What does your preschooler have in their lunchbox

[MothersRuinart]

Help! I cant get ds's preschool packed lunches right, constantly being told off for giving him things he doesnt eat, or giving him too much or too little, or not cutting crusts off etc. He usually has ham sandwich, some cheese, banana, some crackers or crisps, bit of another fruit or yoghurt. Hes a good but unpredictable eater. One day he loves something, other day he hates it. Or one week he eats loads, next week hardly anything. Any ideas on what i can make him for lunch that wont lead to yet another note in his lunchbox, thank you!! They dont have fridge or microwave if that helps.

Hi, I personally think your pre school are being a bit unreasonable - sometimes there's no reasoning why they won't eat!!
Today mine had a ham sandwich, some cherry tomatoes and sweet peppers, a yoghurt, a satsuma and a couple of Oreos which she didn't eat! She sometimes has a baby bel and different variations of fruit/salad bits but that's about it!

How about cheese and crackers? Will he eat hummus and carrot sticks? Other fruit could be grapes, blueberries or strawberries.
amither thing you could try is a cheese or ham wrap? Mine sometimes has this instead of a sandwich.

Not sure if that really helps!

Note in the lunchbox? How rude. Id speak to them and say that you provide a range of things he likes, please offer him the sandwich first and then allow him to choose from the rest. What you have described seems just fine to me. I had a dining supervisor make a comment about my dd's lunch and I refuted it. Dd is 5 and has a wholemeal sandwich or wrap, grapes or strawberries, cucumber, tomato and a small chunk of cheese, yoghurt and either crisps or crackers. It's noone else's business if I cut the crusts off her sandwich (which was what the note was about - apparently I shouldn't!)

My two year old with a dairy allergy generally has something like:

Wrap/sandwich or pita bread with ham or jam
Some cubes of 'cheese' or a few cocktail sausages or chicken pieces
Cucumber sticks or cherry tomatoes
Piece of fruit or a 'yogurt'

Our nursery also accept lunches that can be heated up like beans on toast, spaghetti hoops, leftover dinner.

My DS usually has something like:
Ham sandwich, packet of cheese cubes, cucumber and carrot sticks, a yogurt, some crisps or rice cakes and a banana. Children are fickle! Sometimes mine doesn't eat much lunch, other times he's starving.

Ham sandwich, babybel, satsuma/banana, maybe some tomatoes/cucumber, sometimes my loaf. Our CM comments if he doesn't eat sometime, but she is being helpful rather than 'telling us off'. I'd be a bit narked at the nursery/preschool if they were telling me what I should be feeding my child. (Unless it was 100% rubbish!)

DD2 who's 2.8 had today:

Mini breadsticks
Mini hummus pot
Grapes
Mini cheese
Goodies carrot oat bar

Tomorrow she has a hot dinner.

Thursday will be:

Crackers
Boiled egg
Cucumber and pepper sticks
Banana
1/2 bag Skips
Yogurt

Friday will be:

Dairylea Dunker
Marmite or Jam on 1 slice Thins
Grapes
Cucumber and carrot sticks
Goodies carrot oat bar

I do honestly feel like telling lunch box police to piss off.

If there is leftover takeaway, Haribo and a bag of monster munch packed, fair enough, but nit picking over a well balanced meal really gets on my nerves. Your lunches sound fine.

If you and your son are happy with what you are sending, keep on sending it, he is your child, not theirs, and you know best what he will and won't eat.

Today DS had rice cakes, a mandarin & a yogurt (no added sugar one).

They dictate what you can and can't send?

A typical lunch for mine would be:

• Chicken, ham, or vegemite sandwich
• A cheese stick
• Seasonal fruit (often a banana and mandarin in winter, and berries/watermelon/rockmelon/grapes/mango in summer)
• Cherry tomatoes and capsicum, and sometimes carrot sticks (although these were unpredictably eaten or ignored, so wouldn't give too often)
• A couple of smarties or M&Ms

Sometimes it'd be less healthy. The occasional cinnamon donut, or packet of chips/Shapes/chocolate cookies, custard, or chocolate "yogurt".

My 3 yo normally has either a ham or cheese sandwich, two out of some cut up cherry tomatoes, olives, cucumber sticks or carrot sticks, a piece of fruit and sometimes a yoghurt. Occasionally instead of the sandwich she has some cold pasta with pesto and grated cheese which she likes. Your lunch sounds fine, OP!

Oh and instead of a sandwich, I'd sometimes send a mini Cheesymite scroll.

I use those sandwich thins for my just-4yo preschooler's lunchbox. It means she doesn't fill up on bread.

Today she had:

A Parma ham sandwich on a 'thin'
A lobe of red pepper
An apple
A small pack of mini animal biscuits.

Sometimes she has mini-cheddars as her 'treat', sometimes a couple of digestives. I've sent her in with cheese and crackers before now but she's mainly keen on smelly cheese (really ripe Brie, for example) so I avoid it as I feel bad for everyone else! Her veg gets mixed up - she has two or three varieties each day in the form of carrot sticks, cucumber, different coloured peppers, apples, pears, grapes, etc. Her preschool also offers fruit and breadsticks as a mid morning snack.

She quite likes cold pasta pesto and tuna mayo too, and used to enjoy mini tubs of hummus and breadsticks but has gone off them recently. I would give yoghurt/frube etc but she's not keen.

Thanks all, wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong, maybe they are just really quick to react without looking at the whole picture over a period of time. I'll just stick with what I have been doing so far, might try cutting the food up in slightly smaller portions, he's a bit of a snacker our DS.

Oh just ignore them. Sometimes
My daughters lunch back comes home with very little eaten, other days there's not a scrap left.
My three year old has a wrap with hummus, cheese or ham, a babybel, some grapes, cherry tomatoes,
Blueberries or pepper and then a snack thing like a cake or mini cheddars.

Just give him whatever he will eat and ignore their comments. We mix it up:
Monday couscous with stir fried veg and chicken in
Tuesday sandwich
Wednesday. Pasta with veg and tomato sauce
Thursday. Crackers and cream cheese
Friday. Sandwich

Then add carrot/cucumber/pepper sticks maybe some hummus, or fruit bag cheese cubes and yoghurt.