Sch9oll dinners -- do your DCs get them?

[eleusis]

I'm feeling like the nutrition geschtapo for not letting my DD get school dinners. I'm just not convinced they are nutritionally sound. And wondered if I'm in the minority.

So, just wondered if your DCs get them? Do you think they have improved with the new government guidelines?

id rather my children had a plate of carbs than meat at school dinners. there is nothing wrong with carbs for an energetic 5 yr old

and they dont exactly have a huge piled plate do they

the meat they use in school is not the meat i would choose to feed my children (but im a fussy cow over meat and i only feed them meat which has pranced around in daisy covered dewy meadows) so id rahter htey had the vegetarian option at school anyway

My ds school dinner menu is good, it is just his choices which are weird. Yesterday he chose pizza, jacket, beans and sweetcorn The menu

I would be happy for DS to have the vegetarian option, but he doesn't often choose it. Sometimes it is what he will get given of an evening.

We can only choose dinners on a termly basis. If we could vary I would probably let him have a packed lunch one day a week.

Also I dont see that a small portion of dinner is "heavier" than a sandwich.

Dooley, it's the overall calorie intake in a day which leads to people becoming overweight. Many packed lunches contain a lot more calories than a home cooked balanced meal. Also, when we have eaten something which we perceive to be'light' (and it might be in terms of filling us up, but not light in calories) there is a tendency to reassure ourselves that as we haven't eaten very much it's OK to snack on crisp, biscuits, sweets etc.

Yes we have school dinners for lots of reasons (my laziness - no way am I making 3x pack ups in the am!, need for quick tea in the evening often, think they're good value, social reasons) but above all because I think they are good food and lots of it.

We have sessions where parents can come in and I am always very impressed. Also menus sent home every term. Have you asked to see a menu or an example of the food eleusis? Our school always puts out a display of that day's lunch on open afternoons. But a fussy eater (onyl peas as a veg) might struggle I guess.

sample menu might be lasagne with broccoli and potatoes, or roast chicken and veg and potatoes, also a veggie option always salad bar (so maybe tomatoes, cucumber, rice salad, waldorf salad (!) - as much as they like), pudding is a hot pud or yogurt or home made biscuit or fruit. Water and juice and milk to drink.
DS1 is at juniors and they can have seconds and thirds too.

Yeah I'm with roisin re tea in the evening - sandwiches, salad and fruit, plus milk or water, that's all I (or most packed lunchers) have for lunch so it's fine for an evening meal if they have had school dinner.
Anyway there are several days where it's all there is time for before we dash out to swimming, Rainbows etc. We never buy crisps either, apart from for parties, so 3x a year. I never know what to buy lol.

(Roisin - DS2 in bed at 6.30pm? Impressed!)

I'm impressed by those people who have children that tell them what they had for lunch!

If we beleived ds, he does "nothing" at school and most of the time "something" or "can't remember" for lunch! He's 7, so is perfectly capable of telling us if he wanted to!

chopchopbusybusy - yes I know all that.
the lighter meal obviously has to be nutritious. But havign too pasta dinners a day laden with cheese wouldn't be a good idea and as we often don't know what the dcs have for lunch than how do you know you are not giving them spag bol twice a day

Whatever ds1 eats from the school dinner is more nutritionally sound than a packed lunch would be for him - given the option of packed lunches he would survive on cheese sandwiches for the rest of his school career. By eating school dinners with his classmates he has ended up trying other foods and widening his range.

Of course it helps that the school is a 'healthy eating' school, though I'm sceptical about that.

what does he have at ho,e though? cheese sandwiches or another dinner?

But Dooley you said eating meat and 2 veg twice a day is too much food.

ive drummed it into dd1 (5) about healthy eating so much, so says she informed the dinner lady she needed the healthy vegetable side order, and how were the carrots cooked please?

i think we do get in a state about food sometimes, but someotiems we also forget childrenn need a different diet from adults. the are growing. and busy. and full of bouncing energy round a cold playground

Sometimes the one, sometimes the other. We do get a term menu, but what the LOs describe having for lunch doesn't alway match what is one the menu for that day. No doubt they will sometimes get the same or similar meal twice a day, but I don't think you should look at a day's-worth of food, more at the whole week. Besides, there are things that they don't tend to get at school, like oily fish, which they do get at home.

Ds usually gets the same as us, unless we are going to eat really late - in which case he either gets "pasta with pesto", ham, (oven) chips and peas or a hard boiled egg.

Ds seems to live on air - he hardly eats anything with us but appears healthy. he does snack on wee fromage frais pots though.

Last night he had a tiny piece of pork, a very small amount of mashed potato (with olive oil) and one baby sweetcorn.

The only fruit or veg I am guaranteed to get into him is his glass of ornage juice at breakfast. He also eats two breakfasts - onve with us (coco pops or shredded wheet) and then another (free) breakfast at the school.

DD will eat a wide variety of vegetables IF you chop them up and mix them in. The frozen peas are a treat -- hey I'm not going to discourage eating veg so she can have them whenever she wants. Surely, she is not the only 4 year old who would avoid the veg if allowed to do so.

Another problem is that she much prefers chatting to eating. So yesterday at lunch she ate 1/4 of a tin of oxtail soup and didn't eat the carrots... hmmm. Did eat the apple though. Another advantage to a packed lunch is that they send the remains back home so we know what she actually did/didn't eat. So, if she had school lunches, she would eat two bites of the food and then scarf the dessert. And the main filler for her would be the dessert. She is quite happy to live on a very small quantity of food. This is another thing. Why do they serve pudding every day?

Oh, and I have spoken to the caterer. He sent me a menu. I said it looks like it might be okay, but I'd like to know what the ingredients are. He wouldn't tell me. And that sent me down the packed lunch route. If I go to Tesco and buy a ready meal, I can turn over the box and read what is in it. I want to do the same thing with the food that goes on DD's plate. I'm happy with white bread, potatoes are not a veg, and processed meat is yucky. They can use all the full fat dairy, cheese, etc they want. Oh, and I want to know if there's nutrasweet in the pud. If there is, forget it.

Perhaps I'm overly strict on whaat I like her to eat. But, you are what you eat, and I'm not prepared to settle for less.

I'm not happy with white bread

DD has school dinners - was fed up with throwing sandwiches away and if she has school dinners I don't feel so bad if she just has an omlette at night or something quick rather than a big dinner on nights when she has Brownies and Dancing.

Her school is a very small village school that is way ahead nutritionally than lots of others - they have a home cooked (well at school) meal everyday - there is only one option - meat and then a carb and some veg and a pudding.

She does seem to like it and says she eats most of the thngs that they serve up - it is roast day today so she is very happy!

There is no reformed meat and all of the veg is fresh - they have chips once in a blue moon and always have fresh fruit as a pudding choice.

Am pretty happy with it - think it saves me so much time and money too as I was spending a fortune on trying to find thngs that I could guarantee she would eat each day plus not having to wash up umpteen little pots and drinks bottles is a god send.

i agree eleusis

i tell dd not to choose the chicken or red meat - and i tell her why

i tell her if it looks really yummy or if its her favourite (spag bol) then its ok occasionally. but the cow its made from might not have been a happy cow

and ia agree about the nutrasweet. yuk

I doubt that the puddings have nutrasweet in them. However I would imagine that white bread may well be used. Potatoes are perfectly acceptable as a carb alongside other veg.

And at our school the children are encouraged to have a reasonable go at the main course before they start on their pudding. If I am honest, I would like the school dinners to be better, and possibly less choices, but I think they are OK. And DS will eat the veg whether it is mixed in or on the side. And when DD goes (she is at nursery now and eating their food) she will eat the veg. Her problem will be just how slow she is at eating. But that is a problem whether dinners or packed lunches.

there is no white bread at ouir school

Ours is only white bread. The government regulation says "fresh bread". Since when is fresh white bread nutritious????

Potatoes aren't very nutritious either, but I'm happy with them as a carb.

Ehhm - potatoes are nutritious. Especially if the skin is eaten. I agree it doesn't count as a vegetable, but it is a good source of energy. White bread is not such a bad thing. Do you ever eat ciabatta etc?

I'd happily take a jacket potato over a couple of slices of white bread. Part of it here though, eleusis, is your individual DD. Do you think you could educate/brainwash her into making good choices, like it sounds as though naily has done?

She's 4. I think expecting a 4 year old to walk up and choose veg when white bread is on offer is a bit of a tall order. I mean really, isn't this normal behaviour? It's a bit like when I say "DD, go upstairs and put your pyjamas on, brush your teeth and go to bed." and expect to see her well rested at 6:00am. Pretty good chance she'll go upstairs. She'll probably put her pyjamas on... and after that, well she's probably forgotten about teeth and avoiding bed time is one of her greatest skills.

Oh, and I'm quite happy for her to eat potatoes. They just don't count as the veg in my book. They are a carb like rice, bread, pasta, etc.