Children's lunchboxes...

[discoball]

HI,

Just wondered what the general opinion is on schools having a say in children's lunchboxes? Personally, I think that they can only educate children/parents to a degree and then it is ultimately up to the parents. You are always going to get huge variants in how healthy/unhealth they are! My daughter has a tuna sandwich, a bag of baked crisps (shock, horror?!), a matchbox size piece of cheese (Edam), a tangerine, a banana, a small milk chocolate bar (!!!) and a bottle of water. Now I don't think this is particularly bad and would not be happy if a school took is so far as to actually look in people's lunchboxes. Even if the odd one is particularly unhealthy, surely it is ultimately the parent's choice and not the school's? What do you all think?! Thanks.

SORRY, DIDN'T MEAN TO POST THE QUESTION TWICE!!!

I disagree I'm afraid. If all parents were sensible, great - but when it comes to children being sent to school with a half-eaten McDonalds/two cans of Red Bull/three chocolate bars for lunch, SOMEONE has to draw a line.

I think it's a reasonable thing for a school to have a stance on. If you want to feed your children criminally poor food, or none at all, you should pick them up from school and do it at home - nobody can stop that

having said that, sadly the policy is a blunt instrument and leads to children being banned from having a home-made flapjack in their lunchbox when the children having school dinners are shovelling cake and custard for pudding. But that's an abuse/misinterpretation of a good policy, not a shit policy. IMO.

Greensneeze

Yes, I agree with the last statement, some schools dish up sticky toffee pudding and custard and yet ban a flapjack!! Luckily, I haven't heard anything like this is going to happen at DS school, they seem very sensible and don't think they feel the need to intervene - we are really lucky with our school, it's not that I have to worry about that, I was just interested in the general opinions of people.

The question you might ask your school is how much do they know about nutrition, especially children's nutriton, before they start issuing dictats.

There's nothing wrong with sticky toffee pudding and custard or flapjack or small chocolate bars or baked crisps as part of a balanced diet. Balance is the key point along with the fact that not every meal needs to be balanced and that a day's nutrient intake is of more significance. Children need energy dense foods ( see above) rather than low fat / low calorie , ideally little and often - though that's not likely to happen in school.

Anyway, off my hobbyhorse but I'm not sure it's got that much to do with school what your child brings in a lunchbox. What if your child has problems with food and eats a very limited range but some of those foods don't appear on the approved list?

Thanks for your reply, Campion - a very "balanced" view!!!