bit of cake, etc. She has a piece of fruit for her morning break e.g. apple/banana. They dont have an afternoon break. She only gets crisps for her break on a Friday as a treat.

She quite often doesnt eat much of her morning snack as they only get 15 minutes and there is playing to be done at the same time. At lunch she eats most of the sandwich and the fromage frais, she often comes home with the fruit uneaten and she takes hardly any of her drink. She gets 50 minutes for lunch but once they finish eating they get to go out and play so there isnt always time for eating and playing especially if their friends eat faster. My sisters ds eats the rest of his lunch on the way home from school at 3pm as he hasnt had time to eat it at lunchtime!!

Glad to see I'm not the only one. Will try the just sending a sandwich thing next.

y another school here that has banned crisps

All kids are different. My DD2 eats every single scrap of her lunch:

1 roll/tortilla wrap/pitta/2 rounds of bread sarnie
yoghurt/fromagefrais/frubey type stuff
Cheese cubes/portion (maybe a cracker)
handful of grapes/small banana/small apple
homemade muffin/cake/flapjacky thing
handful of raisins/cucumber sticks/carrot sticks

Bottle of water
My DD1 who is 2 yrs older gets the same but without the raisins/cucumber sticks/cake as she is not into sweet food or raw veggies. She will pick at the sarnies, maybe eat half her grapes, sometimes eat a bit of cheese and (Grrrr) rarely have more than a mouthful of drink.

The time thing depends on the school. DD1 used to use this excuse and on investigation it was that the dinner ladies never checked the bags and would allow kids out who said they had finished. Her fast eating friends would finish way before and she didn?t want to be left behind. I talked to the school and they changed the rules around - they now get dismissed in tables at a time so no child is left alone. They are happy to chat together and apparently don?t hurry each other up so the new system works. Perhaps have a word with the school and enquire about lunch time rules and management and see if they can help encourage him to use his time well/eat a little more if necessary.

£1.15 is good - ours is currently £1.75!! a meal. With two kids that works out as £17.50 a WEEK on school dinners... Yup, my kids have mainly lunchbox meals..

I found when DS1 started school that he was getting upset because they really don't get long for lunch and apparently 'mummy told me I have to eat everything'

Anyway he went down to having 2 squares of sandwich and a homemade cookie for a while. He's now in Y1 and still one of the slowest but he and DS2 in Reception have sandwiches, yoghurt, cookie, banana and DS1 will have a little orange aswell. Their snack is fruit provided by the school.

£1.15 is good for a school meal but for what DS was eating, I was cheaper doing it myself. If he was happy to tuck into a hot dinner then I'd have kept him on that.

I think I'll start reducing his sandwiches. I'll make a 2 slice sandwich do 2 days and see how that goes. He can get knotted if he thinks he's getting the choccie sarnies he keeps asking for.

our school lunches are £1.95!!

he only has them on a fri. cause they usually have sausages and he will eat them.

three pieces of bread made into sandwich with hummous and ham. little tomatoes in the box with sandwich (about 4)

small tub of grapes

a dairylea cheese string thing..(actually looks like cheese and tastes okay and not fluorescent orange).

his morning snack is an organix bar and the school provide fruit for afternoon.

and he is starving starving after school!

I find that children are rushed at meal times and it makes me very cross. They are also made to eat all their school dinner so mine have now gone back to full time school dinners. Mine usually have 5 things in their box, sometimes 6.
Sandwich
Fruit - maybe 2 lots
Muffin
Biscuit or crackers
Water

DS is 7 and has either a sandwich or tortilla wrap with ham or cheese or cream cheese or sliced turkey or a combination, a Babybel and either some chopped cucumber or a chopped apple or a peeled satsuma and a mini choc croissant. Sometimes eats it all. Oh - carton of juice which gets drunk 3 days out of 5.