I spent a lovely morning last week helping out at A’s play group and once I had removed her from my leg and convinced her that me being there didn’t mean that she had to be permanently attached to me, I really enjoyed my morning.
We stayed for lunch club too and I sat down with my cheese salad and A opened up her lunch of a sandwich, fruit, a yoghurt and a drink. As I sat munching on my lettuce I had a glance around to see what was in the other children’s lunch boxes and I have to say that I was quite shocked; both by the amount and the content.
Now I am not usually a judgemental person but some of these children, who are three and four years old had more food in their lunch box than I could possibly eat and if we are looking for a cause of obesity in children I think I may have just found it – mass over feeding of our preschoolers.
It wasn’t all if them if course. It was nice to see children who were happily eating different foods and a few were eating fruit and drinking water. But my goodness there was some rubbish. Food that I would describe as ‘plastic’ such as things that are allegedly made of cheese, pepperamis, cakes, crisps, chocolate, yoghurt, biscuits, pre packed flapjacks that were the size of bricks and those ‘fruit’ things that are apparently part of your five a day but that quite frankly look like food colouring and sugar to me.
I am not perfect, I do try and give my kids a healthy diet overall but there are times when I am busy that we frequent the joys of the Golden Arches or pizza places. But when it comes to lunch boxes, I like to think that my kids are in a good and fairly balanced and varied routine.
They do sometime have cakes or biscuits in their boxes, but not very often. I don’t want them growing up thinking that they have to have a pudding or sweet thing with every meal, having said that, they do usually have a yoghurt and I know that some of these ‘yoghurts’ aren’t actually yoghurt at all, simply sugar filled gloop, but I don’t mind them having a little one in their boxes.
Somewhere the whole idea of food has gone horribly wrong where children are concerned. We know that our little lovelies need to get through their busy days and we need to give them energy but actually a lot of these processed and high sugar foods do absolutely nothing to help in that department anyway as they simply give a small surge of energy that soon disappears leaving us all more tired and lethargic than before. We also seem to equate food with love and by loading their lunch boxes with lots of tasty morsels, we are showing them how much we care for them.
Better to show them how much we care by encouraging them to eat healthier and smaller portions I think and therefore improving their quality of life in the long term.
My other argument on this matter is that as children get older and go to high school, you lose control over what they are eating. They can buy their own food and whilst you can encourage them, they don’t have to listen. Surely then, these early years are a crucial time for setting these standards and getting them into good habits.
Some people will say that they are busy or that sandwiches are boring. Firstly, we are all busy and yes these convenience food producers are thriving on the fact. But does it take long to make a sandwich? Does it really take a lot of time to put some crackers in a tub? Really a little bit of time and imagination can go a long way when it comes to lunches. This also helps with the point that sandwiches are boring. Yes they are if you have the same thing every day for ten years. Mix things up a bit. Use crackers, bread sticks, different breads and rolls, make some simple sausage rolls add some fruit and different vegetables. If you have to give them crisps and sweet things put small amounts in a little tub so the not so good stuff is limited.
The Internet is full if ideas and it is well worth looking around if you feel as though you are stuck in a rut. It isn’t difficult to get a few plastic boxes so that you can give them a range of different foods to eat (in small quantities). Even the fussy eaters; and I do know about them as I have one, can have different things each day so that they won’t get bored. With A for example, it is variations on cheese but sometimes it will be a sandwich or a roll, other days with bread sticks or a handful if mini cheddars or crackers.
The boys sometimes moan about the fact that they don’t have chocolate and crisps every day like some of their friends. I always explain why and I do give in occasionally but not often. They don’t really mind and it is part of their routine. I do get cross sometimes though as the break time snack is meant to be ‘healthy’ and so I always send a different piece of fruit every day and occasionally a flapjack or some bread sticks. I think I’m in the minority with this as a lot of kids have chocolate and crisps and so it seems like a constant uphill battle.
We did go through a phase of paying for school lunches but at £2.20 it isn’t cheap and I was finding that the boys were starving when they got home and that L in particular was in danger of turning into a jacket potato as he was eating so many. So I’m afraid it’s sandwiches for my lot for the foreseeable future. I certainly have no plans to change my routine with the children and I hope that they will continue to see that I give them small, balanced lunches for their own good and not to be mean or strict, I will continue though to look for ways to make their lunches a bit more varied so that they don’t get bored.
What do you put in your children’s lunch boxes, I am really interested to know?
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| What’s in your children’s lunch box? |
Z isn’t at packed lunch stage yet but it sounds scary how much some kids go with and how much they probably waste too just because they simply can’t manage it!
It’s surprising how many did though or how many had half of this and that and then wasted lots of food.
My children have school dinners at the moment which I love because a) I don’t have to rush around making lunches before I go to work and b) there’s a good choice and it’s encouraged my fussy eating son to try new things.
When they did have lunches over the course of the week I would give them a juice carton (pure apple/orange/pineapple) sandwiches, cucumber/carrot/pepper sticks, sweetcorn, chunks of cheese, fresh fruit chopped up (mandarin segments, strawberries, blueberries etc) Sometimes a little sausage roll, breadsticks, yoghurt (normally a Frube type thing), flapjack…. and on Fridays it was treat day so they had something like Jaffa cakes and some crisps – but normally a pack shared between two little tubs because if I gave them a whole pack of crisps they never ate them all!
That sounds really organised and very healthy too! I like the idea of a treat on a Friday, that is a really good idea.
When I taught preschool, I was absolutely shocked by the same thing. I’m not even kidding, one little boy would regularly bring family size bags of chips for his snack. Lunchables were everywhere. And the portions were crazy. One boy would just keep removing things from his lunchbox, like the scene in Mary Poppins when she keeps taking things out of her carpet bag. I kept thinking, surely there’s not something else in there…but there was. Kind of funny and kind of sad at the same time.
That did make me smile as it is true that it is never ending for some of them. At A’s nursery they take everything out first and some of the children disappeared behind a huge pile of food!
They all have sandwiches – always wholemeal bread – either marmite, cheese or ham and all have fruit. The boys have some breadsticks or two TUC biscuits and they all have a cereal bar or yogurt. I’m totally with you on good habits when they’re young, so hopefully they will sometimes make healthy choices as they get older. This is what I tell them when they ask for white bread or more food!
That sounds amazing, I do still use white bread with mine but plan to try wholemeal over the holidays to try and get them used to it
Thank you, yes there are lots of ideas, look for Bento ideas as there are some fabulous photos and blog posts which are really inspiring.
Some amazing ideas there Caroline, thank you for commenting. I think my own dilemma is that lack of time sometimes restricts the variety, but I am happy that on the whole my lot all have a healthy balanced lunch and I do try and vary it when I can. I worry for the children that are overloaded with rubbish ‘convenient’ food that have no nutritional value.
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