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If your kid is anything like mine, you have serious concerns that the bagged lunch you lovingly pack for him is not getting eaten. Kids can be particularly persnickety about what they eat, and when they're away from their parents' watchful eyes, it can be hard to make sure they get a healthy lunch. So, what can you pack that you can be reasonably sure they'll eat?
Just like with adults and food appeal, presentation is important in getting kids to eat healthy foods. Kids generally like having their own little "packages" and bite-sized pieces, especially at lunch. There's a reason kids love those pre-packaged lunches so much -- it makes them feel special to have all their own food specially packaged and prepared and separated. It's a good idea to make your child's healthy lunch selections as immediately accessible as possible -- package the carrots in their own bag, prewash and slice up an apple, build "ants on a log" (celery sticks filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins.) You can cut food into fun shapes too -- how about using a large cookie cutter to cut a sandwich into a surprise shape? Roll up lunch meats and slice up some cheese to include with a bag of crackers and let your child stack up his own towers of lunch crackers (or if you're feeling really fancy, cut the meat and the cheese into fun shapes with little cookie cutters.) Check out this fun article on lunch packaging at Kitchen Daily.
Sneak healthier components into what you know are acceptable foods already. Make sandwiches on whole wheat bread (or maybe Whole Wheat Zoo Rolls) rather than white bread, use baked or reduced fat versions of chips or crackers (or make your own Pita Chips), and choose juice boxes that are actually juice and not just sugar water. Make your own trail mix (although it's not necessary to be bound to a recipe for this) loaded with healthy bits of nuts, dried fruit, and cereal or granola (and maybe a few candy bits like M&Ms or Reese's Pieces to help encourage your kid to eat all of it.) Bake your own mini muffins with healthy ingredients like bran and bananas and whatever else you know is popular at your house (like Cranberry Walnut Muffins?) and send those along as a snack or dessert -- goodies in moderation should be part of a healthy lunch.
If you're confident that cold foods will make it to lunchtime in your child's lunchbox without suffering, you have plenty of healthy lunch options with good sources of calcium. String cheese is a great option -- it's fun to eat and comes prepackaged already. Yogurt now comes in fun tubes kids can eat without needing a spoon. You can stick those yogurt tubes in the freezer (along with the juice boxes) to help keep the rest of the lunch cold until lunchtime too.
Sometimes the best way to get a picky eater to actually eat a healthy lunch is to involve him or her in the process of preparing the food. Let her pick out her own lunchbox with the clear understanding that she eats what we put in it. Have him help you pack the lunch the night before -- you can chop up the apple, he can put it in a baggie, for example. Give her a menu of healthy choices -- maybe this week you're having healthy choices X, Y, and Z, but when it doesn't matter to you which gets eaten on what day, let your child choose and exercise a little bit of control.
With any luck, your picky eater will be eating healthy lunches on his own before you know it!
Email This
If your kid is anything like mine, you have serious concerns that the bagged lunch you lovingly pack for him is not getting eaten. Kids can be particularly persnickety about what they eat, and when they're away from their parents' watchful eyes, it can be hard to make sure they get a healthy lunch. So, what can you pack that you can be reasonably sure they'll eat?Just like with adults and food appeal, presentation is important in getting kids to eat healthy foods. Kids generally like having their own little "packages" and bite-sized pieces, especially at lunch. There's a reason kids love those pre-packaged lunches so much -- it makes them feel special to have all their own food specially packaged and prepared and separated. It's a good idea to make your child's healthy lunch selections as immediately accessible as possible -- package the carrots in their own bag, prewash and slice up an apple, build "ants on a log" (celery sticks filled with peanut butter and topped with raisins.) You can cut food into fun shapes too -- how about using a large cookie cutter to cut a sandwich into a surprise shape? Roll up lunch meats and slice up some cheese to include with a bag of crackers and let your child stack up his own towers of lunch crackers (or if you're feeling really fancy, cut the meat and the cheese into fun shapes with little cookie cutters.) Check out this fun article on lunch packaging at Kitchen Daily.
Sneak healthier components into what you know are acceptable foods already. Make sandwiches on whole wheat bread (or maybe Whole Wheat Zoo Rolls) rather than white bread, use baked or reduced fat versions of chips or crackers (or make your own Pita Chips), and choose juice boxes that are actually juice and not just sugar water. Make your own trail mix (although it's not necessary to be bound to a recipe for this) loaded with healthy bits of nuts, dried fruit, and cereal or granola (and maybe a few candy bits like M&Ms or Reese's Pieces to help encourage your kid to eat all of it.) Bake your own mini muffins with healthy ingredients like bran and bananas and whatever else you know is popular at your house (like Cranberry Walnut Muffins?) and send those along as a snack or dessert -- goodies in moderation should be part of a healthy lunch.
If you're confident that cold foods will make it to lunchtime in your child's lunchbox without suffering, you have plenty of healthy lunch options with good sources of calcium. String cheese is a great option -- it's fun to eat and comes prepackaged already. Yogurt now comes in fun tubes kids can eat without needing a spoon. You can stick those yogurt tubes in the freezer (along with the juice boxes) to help keep the rest of the lunch cold until lunchtime too.
Sometimes the best way to get a picky eater to actually eat a healthy lunch is to involve him or her in the process of preparing the food. Let her pick out her own lunchbox with the clear understanding that she eats what we put in it. Have him help you pack the lunch the night before -- you can chop up the apple, he can put it in a baggie, for example. Give her a menu of healthy choices -- maybe this week you're having healthy choices X, Y, and Z, but when it doesn't matter to you which gets eaten on what day, let your child choose and exercise a little bit of control.
With any luck, your picky eater will be eating healthy lunches on his own before you know it!