Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

News

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

236 replies

Littleknight · 12/01/2010 10:41

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!

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 12/01/2010 11:30

Am I the only one with children who have appetites like hummingbirds?

Do young children really eat so much in 20 minutes?

My gawd, maybe they should be looking at portions sizes and the amount of food rather than hammering on about sugar and fat.

My children are twiglets. They're fussy eaters who don't each much at one sitting, but I'm glad they don't go to a school with this 'all fats are bad' approach because they need every calorie they can get!

[thin genes run on both sides of the family and DH's side is well-above average for height]

ImSoNotTelling · 12/01/2010 11:31

Hold on. Do they suggest a bottle of mineral water most days?

They do don't they.

That is environmentally extremely unsound. They have gone way off-message there and I hope the environment agency takes their lunches away as punishment.

Francagoestohollywood · 12/01/2010 11:33

Pizza is actually quite healthy if the right ingredients are used...

mii · 12/01/2010 11:37

lunch at school is my one big jesus I could scream thing

our school is v v biased towards wanting DC to have school dinner, so NO hot food allowed for packed lunches (so no flask of soup/stew), no choc, crisps, biscuits. DD was told not to bring dried apricots because they weren't fresh and were bad for her teeth

School dinners today?: Hot dog in a roll, wedges, veg and chocolate sponge with custard

tis a fucking joke

mii · 12/01/2010 11:38

And those suggestions for smoothies etc wouldn't work because packed lunches are only allowed water or milk in a CLEAR container so the staff can check

morningpaper · 12/01/2010 11:40

can check what? If it is an incendiary device? It's all MAAAAD

gorionine · 12/01/2010 11:42

Ormirian, I second you, it needs to be balanced and take into account what sort of activity the child takes (ie walks to school or not, has an after school club that does not leave time for a snack before start...)

DS3 was comming back from school at one point with all his lunch minus fruit, because "only fruit and veg were healthy" according to what he had heard in school. It took me days to be able to convince him that his body needed other foods too. In the end I found a book talking about nutrition(for children) with all the food groups and NONE was banned, eventually he started eating normally again, was probably strving by this time.

I cannot help but thinking that had he had school lunch instead, he would have got on eating nothing but fruits for God knows how long before noticed.

I must say that our school menu is really nice and varied, they really made a lot of efforts in the last few years, but I am a controle freak and needs to know what they ate and how much to "balance" if needed in the evening meal.

Expat, my DCs are twigs like yours and I had several "runs in" with a particular teacher DD1 had wo was telling her off for reatng a ceral bar saying to her "and your mum thinks it is ok does she, to give you something fat and sugary?" I had to actually use all my selfcontrole to not throttle her (teacher) and tell her calmly "I agree with giving DCS a balanced diet but would not put them on a diet" as it is very different IMHO.

LadyintheRadiator · 12/01/2010 11:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

nickelbabe · 12/01/2010 11:44

i watched something on bbc breakfast this morning where they showed a school and healthy lunches etc.
one of the boys opened his lunch box and there was a whole orange in there - not a satsuma, an orange.
i was a bit and actually.
there's no way i could have eaten a whole orange when i was in junior school without squirting juice on me and most of my friends! (although he might have had a tupperware orange peeler) how is that possible? a tub with orange segments i can understand, or an easy peel orange.
maybe it was just me and all children are capable of peeling an orange without mess....

mii · 12/01/2010 11:44

"and your mum thinks it is ok does she, to give you something fat and sugary?"

how did you stop yourself from throttling her? saying that to a child is way out of line

LunarSea · 12/01/2010 11:44

I'd probably fall foul of that as I usually put in fruit rather than vegetables - a whole apple, pear or satsuma or a handful of grapes doesn't take any additional preparation time, whereas there aren't many vegetables which you can say the same about.

We do have plenty of veg with evening meals though so over a day it'd balance out.

Yzzil · 12/01/2010 11:44

My eldest is 2 so I have yet to experience this trauma. But mii the lunch police sound ridiculous!

I remember in my days when we had a tuck shop at school....(sighs nostalgically)

mii · 12/01/2010 11:46

yzzil, I had chips and gravy EVERYDAY for 4 years at secondary school

grumpypants · 12/01/2010 11:46

isn't it that the pkd lunches don't conform to the standards required of school dinners? I don't want or need to be told how to gfeed my children, and I treat their pkd lunch as part of their whole day's intake of food. So, small pkt maryland cookies at lunch, snack on an apple at home etc.

gorionine · 12/01/2010 11:51

mii, it is the sme here, they want to break us into buying school lunches.

I think that my Dcs lunch boxes could probably be improved but they are not unhealthy and are certainly varied. Another issue is that financially, we would not survive with paying 4 school lunches a day. (£1.75 x 4 X 5 X 4 = £140) a month on top of my regular shopping bill which I would not be able to decrease by the same amount even if they did eat school lunch.

TigerFeet · 12/01/2010 11:51

oooh thanks mamamission

mii · 12/01/2010 11:53

yy cost ridiculous

I can feed the whole family for £5-£6 a meal

Am I going to pay £1.90 for one meal for a 4yr old, that she will probably eat 4 bites of, am I feck

TigerFeet · 12/01/2010 11:53

chips and gravy..... oh god

expatinscotland · 12/01/2010 11:54

see, that's just it: do all this, then they go to secondary school and eat chips every single day.

there's only one secondary school in a rather large area around here, and it's open campus.

come lunchtime, every tuck shop in town is busy doling out the chips.

mii · 12/01/2010 11:56

yy expat our chippy does a lunch meal deal £1.10 for half chips, sausage and can of drink

the queue is a mile long when the secondary schools kick out at lunch time

LadyintheRadiator · 12/01/2010 11:56

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheCrackFox · 12/01/2010 11:57

At DS1 school the menu seems fairly healthy but is prepared somewhere else and then re-heated at the school. All for £1.85, most of which will end up in the bin.

If you had 3 children then that soon mounts up.

greygirl · 12/01/2010 12:01

my husband groaned when this came on the radio - he thinks i spend too much worrying about what's in her lunchbox as it is.
AND THEN DD comes home to tell me that 'maddie has monster munch and i would like some'....
choppped carrot sticks just won't cut the mustard for her now!

Sixmincepiessoontobeseven · 12/01/2010 12:03

I with you giorionine I to have 4 children and couldn't cut the cost of my shopping bill to accomadate school meals.

FWIW

dd1 (sec school) had a chiken sandwich, frube, pepperami and a diet coke
dd2 Dairylea sandwich, frube, pepperami and blackcurrant cordial
dd3 Cheese square sandwich, frube, pepperami, apple, pear blackcurrant cordial

I will give them a packet of crisp occasionally, usually on fridays when we're running out of stuff and its shopping day.

I thought their lunches were ok but they tell me that so an so had a chocolate biscuit crisps bar of choc everyday and they are supposed to be a healthy school. I did go mad when one day, we were running low and I put a Chocolate wafer biscuit in the dinner lady saw it and took it of dd3, so all she had was a cheese sandwich all day.

SofaQueen · 12/01/2010 12:06

When we were deciding between sending DS1 to the Lycee Francais versus and English school, one of the big plusses of the Lycee was the canteen. The lunch menu is here.

Very different from most of the dinners I read about here.

We unfortunately didn't choose the Lycee, meaning I have to me packed lunches every day. grrr.