What am I supposed to feed her?

[Queen]

Please forgive me as I have NO idea about this whole school lunch thing!

I sent DD1 to her first full day at kindy the other day with -
Little pack of Tiny Teddy's
Vegemite Sandwich
Drinking Yoghurt
Vege Chips
Muesli Bar
Celery sticks

I knew it would be too much, but I would rather her have leftovers than be starving

Anyhoo, I get her lunch box back and everything got sent back except the vegemite sandwich and celery sticks, as it was deemed 'inappropriate' for school

So please tell me what am I supposed to feed her???

I *thought* I had packed a healthy lunch but obviously not??? I will be talking to the teacher tomorrow, but I would like some thought as to what to pack her for lunch tomorrow?

HELP!!!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Either they provide food or accept yours - if my DS's school did that to me, I'd be in there shouting about them starving my child! That lunch looked fine to me.

[jmmum]

Think this is a little on the silly side. If the kinder is going to moniter what your child has they should be making you aware of what the "deem appropraite".

[Visitor7]

I know my girls' daycare discourage the use of chips, biscuits, muesli bars etc.
How about for morning tea provide fruit, for lunch provide leftovers from the night before or some sandwiches, for afternoon provide yoghurt/sandwiches/saladas with etc.

[Feijoa Mum]

Oh this is seriously becoming the bane of my life at the moment. I am all for healthy options but come on they go take it to far sometimes dont they??

I usually send a sandwich,wrap or roll with jam,vegemite etc. (No peanut butter)
Plain rice crackers with some cheese spread
two different types of fruit (whatever he is loving that week)
Some cheese sticks (I cut it off the block so its cheaper)
Yogurt or custard (again from a big tub so it works out cheaper)
A homemade mini muffin (If I have made any), either fruit or savoury as we are not allowed any chocolate items
It seems like alot but they are only little amounts as he is a grazer.

I also sometimes give him ham slices,vege sticks or dinner leftovers (that can be eaten cold because they dont have a heating option) ie cold sausage or some spaghetti. Mini Pikelets are good too. I make up a whole lot and freeze them in pairs. They defrost well and they dont have "too much sugar".
Hope this helps a bit as I know it can be a nightmare trying to work aroung the food rules.

Also they are no rubbish too so everything has to be in named containers, no gladwrap or ziplock bags and they ask that ready packed yoghurts be put into a container too as it creates too much rubbish.

[~*Niadalla*~]

Oh really???
What the heck is going to happen when my boy gets to school? He only eats certain things, and won't touch a peice of fruit.

[Visitor7]

Oh really???
What the heck is going to happen when my boy gets to school? He only eats certain things, and won't touch a peice of fruit.

DD1 won't touch fruit either. She gets either yoghurt or vegies to replace it. The daycare know that she doesn't like it, and even though they offer it at morning tea, they don't push it. I'm hoping by the time she's at school she'll eat fruit

[~*Niadalla*~]

DS won't touch vegies either! I have to hide everything. HAHA. He loves his dairy and his hommus on multigrain sandwhiches. Looks like he'll be living on them until he decides to try something new. Here's hoping it's before he's 18!

[Visitor7]

haha! yep, just give him what he wants. No point forcing it down his throat at such a young age I reckon.

[Oorki Galoorki]

DS gets fruit of any sort(often 2 serves just to be safe) a sandwich a small yoghurt and water while at kindy
DD at FDC gets all that and usually 2 sandwiches, crackers and salmon or crakers pickles cheese and ham, some times pasta salad, small tubs of fruit in fruit juice.

DS kindy dont like crackers or any biscuits.. i try and stick with nothing in a packet that is marketted to kids as often its high in sugar and salt..

[Glamourcide]

Heh, that's pretty poor form. Would it have been so hard to just let it slide this once and pop a note in the lunchbox along the lines of 'We prefer a, b and c over x, y and z'??.... I was told when DD1 started daycare that obviously high-fat/sugar/salt items like potato chips, chocolate biscuits and chocolate-coated things were avoided, and peanuts were banned, so I've tried to work around that. It's hard, because DD1 is now notorious for her avoidance of fruit and vegies, but her standard lunch includes:

- a Granny Smith apple (she's just like her mum, only likes the green ones, I know she barely nibbles it but at least the offer's there)
- a chunk of cheese cut off the block and into cubes
- a tub of yoghurt (usually vanilla, but I try to sneak a strawberry one in every so often to get some extra fruit into her lol)
- a Vegemite/Cheeseybite sandwich on multigrain bread (sometimes I'll put meat, tomato and lettuce on it to switch it up)
- a box of sultanas
- a 'nutty bar' (one of those mini Brunch Bars, they're peanut-free but have chocolate on them, but I suppose they're okay for afternoon tea if I'm late picking DD up, she whinges for more food at 4pm so they give her the 'naughty' stuff then lol)
- a little tub of Nutella - I have asked the daycare ladies if she can be bribed with it, ie if she eats the fruit for morning tea she can have the Nutella, sometimes it comes home unopened so I know she's been naughty and not eaten her fruit.
- and a boiled, peeled egg for the protein and fullness. She loves her 'eggies' and at least I know it'll fill her belly a bit if she doesn't eat a proper morning tea.

Good luck finding something that works, kids are such fussy little creatures and now that daycares/kinders etc are banning things left right and centre it's hard to know what to put in their lunchbox!

[Shades]

Wow... It seems wrong to me that they can dictate what you feed your child... Maybe if they concentrated harder on teaching and less on fussing about what kind of muesli/fruit bar is 'acceptable' then kids these days would have better spelling and grammar!
I can understand the peanut thing, or the rationale behind it... but is it worse these days? I don't remember ever being told of concerns with peanuts when I was at school, much less had any schoolmates rushed to the hospital. Am I being naive?

[Glamourcide]

^ No, I agree that it's going a bit far... the daycare centre my friend sends her son to has bans on all nut products, and dairy, eggs, soy and gluten depending on what day of the week it is (because of the attendance of particular kids with allergies to said products). Eg Monday and Thursday no eggs products, Tuesdays no gluten, and Monday no dairy etc... personally I think that's taking it a bit over the line, as far as I know coeliac's only affects the sufferer when gluten is ingested, so I don't see why it's so risky to have gluten products in the centre at all on that day because of it, kwim?
Eh, maybe I have it all wrong (and please feel free to correct me if you know something I don't, like I said I'm going purely on what my friend told me), but yeah, I think that's a bit extreme.

[~Serenity~]

Maybe it's cos the kids might swap food etc and they might get something, our daycare provides all the food but ds1 in preprinary gets 2 vegemite sandwiches, a fruit box a muesli bar maybe a plain rice cracker if wanted and a cheese stick, they all take a peice of fruit in to share for morning tea

[MrsFabuloso]

Ok, I'm speaking on the sideof the pre schools here, when I say that sometimes it is warrented in us having such strict guidelines of what should be in lunches. You would be surprised in what some people will feed their kids all day. For many familie's they know that some things are sometimes foods, but many others will make a lunch of say, a white bread jam sandwich, a chocolate bar and a packet of chips. With some undiluted juice, cordial or even soft drink. All of those things as a once off sometimes food in a lunch box are fine, but all put together as the only food a child gets all day is just one way to make a child hyper and is just plain unhealthful! Plus when we have children in our care with sever anaphalaxis, you don't want to be taking any chances. Yes it is a PITA to be trying to find appropriate foods, but I'd rather p!ssed off parents who give their kids the same lunch all the time than a dead child in my care. I have seen a child in an anaphylaxic fit, it's not pretty. And shoving that needle into her little thigh, well, it makes me shudder rememebring.

As a parent who feeds my child healthy foods the majority of the time, with an occaisional snack though, I do find that some places go too far. The centre my DD goes to brought in a new food policy last year and was sending home things like rice crackers and snack pack custards. It was ridiculous. They have slackened a bit now and will let DD have rice crackers, and muesli bars, but still reiterate they don't want things like sweet buscuits, chocolate covered bars, chips, or any kind of soft drinks. Which, in my opinion, is all fair enough. If we want to feed our kids special snack foods like that, then they can eat it at home.

Foods I send for DD include pasta/rice/noodle dishes, boiled eggs, egg/tuna/ham/cheese/chicken sandwiches, crackers, fruit salad, fresh fruit, tubs of fruit, vege sticks with cream cheese spread to dip into, home made muffins/piklets, mini quiches/fritatas, cerial in a tub (no milk!!), dried fruit, chicken drumsticks, yogurt, milk poppers.

HTH

[StrawberryMumma]

Hey Queen

It's so disheartening as a parent to be told your doing the 'wrong' thing like that, isn't it?
Haven't got much advice, but hope you can come to some sort of compromise..

[HotI]

I know some schools have a policy on packaging of food, due to the amount of waste created. Did they school say that it was inappropriate due to the 'healthiness' of the food, or could it be due to the amount of non-reusable packaging? Just a thought.

[Floweryfields]

We send home chocolate, lollies and potato chips - we call them occasional special foods.
I can see where they might be coming from with the vege chips due to the high fat content - but the rest seems fine to me - yoghurt!!
I think to only allow those two things for an entire day is just wrong, that is not enough for for an entire day - was she starving when she got home?