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I USED TO have big ambitions about my kid’s school lunch and I doggedly stuck to my fantasy.
I refused to give white bread – even when day after day it all came back untouched.
The broccoli wholemeal pasta or chopped carrots and hummus just kept on boomeranging back home, all sweaty after a day of marinating.
But did I stop? Not a bit. Disgruntled at the waste I would still diligently produce the same optimistic fare for the next day.
But then I went away for a few days and the hubby took over. He took one look at the madness and made a few executive decisions.
Out with the sticks of cucumber and peppers and in with the popcorn. Gone with the avo and hummus wraps and in with the trusty ham sambo on white batch that never comes back uneaten.
He didn’t bother faffing around with chopped mango or blueberries. It was a banana or nothing.
When I got back the kids begged could dada handle the lunches now and my oldest son said it was great not to be starving in the afternoon anymore or to my shame, scrounging off luckier kids.
At first, I felt annoyed. There I was slaving away trying to ignite a taste for quinoa in the ungrateful children. But I have to admit once I started the new routine I quickly reaped the benefits.
My kids are in better form when I pick them up as they are not hungry. I no longer waste time making elaborate lunches or waste money on food that goes in the bin.
Asking around a lot of mothers agreed saying they were sick of untouched lunches.
Dublin mum of two Mary Collins says she used to give more complex lunches such as pasta in a flask but it came back uneaten.
“I know if I give a buttered bagel and some fruit it will be eaten. I give the kids scrambled egg when they get home to make up the protein”, she said.
White bread is fine
Dr Conor Kerley, dietitian and lecturer, says white bread is not all that bad.
“White bread is lower in nutrients, including fibre and will lead to higher blood sugar levels compared to wholemeal bread,” he says. “However, many white breads are fortified with important vitamins and minerals and although white bread is not ideal, some children will not eat wholemeal”.
He says that popcorn is fine and could be alternated with trail mix, butter adds a lot of energy but is high in saturated fat. While processed meats contain protein and other nutrients, unprocessed varieties would be better.
Dr Kerley says children can be notoriously picky eaters but good nutrition is important throughout life and especially during childhood so it is important to try to establish healthy habits.
But crucially he advises that the battles not be fought at school:
The lunchbox may not be the ideal starting point – it is important to remember that energy and nutrients from healthy foods will help your child at school
But also that an imperfect lunch is better than a perfect lunch in the bin
He says that it is important to ensure that meals at home contain lots of vegetables and whole grains, for example, porridge with raisins and sunflower seeds for breakfast and wholemeal pasta with tomato sauce, chopped vegetables and lentils or chicken the evening.
Meltdown
Teachers are on the coalface of the uneaten lunch so what do they say?
Steffi Smyth, who teaches senior infants in Sanford National in Dublin, advises on easy to manage foods like a sandwich rather than spaghetti bolognese and also making it easy by chopping up fruits such as apple or banana.
“They only get a limited time and if it seems like hard work they will avoid it preferring to play instead,” she says.
A lot of research show bad moods are linked to the drop in glucose levels when you haven’t eaten and Ms Smyth agrees with this.
In fact, she says when a child is acting moody the first thing she checks is whether they have eaten. “If a child is having a very emotional day I will check their lunch box and usually it won’t have been touched,” she says.
Dental decay
However, simplicity does not mean compromising on sugar content.
The paediatric dentist Dr Margaret Tuite advises parents to beware of some snacks that seem ok but are packed with hidden sugars.
“Avoid crackers, breadstick fingers, rice cakes covered with chocolate or yoghurt as all are heavily refined carbohydrates easily digested in the saliva and contribute to the decay cycle, ” she says. She also warns to sweet breads like brioche and croissant.
Dr Tuite says kids should eat fruit and not drink it and gives top marks to the simple banana. “Bananas are kinder to teeth as they have less citric acid than berries and other juicy fruits. Avoid dried fruit like raisins as they are reservoirs of sugar and remain stuck in teeth for long periods of time”.
She advises against yoghurt drinks as most of them have high sugar and are acidic and says plain water or milk is the optimum.
Tap water contains fluoride which strengthens teeth and helps control decay and cavities. If milk can be kept chilled it is perfect too. No other drinks make sense for children’s teeth.
Liberation
Maybe you are lucky enough to have kids who like to eat vegan curry in school. But if you are stuck in the lunch vortex you too can simplify.
I am much happier with the realistic lunch situation that I have now – compared to the unsustainable bento box fantasy. Less time and money wasted.
The kids still get a balanced diet, it’s just they get most of their fruit and veg quota in the afternoon and evening now when I can make sure they actually eat it.
So yes to simplicity and white bread and no to hassle and lunches in the bin!
Tips for a simple lunch
Keep snacks non-processed such as plain rice cakes, a banana, unsweetened popcorn or nuts – although some schools don’t allow nuts so you better check that one.
A sandwich made with cheese, chicken, ham, beef, egg or nut butter – on bread that your child actually likes.
Drinks should only be tap water or milk.
An apple or a banana – chopped up for younger kids.
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Reading this article takes me back to my memory of a lunchbox when I was about six years of age. One day I had what was called a tv bun , the equivalent of a fairy cake in my lunch box and all morning in school I longed for lunch time. I was in a class where half the pupils were orphans, they sat in rows to my right. When the bell rang at 12.30, I collected my lunch box from the cofra and imagine my surprise when I lifted the lid and my bun was gone, I stared in disbelief in to the box , I was about to raise my hand in case there was a mix up when I noticed one of the orphans gazing in my direction, her face was frozen in fear and on the desk in front of her sat my bun in it’s little paper case. Instantly, we both knew that if a word was said, she would be beaten to within an inch of her life,so I closed the box and slowly she nibbled the little bun away,we never spoke about it after.Many years later I realised she had probably never had a bun in her life, I hope when she grew up that she lived each day like it was her birthday and life was full of cake.
Good article. Balance is key.
@Sean Ryan: key to kids eating there lunch is being allowed time to eat it, and it should be part of the school curriculum (as it is in many schools in France)
What I get most is half lunches and hungry children after school as teacher (in primary) allow them 10 mins max to scoff down their food.
People need to chill out with the whole clean eating thing..not just the kids! I remember i went through a phase of trying only to eat fresh non processed foods, i got a bit obsessive about it and didn’t actually lose any weight or feel healthier. I ended up binge eating rubbish at weekends when my will power would break and I’d feel so anxious in situations where i didn’t have control over preparing my foods. Foods aren’t good or bad, its the quantity people consume thats the problem.pmus i have one friend who shovels avocado and nut butter into her and can’t understand why she’s not losing weight!
@Del Bear:
I have lost 8kg in the last two months by reducing portion sizes only.
@Del Bear: avocado and nut butter? Well there’s a super calorific food combination right there. The secret to losing weight is not all these fad diets. It really is simple. If you want to gain weight, consume more calories than you use. Want to maintain weight? Consume the same amount of calories that you use. Want to lose weight? Consume less calories that you use. The problem with junk food is simply that they have less nutritional benefits than whole foods and typically contain larger amounts of calories, thereby leaving less room for healthy foods if you’ve limited yourself to a calorie limit.
Ham sandwiches for 200 or so days a year for 8 years gets tiring.
Sweaty lunches are not healthy, they are not nutritious.
Ideally lunches should be refrigerated. My lads would eat Caesar salad. Yet put that in a lunchbox in their school bag, 3 hours later it’s gack.
Tbh I would rather my child eat a chocolate sandwich than nothing. School lunches are a nightmare.
I myself ate only a small snack bar and a packet of Taytoes for 5 years at primary school. My sandwiches were stuffed at the back of the desk to go mouldy or thrown in the hedge on my way walking home. FYI I hated chocolate sandwiches, they went in the hedge too!!
I had the luxury of starting school in the UK in which we had cooked meals (which I ate, I also ate the salads and soup). The school had a swimming pool in the school and fully equipped gymnasium (climbing bars, balance bars, climbing ropes, gymnastics horses ect) and outdoor sports area with football, long jump, high jump and athletic area. This was a public school in the 80s.
@Black Watch: you mean nutella? its got a tiny percent of hazelnut in and most schools ban nuts.
Never mind the lunches…the amount of kids I see coming out of the shop with large breakfast rolls in the morning before school and walking across the road into the school yard is unreal. And tucked under the arm is mound of sweets. Lethal. Why do parents give money to kids in the morning to buy junk? Laziness?
Chopped apple or banana will be gone brown by lunchtime and end up in the compost bin .
Popcorn isn’t allowed in some schools due to the mess it makes and that some parents choose to send in the “ candy” stuff which is dreadful when a child can’t brush their teeth after having it , never mind the sugar rush .
Very easy to get the kids to eat reasonably healthy bread without too much fuss if you make your own bread, it’s easy with a purpose bought bread mix, and manually add in a load, and I mean a lot, of flax seed (lin seed) & chia seeds to the bread mix before cooking.
That way at least the bread has something of use in it. That would be meeting them half way imo.
Schools should provide a hot meal for the kids at lunch.
@John Gryffydd: theybshoulf also gibe them longer than 10 minutes to eat their lunch
@Karen Ní Dhochartaigh: as I understand it they have plenty of time to eat it but they want to be out playing! It’s practically a race to be finished first. Short of stapling them to the chairs……..
@Karen Ní Dhochartaigh: 30 mins for lunch, as dictated by the dept of education. Usually split into 15 mins for eating and 15 mins of play, schools will decide what works best.
@John Gryffydd: rock and a hard place situation. Schools cannot afford to provide this unless they’re DEIS and outside this you’ll have parents complaining of the unfairness of some families being able to afford to pay for it and others not!!
@Karen Ní Dhochartaigh: 10 mins?? They have at 10 mins break snd a 30min lunch..more than enough time.
I would pay to have hot lunches in schools. One of the things I do actually miss about the US school system. That and the transport system. Other than that the Irish schools are brilliant and I mean that sincerely.
@Seeking Truth: my kids go to school here in the USA and school lunches are disgusting they refuse to eat it maybe if it’s pizza on Friday but even that’s gross
Give children something that they can open, eat and put away without the assistance of the teacher!!
Theres also the primary school fruit&veg scheme giving children little samples of fruit & veg.
Pack a few slides of cheese to neutralise fruit acid!
@Nuala Mc Namara: you are talking about Food Dudes. It’s a great scheme
@Caroline Reid: There is a HUGE amount of waste with Food Dudes.
@Nuala Mc Namara: have you ever actually looked at how old the little plastic packs of chopped apple or lettuce are? the kids wont touch them. my kids teacher had so many packs of cherry tomatoes left over he made tomato soup with them
@Helen M Fitzsimons: They are not meant to be a replacement for lunches,they are a little sample of fruit or vegetable to encourage children to eat them.
I think the best way to encourage children to eat healthy meals and snacks is get them to help you prepare them,even making bread&allow them to choose the portions for their lunchbox!
I used to make salad sandwiches on white bread for my son’s school lunch – leaf of lettuce, sliced tomato and then add something different every day – slices of ham or salami, extra chicken, turkey, roast beef, pork or lamb leftover from the previous night’s dinner, hardboiled egg, cheeses , prawns and pineapple, dollop of mayonnaise or pink sauce etc.
I was able to ring the changes for a couple of weeks approx with no trouble so he usually got something different every day and boredom with the same old, same old, never set in
Children should get enough time to eat and enjoy their lunch. When I was young I was so envious of my English cousins telling me of the lovely hit dinners they got. We had a kids still do eat fast as teachers have to supervise in yard and kids can’t take lunch outside
Chopped apple or banana will be gone Brien by lunchtime and end up in the compost bin .
Popcorn isn’t allowed in some schools due to the mess it makes and that some parents choose to send in the “ candy” stuff which is dreadful when a child can’t brush their teeth after having it , never mind the sugar rush .
Me
This is an interesting read on Finnish free school meals. https://www.oph.fi/download/47657_school_meals_in_finland.pdf
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