The lunchbox police are at it again! *rage*

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

My children have come home declaring that cheese is unhealthy and doesn't have a place in a healthy lunchbox, what the actual fuck?! why are a schools getting away with this bolleux!

Bonkers and pointless, they live in bacon butties at brunch and fresh air for lunch at senior school.

DD1 has been known to take in fruit or salad because healthy things are so rare.

I'd rather a child have a squash drink with some sugar in it in moderation than mainline a diet squash full of artificial junk.

This lunchbox policing is pure nonsense. We need to start a revolt against it.

The Change for Life leaflet's emphasis on low fat food seems wholly I appropriate for my skinny and very active 6 year old. At home I try to make every mouthful of food pack in as many calories as possible.

This is really worrying!

Did you know that a new 'condition' has been identified of people who are so obsessed with eating 'healthy food' that they can end up on an extremely restricted and unhealthy diet. It's called orthorexia nervosa (according to the news item I listened to on R4 last week)

I wonder if schools ever take advice from a dietitician before imposing these 'rules'? I believe that schools should have a role in helping children to eat healthily, but they should also make sure that they know what they are talking about.

God these threads depress me. Is this what we have to look forward to?

School lunches will be fun with my DS3...

I look forward to doing battle with stupid school policies regarding lunchbox contents when I'll be having to provide a lunchbox for a DC that SHOULD be entitled to FSM's, but can't be catered for.

I'll have the backing of a paediatric Allergy specialist dietician, too.

My DS3 will require unusual fats in his lunchbox to balance his diet, as he cannot have any dairy (so no cheese or yoghurt), no soy to replace that, no nuts due to tree nut & peanut allergies, no humous or lentils due to allergy to other legumes, so fats are a specific difficulty in his diet.

He has to have odd things like cocktail sausages and bacon with the rind on in order to get any sort of fats into a lunchbox. The only other option is salad with an olive oil based dressing, but I am yet to convince my 3yo that salad IS fit for human consumption currently.

He would live off bloody fruit, given half a chance. And I DO mean that. He averages 7-8 portions a day...

Protein we deal with with egg or cooked chicken, but they don't have enough fats in to balance HIS diet.

School will fucking hate me.

I find it equally puzzling that the children are given a sticker to put on their lunchboxes if the eat ALL their lunch.

I tell my kids that they don't have to eat everything...They just have to eat as much as they want/until they feel full. Why encourage over-eating?

The kids are getting quite used to the idea that not everything teachers say is right. We've had some corker comments recently, but as long as the kids can stick up for themselves, I let it pass.

My Dd1 is due to start school later this year. The lunchbox stuff terrifies me!

Well, my ds came home yesterday dying bananas are unhealthy because they're instant energy.

Do they have the budget to deal with all the eating disorders they will have created in 10 years time?

I get that if a child is coming in with coke, crisps and a mars bar every day that is not ideal.

Cheese though? FS

That won't be exactly what the teacher said, boshbashbosh.

This makes me so sad. Balance is key, that is the only way to have a healthy relationship with food. Being told off for having cheese is absolutely ridiculous, things like this stay with kids for a long time and give them a complex. The low fat yoghurt adverts, with their skinny perfect women in them made me calorie count everything until my mum caught me and made me see sense. I even went to the school nurse, realising, if anything, I was a bit underweight. She told me the best way to get fats is through cheese, blue milk and pasta. That was news to me! Schools should be telling kids these fats are important, rather than spending your life avoiding them because fucking Danone tells you to.

That's just stupid. DSs school get like this from time to time, then I have to have a word with the patronising cow of a lunch lady who has yet again forgotten about DS's condition. Lunchlady's current campaign is against white bread.

There's a note in DS's lunchbox for when she tells him off about food, it says:
'Dear Mrs x, As you are aware, DS has a medical condition. If you have any queries or concerns about DS's eating habits please feel free to call me on... before discussing them with DS as this causes him unnecessary distress. Thank You, Adikia'

DD's school sent home a little guide to healthy eating, with a list of good things to have and a list of things you shouldn't have too much of, which is a much better plan. The only thing that's actually banned is fizzy drinks.

Cubes of cheddar are on the healthy list.

What happened to the concept of "everyday foods" and "sometimes foods"? Children get that and it's true.

Are there any middays on here that police lunchboxes? I never do, but I do check the little ones have eaten their sandwich. I work in a rural school with lots of middle class children and a fair few of them do have utter rubbish in their lunch boxes. But I don't have time to "police" and we are not told too. But if a child eats their crisps ans chocolate and no sandwich then I will make them eat it the sandwich. Otherwise they will not learn in the afternoon. If you pack a lunch for your child don't you expeotct them to eat it all, otherwise why give them too much. We are not mindreaders.

So again, people with school age kids are having to re-educate their children from all the bullshit they are fed at school by 'professionals' . Dubious dietary advice, spelling mistakes, grammatical errors. Can anyone tell me if its worth sending my children to school?

Do you know what amazes me? In Year 6 the lucnhbox police are telling my ds2 that he cannot have any form of cake, chocolate, squash, crisps-he CAN have cereal bars as these apparently are "healthy" however but anyway...in September he will be given free access to Pizza, chocolate, fizzy drinks, hot dogs, chips, crisps, and just about every other form of junk food you can think of.
It just makes no sense.

If that was aimed at me URI a). Im on my phone and I have fat fingers and B) I don't know if you meant to be so rude. I may not have perfect grammar, my own kids lunch boxes aren't always that healthy but if you work in a school (and I am a midday) you would not recognize anything that is being said on this thread as the whole picture. Go into your school, talk to the head. If your child has dietary issues make sure the school knows its ok to tell the middays.

Not aimed at you bear . Just a general rant, I'm hearing a lot about misspelled notes from teachers, badly written notices etc. makes me wonder what teachers can offer my little ones that I can't.

I haven't got a scanner unfortunately, I can't even do photo's on this.

I have got a link to the NHS guide to a healthy pack lunch though, which is probably more help than something from an individual school anyway.

Agree with bear this lunchbox attitude is NOT at all schools

Neither of the two infant schools and junior schools "police" lunchboxes in my village

As a midday we might be concerned about a child with a lunch box full of chocolate products but this would be mentioned to the teacher not the child

In my school there would be no time to check the contents of all the lunchboxes,

So anyone whose children are about to start school don't worry (yet) your school might have a very strict packed lunch policy or they might not