To ask you all for help in putting together a healthy lunchbox for my dd age 5?

[Florenceandgrace]

Dd1 has decided she does not want to eat the free school meals for reception children as she doesn't like them. I am having real trouble putting together a healthy packed lunch for her. At the moment she is having a ham sandwich, cucumber or red or yellow pepper slices, a pack of skips and a penguin, and a carton of apple juice. I am not happy with this in the context of the rest of her diet, I feel it is too much junk for a 5 year old? Her breakfast is Nutella on toast, morning milk at school, her packed lunch, after school is a fig roll or cookie (or several), dinner is a healthy home cooked meal and desert is ice cream or jelly. She hates all fruit even dried fruit, will not eat yogurt or malt loaf and she hates cheese. I am at a loss what to put in her packed lunch. I am happy with the ham sandwich and cucumber and pepper strips but what can I put in for desert?? Also looking at her daily intake it doesn't look great does it? She is so fussy though :(

[fustybritches]

Flapjack? If you make your own you can put all sorts of healthy seeds etc in

[Tanaqui]

Crisps on a Friday (some schools have this as a rule!)

Homemade flapjack or mini blueberry muffins as a change from a penguin.

Babybel or cheddar stick as an extra snack.

Carrot sticks, maybe with hummus? Cherry toms/ cucumber/ sliced apple?

Would she have peanut butter instead of Nutella for brekkie?

[Stickerrocks]

If you're worried about the daily picture, give her what you know she'll eat at lunchtime when you're not there to control what she eats and change the nutella on toast and biscuits after school to something less sweet and sugary.

[bigkidsdidit]

That is an awful lot of sugar all day. Does she have to have Nutella every morning, and is pudding every day?

My 4yo has a hummus and cucumber sandwich, a banana and a yogurt pouch with water. After school another piece of fruit. We only have pudding on Sundays after out roast.

[Florenceandgrace]

fustybritches I can make some flapjacks and see if she will eat them, good idea thank you!

[bigkidsdidit]

She doesn't need dessert for lunch. Ham sandwich, peppers, water, a couple of cocktail sausages, carrot sticks, something like that? Humus and dip?

[Florenceandgrace]

tanaqui she doesn't like peanut butter, cheese not even baby ell, or carrots, cherry toms or apples :( she may like a blueberry muffin though! She also likes hummus so that could go with the veg sticks. Thank you for the ideas :)

[bigkidsdidit]

Blueberry muffins and flapjacks are not much different to penguins surely!

[SomewhereIBelong]

Would agree that she does not need dessert at lunchtime - why get into that habit?

[Florenceandgrace]

stickerrocks that is food for thought, I could easily change the afternoon snack to something savoury as she is starving after school :)

[Unexpected]

Her general diet doesn't sound great tbh. For lunch, will she really not eat any fruit - strawberries, mango, blueberries? Would she eat fruit puree or home-made smoothies? For a change from a ham sandwich, what about pitta with hummus or maybe pasta and pesto, for example? Maybe chop the ham up (or use turkey or chicken instead) and make a salad with avocado/peas/sweetcorn/whatever you can find? Will she eat anything else on her sandwich - egg mayo or tuna for instance? Try and vary the veg with carrot sticks or cherry tomatoes? Definitely get rid of the skips and cut down on the number of times she gets a penguin - would she eat flapjacks? Raisins?

[TheRealMaryMillington]

Well, it seems like she eats more variety than my DS (4 and a bit), who is a plain white carb man. He gets breadsticks or oatcakes and philadelphia or pesto pasta or get this for substandard parenting a "butter sandwich", a nakd bar or small cereal bar, bits of apple or pear, and an innocent smoothie or juice (orange).

In terms of your DD's lunches, I think
it seems like quite a lot of food
she doesn't need a "desert" or at least not every day
she definitely doesn't need crisps AND a chocolate biscuit

Things my older two will have:

sandwiches: would she eat nut butter (almond or hazelnut?), cream cheese/soft goat's cheese, egg, hummus, chicken?

can you up the quantity of veg strips, add cherry toms, celery, carrot sticks

substitute oatcakes for cookies? (nairns do some with dark chic chips, or ginger which are much lower sugar/wheat free)

thermos container with pasta and sauce, or rice and veg/curry, or homemade soup?

[Florenceandgrace]

bigkidsdidit Nutella on toast is all she will eat in the mornings, even that is a struggle, it used to be a cereal bar :( I gave to give her pudding as her younger sister has yogurt and fruit after dinner. Are there any healthy deserts I could give her? I cannot think of any.

[modestyb]

I sometimes give humus and pitta bread to dip instead of sandwiches. Grapes? My DC won't eat yogurts but will eat Frubes.

[WorraLiberty]

I think you should probably focus more on what she's eating at home rather than her lunch.

Does she really have a dessert every day? She doesn't need all that jelly and ice cream or all the biscuits.

Her lunch sounds fine to me, although I'd give her the skips or a penguin but not both.

[BeansInBoots]

Depending on how young younger sister is could she have her yoghurt and fruit after lunch when older one is at school? Then no ones having pudding?

[PlebsLeague]

School dinners may not be perfect (far from perfect really) but they are balanced and offer a variety of foods. My dd eats stuff at school I would never make at home (Jollof rice?) and loves it. My concern with a packed lunch of favourites is that the same foods are eaten all the time. Can you say to her that she can have a packed lunch as a treat on Fridays? That way she carries on getting the variety of school dinners with the illusion of choice. DD's school would not allow crisps or a chocolate bar and we only have puddings on a Sunday. If DD was having a packed lunch for a holiday club, i'd give her a soft brown roll with ham, carrot and cucumber with hummous, plum and a yoghurt tube (they have sugar in them I know, but once in a blue moon won't hurt).

[WorraLiberty]

I gave to give her pudding as her younger sister has yogurt and fruit after dinner.

No you don't.

He sister likes the dessert offered, she doesn't so there's no need to offer her jelly and ice cream instead.

In fact, why not just have dessert on special occasions, or even just every Sunday?

[Unexpected]

If her younger sister is having yoghurt or fruit for pudding after dinner, than that is what she should have surely? You don't have to give her something different, that's ridiculous. The concept of the pudding is fine but she doesn't get to choose what it is. And it won't be long before her younger sister catches on and starts demanding jelly in place of her fruit!

[TheRealMaryMillington]

If you don't buy Nutellla she will have to eat something else. Try the nut butters- they are yummy. Though if the bread is good the merest smidgen of Nutella is no so much of a problem in itself. I'd just ditch the penguin and skips apart from maybe once a week.

Frozen grapes after school? - changes the texture. Homemade smoothies with dairy or non-dairy milk, some hidden veg, fresh or frozen fruit? For breakfast or after-school snack - v filling. (can be sugary but at least its unrefined sugar)

Does she like nuts and seeds? Again for breakfast or after school?

Popcorn? (home-popped, with cinnamon?)

[TheRealMaryMillington]

Oh god - and ditch the jelly and ice-cream. That's for Sundays and birthdays!

[TiedUpWithString]

Try making up a healthy nutella and put it in a nutella glass and see if she spots the difference:

deliciouslyella.com/?s=nutella

[Florenceandgrace]

She eats wholemeal bread so I'm not too concerned about the Nutella. She will not touch the school dinners at all unless it's chicken nuggets or similar

[PlebsLeague]

One thing, do you know for definite it's the school lunches she doesn't like or is it the people who have pack lunch that she wants to sit with. DD thought it was really cool to have packed lunches, which is why she would have one a week for a while.

I read a bit of a book about french children not being picky (not true from my own observations) but I think it's important that meals are set by you and are non-negotiable. choice of snack can be up to them though (I'm not a monster ).

[LokiBear]

Swap the penguin for fruit and apple juice for water or low sugar squash? Would she eat something more filling like chicken pasta salad? That way you could get rid of the chocolate and crisps and just go with pasta salad and fruit. You only need to make a couple of tweaks to that menu, I don't think it is massively unhealthy but it is a little indulgent of a sweet tooth. My dd has a sweet tooth too. I tend to give her 'best of both' toast for breakfast and a banana. However, she'd eat toast with jam or Nutella every day if I let her.