Can we talk lunchboxes please?

[Notquitegrownup]

DS2, aged 4, starts school all day on Monday. What would you consider a healthy lunchbox?

Have a peek here. It has a few ideas.

I find it depends on what the child will eat)mine are fussy) and how long it takes them to eat enough to keep them full until home time. I like them to have a play as well as eat lunch.

Ding dong!!

Oh sandwiches....

Well, anything that she is happy to eat!

DS2 has always had a lunchbox (DS1 prefers school lunches) and usually has:

A sandwich (I vary between white, wholemeal and added fibre white bread - he prefers white but knows that he can't always have that)

Fillings vary little, and are usually ham, cheese or sliced turkey.

I also bought a flask so sometimes instead of a sandwich he takes in something leftover from the previous night's dinner - pasta and sauce or risotto, for example.

A carton of fruit juice - organic usually

A piece of fruit

A packet of crisps (Potato Heads or Walkers Lower Fat)

A sweet treat of some sort - usually a chocolate biscuit, sometimes a cookie or two. If I'm being a really good mummy I might bake something, but this is rare . I know that some schools ban this, but I've always ignored this as DS2 is stick thin and therefore in the overall scheme of things I don't have a problem with him having this.

Sometimes a yoghurt-type pudding, but these days often not.

The thing that you have to accept with packed lunches is that no matter how healthy they are, what they eat is actually out of your control. Swapping food is a regular occurrence! And it's amazing how often the sandwich or apple come back uneaten.

Oh, and once he got to senior school, Yr 7, he started making it himself.

Sorry - realised you said DS not DD!

Info from the Tesco site

some thoughts from activity village

my ds is on packed lunches as the mo because the nurseray can't provide cooked meal as the uni dinner they use is closed for the vacation. He seems to like
small pot of chopped raw vegtables (carrots, celery and cherry toms)
marmite sandwhich
a few prawns/sausages/baby bell
small apple or satsuma
hula hoops or mini cheddars
a few mini jaffa cakes

I'm very disciplined about this as we work on a very tight schedule in out house . No hot lunch provision at the school and detailed allergy lists to avoid.

Ds gets 4 things in his lunchbox, one of which has to be fruit or vegetables. We make abundant use of the freezer.

1. Healthy crisps - tend to get a big bag of those veg crisps or good quality kettle chip type things and put a few in a tupperware pot - lasts ages that way;

1. Sandwich - DS tends to like cheese and ham, but also egg; tuna mayo and cucumber; chicken; cold sausages. Usually on wholemeal - sometimes pittas. If not sandwich we sometimes make some little turnover pie type things or home made sausage rolls. (We make them in batches and put them in the freezer).

1. Chopped up vegetables or fruit.

1. A homemade cake or cookie of the worthy and slightly unexciting variety - bananabread; gingerbread, muffins, oatmeal cookies etc.

I thought those yoghurt tubes would be good but for some reason even though he loves them at home he finds them a bit fiddly/messy at school.

Anything left from supper the night before is good - homemade pizza; mini toad in the holes etc can go in instead of sandwiches.

Flask of water.

I strongly recommend the sticking to 4 items thing - it means you don't go round thinking, ooh, have I done enough, shall I slip in a babybel etc. So of, eg, there is a nice cold sausage the crisps come out, etc.

Ds is both a good and unfussy eater and very slender, so I am in luck!

I started with 4 things - and we are now down to 2. DS just didn't get through it all.

It used to be:
Sandwich (ham, avocado, sardine, etc0
Sausage or chicken leg or baby bel or little pot of avaocado chunks
'pudding' - jaffa cake, shortbread, yog, or whatever
little tub of cut up pineapple, or satsuma.

Now it is
sandwich
pudding

or

hot leftovers from night before in a wide-necked flask (hopefully including some veg)
biscuit or slice of cake.

My mantra is: You don't need to be inventive or original, unless you wnat to be or have allergies ot consider, and it's only one meal of the day so balance can occur at other meals.

Blu - I'm thinking of sliding down to 3! One of DS's mates has had the same lunch every day for the last 2 years (salami sandwich; yoghurt; apple). I weep for that level of consistency.

Deffo agree re it being only 1 meal. DS eats a mega breakfast (large and healthy) so really isn't going to come to any harm. Definitely not worth obsessing about.

I think young children get overwhelmed by too many things, all in different containers, and they can't manage pacing themselves and dealing with the order to eat it in.

Or more likely, DS couldn't be bothered!

When dd2 went to school and had pack ups we did a trial run at home first.

It helps the child know what they will be having on Monday lunch time, it lets you see whether they can eat it, whether they like it, whether they can open all the packaging and whether they can eat it in time.

If there are twenty children asking the lunch time person to open this or that your dc may not get a chnce to have a drink for example as he can't open it himself and didn't get to the lady in time and then has to go out to play.

So perhaps have a trail on sunday tea time and watch your dc to make sure he knows what he is doing - don't interfer though!!

Message withdrawn

Many thanks for those ideas. I've done packed lunches for DS1 for years, but he is like your dss mate, Anchovy - he always has a ham sandwich, carrot sticks, and a piece of fruit. I was hoping to be a bit more inventive this time around. Will definitely do pitta.

hummous is great in sandwiches for a change and pate. I often send DS1 in with chopped up ham in a littlepot too, and he likes rice puddings and custards and those Del Monte fruit pots are good too, and healthy.

Raisins? Grapes and blueberries in a pot? My Dss love all these...