KEY POINTS:
Parents believe they are judged by what their children take to school for lunch and say scrutiny from teachers and other parents adds to their woes.
Research by ACNielsen showed the pressures was not restricted to the warnings from experts of the dangers of giving children too many high fat, high sugar items.
One respondent cited "teachers and other mothers talking" as a stress.
The finding baffled University of Otago Department of Human Nutrition senior lecturer Dr Winsome Parnell, who said ensuring children ate lunch should be the top concern.
Parents told surveyors the marketing of products to children made it hard for them to have a say on what they had for lunch.
The contents of other students' boxes was also an influence on what their children wanted for lunch.
The study revealed children had plenty of say over what they ate at school, with 20 per cent having total control by age 11.
Sixty per cent of the more than 500 parents surveyed wanted to be able to buy more healthy food and drink at the supermarket.
Fruit - a long-time staple - was losing favour with children, according to 80 per cent of the adults, but remained one of the lunch-box's three core components.
Sandwiches were "king", with 88 per cent of adults responding their kids took them to school at least once a week.
A treat, such as home baking, a muesli bar or chips, was the third core part of the estimated 410,00 lunch-boxes prepared daily.
ACNielsen associate director Julie MacKenzie said the treat was loved by children and accepted by parents as long as the total lunch was balanced.
"It's not only about health, it's also about happy kids," said Ms MacKenzie.
Parents respond to the pressures in different ways, she said, with some battling to find a healthy lunch children will eat while others believing that as long as children had a healthy breakfast and dinner lunch did not matter as much.
Dr Parnell said children eating lunch was key as it was needed to sustain energy throughout the day.
She said parents should be mindful of making a lunch that their child would eat rather than worrying about what their peers thought.
"You could put in something to impress somebody or you could put in something you as a parent thought was perfect," said Dr Parnell.
"But the bottom line is does your child eat it, that's the issue to work at."
Parents and children should negotiate lunches and although children making their own at age 11 was fine, adults needed to set boundaries.
"You can decide that you will put out bread and a range of spreads and they will make their own from that range."
Sandwiches were a good option, as was fruit, but parents needed to be mindful about proportions when it came to packing a treat.
"What you don't want is a very large bag of chips and a quarter of a sandwich," said Dr Parnell.
School Lunches
* 20% of school students said by age 11 they had total say over their school lunch.
* 66% of adults agreed healthy foods and drinks were too expensive.
* 80% of adults said fruit was becoming less popular with children.
* 88% of adults said their children took sandwiches for lunch at least once a week.
Source: ACNielsen
