School dinner times

Abbafan1972

zzyzx1221 said:

cannugec5 said:

This feels so wrong. As a paediatric nurse I used to tube feed many children. We were trained to make the feed last a minimum of 30 minutes ( although the feed could easily be administered in 5 minutes), to give the youngster time and normalise feeding. 

I am shocked and disappointed that anyone would think a 15 minute lunch break acceptable . I don’t know any adult who has a break that short. At 5 they are just learning, and are newly independent. Pandemic or not they need time to eat to remain healthy. 

I do hope the OP. Does not accept this situation.

15 minutes to eat a sandwich and an apple or whatever is perfectly fine. I don't ever recall taking that long to eat a meal as a youngster.  Perhaps you're confusing the sit-down meal time with the time they have out of class for lunch?

I also don't see what the relevance is to squeezing nutrient paste down a tube to a child eating a meal?  Even then you say it can be done in five minutes...

The OP has already said her daughter has school meals. 

Abbafan1972

@sweetgirl2015 As your daughter has school meals, does the 15 minutes include the time for fetching the meal as well?  If so, that is unacceptable and I would continue pressing the school.

My daughters are teenagers now, but at the age of 5, expecting them eat a meal in 15 minutes would be an impossible task. 

cannugec5

zzyzx1221 said:

cannugec5 said:

This feels so wrong. As a paediatric nurse I used to tube feed many children. We were trained to make the feed last a minimum of 30 minutes ( although the feed could easily be administered in 5 minutes), to give the youngster time and normalise feeding. 

I am shocked and disappointed that anyone would think a 15 minute lunch break acceptable . I don’t know any adult who has a break that short. At 5 they are just learning, and are newly independent. Pandemic or not they need time to eat to remain healthy. 

I do hope the OP. Does not accept this situation.

15 minutes to eat a sandwich and an apple or whatever is perfectly fine. I don't ever recall taking that long to eat a meal as a youngster.  Perhaps you're confusing the sit-down meal time with the time they have out of class for lunch?

I also don't see what the relevance is to squeezing nutrient paste down a tube to a child eating a meal?  Even then you say it can be done in five minutes...

I think you misunderstood me. Although it is physically possible for one to force a tube-feed in, within 5 minutes it was not considered healthy or safe to do so.

So yes a child ‘could’  ram all their dinner into their mouth followed by the dessert or piece of fruit, and a drink (that is equally important.)....in 15 minutes ... at age 5. But I would agree with the OP that this is neither acceptable nor appropriate.

MattMattMattUK

cannugec5 said:

This feels so wrong. As a paediatric nurse I used to tube feed many children. We were trained to make the feed last a minimum of 30 minutes ( although the feed could easily be administered in 5 minutes), to give the youngster time and normalise feeding. 

I am shocked and disappointed that anyone would think a 15 minute lunch break acceptable . I don’t know any adult who has a break that short. At 5 they are just learning, and are newly independent. Pandemic or not they need time to eat to remain healthy. 

I do hope the OP. Does not accept this situation.

I would say it depends on how you define the break. When we are all in the office my staff will take 45-120 minutes for a lunch break, technically it is an hour, but I am happy to be flexible as sometimes going out to sort something takes longer than an hour and none of them take the p*ss as a rolling average. However only a very small part of that time is actually spent eating, probably 5-10 minutes, the rest might be spent going for a walk, popping to the shops, reading, something other than work etc. 

MattMattMattUK

cannugec5 said:

zzyzx1221 said:

cannugec5 said:

This feels so wrong. As a paediatric nurse I used to tube feed many children. We were trained to make the feed last a minimum of 30 minutes ( although the feed could easily be administered in 5 minutes), to give the youngster time and normalise feeding. 

I am shocked and disappointed that anyone would think a 15 minute lunch break acceptable . I don’t know any adult who has a break that short. At 5 they are just learning, and are newly independent. Pandemic or not they need time to eat to remain healthy. 

I do hope the OP. Does not accept this situation.

15 minutes to eat a sandwich and an apple or whatever is perfectly fine. I don't ever recall taking that long to eat a meal as a youngster.  Perhaps you're confusing the sit-down meal time with the time they have out of class for lunch?

I also don't see what the relevance is to squeezing nutrient paste down a tube to a child eating a meal?  Even then you say it can be done in five minutes...

I think you misunderstood me. Although it is physically possible for one to force a tube-feed in, within 5 minutes it was not considered healthy or safe to do so.

Isn't that largely because the person being fed by tube is not able, in that situation to provide feedback and control the inflow rate? I had a relative who spent the last two years of her life being tube fed, whilst being fully mentally competent, she described the feeling of your stomach filling up whilst not swallowing as incredibly odd and took several months to get used to and whilst she used to control the flow rate herself once used to it she did say that if she pushed the liquid in too quickly it made her feel nauseous, something which does not happen even if one eats very fast. 

cannugec5 said:

So yes a child ‘could’  ram all their dinner into their mouth followed by the dessert or piece of fruit, and a drink (that is equally important.)....in 15 minutes ... at age 5. But I would agree with the OP that this is neither acceptable nor appropriate.

I would not say one would need to "ram all their dinner into their mouth" to consume a meal in 15 minutes, or even 10 minutes. If we are talking about ramming food down I would expect the time to eat a sandwich to be under a minute. I absolutely agree that a child should not be going hungry, nor should they be being forced to eat a meal in a few minutes, however I also think that it would be worth investigating why one (or maybe a couple) child is struggling so much that it takes them upwards of 45 minutes to consume a meal, when the vast majority are finished in 5-15 minutes. As others have mentioned it might be nothing other than an incredibly slow eater, but it could also be a sensory issue, a dislike of the food, a problem with teeth/dentistry, weakness of throat muscles etc. , especially as choking when eating has been mentioned, and on that basis I would say, due to an abundance of caution, it would merit further investigation. 

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

Perhaps ask the school to seat her away from her friends by herself until she has eaten; then she won't get distracted.

ThumbRemote

sheramber said:

sweetgirl2015 said:

sheramber said:

At my grandson's school  the classes are kept separate as a 'class bubble'.

Dinner is a packed lunch type and is eaten in the classroom. Each  class is allowed out into the playground at specific times so they don't t mix.

So varying the set times would not be possible.

But surely a child needs to eat otherwise they will suffer fatigue, that should in theory be priority over playtimes. Plus its not pack lunch our daughter has, its proper cooked school dinners, so she wastes most of it everyday.
We saud to her the importance of eating her meals but she said no sooner she starts eating miss said meal break is over. This is deeply concerning. 

Your daughter obviously doesn't  thinking esting is more importAnt if she is distracted by what is happening around her.

If your child is delaying eating her meal why should everybody else be inconvenienced,

The teacher  on dinner duty has to  get her lunch, the dinner staff have to clear up before their shift ends.

There may be another class to come in to eat.

How long should everybody else be delayed to accommodate your daughter?

Have you  asked the school why they are only allowed 15 minutes?

Can whoever is supervising the dinners keep an eye on your daughter to encourage her to eat rather than be distracted?

You need to work with the school and your daughter over this. 

What a load of absolute nonsense. The daughter in question is 5, not an adult weighing up the pros and cons of whether to eat quickly or not. 

ripplyuk

I’m really surprised at comments here. I take around 30 mins to eat a meal and have always been that way. The normal health advice is is slow eating down, not shovel the meal in in 15 mins which will not be good for digestion. Fast eating has also been linked to obesity as the brain takes time to recognise that you’re full. Given the obesity epidemic, reducing mealtimes further seems like a really stupid idea. 

I also think it’s important for kids to learn to eat politely, not like pigs at a trough. 

OP, I’d make a complaint to the board of governors. If that doesn’t help, maybe give your child something substantial to eat at break time and a snack as soon as she gets home. 

Zinger549

I assume that pre Covid they would get longer to eat. But now with social distancing and extra cleaning measures in place they have less time.

yksi

I think some perspective is warranted. The OP said she once choked and scared them quite a lot. But that really does sound like she was told to actually rush, rather than "concentrate on eating please, once you finish your food you can have a chat then". The OP could and should practice this at home on weekends, the breakfast and night time meals can be slow and chatty, but OP is the parent here and is perfectly capable of saying, "It's lunch time. We're only sitting down for 15 minutes to eat. We can chat later on, sweetie."

Yes, boohoo, so sad that the poor diddums innocent children should be allowed to socialise and take their leisurely time eating and how they're not just machines and that school is a learning place in lots of ways, not just in the classroom. But perspective: this is a worldwide pandemic in which millions of people have died and everyone has to make adjustments including five-year-olds.

Goodness knows teachers have enough crap to deal with, from every second parent moaning about Delilah not liking to put a mask on to Diggory doesn't like the smell of hand sanitiser and Mrs Crabapple having a whine that the school run takes her 55 minutes because her four darlings all have different start times and why isn't Maisie allowed to sit beside Felicity anymore since they live in the same street and blah, blah, blah. A parent thinks their precious child is the centre of the universe (and rightly so) but a school simply cannot, and should not, make every child the centre of the universe, especially when their workloads are so enormous just managing to herd kids in and out of classrooms.

Work on the behaviour first. Five-year-olds are smarter than we think. As someone else pointed out, if eating was a priority for her then she'd do it. She might just need some practice in remembering to concentrate on the eating part.