Lunch boxes, snakcs

[Octavia09]

It has come to my mind that my little one will probably need to have a lunch box for his snacks.

Can anyone tell me which one to get? Something cheap or whatever he likes? Do kids loose their lunchboxes often?

Has anyone seen a stainless steel lunch box? Want to get one for my husband as he often puts hot fut into his plastic containers and hot + plastic = unhealthy.

What do you put into your child's lunchbox?
Mine is quite fussy. May be an apple, a banana, crackers. I wishe he ate cheese?

mini sausages, dried apricots, bread sticks etc

Mine have never lost their lunchboxes - but have lost numerous water bottles.Lots of threads if you search to give you ideas on what to put in.

My childrens' lunchbox usually has
fruit,
salad such as cucumber or pepper or carrot sticks,
carbohydrate: bread roll/rice cake/cracker/breadsticks,
protein such as cheese,ham,cold sausage and a piece of homemade cake.

Have a look at John Lewis for lunchboxes or Lakeland.

Thank you for the ideas guys. I will check the link Nailonthehead. Thanks for this.
A piece of a homemade cake is a good idea.

Do you mean a snack for lunchtime or for breaktime?

If it is for breaktime you may find that the school has set rules for what is acceptable. In my DC's school they are only allowed fresh fruit or veg or dried fruit. So things like yoghurt, cheese, crackers, cake etc are not allowed.

Some maintained schools don't permit lunchboxes for snacks (storage as they are usually bulky) and some don't permit snacks except for the free school fruit

domesticsluttery Thanks, I have forgotten to check what they are going to have for the snack time. Here it is: at morning children allowed to eat small snack. They say it should be fruit, vegetables or cheese (no homemade cake )

At lunchtime children have their packed lunch or a school lunch.

He does not eat cheese so it would be a problem. He might get very hungry.

Also, he is a fusy eater and I think it would be good for him to eat a school lunch to get used to. It might help, who knows.

Look at these lunchboxes. Are they are not nice?

www.littleacornstomightyoaks.co.uk/lunchbots.php

www.beckyandlolo.co.uk/de partment/easylunchboxes/

I do not know what is the quality of the above lunchboxes. I can only tell you that the Bento laptop lunchbox is rubbish. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001DI1XGS?ie=UTF8&tag=bentoboxlunch-20

I got it for my husband birthday and it ended up in the sand pit. Looks nice, good idea but only two boxes have lids one of which is a tiny one.

DD won't eat fruit. so she doesn't have a snack as the free fruit is all that is provided at her school. She tends to eat quite a big breakfast though.

I think you have to play about a bit with the food you send to see what "works". (DS doesn't eat much of his lunch if he wants to rush out to play, but I figure that is his choice to potentially get hungry.

My dc sometimes have pasta or rice salad, malt loaf, fruit, carrot / celery / cucumber sticks, hard boiled egg.

They have been know to eat left over toad-in-the-hole

Octavia - I love the idea of multi - compartment lunchboxes, but haven't had much success. I find things go soggy if you have, say, cucumber in one compartment and oatcakes in another, or stuff runs into other compartments (humus, yoghurt etc). I love bento boxes and all the recipe ideas, but haven't got the inclination to fiddle around wrapping stuff in seaweed ;)

I just found a soft lunchbox best, as you can stuff more in it and a random assortment of tubs.We also had a Thermos kids food flask (stainless steel inside). I don't worry too much about plastics, as long as the containers are in good condition and don't contain hot or acidic foods, it should be fine (hopefully).

I love this (with matching cool bag)...but suspect it wouldn't be practical.

www.concentrate.org.uk/index.php?page=93

At DD's school they have milk in the morning and a snack in the afternoon (fruit/veg/crackers/cheese/toast), milk and snack is supplied by the school (we have to pay for them). DD started out on pack-ups, but campaigned for school meals, I gave in eventually. Not convinced by the quality (sigh), but she loves them.

you might find he'll eat more if he sees everyone else eating.

at dd's school the snacks just go in little sandwich bags. then all the bags go in a basket ready to be handed out at snack time. that's for morning break. the snack has to be fruit or veg. then afternoon break they have the free fruit.

some children take their fruit in one of those inflatable snack pouches.

waswondering - I found that we could get 3ish machine washes out of an insulated bag, before it disintegrated. I always put yoghurt in tuppaware tubs (used to buy the big tubs of yoghurt and give a bit each day). DD was under orders to put the lid back on her yogurt tub and all the other bits in a plastic bag. So on the whole we managed to avoid slimy lunchbags. If you can find a neoprene bag, then these can be washed, I put DD's neoprene drinks covers in the wash.

Ixia, I like the idea of Lunchbox "Food for Thought". But they say that Lunchbox does not seal completely.

I think I will look for a box to fit a small size banana and an apple. They do lots of nice things online but it is always good to check on the reviews.

I use one of these bags (but a much prettier pattern) and one of these lunch boxes. Has been ideal when it was really warm recently. A chilled bag plus a freezer pack in the middle of the lunch worked really well. Got them both from one of the large Sainsburys (SavaCentres).

Octavia, we have the food for thought ones and they're brilliant, They've outlasted the soft insulated bags and they come with two little pots which are tightly sealed enough to put humous in and it doesn't leak.

The other useful one to have is a widemouthed flask, like Stanley do here Don't be put off by the customer reviews. it's fantastic. you just put the food in in the morning and heat it in the microwave before school, then by lunchtime it is warm but not scalding. My kids have meatballs and veg sauce or chunky soups.

If he's a fussy eater I'd be wary of school dinners. My son became skeletally thin and very ill one term. Turned out he wasn't eating the school dinners and was starving. As he has a super fast metabolism he really needed them but didn't eat food he didn't like. As soon as he went back onto packed lunch with food I knew he'd eat, he began to gain weight again.

racingheart, I really do not know whether he is going to eat anything from the school lunches. I know for sure he will not try, gravy, sausages, meatballs and many other things. I think we will give it a go and ask the lunchlady whether he ate anything. 9am-3.15pm is a long day.

I remember myself as a pupil and I did not always eat food from my lunchbox. Once my mum opened my schoolbag and had found a sausage starting to change its colour . I did find school lunches easier because of the choice of food.

DD eats things in her school lunch, that she would never eat at home . So it's worth a try with a fussy eater, at our school you'd be told if your child wasn't eating at all, one of DD's friends was told to bring packed lunches for this reason.

Ixia, good, I do hope they will let me know as well if he does not eat well. I also hope they make sure the kids do not run around but sit down and eat.