Teachers can confiscate "unhealthy" items from lunchboxes.

[3littlefrogs]

Just read this in the Telegraph.

I wonder if they will be given any training by qualified nutritionists to ensure they are sufficiently knowledgeable before depriving children of their lunch?

"yet people refuse these meals and send their children in with boxes of junk."

Could your school provide meals for a child who can't even have the same equipment used to prepare their meals as their allergen might have been in contact with it? One that requires their diet to be boosted in fat intake because of the "healthy" eating message which means they are having developmentally issues due to believing the low fat message, rigidly sticking to it and not getting enough to permit healthy growth?

What we do for the "unhealthy" lunch is provide food with natural colourings, as little preservative as possible, low fructose food. The cake (usually plain vanilla sponge) is to get the fat into him as he finds fatty foods repulsive. It causes no end of problems and when school are on a clamp down as the sandwich and drink that comply with the rules and the requirements are regularly not enough to quench the hunger.

It's not teachers inspecting lunches. If anyone it's lunchtime assistants implementing policies they've had no say in.
As for the school lunches, there were some standards in place (thanks Jamie Oliver) but Gove removed them.

On the one hand id go ballistic if someone confiscated my childs food.
On the other hand id send a healthy lunch. Wholemeal sandwich thin with ham and cream cheese, carrot sticks, a small amount of nuts, some cheese, raisins, and fresh fruit. Maybe yogurt too? My kids (3 and 5) would go crazy for that lunch! And if the school saw fit to declare it unhealthy in any way then id be flipping my shit entirely.
Its not that i have a problem with a pasty and crisps, its just that i think they need fuel for the learning they do in an afternoon, and the sort of packed lunch i listed above would keep my kids going without a post-lunch slump from too much sugar / white carbs.

This has been going on for years!

I thought it was a Blairism, tbh. If you use Advanced Search you'll see just how many threads here have been about lunchboxes, their contents, and weird/inconsistent rulings from schools.

I would save the nuts for an after school snack though gin, even if your school allows it now, they may implement a ban in future.

LondonZoo
Yes of course I discussed the requirements with school and they put a do not give child ANYTHING FOOD WISE during school hours ban. Everything has to be provided by us and the cake is still banned because it would be setting a precedent to the other children and parents.

It is frustrating as I can see the need to restrict some of the items (eg fizzy drinks, chocolate) that is sent in but otoh it is an excessive blanket ban that has been imposed with poor understanding of the differences in the nutritional requirements of children vs adults. Children need a certain amount of fat in their diet and sometimes that is hard to get into them if they are having the same low fat foods as their parents. Crisps in the heat can also be a good way to get needed salt into them.

I wouldn't mind if it was based on hard evidence but my concern would be that those implementing it won't be sufficiently trained. We have had gems said to the dc such as 'frozen jelly can give you food poisoning' 'popcorn is bad for you' 'homemade cakes are healthy but shop cakes aren't' 'eat the cheese before your pudding'. Some lunchtime assistants have little understanding of nutrition and it would concern me if they were given these powers without a clear list and additional training

People also get pissed off that things are removed from lunch boxes yet cakes and custard are served daily.

The fact that the cake is usually sugar free fat free taste free renders it nutritionally worthless barring some milk in the sugar free custard. so its no better than what is being confiscated.

school meals are declared healthy cos of what they dont contain. not what they do

and let's not kid ourselves "kids need the calories" or "nothing wrong with a treat" which of course is true but the cake on school dinners isn't there fir either of those reasons. It's there because the miniscule budget eats upping the meat/ protein content or improving the quality of the food isn't possible and the cake just fills them up.

means upping

Trouble is, that most people still think that 'low-fat' is the healthy option.

Low-fat means that the tasty, unctuous fat is removed, but loads of chemicals, sweeteners, binders and gum is put in. In no universe should this be the healthy food. Leave teh fat in, take the sugars out.

We have been told for decades that Fat is BAD, high fibre is good; eat pasta, brown bread, low-fat spreads, and not much else. And what's happened? We've all got fatter.

A lunchbox with protein like eggs, chicken or ham, yoghurt (FF), fruit and water is perfect. Slow-release energy, keeps you going for hours. Sugars and their replacements give you a sugar high for 2 hours, then you need something else, you crave sugar, your blood-sugars need another spike...

Cut the wheat (bloating) and the sugars, go for decent, non-mucked about food; that is the healthiest.

I had to remove a bottle of powerade from a reception child's lunch box once. I swapped him for some juice from the kitchen though, didn't leave him without.

I really don't get the 'nut ban' thing at most schools.

One of my dcs has a very very serious dairy and egg allergy. If he eats/touches/sits next to someone with any of these foods he has a reaction, often severe. Yet it's always only nuts that are banned due to nut allergies ???
I think I read a while ago on allergy UK that they don't even think a nut ban is a good idea (iirc)

Back to the issue of lunch boxes though, it's parental choice what is in them. It's good teacher or lunchtime supervisors can check but rather than removing items it would be better for them to take note of repeatedly unhealthy lunches and then take it up with individual families rather than take food from a child in school

I should not have opened this thread. The whole subject just makes me so so angry. My child starts reception this year and Will be having packed lunch. I don't understand how I'm
Not allowed to give her a biscuit on a Friday yet if she were to have school lunches, she would get a proper sugary dessert every single day!

If they ever take something out of her lunch box I will go fucking crazy.

Ptumbi, agree with everything you say about low fat. I love how no one seems to understand this. We all eat full fat everything.

My kid is recovering from a really awful bug. She was being treated in hospital for dehydration a few days ago. We were told by the doctor that we should feed her crisps, biscuits, salty snacks and sugary drinks (as well as anything else she fancies) to get her levels back to normal as she recovers. This is on the NHS page as well.

She's still not eating much but supposed to go back to school tomorrow, I don't think they'll be impressed even though it's the medical advice we've been given and she's still not 100%

Our school lunch supplier also said they would only provide freefrom school lunches to children whose parents could provide medical notes saying their child was allergic, which meant last summer masses of children aroubd the county being put on the waiting list for allergy (re)testing and not getting it sorted in time for September. There's quite a strong lack of understanding about allergies/intolerances which doesn't help. My child when unable to eat dairy was refused things with egg in!

My experience of the provisions for children with special diets hasn't been very good.

Agree about dietary requirements even with a hosp letter we are still negotiating about Dd lunches (since March) as she needs a wheat/gluten free carb counted meal each day

olivo - insulated lunchboxes are cheap and readily available - as are small, flat iceblocks that stay frozen for hours. I thought everyone used them.

I agree completely about the low fat scam. I am certain that it has contributed to the epidemic of obesity and diabetes we are dealing with.

We need fat in our diets, as do children - more for them because they need it for their brain and nervous system. They need the fat soluble vitamins.

We don't need all the chemicals, starches, bulking agents and additives.

I have seen and heard far too much about unqualified staff removing perfectly good food from lunch boxes to think that this is in any way a good idea.

Train the school staff then educate the parents and monitor the lunch box contents.

Sort out the amount of unhealthy stuff in school lunches and more people might have them.

My Dds dietary requirements are not drs orders. we have them as I feel it's best and although some things are allowed in small quantities the amount they would be given in school dinners exceeds what I would be comfortable with.

We did school dinners once. never again. and they can leave my Dds lunch boxes alone. While schools serve the crap they do, there's no moral high ground to be convicting anything. If there are repeat offenders who give lousy lunches deal with them.

The government need to stop this ridiculous idea that making everyone else suffer and treating people like idiots in order not to offend the culprits is the way to go.

Oh yeah Doc i forgot about that. More cheese then! Will home made oat bats get through the healthy lunchbox police?

Ooh goody! Another directive from on high for teachers/TAs/ lunch time staff to follow issued by people who won't have to find time to follow it or deal with the agro caused! There was rejoicing throughout Teacherland!

precisely dr

then they can congratulate themselves on a job well done cos teachers have switched from teaching hyped up sugar/colouring fed children to upset hungry ones or kids fed up of the same boring crap because teachers instilled blanket bans (in desperation to try and make it a bit easier for themselves which they can't be blamed for really) which renders many difficulties fir parents with kids who have dietary needs or limited ranges of foods or whatever

Homemade flap jack with seeds in didn't GinandTonic apparently it was too unhealthy.

Good! I'm glad that the teachers are getting the go ahead to do this. Some parents clearly don't give a damn about what they feed their chidlren and will quite happily send them into school daily with crisps, chocolate bars, milkshakes etc, it's shocking!