The other day I picked W up a bit early from school. His teachers were putting out the carefully packed lunches for his other classmates and as W wiggled into his jacket I took a glance at what was on the menu. Most of the kids had juice boxes out, some sort of snack type situation going on, and then, for lack of a better word, an entrée.
I saw cut up chicken cubes and green beans, rice noodles with edamame, sliced hot dogs in beans… this is some fancy stuff.
W is not (at this point in time) an adventurous eater. He has his likes and he has what he tolerates because it is a means to get him what he likes. I try to enforce the “eat one bite” of a new food before he leaves the table rule but I set him up for failure many times by presenting him with new food at dinner time – a time when he is most likely to be exhausted and cranky.
W is not big on change when it comes to meals. Don’t even think about it. (I totally do.) So I stick to pretty much the same style of lunch every day for him. But I wonder how I can get him to branch out a bit. What is a slight change that I can make that would unlock a new flavor profile for him?
This is what I sent W to school with in his little insulated “briefcase”: 1/2 a peanut butter & nutella sandwich, strawberries, apple sauce, vegetable booty, and a juice box.
I’m also curious what you guys are serving and packing up for lunch. What did your child eat for lunch today? Any tips on things I could add?
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Even at age 6, we still struggle. It is one step forward, 3 steps back. His usual lunch: high protein pasta in a thermos with salt and butter plus a couple of meatballs. I also include a cheese stick, apple slices and carrot sticks. He may or may not even open those three things.
The only way I can reliably get fruit into him is via smoothy. Sometimes he will eat fruit slices if I put a mini-marshmallow in middle of a toothpick and then put fruit slices on either side.
I haven’t sent anything to school in a thermos yet. Hmmm. I wonder if W would do noodles this way. Thanks for reminding me that thermoses exist!!
Today HP has milk, a ham and cheese sandwich, and yo baby yogurt with apple and sweet potato puree in it (love those!). We have about 5 lunches that we cycle through.
Today Elizabeth ate a hot dog. And two lollipops. And then some more hot dog. We had friends over though. We usually do a bit better than this. But not much. She usually eats whatever we have left over in the fridge, since she’s still a home girl.
I also have a semi picky eater. She would eat chicken nuggets for every meal. Sometimes I think she likes a little food with her ketchup.For the most part typically Hannah takes Spaghetti-O’s (Aldi Brand. for real) warmed up in her thermos, apple sauce, cheese stick and a granola bar and a small (again Aldi Brand) bottle of water.
W has never had a chicken nugget. He’s not really a meat eater. (Probably because we don’t eat a lot of meat.)
I need to check out that veggie booty.
I stick to the same lunch for Nugget (2 1/2 years old) every day for three reasons. 1) I’m a terrible meal planner and it’s just easier for me to know what to add to the grocery list each week. 2) He’s somewhat picky. 3) He has a nut allergy so consistency is key. I never send new foods to avoid a potential reaction.
That said, he always gets the following lunch.
Deli meat slices rolled up
1/3 stick of string cheese
4 Ritz crackers
3 Sliced cherry tomatoes
3 Slices of cucumber (to wrap his deli meat around. yeah, I know.)
Sliced grapes
Cottage cheese
Yogurt
Banana
Occasionally he’ll get a butter and jelly sandwich instead of the meat/cheese/cracker combo.
It’s a lot when I type it out in a list. I must starve him at breakfast and dinner because he eats it all at school.
veggie booty is THE BEST.
One of the reasons I love it is because I personally do not think it tastes very good so the chances of me, um, accidentally munching are slim to none.
I totally agree…that stuff is pretty nasty but my boy likes it too…and nobody else will eat it so it’s all his!
I used to LOVE veggie booty. And then I ate it, along with a steak, and then I lost my appetite for 36 hours, and then I got the stomache flu for the next 36 hours, and then had no appetite for another 48 hours, and then felt queasy/hungry for the next week. Which is a long way of saying that I cannot even stand the sight of steak and veggie booty.
But TA loves it. LOVES IT.
My son’s lunch today had: Half of a turkey sandwich, a string cheese, some grapes, some edamame, and 4 ritz crackers. If he eats all of that he gets a fruit roll up as dessert. And he always gets water. He also stays at school until 5:00 so that food includes an afternoon snack.
But please remember my son just plain HATES to eat. So I have to basically do the exact same thing every day. And when I volunteer in his Kindergarten class I am amazed by the crap the other kids eat. My kid wouldn’t have even considered HALF of that…
My kids have lunch provided by daycare. Which I’m sure that Ruby (who’ll eat pretty much anything) loved and Cole (who’ll refuse pretty much anything) didn’t touch.
At home, I don’t worry about what they do or don’t eat — no pressure, no coaxing, no “just try one bite”, no “if you eat X, you’ll get Y.”
The way I see it, my job is to provide a variety of food and their job is to choose whether or not to eat it.
Yeah!
Sunshine has breakfast, lunch, and snack provided by daycare. I used to send a yogurt with her for breakfast, because their breakfasts are carb heavy, and I’d prefer she start the day with protein. But she went on a yogurt strike, so I don’t bother anymore. Besides, she drinks plenty of milk in the morning. I’m told she eats great at daycare. The yesterday she had chicken and peas and carrots for lunch.
With me she can be much more picky. Or just outright refuse to eat or eat just a bite or two. I have a babysitter who works at a daycare (not Sunshine’s), who says that parents tell her the same thing, that their kids don’t eat well at home, even though they eat with gusto at daycare.
I try not to coax, as niobe says, but it’s hard! I hate preparing, then throwing away food. I attribute some of the refusal at dinner to be partly that she’s had a long day and just can’t focus. The other night she was eating some turkey. She ate a little more than half, then handed me her plate. I took it from her, waited a few minutes, and tried a tactic that worked when she was younger. I put one bite-sized piece of turkey on her high chair tray. She picked it up and popped it in her mouth. I did it again, and she ate the second piece. We did this until all the turkey was gone. No discussion or heavy coaxing. But that probably won’t work tomorrow. She very unpredictable with her eating. One day she loves something, the next, she won’t touch it. Monday she barely ate at all. All she wanted to do was chug milk. I try to be laid back about it. She’s certainly not skinny, and her 2 year bloodwork was perfect. I do give her vitamins (with iron every 2-3 days, iron every day would back her up), but she’s obviously getting what she needs.
Dip! Everything is better with dip (according to my 4yo). Veggies with ranch or hummus. Apples with peanut butter. Yogurt makes a good dip, too, as well as applesauce. Crackers, breadsticks, toast triangles, sliced fruit can all be dipped. Make it fun.
Most days, Tot eats whatever is served at daycare. They vary the menu day to day if not week to week, and he is reported to eat well. So I don’t know what Tot is having for lunch today. It’s posted, but I forget to look. I feel VERY blessed not to have to worry about packing his lunch.
At home, I typically serve him some left over dinner from the night before (if he liked it pretty well) or some combination of deli meat/cheese/toast (or cracker)/fruit. Sometimes we switch the cheese for Stonyfield Yo Toddler yogurt.
Teen is a reasonably picky eater, I think some of it is from lack of exposure when he was younger and some of it is from texture issues. Because of that, I try to at least expose Tot to different things reasonably often.
We have recently figured out that rice is not something he will eat willingly, but he will eat the beans and corn and diced tomatoes surrounding the rice!
my kids are proud members of camp beige. Smoosh will eat yogurt, and the occasional orange, and um, carbs. Malka has finally, at 6 and change, begun to reintroduce some color.
W’s lunch looks very exciting! If I could get Smoosh to eat half of what W may eat, it’s a miracle!
ha! Camp beige!
I’ve never had a problem getting W to eat all kinds of fruit – but veggies he’s just sort of meh about. Mini carrots = yes and the occasional peas in pasta.
We go through phases too. And I’ll freely admit that I’m always excited when my kids want school lunch because it lets me off the hook for that day.
We’re vegetarian, and the school lunch is rarely vegetarian and even more rarely something they’ll both eat, so that doesn’t happen too often. The school cafeteria does serve pizza (on whole-wheat crust) as an alternative every day, and my kids are both allowed to have that once a week.
When I pack a lunch, for R at age 5 it’s usually a thermos of Annie’s brand noodles, a milk box (I’m pretty anti-juice), a Clif Kids fruit rope, an applesauce, and maybe something more snacky like a cereal bar, Clif z-bar, small baggie of cheez-its, etc. — but I also have to pack her a snack for snacktime each day so often those things are snack. Oh, she’s also really into the yogurt smoothies lately, Danimals or what have you. Those are good for snacktime.
My boy at 8 is a little more adventurous with eating at home, but for his packed lunch he’s very boring. He gets either a sunbutter-and-jelly sandwich on wheat (no pb allowed in his classroom) or a jelly sandwich on wheat plus a few chunks of cheddar cheese. And a fruit rope/fruit roll-up, clementine, a few cucumber slices, and water. There are lots of things he loves to eat at home but refuses to have in his lunch. Kids!! Go figure!
what kind of milk box do you get? The only kind I have seen are horizon.
The kind we get is Organic Valley. My “selective” girl says that the Horizon ones don’t taste as good. I personally think that all shelf-stable milk tastes awful, but she likes the Organic Valley ones. At our Whole Foods around here they sell the milk boxes in a case of 12, which is frequently on sale for like $8 so I wait until that happens and then buy several cases.
Katie (3) goes through phases. Today she had leftover sinner from last night: chicken adobo, rice, peas. She eats a lot of mac and cheese and homemade applesauce. Sometimes we hit a home run, sometimes lunch comes back home in the lunchbox.
Due to Little Man’s peanut allergies, I must be extra careful and put some extra goodies in there that he can have when the birthday parties happen without my knowledge.
I make the world famous Mac and Cheese, usually twice a week from the box and then spilt it in two. Also I send him with chicken nuggets, cheese or ham sandwiches and even left over meatballs and pasta. (Well I am Italian, ya know)
Juice boxes are a must, with a breakfast fruit bar, clementine, fruit snacks and nut free brownies. Little Man also has Oral Allergy Syndrome where he can’t have some fresh fruits. Uggghhhh
W seems to be eating well. lol Don’t worry… Their little taste buds expand over time.
Dominic is gluten, dairy, soy, and peanut free (i know…)
So his lunches look like this. And he’s 6, for reference.
Into one of these nifty containers – http://www.amazon.com/EasyLunchboxes-3-compartment-Containers-BPA-Free-Easy-Open/dp/B004UIRUJ2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326841892&sr=8-1
He gets a protein – either homemade meatballs, or homemade GF chicken tenders or a sunbutter and jelly sandwich on GFCF bread.
A veg – usually a handful of Costco’s Normandy mix or peas or carrot/celery
a starch – rice, potatoes, chips, GF pretzels
and for his early morning snack at school i put in either a piece of fruit (apple or orange sections) OR a baggie of raw veggies.
Behavior wise, he does better with less fruit, so i am trying to cut back to 1 serving or less per day.
CUTE lunch box!!
will have to investigate what Normandy mix is
Its a frozen mix of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. They’re cut big, which makes them relatively perfect for fingerfood. My kid is weird, he prefers his frozen veg either room temp or still frozen. Which is fine with me, the vitamins are there regardless of temp.
This is so fun!
Today Riley had a garlic hummus sandwich with apple slices and corn. It’s usually a fruit a veggie and a sandwich (hummus, cream cheese, or peanut butter and jam). She always has water to drink.
We had peanut butter and apple today because I was running late and had to phone it in. Other popular items — noodles, grilled cheese (which they seem to like but I would think is nasty by lunch time), pistachios (because they like opening them), edamame, cold pizza (again, I think it would be nasty, but they ask for it). Big fan of the thermos and having that hot option. My feeling is that as long as the child is eating, and most of their options have nutritional value, it all works out in the end. I have one adventurous eater and one picky eater, and both are growing along the same curve despite the fact that one eats something different every day and the other eats the same thing day after day after day.
I am also a very picky eater, so I have empathy for the picky eaters of this world.
so do you grill the cheese in the morning for their lunch? wow. That’s impressive!
(& how did I forget about thermoses??!)
I have just entered the world of packing lunches. Usually she has the same thing at home anyway, so it’s not terribly difficult. It goes more or less like this: some sort of lunch meat (turkey, chicken, ham, or roast beef), a piece of cheese, some fruit, and some sort of junk food (granola bar, cheez-its, chips, etc.) Last night, she requested that I stop eating the corn I made for dinner so she could take it for lunch. It was much easier at the old daycare, where she would eat what they gave her. I could usually tell when she didn’t like whatever they had served, because she would eat like a pig at dinner time. My girl is not that terribly picky, but she does get dehydrated easily. My next challenge is to figure out how to get her to drink more. I sent milk and a juice box today, and that wasn’t enough.
That veggie booty looks…like the worms that invade my tomatoes. I could not serve that stuff to anyone!
I send in an empty water bottle w/a lid. The school fills it for me and he drinks as much as he wants.
Here is a typical school-day lunch for Burrito and Tamale. I will warn you that they are freaky-healthy eaters and also mostly have excellent appetites. Lunch is basically a compartmentalized version of what they eat at home (minus certain foods like soup that are too messy to send right now); stuff like the veggies are always stocked and ready to eat in the fridge, so it’s not like I’m cooking 10 foods just for their lunches despite how it may appear below.
–veggies, some combination of 3 or 4 of the following, steamed or roasted: carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, green beans, zucchini, peas, etc.
–proteins, usually 2: hard boiled egg, tofu, lima beans, black beans, spinach nuggets, falafel, chick peas, lentils with squash, quinoa with squash…
–fruit, usually grapes but occasionally pineapple or melon
–slice of wheat bread
It cracks me up that Searching for Serenity’s kid eats 1/3 of a string cheese stick, which is 1/3 oz., because Burrito and Tamale are both guaranteed to eat at least 2 oz. of cheese per sitting; their record is 4 oz. each before I cut them off. A quarter pound of cheese! No way I could eat a quarter pound of cheese in one day, let alone a few minutes. So, I don’t send the following things because they are guaranteed to gobble them up, reserving them for home (or, in some cases like crackers and cereal, for bribery in the car and on outings) since they are such good eaters at school — but they are viable lunch choices for W so I will mention them:
cheese
applesauce
apples
crackers of any kind
yogurt or cottage cheese (we eat one or both for breakfast, and sometimes also at snack)
cereal
bread products like muffins, bagels
We are not yet at the dipping stage nor the sandwich stage, but those would add foods like hummus and PB&J-equivalents to the mix.
We also don’t eat meat which would add a whole world of foods of course.
School provides milk, but if they didn’t, I’d include a milk and a water.
Some days lots of stuff comes back in their lunch (including, for Burrito, all but 2 little bites of his hard-boiled egg, always; Tamale’s is usually 90% eaten) but most days just a bit and some days next to nothing. I don’t really understand how they can weigh less than 1/5 of what I weigh but eat almost as much overall, not counting the cheese which is more than double what I could possibly eat. Toddlers are so weird.
great. now I want a falafel
Ethan eats the same lunch every day with few exceptions. Whole peanut butter/seedless blackberry jam sandwich…no crust. Alternates between a gogurt or applesauce, and either goldfish crackers or 2 small shortbread cookies. Water m-th and juice on Friday. I know he doesn’t eat enough variety, but I refuse to force the issue the way my mother did….it only leads to bigger food issues later. I know some kids who will eat anything (I have 1 out of 4). But Some kids like routine. They like knowing what will be in the bag before they open it. My husband is still that way. A creature of habit.
The Chieftain gets snack and lunch at preschool four days a week, of which some of the ingredients include:
boiled egg
brown rice
kale
beets
whole milk/water/herbal tea (unsweetened)
cheesy bread
oatmeal
sliced fruit – apple, orange, pear, grapes
pasta & ‘cheese’ – made with nutritional yeast, which I hate him eating
lentil soup
raw carrot (carrots in general, cooked or raw are pah, yuck!)
and other things I can’t recall
At home he usually has cheesy eggs or boiled egg, hot dog, noodles (Ramen only, please!), cheese and cracker, ham n cheese sandwich, broccoli (I know!), barely sweetened plain yogurt, soup, roasted chicken, leftovers from dinner, ravioli, banana, pear, apple, fish crackers (and the little song I sing with them)(“Fishy fishy fishy swimming in the sea, fishy fishy fishy just for you and me – NOM” – and then you bite their heads off), basically whatever he’s in the mood for… He doesn’t care for cookies, though he loves cupcakes and popsicles (coconut), ice cream and chocolate.
Ultimately he’s up for anything, but I don’t make him eat things he dislikes. He’s willing to try and that makes me happy.
I second the idea of smoothies – you can even sneak spinach into them, and they’ll never taste it. I also make a homemade veggie spaghetti sauce – don’t know if he’ll do sauce with noodles? If he will, I highly recommend a homemade sauce. Super easy, and you can also squeeze all SORTS of veggies into it without them being any the wiser.
C is 12 now and still goes to the small private school he started going to at age 2. The school provides snacks, but doesn’t offer “school lunch”. That means C takes a lunch every day. Gold standard for school lunch at our house is leftovers that can be packed as a lunch when the dinner leftovers are being put away the previous evening. Today he took a grilled chicken breast, broccoli and rice. I would have sent the same lunch at any age from two to twelve. When he was younger the portions would have been smaller and the meat cut up, but no other changes.
one semi cautious eater who for months the lunchbox has been: one or combination of sausage roll/cocktail sausages/party eggs, grapes, 2 mini own brand fromage frais and bottle of water (metal thing with a cunning turning lid so it doesn’t leak).
being aware of the salt/fat/processed meat content, I asked her at the weekend what she’d prefer, and this week we are trying wraps with hummous and ham, cucumber slices, and I’ve swapped out the fromage frais a couple of days with an appleorange. My mum made these for us as kids and they are great – cut an apple and an orange into 8 segments each (I was lazy and used a clementine, and put lime juice on the apple to prevent browning. if you use an orange the juice does the same trick). Wrap in clingfilm in alternating segments. looks pretty, they get both fruits, and it’s easy to eat! I try to remember to put some kitchen paper in too or everything gets wiped on sleeves. Yuck!