"Only 1% of kids packed lunches healthy" says BBC breakfast news - surely this can't be true?

[Littleknight]

Just saw an article on BBC breakfast news that only 1% of children have healthy packed lunches. I can't believe this - surely it's more.
Come MN's lets set the record straight!

i used to get 3 cheese 1 jam sandwich, all on wholemeal bread. as this includes jam, it wouldn't pass, would it? sometimes with eg satsuma.

though i think, it was far from loaded with sugar/fat (mum v. mean with the jam knife) and filling.

i thnk they are setting a daft standard, and - Lo! No one meets it...

as school 'healthy' cooked dinners often include a pudding, they wouldn't pass either...

Ds would usually have something like ham sandwich (wholemeal bread and nice ham ), pieces of tomato, cucumber and red pepper, some sort of fruit (e.g. grapes, strawberries, apple), a carton of fruit juice, and a small cake/flapjack.

Btw, in Italy lunch boxes aren't allowed. So my dc's today's menu will be:
Pasta with tomato sauce
Grilled chicken and french beans
A piece of fruit.
Either they eat it or they don't.

Those suggested menus are a joke. If I gave my children slices of roast beef and a vegetable and rice salad it would come home uneaten.

Very keen on the 'homemade' aspect aren't they? Career women make bad mothers strikes again

ROFL MP

And for avenginggerbil. I remember a thread about DC being told off for having cheese and crackers as a snack, I guess that was you?

DD1 has just started taking sandwiches a couple of days a week. I really didn't want her to do packed lunch because I don't want anyone to judge her on my choice of appropriate food.

Today she has:
Ham and salad cream sandwich(whole and white bread, crusts cut off)
Celery sticks
Cucumber sticks
An apple
A yoghurt
and some tap water

When she has school dinners she has a jacket potato and cheese or beans.

I heard this on R4 this morning and was a bit

DS2 today has taken
a cheese and brown sauce sandwich - the only type he will eat from a lunchbox - he'll eat different fillings at home just not at school so they probably do think 'poor child, give him something different!'
an apple
apple juice
carrot sticks
AND 2 jaffa cakes!!

He also has two fruit snacks through the day at school, one with milk, access to water all day. He'll probably has pasta or something and veg for tea. SO I really don't think 2 jaffa cakes is that bad when taken as part of his whole daily diet

mp got there first, curses [mad]

was a bit

There aren't any carbs because the chicken is breaded and DS didn't want me to add additional breadsticks (only has 20 minutes to eat).

For snack, he has a fruit smoothie and cheese and breadsticks (I move the breadsticks to his snack).

Not hungry - in fact he rarely finishes his lunch (time constraint I think, and he is quite gabby so is probably talking instead of eating!)

IMO the lunchboxes I do are no less healthy than the school meals. If I used the suggested menus in that link ds2 wouldn't eat any of his lunch. He would rather go hungry. I note they are suggesting fromage frais, which usually contains plenty of sugar.

I find this modern aversion to sugar a bit to be honest.

Can i be the first to start ranting about this fixation with lunchbox contents and "good" foods and "bad" foods and having lunchboxes "checked", being a good way of instilling a really unhealthy relationship with food in small children, setting them up for a lifetime of food guilt and yoyo dieting?

(where is bonsoir?)

I follow a bit of a packed lunch box routine. DD normally has:

-A wholemeal martime or jam sandwich or breadsticks and hommous
-vegetable sticks (cucumber, carrot or pepper)
-fruit (different one every day)
-yoghurt
-juice
-sometimes a dried fruit bar or an home made biscuit or mini banana muffin

I do think that a lot of kids have terrible lunch boxes - I don't think DDs is any great shakes (she is really fussy) but dinner ladies have told me they wished all children's were as good. My neighbour who is a TA said that in her school, a lot of the kids just come with crisps and chocolate and they have to sensitively try and educate the parents.

I think the problem with samples menus like the one linked to makes it look like such a faff that it is easier not to bother wheras if you said to parents stick to the healthy basics, more of them might tackle it.

My ds would probably love the roast beef with vegetable and rice salad - but I can't be bothered to make it, so he usually has sandwiches !

What is wrong with sandwiches?

(will go and read article now but I saw a bit of it on breakfast news and thought )

I've printed the menu off and will ask dd1 later! Today she has gone off with

Tuna/mayo/sweetcorn on brown bread.
Fromage frais
Taxi choc bar
Water

Is that a really bad lunch?

I'm sorry but those menus are ludicrous! Oh God, I'm now fuming. The waste of money and time and effort that's gone into all this.

well dd wouldn't be able to eat most of what is suggested.

i find this modern aversion to fat more than a bit

Ok here:

1 bottle of water of carton of fruit juice but mostly water.

1 sandwich (egg mayo, tuna sweetcorn, chicken, cheese, carenteta which is a sort of cheek peas omelette,every now and then beef or turkey salami)

or

1 pasta salad,rice salad, taboule, couscous salad (all crammed with diced veg)

or

a home made vegetable pasty (either with any veg I have in fridge or "mediterranean" with tomato sauce, veg and italian herbs.

or

home made quiche (plain cheese or spinach)

or

1 flask of soup (for DD1 and Ds2 only as they can open it without scalding themselves)

1 dairy (piece of cheese or any yougurt I have)unless they have got something cheesy already, like cheese sandwich or quiche in which case they are likely to get an extra fruit or a biscuit or cereal bar)

• two pieces of fruit/veg (just 1 for DS3 as he gets a fruit from school in the morning) either fresh, canned (pinapple) or dry.

(not every day) a cereal bar or a couple of biscuits.

It's wonderfully funny when the school dinners are far from perfect. Throw all the attention onto packed lunches to distract from sweet puddings every day, not enough fruit and pizza, chips, coated formed fish more often than they should have them.

DS's school does not have school dinners and I have to admit, having seen some of the lunchbox contents, I am not that shocked at the BBC's contents. DS's teachers had made a point of commenting on the healthiness of Ds's lunchbox and we don't go anywhere near the suggestions on that site, we do sandwiches and houmous and carrots and plain yoghurt. I have seen boxes full of packaged foods - crisps and chocolate and sweets and lunchables.

I think when you are someone who tries to send healthy food, it is hard to imagine that most people don't do the same but I think it is sadly the case.

The advice is bollocks though. Throwing out things like full fat cheese and yohurt, advertising low fat substitutes is atrocious, IMO>

Franca, so do I! I think that so long as ds has had some healthy savoury items (including salad/veg etc) there is no reason why he can't also have a cake. Although I do try to provide home-made stuff rather than very processed foods.

Mine have school dinners. She didn't want packed lunch.

I consider it money well spent, tbh.

They don't have very long to eat, and everytime I see one of these shows on what should go in their lunch I'm astounded at the amount of food in those boxes.

I couldn't even eat all that in 20 minutes, and I like food and don't spend time mucking about as they do.

My DS1 has a sandwich, smoothie, apple and a yogurt pretty much most days.

I am the only person that couldn't be arsed whipping up roast beef with onion and avocado salad?

This menu seems to be written by someone with no idea about children - they probably wouldn't eat and most people with children don't have time to prepare it.

The cynic in me would say the powers that be are purposely publishing impossible menu plans so that most parents will think "stuff it, I will send them in for school dinners" making it far more profitable for the council tendering process.