BS: Children's packed lunches

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: SINSULL
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:59 AM

How about letting her pack her own lunch. And concentrate on what she likes rather than dislikes.

If she likes cheese but not on a sandwich, give her some in a plastic bag. Maybe she would like those nasty packed lunches thast Oscar Meyers puts out. It sounds as if she a "cool" lunch might be more appealing.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:48 AM

I know your dilema Lynne, Limpit is equally pedantic and seems to live on peanut butter rolls and lettuce at the moment. She'll eat egg mayonnaise sandwiches but only if I make them. As Manitas makes her lunches almost every day, she doesn't get them often.

We occasionally (like once or twice a term) let Limpit have those prepackaged lunches from Dairylea or Snack-Attacks - usually consists of a processed meat (THEY call it ham or chicken), a processed cheese product and some plain crackers or a pita bread wrap and a juice drink. They have the advantage that she will eat them and they up her 'cool' rating at school.

In the past, we've fooled her with our own version. Small ham bits, cut from a bigger slice with a biscuit cutter, plain water biscuits (not Ritz crackers, far too salty) and some proper cheese cut with the same biscuit cutter. Add a box of juice, a yoghurt and maybe a small portion of salad or sunflower seeds and you've got a reasonable meal.

I've found from experience that it's far easier to give them something they WILL eat for school, however tedious, and feed them the varied healthy stuff at home.

Last term I discovered that Limpit had a lucrative 'sunflower seed' ring going where she would deal her seeds for something else from her friends.

Good luck.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: JennyO
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:43 AM

I don't think anyone's mentioned eggs yet. I know lots of kids who like a hard boiled egg, or an egg and lettuce sandwich is nice.

We get these cabanossi sticks here, made for snacks. You tear one off the strip. Little single packs of cheese of all kinds are good. We also get these snack packs with cheese on one side and crackers on the other. Then there are muesli bars and little packs of dried fruit.

Maybe for a change, instead of bread for her sandwich, she might like a pita pocket bread, or turkish bread. Has she tried philly cheese on a sandwich or with crackers?

Fruit salad in a small sealed container goes down well too.

Those are just a few ideas from the top of my head. I'll add more if I think of it.

Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much, as others have said. Kids often seem to get fussy around that age, and it will pass. Ask her what her friends are having. That might give you an idea or two.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:40 AM

Let her make it the night before. Let her help shop.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Bagpuss
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 08:09 AM

I am not necessarily advocating this, but when I was younger, you got what you were given. And if you didn't like it, you went hungry (or learned to swap with someone else). We were allowed one vegetable, one fruit and one other type of food we absolutely wouldn't eat, and we had to lump whatever else there was. I was allowed to not eat cauliflower and fish, but I had to have at least a little of everything else if they were put on my plate (i liked all fruit).

Like i say, it might not have been the best tactic, but in the long run, you need to think about how to tackle extreme fussy eating, because the longer you go along with it, the less likely they are to grow out of it and adopt a more varied diet.

Hope you get something sorted in the short term though.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Crystal
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 05:52 AM

Peanut butter is often good for fussy kids, my younger sister went through phases of not eating her sandwiches so when that happened we both were put back on the peanut butter which she would eat. As long as there is plenty of protein and fruit in your daughters diet you probably shouldn't worry.
When I was 11 I was considered old enough to make my own packed lunch, we had all the bits an pieces in the cupbord and all I had to do was put them in my bag! Admittidly I didn't always eat them at lunchtime but still.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Anne Lister
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 05:28 AM

Does it have to be sandwiches? It occurs to me that if she likes cheese generally, why not give her a piece of cheese to eat with some crackers? Again, if she'll eat cold meat or ham usually, give her the slices of meat with crackers or ryvita or something similar and see if that works - some people just don't like the way bread on sandwiches goes softer when it's kept for a couple of hours in a lunchbox. Would she eat a hard boiled egg? (a lot of children won't, hence my hesitancy!). A chicken drumstick? And if you feel she must have some bread, just a plain butter/spread sandwich often does the trick and get the protein into her outside the sandwich!

And again, having witnessed many children baulking at lunches in school (whether school dinners or packed lunches) - she won't starve if she doesn't eat a lot, so make sure there's that yoghurt and fruit bar and fruit and she'll catch up when she gets home.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Partridge
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 05:17 AM

click here

and here

and here

The above links might give you some ideas.

My children took packed lunches to school, I always tried to put in as much variety as possible. For example, a sandwich or pitta bread, raisins, fruit, carrot sticks, flapjack(homemade), crackers and cheese. Never fizzy drinks ot sweets. Water was available at school.
The fillings for the pittas and sandwiches were stuff I knew they liked. One of my daughters loved ham and thin apples slices and bacon and banana. My eldest son likes peanut butter and apple and the youngest would have egg mayo everyday!

Other fillings I used( mixed with bits of salad) were:

cheese and apple
cheese onion and grated carrot
chicken and grapes
hummous and apple
chicken, coleslaw and apple
ham, and egg and tomato

Hope this helps

Pat x

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: gnomad
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 04:51 AM

Couple of ideas: peanut butter, with or without such accompaniments as celery, raisins, apple. In view of earlier threads check the school haven't banned it first.

Rice salad, unless this falls under the same ban as the cold pasta.

Try some of the other sausages available [salami & similar].


I think I would try to get her to tell me what it is about the various refused items that she dislikes. My own dislikes include some of your daughter's, and I wonder whether her problem may relate to the texture of the food [I loathe slimy things in my mouth, floury things on my hands]. Don't try to understand the dislikes, they can be entirely irrational but that doesn't make them unreal, just note what they are.

Having a picnic sometime might help [assemble a wide range of ingredients, get daughter to help make some sandwiches, including some she is happy to eat herself].

Interesting comment about the flask, have you considered that it may be some sort of peer pressure thing? Kids can be very unkind to someone who is not conforming, particularly if they lack the self-confidence to shake the pressure off right from the start.

You mention that she is not a good eater, which brings me to a more general observation: If your daughter is eating adequately, and reasonably healthily, overall then the breakdown of each individual meal is of secondary importance. I know one lady who has had the same lunch of plain boiled beetroot and dry wholemeal bread every day for 30+ years, the rest of her diet is more conventional and she seems well on it. However if the eating problems persist and extend to the rest of her meals then it might be advisable to seek professional help.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Joe Offer
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 03:58 AM

Cold Pizza (click - I love this song) was the only nourishment we could force into my stepson when he was going to a regular school. Now he's homeschooling, and he likes hot pizza far better. Personally, I think pizza is the perfect food - my wife doesn't agree, but it's HER son who's eating it every day.
-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: Paul Burke
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 03:53 AM

Sandwich fillings:

Raw apple and stuffing (bread/ fried onions/ herbs/ veg stock cube, oven for 20 mins while something else is cooking).

Hummus and salad (don't tell her hummus is foreign).

Finely chopped tomato, apple, dried fruit and celery with a little oil and wine vinegar perhaps.

I've honestly never heard of a kid who didn't like thin sliced boiled ham with the fatty stringy bits removed- could that be the problem?

When Tom was small (6 or 7) we used to call him Supperman because he'd never go to bed without something to nibble. Typically it would be a few savoury biscuits, a bit of cheese, chopped apple, gherkins or olives, and dried fruit. And a glass of Ribena.

Subject: RE: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: skipy
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 03:51 AM

The only advice that I can give is that it will pass. We went through this with both of ours (boys) at about the same age, now a couple years on and all is o/k. One thing that I think did help was introducing them to cooking, we bought them children's cook books and encouraged them to cook once a week each, it made them experiment and vastly improved their food choices. They made things some evenings that they could put in their lunch.
Regards Skipy.

Subject: BS: Children's packed lunches
From: MBSLynne
Date: 11 Jan 07 - 03:37 AM

I need some help here. My daughter (ShadyLady) is 11 and not a good eater. I'm at my wits' end trying to find things to put in her school lunch box. Does anyone have any suggestions? I've always tried to feed them healthy stuff.

This is what she doesn't like in sandwiches:
Cheese and tomato
Tuna or any fish
Cheese, although she likes cheese generally.
Cold meat

She normally loves pasta, but I can't give her pasta salad because she doesn't like it cold. I tried giving her soup in a flask but she complained that the flask I gave her was a drinks flask and she'd get laughed at.

She doesn't like any 'foreign' food.

At the moment I'm giving her mini-pizzas or cocktail sausages with cherry tomatoes (which she says she can't eat at the moment 'cos she's got a cracked lip and it stings) a 'cheese-strings' stick, a pot of yoghurt, a 200% fruit bar and two or three pieces of fruit.

Any ideas??? Pleeeease?

Love Lynne