Toddler lunch box

[Whatinthedoopla]

Hi,

Sorry, I might be posting this in the wrong forum.

I make my toddlers either a cheese sandwich, jam sandwich or an egg wrap, along with snacks which includes packet of cookies, crisps, raisins, fruit and a bottle with water mixed with a little squash.

Looking online for ideas, I can see that I'm probably giving my toddlers an unhealthy lunch box for when we go out.

What do others do?

Any ideas on how to make lunch boxes more interesting for toddlers?

Thank you

Just water, not squash.

Take out the crisps and cookies and swap for a homemade cake, cucumber and carrot sticks, cream cheese to dip, babybel.

You’re not far off, just reduce the unnecessary sugar.

Maybe drop the jam sandwich for a LITTLE scraping of Marmite ? Also Raisins are not great for little ones teeth .Otherwise doing great!

Drop the jam sandwich, cookies and raisins, add some veg like carrot, pepper or cucumber sticks. I don’t see the problem with a bit of squash as long as it’s not every time and they drink water too.

Jam sandwich and cookies are unnecessary especially if it’s every day.

my 2 year old normally has

sandwich either falafel and hummus, egg mayonnaise, tuna and cucumber.

cheese cubes or baby bel

some sort or fruit usually blueberries orange or apple

veggie sticks and hummus

sometimes I’ll make banana or carrot cake muffins and add one of those

Agree with others: nix the jam and the cookies and crisps. I do allow raisins and some squash. I always try to add protein snacks as well as just fruit, so e.g. cheese, slices of hard boiled egg, cooked chicken, prawns, hummus or peanut butter with things to dip etc.

are you talking every day or special outing once on a while?

for the latter it's fine imo

if every day, def try suggestions from other posters for healthier options

Water not squash. Biscuits and crisps out. I try to do homemade bits, definitely no packets of things in the lunchbox as I think it builds bad habits. Mine have little veggie bits- cucumber, carrot, sweetcorn, coleslaw, olives etc. Some sort of savory carb- homemade crackers or pastry, veggie flapjack is good. Cheese/ chicken cubes, lots of fruit, pot of 10% fat greek yogurt.

I often do a flash of hot food as well in winter and that alwasy goes down well.

Take a look at this NHS site, which should help.
https://www.nhs.uk/healthier-families/recipes/healthier-lunchboxes/

You are half way there. I would swap the cookies out for veg, and the egg wrap is a better choice than jam. Maybe grapes for raisins. Crackers, bread sticks or hummus chips are a better choice than cookies.

For preschool, we were always asked to include a carb, a dairy protein, a non-dairy protein at least one source of fruit and veg (ideally 2). A treat could be included if you would like (ideally low sugar).

You want to lose the UPF/high sugar items that don't offer anything nutritionally like cookies, crisps, jam and squash.

In their place you want to offer fresh fruit and veg, that's what is missing. For example swap raisins for grapes, crisps for some cucumber and hummus, cookies for a homemade veg muffin and squash for fresh juice (you can use it to flavour water in the same way as squash).

All the upf/sugary things are fine occasionally, but not as a regular food, not in place of fruit and veg and not all together (one treat is enough).

Are you vegetarian OP?

My DS when he was a toddler went through fazes of loving either ham sandwiches, cheese toasties or even small sausage rolls for his main, couple with a couple of rice cakes 😆
For the dairy side he would like small yogurt or a babybel 🧀
Then he would have 3 types of fruit and/and or veg, such as:
chopped grapes or strawberries, blueberries, apple, tangerine or banana. 🍓 🫐 🍎
For veg he loved baby cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, chopped peppers and carrot sticks. 🥒 🍅 🥕

Every now and again he would have a small box of raisins (usually on a friday) and a fruit pouch that he could slurp (like Ella kitchen) but always give these in moderation, as high in sugar, hence he had it as a treat, not a daily item.

I would send him in with a kids sports bottle of water and a tot of sugar free ribena or vimto for flavour.
I honestly never packed chocolate or crisps, as he had rice cakes and the raisins etc 🙃

So in essence he would have:
One main (sandwich)
a couple of rice cakes (instead of crisps)
one dairy (cheese /yogurt)
Three pieces of fruit and/or veg
Fridays = one box raisins and one fruit pouch
One water bottle with a tot of sugar free cordial.

Edited to ask: Does your little one like pasta, or toasties to mix it up a little?

@Whatinthedoopla

How old are we talking toddle wise?

Have you tried fruit/ veg based baking?? Loads of options for healthy savoury or fruit muffins or scones with no added sugar.
We buy wholemeal flour from the larger supermarkets to make them extra healthy but not always, white flour is fine too ☺️

Google all these fruits and veggies for baking recipes -

Cheese and courgette/carrot scones
Courgette goes well in banana based muffins
Any berry muffins
carrot cake muffins

Also homemade no added sugar oat based flapjacks are so easy and can be made sweet or savoury using cheese and veg or banana base.

Avoid salt and sugar while they are still that small.

Also look up Charlotte Stirling Reed, she’s a life saver for weaning and feeling toddlers or children and has some amazing books.

Cut the Cookie crisps and raisins and squash and you should be fine

buttie and fruit should be sufficient and have a banana on hand for emergencies

lunch boxes don’t need to be interesting

My 5 year old has been loving these since he was 2!

www.mygorgeousrecipes.com/cheesy-carrot-and-courgette-muffins/

Squash is totally unnecessary. Water only.

scrap the jam sandwiches. Stick to cheese, egg etc.

You could add things like cucumber, pepper, carrot or celery sticks with hummus to dip them in.

rice cakes instead of crisps.

egg bites are a great one too. mix together eggs in a jug with a splash of milk. Chop up your veggies of choice, peppers, spinach, sweetcorn etc and add those into a muffin tray and pour on the egg mixture, sprinkle on a little grated cheese and bake. They can be eaten hot or cold and you can also stir in a pot of cottage cheese to the egg mixture fo added protein and goodness.