School telling what to put in packed lunch?

[Janidog]

Unfortunately the stats on young children state that children are getting bigger and i think the Government are trying there best at trying to keep obesity levels down, but currently failing.

 

[kayleigh&bump]

I can understand why they would want to ban unhealthy stuff, but when they serve up that cr*p to kids who have the school dinners, how does that work. Hypocrytical much? If they want to ban things like crisps and chocolate from packed lunches, then they also need to serve up healthy school dinners

 

[Janidog]

I can understand why they would want to ban unhealthy stuff, but when they serve up that cr*p to kids who have the school dinners, how does that work. Hypocrytical much? If they want to ban things like crisps and chocolate from packed lunches, then they also need to serve up healthy school dinners

Completely agree with you. When I was at school I was glad I had a packed lunch because the school dinners were so unappetizing. On the otherhand when Jamie Oliver was trying to change school dinners there was an uproar from parents and the school children

 

[indy and lara]

Many of schools are providing increasingly healthy lunches with reduced salt/ sugar and increased choices. One of the problems though is uptake- if the hot, healthy meals are not bought then schools stop providing them.

One thing that horrifies me when I walk through the dinner hall is the number of kids who eat 1 thing or nothing from their lunch boxes and then chuck the rest in the bin if they can get away with (and no-one notices). If there is a bar of chocolate in the box then mostchildren, but especially the younger ones, will often only eat that. Obviously if a child is not eating enough or properly at lunchtime then that has a very negative impact on the rest of the afternoon.

OP- Is there a lunchbox policy or guidelines at your brother's school regarding chocolate with lunch? If there was a no chocolate policy and he had some then in most schools that would be followed up. There will be children who will be upset that they are following the rules but someone else isn't.(I can't tell you how many times I have had kids tell tales on those with chocolate spread/ hummus/ peanut butter in the lunchbox).

 

[mum22ttc#3]

Many of schools are providing increasingly healthy lunches with reduced salt/ sugar and increased choices. One of the problems though is uptake- if the hot, healthy meals are not bought then schools stop providing them.

One thing that horrifies me when I walk through the dinner hall is the number of kids who eat 1 thing or nothing from their lunch boxes and then chuck the rest in the bin if they can get away with (and no-one notices). If there is a bar of chocolate in the box then most children, but especially the younger ones, will often only eat that. Obviously if a child is not eating enough or properly at lunchtime then that has a very negative impact on the rest of the afternoon.

OP- Is there a lunchbox policy or guidelines at your brother's school regarding chocolate with lunch? If there was a no chocolate policy and he had some then in most schools that would be followed up. There will be children who will be upset that they are following the rules but someone else isn't.(I can't tell you how many times I have had kids tell tales on those with chocolate spread/ hummus/ peanut butter in the lunchbox).

TBH when you put it like that I do think that alot of children probably would be upset, not that their parents wouldn't allow it but that other children were taking in food that 'wasn't allowed' within school rules. My kids sometimes find it hard to understand why other kids are allowed sweets every night for example and their not, sometimes it is just hard to explain especially to younger kids.

OT but what can a school actually do if kids were to carry on taking in food that wasn't allowed and the parents had said it was ok for their kids to eat it. I only ask as our Daughters school doesn't seem to do much to follow it up, even though I know they check lunch boxes, just not sure what they do about it. As for their school meals TBH they seem pretty healthy with a range of choices.

 

[xolily]

nope, there's no lunchbox policy! x

 

[karlilay]

I will go absolutley nuts if anyone tries to take food away from Madi.

Common sense would tell you not to send your kids in with a lunchbox full of crap, but honestly so what if i choose to give my child jaffa cakes or a pack of quavers! Who the hell are they to decide! Personally i couldnt give a flying fuckery what other children are allowed/not allowed, thats up to their parents!

God! Bring on primary school, they wont know whats hit em!

 

[Janidog]

I will go absolutley nuts if anyone tries to take food away from Madi.

Common sense would tell you not to send your kids in with a lunchbox full of crap, but honestly so what if i choose to give my child jaffa cakes or a pack of quavers! Who the hell are they to decide! Personally i couldnt give a flying fuckery what other children are allowed/not allowed, thats up to their parents!

God! Bring on primary school, they wont know whats hit em!

If you don't agree with school policy's then you can always homeschool,

 

[Janidog]

nope, there's no lunchbox policy! x

If there isnt a lunch box policy then i would ignore the letter

 

[karlilay]

I will go absolutley nuts if anyone tries to take food away from Madi.

Common sense would tell you not to send your kids in with a lunchbox full of crap, but honestly so what if i choose to give my child jaffa cakes or a pack of quavers! Who the hell are they to decide! Personally i couldnt give a flying fuckery what other children are allowed/not allowed, thats up to their parents!

God! Bring on primary school, they wont know whats hit em!

If you don't agree with school policy's then you can always homeschool,

I would seriously consider it if a place where i was sending my child to learn thought they could dictate what i feed my own child.
Rediculous.

 

[indy and lara]

Xolily, in which case I would ask why it happened then. I can see why if there was a policy but otherwise cannot see why at all.

I am always a bit sad by the anti-school feeling which comes up in threads like this. If you are not happy with something then why don't people go and talk to the teacher rather than go straight for an argument? Many school policies are dictated by the LA not school so they have little choice but to impose them.

 

[Midnight_Fairy]

The hot meals at my kids schools look ace, shame they wont eat them because I would!

 

[cherryglitter]

so not looking forward to this!! i do think it's a bit ridiculous that schools think they can dictate what you feed to your child.

it seems the 'what you feed your child' debate never ever ends..

 

[mandy81]

In sophie-lou and dylans school they aren't allowed
chocolate
fizzy drinks
crisps or chocolate biscuits

I don't have a problem with it tbh x

Just to add I haven't read any of the other replies !! lol

 

[mum22ttc#3]

I will go absolutley nuts if anyone tries to take food away from Madi.

Common sense would tell you not to send your kids in with a lunchbox full of crap, but honestly so what if i choose to give my child jaffa cakes or a pack of quavers! Who the hell are they to decide! Personally i couldnt give a flying fuckery what other children are allowed/not allowed, thats up to their parents!

God! Bring on primary school, they wont know whats hit em!

Unfortunately though not every one does have the common sense not to do this, which is why some schools obviously feel the need for these rules.

Personally I think they should be able to use the rules to their discretion, that way it wouldn't affect the kids that were getting a treat in an otherwise healthy lunchbox but it would mean they were able to take things further perhaps with the parents of those that lunch boxes were full of crap.

 

[vaniilla]

this doesn't really affect me as lo will be having school dinners as they have a great reputation for food and won a 5 star award for their kitchen hygiene last year, if he wanted to go for packed lunch then we wouldn't put any junk in there regardless of the rules, I'm with the government on this one, if it's in the school policy then it's a school rule that has to be followed, if parents are really against it they should be taking it up with the school and seeing if anything can be done but I don't see the big deal? nobody's child is going to die because they didn't eat crisps or chocolate for lunch

 

[~RedLily~]

It's unfair for those who are extremely fussy eaters, the parents will probably put whatever they can it to just get them to eat.
My lunchbox was always pretty healthy I think but my mum did struggle because I just didn't like anything and when the school secretary decided to take it upon herself to get me to eat by taking my whole lunch off me and giving me a cooked dinner I ended up having to sit in an empty hall for an hour in tears with this Christmas dinner I was not going to eat and missed all the Christmas activities for the day. I was about 5 or 6 at the time and devastated she had done that (and hungry lol) so my opinion is basically to leave it up to the parents, they may not give the ideal lunch box but it is their decision at the end of the day.
Obviously with allergies it's different and I think they should maybe have guidelines for healthy foods but I don't think anyone should be able to take anything out of a childs lunch box except if there is some kind of risk to it.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

This is nuts!!!!! Alex has a heart condition and will need to stay very hydrated when he's at school. If ANYONE told him he couldn't have water the whole time he was at school, they better run because my wrath would be coming down so hard on them!

I think it's terrible that dinner ladies TAKE food from children! How horrible is that?

 

[Twister]

I was a fussy eater as a child so my mum had to put a packet of crisps and/or a chocolate biscuit bar in my lunch box otherwise I wouldn't have had enough to eat. Back then the only rules the schools I went to had was a no fizzy drinks rule which was fine. But if they had a ban on all treats then I simply wouldn't have had enough to eat at lunch so I don't think it's very fair on the kids who struggle with food. Some kids are fussy and won't eat some of the healthy food, would the schools rather them go hungry?

It's the parents choice tbh, and I don't think they should be allowed to take food from a child unless it's unsafe or something. Guidelines are fine but anything more seems like interfering.

 

[emilyjade]

At my primary school we wasnt aloud fizzy drinks or chocs/sweets but that was just school policy so there wasnt 100 hyperactive kids. x