Lunchbox ideas

yellow hen

Can anyone give me ideas for lunchboxes for a very very fussy child? She eats zero fruit or veg. At home i can make smoothies and she loves them and I can bury veg in curries and other dinners so 'm not worried that she isn't getting the nutrition.

But I need to gently try and get fruit and veg into her snacks because that is where she only eats breads or sugary foods. Can anyone give me some ideas?

Loveinapril

What does she eat on bread? Can you mix it up and use wraps, pitta or breadsticks? My 22 month old loves dips so will have strips of pitta or breadsticks in hoummus (the caramalised onion one is sweet), cream cheese, peanut butter etc. I make a sugar free banana bread for my son using dates and vanilla essence to sweeten it, its a great snack because you can freeze it in slices and defrost as needed. There is a great recipe for banana, apple and carrot muffins on baby led weaning websites that I freeze too. Does she get involved in making her food at all?

yellow hen

Loveinapril wrote: »

What does she eat on bread? Can you mix it up and use wraps, pitta or breadsticks? My 22 month old loves dips so will have strips of pitta or breadsticks in hoummus (the caramalised onion one is sweet), cream cheese, peanut butter etc. I make a sugar free banana bread for my son using dates and vanilla essence to sweeten it, its a great snack because you can freeze it in slices and defrost as needed. There is a great recipe for banana, apple and carrot muffins on baby led weaning websites that I freeze too. Does she get involved in making her food at all?

Doesn't eat anything on her bread. Her biggest problem is she won't try new things. She loves cooking with me but it wouldn't encourage her to eat the end product. Do you have links to either of those banana breads as she might like those? thanks

Neyite

Add in to that the schools have a healthy eating policy so often the things that they will eat are deemed unhealthy and confiscated or returned like a healthy muffin because the teacher classifies it as a cake.

If she drinks smoothies, what about sending them in frozen? I've never done it with smoothies so I might experiment myself as the fruit in my son's lunch box might as well be replaced with plastic stunt doubles for all the attention he pays it.

By the time lunchtime comes around they might be defrosted enough to drink but still be chilled? You might have to test it out at home to see if it would defrost in time though? You could do batches if you got the right containers and froze them individually, or I guess even if you froze ice cubes of them and tossed a few into a bottle in the morning?

shesty

You can get small kiddies thermos containers in the likes of Dunnes and you could put her smoothie in that.Give her a straw in her bag to drink it?

jlm29

Neyite wrote: »

Add in to that the schools have a healthy eating policy so often the things that they will eat are deemed unhealthy and confiscated or returned like a healthy muffin because the teacher classifies it as a cake.

My sons school allows plain Madeira cake, plain queen cakes and fruit cake.
I gave him a slice of un-iced Christmas cake once with his lunch for a treat and he came home and told me he wasn’t allowed chocolate cake for his lunch, and never to give it to him again. His teacher had Obviously seen that it was cake, dark in colour and assumed it was chocolate cake, and he didn’t know to tell her it wasn’t (he was 5).

OP, I feel your pain. My 7 yr old has had pretty much the same lunch every day since he started preschool. Generally refuses to try anything new, but bribery in the form of sticker charts do work, so he’s improving a small bit lately. I don’t worry too much about it because he’s good to eat breakfast and dinner, and his diet is overall pretty balanced.

yellow hen

jlm29 wrote: »

My sons school allows plain Madeira cake, plain queen cakes and fruit cake.
I gave him a slice of un-iced Christmas cake once with his lunch for a treat and he came home and told me he wasn’t allowed chocolate cake for his lunch, and never to give it to him again. His teacher had Obviously seen that it was cake, dark in colour and assumed it was chocolate cake, and he didn’t know to tell her it wasn’t (he was 5).

OP, I feel your pain. My 7 yr old has had pretty much the same lunch every day since he started preschool. Generally refuses to try anything new, but bribery in the form of sticker charts do work, so he’s improving a small bit lately. I don’t worry too much about it because he’s good to eat breakfast and dinner, and his diet is overall pretty balanced.

She's stubborn as a mule. I don't mind preschool so much as I can pack her up beforehand and have lunch waiting. But I worry that if I can't gently expand her tastes before school I'll struggle to have anything to send in for junior infants.

jlm29

yellow hen wrote: »

She's stubborn as a mule. I don't mind preschool so much as I can pack her up beforehand and have lunch waiting. But I worry that if I can't gently expand her tastes before school I'll struggle to have anything to send in for junior infants.

Aileen cox blundells baby led feeding book has some nice recipes for savoury muffins, that might be worth a try.

Loveinapril

yellow hen wrote: »

Doesn't eat anything on her bread. Her biggest problem is she won't try new things. She loves cooking with me but it wouldn't encourage her to eat the end product. Do you have links to either of those banana breads as she might like those? thanks

http://www.babyledweaning.com/blw-recipes/frannys-fab-and-healthy-banana-cake/

I use dates boiled and smushed in hot water in the banana bread for added sweetness, you could omit the raisins and do this so there is a smoother texture.

https://mykidslickthebowl.com/baby-led-weaning-muffins-apple-banana-carrot/

Milly33

This is a lovely banana bread recipe and if you make it in a mini loaf tin tis great for making in batches and freezing.. Now i use id say maybe 60g of sugar 200grms is far too sweet.. Chopped apricot is lovely in it also.

Annabel Karmel has some good recipe ideas she might be off some good..

I dread this phase with herself, I hope you make it through alive haha ... She is still only a youngin but the opposite to yours, she will eat all the fruit in the world.. I am trying to get her to eat more cheeses.. So far what worked is that soft full fat, cream cheese from aldi with sliced strawberries in a sandwich, or she loves peanut butter and sliced apples sambos too

Tomw86

Just a note that peanut butter isn't allowed in most schools so it's probably not worth suggesting - neither is any receipt which contains nuts.

Might be different in some schools, but most won't take the risk anymore!

Dravokivich

I don't worry about his lunch. It's the main meals that I'd be focused on through out the day. He can have a few bites of whatever is acceptable. It's usually carb based stuff I give him, so it keeps him going. Rice Cake, Brioche/Crossant, Jam Sambo, Yogurt, some sort of cracker thing to dunk into cheese.

pwurple

Is it just fruit like apples and bananas she is rejected, or everything... strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes of various colours? Watermelon?

Is it that typical 3 year old attempt to gain control and assert her independence? If so, there are ways around it.

I've seen people do things like draw eyes on fruit with food colouring, but to be honest, I don't think that works long term, it just prolongs the difficulty. I also wouldn't hide veg in other food, or go liquidising it, I mean, she's a kid. We'd all survive on bread chocolate crisps and cake alone if we hadn't learned at some stage that it's good to eat healthy food.

I think it's about educating her. They are sometimes rational! You need to keep it simple. Fruit and vegetables keep us healthy. If you only eat bread you will get sick, or a pain in your tummy... etc. My brother has a fussy 2 year old and has been insisting that they must always eat at least one fruit/veg, one protein and one carb at every meal. They can pick it themselves, carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, a few peas, slice of melon, clementines, whatever... so that gives them that abilty to assert the independence and make those decisions. It worked for them, but it took a good while.

This cake made of cheese and cauliflower is good for lunch boxes and picnics as it slices well - holds together - and is as good cold as it is warm. The quantity of cheese and egg in it tends to mask the vegetable content too. So it goes down well with children. It being called "cake" does not hurt either as by that age the word already has powerful associations in the mind of a child.

https://smittenkitchen.com/2010/10/cauliflower-and-parmesan-cake/