to think this is a perfectly good sized lunch?

[FenellaFellorick]

For my 15 and 16 year old sons?
(If not a very healthy one but that's not my question )

Ham and cheese salad sandwich, a frube and a wafer bar.

I am doing the next 2 weeks packed lunches for the freezer and this is being hotly contested in my house right now

Loved the frogs arse comment made my night!

Looks like DS kind of lunch. May try the sandwich freezing myself it's such a faff some mornings getting ready and we've ten minutes walk to his school bus.

While I've got you all here, does anyone think I ought to get them to make their own?

Ds (14.5) makes his own sandwich every day that's about this size (ie half a half-size part-baked baguette). He fills it with chili or meatballs & tomato sauce or salami & cucumber/pepper. That's all he takes (it's part of a deal I've got with him: he gets to keep his lunch money if he makes his own lunch - encourages him to prepare food himself).

He apparently buys a can of Pepsi/Irn Bru most days - and treats himself to a fast-food meal every 2nd Friday.

He's active and slim (5ft 5"), walks 2km to school every day, plays rugby and cycles competitively and, with exception of his can of fizzy drink, eats healthily. He gets a yoghurt when he comes home from school and has an apple.

Not everyone eats a lot.

OP, that would just a be a little snack in our house (esp for the teen).

Maybe 2 or 3 of those rolls/sandwiches?

Do 15 yr olds really eat Frubes? I thought that was for tots [grins]

Well Fen, it did cross my mind

They like them. If they stop wanting them, I'll stop giving them.

maybe I need to reintroduce them. They are tiny though, no?

How about things like Muller rice?

DS is 12 and he eats at school, 3 pieces of toast and a bacon roll at snack, then a school meal which consists of, a sub sandwich, cake, fruit and drink. Then if he has cash goes tot eh ice cream van for a packet of crisps.

as to quantities, I read on the NHS site that teens need up to 3000 calls a day, basically more than you and me.

Feeding growing kids is a big job, I do sympathise, I find having filling carboy stuff like flapjacks, scones, plain sponge cake, crackers can supplement a sandwich for hungry boys.

Or a hard boiled egg (or two)? for protein?

I embroidered lunch for my DC every day for 300 years, in silk, blindfolded.

I would add fruit

My DS is 11 and Autistic. He eats a sandwich about 1/3 size of that (no crust), a small choc bar and a fruit based thing.

He gets very stressed eating in company and so we have the opposite problem to eating too much and have an agreed minimum he attempts to get through.

I go by his no. of ribs showing to ensure that over all he's getting enough. He's slightly low body weight but is in the okay range.

He's not very physically active so his calorie intake is less than that of his very active 9 year old brother who eats about what you've listed plus a double breakfast (cooked plus cereals and bread type thing) before school and two bits of toast at break.

Are your DC's weights okay and could that be an indicator for you?

They're extremely fussy about their packed lunches. The wrong combination or texture (e.g. youngest won't have any yoghurt with bits, anything that looks like bits or strong colours! ) and they wont touch it.
I just go with what works.
Save the food battles for dinner. Where I force all manner of dastardly combinations on them

I have much younger children so have no input on size (and anyway you have had plenty - yes I have RTFT!)

I'm just reassured to hear that teenagers still eat packed lunches. I read some thread a while back where someone asked about lunchboxes for teenagers and was ripped to shreds with loads of people saying packed lunches are seriously uncool at secondary school and all they want is money to waste on chips and chocolate at the canteen. I was thinking my kids will be most uncool ever as I will definitely not be letting them waste my money that way. But it seems from this thread that many teenagers do still eat mum-made packed lunches. Phew.

"I embroidered lunch for my DC every day for 300 years, in silk, blindfolded."

Well that was daft. You can't eat silk embroidery.

This would definitely need a couple of pieces of fruit added and maybe an extra sandwich, that age group really need their food and wouldn't be enough for mine, especially boys

My youngest needs to lose weight. We are following his paed advice to maintain his current weight and wait for his growth spurt. Food is a huge issue for him. Including self harm when we restrict it!

Well maybe it wasn't silk. Or embroidery. [sulks]

DS likes fruit puree type things, the smooth ones. They would be lower calorie/ probably a healthier option than a second roll and many are long life so can be grabbed from the cupboard.

B&M/ homebargains/ heron foods always seam to have one or other on a decent offer so I stock up.

Currently DS is into fruit stars and fruit strings (smooth fruit leather like natural haribo I suppose) which B&M have 5 packs for 99p so not too bad for easy eating food.

My 12 year old son was taking a packed lunch into school until just last week, his lunch looked pretty much the same as above but with a banana chucked in and occasionally a pack of crisps. He is 5ft 5in tall and 9 stone.

He decided he would rather have school meals and we agreed I would put £10 each week on his lunch account. This doesn't buy too much and he usually has a roll and a cookie or piece of cake. Before i would have thought that he'd never last on such a small meal, but he hasn't complained yet.

So I think that the lunch above would be more than enough.

Also my 12 year old always took Frubes or squeezy yogurts into school - he is far too lazy to bother with a spoon - there have never been any comments made about it as far as I'm aware.

OP you are funny

My DS is younger than yours but is 5ft6 in year 6 and starting puberty. He has an enormous appetite but that packed lunch would be fine for him - the sandwich looks about the size of a subway?

Decent breakfast before school and that'd be fine. I'd probably add an apple or something.

Sorry maryz. I was just being playful asking that (no offence to anyone. I was teasing not being mean)
I intend to and am happy to carry on making them because damnit I just want something in my day to be ruddy easy