Would you be happy with these puddings on your dc's school dinner menu?

[katalex]

These are the choices on dd's 4 week rolling school dinner menu. I can't help thinking that there is too much sugar and fat. They offer fruit or yoghurt every day but my dd is never going to choose to eat fruit when there is cake on the menu. In fact, she would probably go without a pudding if it was only fruit on offer. Dd tells me that she isn't made to eat her vegetables before having her pudding (which is what she has to do at home).

How does this compare to your dc's menu? Please tell me if you think this isn't really an issue and I'm worrying unnecessarily.

Giant oat cookie or fresh fruit salad
Bakewell tart or jam puff
Syrup sponge and custard or fruit pots
Apple goodie and custard or meringue nests
Danish pastry or mandarin and kiwi pots
Lemon iced sponge or ice cream
Flapjack or cheese and biscuits
Ground rice or fruit pots
Jelly and cream or chocolate mousse
Jam sponge and custard or melon medley
Rice crispie cake or fruit pots
Chocolate marble sponge with chocolate sauce or cheese and biscuits
Rice pudding or strawberry mousse
Peach and apple crumble with custard or fruit pots
Gateaux or arctic roll
Jam tart and custard or fruit cocktail
Trifle or fruit pots
Cheesecake or oat cookies
Muffins or fruit pots
Canadian ginger with lemon sauce or meringue nests

Hear hear Cory, DS never expected puddings automatically until he started school dinners, I don't really see the need for a sweet course everyday. But i think the main courses shoul be a bit larger, or more option for them to get seconds... yesterday DS didn't take the pudding (I think it might have been carrot cake, which he knows he doesn't like) and was starving even more than usual by 3.15.

Also, I am broadly in favour of the "food police" approach to packed lunches, so why do they then give them sweet puddings with the school dinners? Actually our school is not very strict about packed lunch contents, so I can't really use that argument.

Having worked as school dinner chef (secondary, fee-paying, 'Jamie'd' before he started his campaign) your list sounded like what we made. Custard available everyday with sponge/crumble/tart of asstd flavours. Fresh fruit, including slices of melon always available. And a cold sweet choice as well - jelly/scone/cake.
The kids were used to seeing bakewell tart with custard one day, then as a cold option the next!
Do agree some schools are too strict on packed lunch contents, when compared to cooked choc pudding

My DC are given a choice between a hot pudding - apple pie and custard, a cold pudding - yoghurt, jelly etc or a piece of fruit.
Mine often go for the pud. I don't mind. They have a long school day and do sport every day plus two active breaks. They are skinny.
The only Mum I've heard complain is the one with a fat child and it aint the sponge that's doing it, trust me.

I often give a pudding at home too , but in my defence the kids do lots and lots of exercise.

Actually, with kids doing high levels of sport outside of school, do you think they need the extra cals?
Mine seem to and are very skinny.

I wouldn't have a problem with that .

I can't see what is wrong with a traditional British pud. My DSs have hollow legs and need feeding up! They need a sensible portion size for age and plenty of exercise-otherwise I don't have a problem with it.

sounds good to me

I love my kids being offered a great pudding after their meal. It fills them up and gives them energy. Children dont need to have a low fat diet. In fact, isnt there a bit of a concern that some children are not getting enough fat and some are underweight (sure I read that somewhere). They burn up so much energy - I was shocked at how many calories my 8 year old should have - it was almost as many as an adult women from memory. Some children do look very thin these days (and I accept some look overweight too). I was a babysitter for three girls who were only allowed sweets on fridays and whose treats were sunflower seeds. They used to steal my chocolate out of my handbag when I wasnt looking and now as adults are food obsessed and all three are overweight. In the past the great british pudding was a mainstay and looking back at photos etc, nobody was overweight. I suppose life was more active then though.

I would be happy to go into DD's school and eat her pudding for her, as she rarely eats pud but I have to pay for it.

Similar to ours and yet another reason why my dcs don't have school dinners

OOh scrummy, jam sponge, chocolate marble cake - this will be what your kids remember nostalgically when they grow up.

As someone said previously, children have different dietary requirements to adults. They do need more fat than we do.
Their bodies are going through enormous changes and they need the energy for growing. Us adults are not growing in quite the same way.

If they are active they need filling up. I, as an adult,only have a pudding on special occasions and I stick to low fat yoghurt or fresh fruit but that is because I am not burning them off. If I go skiing I can eat a pudding everyday and maintain, or even lose, weight. We shouldn't muddle up a healthy diet for a DC with a healthy diet for an adult wishing to lose weight. Portion size is important, but something like a fruit crumble and custard is perfectly healthy-as part of a balanced diet.It isn't healthy if they are going to eat crisps, biscuits and sweets when they get home -or if they are going to have a second pudding in the evening.

I'd be delighted if my dd was offered those for pudding (they don't offer any hot meals at all at her school - am abroad)

Eating should be pleasurable not a chore and dc like the variety of a pud.

That menu has been designed quite cleverly so at least one choice has a fruit element and as has been said below, children NEED (within reason) fat and sugar.

They are growing, they are more active (generally) than adults and they have a higher metabolic rate.

As long as the dc eating it are not stuck indoors in front of a screen 8 hrs a day - it's fine - I'd almost say "very good"!

Remember too that the puddings produced by schools are governed by rules on fat, sugar and salt content. So even the great traditional puddings of our childhood aren't the same as we remember.

I think we have gone mad in this country! I think it's great that they are offered these puddings. It is not up to the school to take full responsibility for all the nutritional ills of the country - parents have this responsibility and can restrict what their children eat. Of course they can promote healthy eating, but we shouldn't get so hung up about it! If children have a pudding for school dinner then it is a very simple solution - don't give them one at home.

What I can't stand at our school is the fact that my children (who have packed lunch) have to bring all their rubbish home - soggy, brown, half eaten apples mixed with the remnants of a packet of crisps and the drips from their drinks. It is gross. They aren't allowed to throw it away at home because parents have to be able to monitor what they eat! Now, as parents aren't in school most of the time, how can they prevent swapping of foods? How can they force their child to eat something they don't want? All they have to do is speak to their child and ask what they want to eat or are most likely to eat! Bringing home completely untouched food is fine but the empty packaging is stupid.

I had a dinner lady tell me that my child wouldn't eat his lunch and what should she do about it? Mmm, force it down his throat?? Answer, nothing, if he doesn't want it, don't make him!

I have three very slim and healthy children. My children do huge amounts of activities every day and they need a well balanced diet containing fat.

I am deliberately not puritanical about food - I offer a huge variety and the only foods off limits are shit ones filled with e-numbers. We don't have fizzy drinks and crisps and sweets in the house so they can have apudding at school with my blessing.
Because I have not created 'bad' foods my DS1 is as fit as fuck and would rather eat a wrap than cakes. DD is only 7 but she too would list her fav foods as meatballs, broccoli and raspberries with cream.

Children need to eat lots of different foods and be active much of the day. As soon as you start applying 'good' and 'bad' to food you start to cause problems.
I would much prefer that healthy eating were projected by trying to encourage children to routinely eat the widest possible range of foods.

I would be bloody annoyed if schools started deciding that when he queues up my 13stone 6ft son who has just done 1 1/2 hours of rugby trainning is offered a piece of fruit, or DD who is growing almost visibly and has walked to school and then done playtime and an hours gymnastics gets offered a yogurt.

Most of my generation were brought up on traditional school stodge and were not fat. Children are more likely to get fat from inactive lifestyle and a fast food snack infested diet - not from spotted dick

According to my kids, they have fairly traditional school puddings - hot sponge and custard type things. They can also have a fruit cup, homemade yoghurt or flapjack every day.

I agree with every word, pagwatch.I have 3 slim DSs. I have never labelled food as 'good' or 'bad'. They have always enjoyed puddings but often they prefer not to have one-it has never been a 'big deal'.
I have never got over a mumsnet thread where a mum was almost shuddering because her DC with 'healthy' packed lunch was sitting next to a DC having (whisper!)....custard! What is wrong with custard? If you are terribly fussy you can even make your own custard from scratch.
We regularly fell walk as a family-you can't walk all day on carrot sticks and a yoghurt!

The only edible bit of the meal at my secondary school.

I agree about a good pud, even if my DD isn't fussed (unless there's chocolate involved). Before our school started doing school meals last year, the head used to sometimes police the children's lunch boxes, handing out stickers to children with what she considered to be particularly healthy meals. My older DD was miffed not to get one once because she had a slice of Dad's homemade fruit cake with her sandwich and apple. It was wrong on all levels - the head inspecting the food and passing judgement, and then deciding that no meal including cake could possible be healthy.

i would be more worried about additives and other preservatives more than anything else. my ds is skinny - i made homemade puddings/desserts several times a week - usually i sneak in a generous amount of fruit but today i made a beutiful chocolate cake with cream and raspberries and ds had several slices (would mention that the last time i made it was several months ago on his birthday! i am proud of being able to turn these out as i know that a lot of my urban friends of similar age would not know a cake tin if it hit them in the face.

however, i do not let ds eat any old crap at nursery parties for instance - even the desicated coconut containing sulphur dioxide would have an effect on his behaviour let alone jelly beans and haribos

It doesn't matter how active/skinny your kids are, there is no need for any refined sugar products in our diet. I'm really surprised that so many of you feel pudding and custard is acceptable every day. I'd prefer our school to serve larger savoury portions and have options such as ryebread/oatcakes and cheese for after, pudding doesn't always have to be savoury. I'm not saying ban the sweet things - but everything in moderation.

Before I get flamed, I'm not a lentil weaving sugarphobe. My daughter gets home-made banana or carrot cake in her lunch box a couple of times a week and even the occasional Mcds.

I'm not sure I would be over the moon about it, but I also don't think it would bother me enough to make an issue of it iyswim?

At dd1's school, the menu is lovely. All the schools in our town have the same menu, desgined by a nutrionist the council hired.

The deserts are all fruit based and made by hand in the schools, i.e. fruit crumble and home made custard, fruit tart, apple pie, peach cobbler, pineapple upside down cake, carrot cake etc.

Infact the dinners in thsi towns schools are superb. If only dd1 would eat them