In thinking this is a suitable lunch box for one year old

[ConfusedBec]

my one year old goes to nursery four days a week and instead of letting them provide a snack and meal I provide these for her. She gets either a small sandwhich made from one small toasties sized slice of bread with cheese or ham or a tin of soup that lasts two days. A banana for her afternoon snack, a yoghurt, four or five strawverries or a couple of grapes, five or six organic crisps and sometimes a banana wafer.

Are they not heating up soup? Or is it in a wide necked flask already hot? Pasta etc can go hot into those....

And regarding why I dont opt for the nursey to feed her is its an extra £5 a day on top of my £45 a day child care costs and the menu is pretty much the same as what I give her in with her which costs much less and as a student its just not affordable IME

most of the children in the nurery take a packed lunch the nursery do heat up the soup but its quick and easy for them and she feeds herself that whereas she can't feed herself the meals at night as she's just figured out how to use a spoon for easy things like soup and yoghurt, no yet rice etc

Am I right in thinking that lunch is either a small sandwich or half a tin of soup.

And the snack is one of the other options?

So no morning snack, and literally just the sandwich/soup for lunch?

Or is she getting all of the food you mention each day?

She gets a banan for snack and then for lunch she gets either half a sandwhich or half a tin of soup or some homemade soup and shes also get a handful of fruit, a yoghurt, a small amount of BAKED sweetcorn puffs that have less than 0.01g of salt in 3 of them and a two pack of banana wafers

I think they all have different appetites. My son is 19months and despite my best efforts he often doesn't fancy huge amounts to eat. He loves a lot of porridge in the morning though. What does she eat for breakfast?

I would have though it's easier and cheaper to make a big pot of homemade soup where you can cram veg in and just portion that out for the week or make a few smaller batches so there's variety in flavour. I don't think I'd give my son tinned soup really when it's so cheap to make and quick...

I'm only asking this because im a first time mum and worried this is too little or too much

she has weetabix and fruit in nursery for her breakfast

I find oat cakes are a good snack. Can put a nut butter on for added protein etc

forgot to add sometimes she has rice cakes instead of the crisps the crisps are a treat like once a week

That all sounds fine. She's only just one so won't eat loads. You alternate between cheese, ham soup. Plenty of fruit, calcium, seems quite balanced to me. You could post the world's healthiest lunchbox on here and people would still slag it off! Personally I would just pay the extra for the convenience/social element of eating with the others but if money is tight, what you're providing is fine. Could you let nursery feed her in the Winter when presumably they would give her a hot lunch every day in the colder weather?

I think it sounds absolutely fine. You will always get people who criticise but nursery would let you know if she was hungry. It sounds quite balanced to me, just very normal. 1 slice of bread with a small slice of ham should not be too much salt. I don't think people understand the "crisps" and banana wafers are baby food items.
Don't doubt yourself, sounds like you're doing great.

I think if the nursery do provide food you should take it. You'd be amazed how even the most fussy eaters give in and just want to eat what the other kids are. Pandering to fussy eating at 13 months is not a good start.

Posters on here calling that junk food quite clearly it is not.

Looks fine to me and salt content looks fine too. I would add in a small morning snack (a breadstick/ bit of chopped cucumber & cheese/ satsuma )

I'd prob drop the crisps - I might give one or two of those at home when I'm making lunch and baby is restless waiting in the high chair but not needed at nursery.

Also depends on the amount of milk given at nursery too, less milk will mean little one is hungrier for food.

She gets a 7 ounce bottle of milk in the morning at nursery and the aame before she goes to bed

With that amount of milk I'd say that food is fine.

I'd consider opting in to nursery food if it's available though. My dc has food allergies but I wasn't allowed to provide a packed lunch due to Covid. I was quite reluctant to let someone else have control of his food but he loves it, it saves me time and it is not extra cost to me. As someone else said you'll be surprised what fussy eaters will try away from a home setting!

I think her lunch/snacks are absolutely fine. Not really getting why people are calling it junk protein, fruit and a small appropriate treat is fine imo.

£5 a day for nursery food is £25 a week (assuming that she does each day) which is a lot of money out of the family budget,more so for a student. You will be spending far less than that providing it yourself so I can see why you send a packed lunch.

Where’s the veg? Carrot, cucumber, etc?

She gets the veg at night in her tea as she won't eat them on her own or there'll be veg in the soup

She gets the veg at night in her tea as she won't eat them on her own

She's very little, just keep giving her veg so it becomes the norm for her

Canned soup is extremely salty, even for adults not something to be eaten daily. Together with crisps, ham and cheese its a really unhealthy lunch.
Canned soup is junk food, sorry. lots of salt, very little nutrition (i work in the salt reduction program if a big food producer - no way are we giving canned soups to our kids).
Do you have a freezer? if yes, make a big pot of soup (without salt!) and freeze in small portions.

@timeforanew how’s the view from your high horse?

What about making low salt/sugar baked beans one of the options OP? They're also as easy to heat up as soup, very nutritious, and not expensive. You can freeze too - so if you're only using 1/2 tin per week put the other half in the freezer. You can also augment them with other things very easily - e.g. add a chopped up leftover sausage or burger and still have something you can send in a flask, or heat up in a soup mug.

@ConfusedBec

I'm only asking this because im a first time mum and worried this is too little or too much

If this is why you are asking, then have a look at Eating well: Packed lunches for 1-4 year olds: www.firststepsnutrition.org/s/Packed_lunches_Dec17.pdf

"This guide has been written to provide practical ideas for anyone who is preparing packed lunches for children aged 1-4 years. We hope it will be particularly useful to early years settings who may want to provide guidance to families and child carers about how to provide a nutritious, cost-effective and practical packed lunch for children of this age.

The packed lunches shown in this resource all provide the amount of energy (calories) needed by children of this age at a main meal and, if a range of packed lunches are eaten over a period of a week or more, they will provide the important nutrients that young children need to develop and grow.

It contains practical advice, recipes and photos of portion sizes appropriate for different age groups."

I think at 13m if you put something a bit trickier to eat in the food flask, the nursery teachers would help her with it. We always used to help the DC in the baby room, or if they didn't want to wait because we were feeding another baby, they got good at using a spoon really quickly!

She could try stabbing some fusilli with a plastic fork? (or just eat them with her hands)