Recommendation Wednesdays

When my son began preschool this September one of things that I neglected to think about was the fact that I would have to pack him a lunch to eat at school on the days he was there. This shouldn't be too hard, I thought, but then I was informed that there was no microwave available for heating up lunches and there were some other restrictions on what you could send in-i.e., no nut products of any kind, only finger foods that my son could feed himself etc.

While these are all reasonable restrictions placed on lunches by the school, it was still a bit of a challenge initially because my son is not a fan of lunch meat and some other cold foods, not to mention the fact that he is used to eating a hot lunch at home with mommy.

Here are a few guidelines that I use every time I pack Bruno's lunch:

1. I try to include a starch, a fruit or a veggie, and a protein.

2. I talk to other moms frequently to see what they send in and that has been helpful-it gives me ideas and I help other moms by giving them ideas. For example, my sister suggested sending in cut up cold hot dogs, which sounds gross and never really occurred to me for that exact reason, but she tried it and her son loves it. I told another mom about Kashi Mighty Bites which have a lot of protein in them and now her daughter eats them regularly.

3. I try to keep it interesting or he gets bored. I look at what they are serving for snack each day and try to vary what I serve him for lunch. For example, if they are having crackers and cream cheese for snack, I send in Pirates Booty for his starch and yogurt melts for his protein on that day so he isn't eating the same thing for snack and lunch.

4. Repetition. I keep at it. Bruno hated chicken nuggets for the longest time, but I kept trying and eventually he ate them and now he loves them. You can try to introduce a food 50 times and your kid may never eat it, but the 51st time he may gobble it up.

5. Talk to the teachers. Teachers are a wonderful resource for suggestions about what to feed kids, especially little ones. They can also shed some light on how much variety there needs to be in your child's lunches and they can tell you what appropriate portion sizes are.

Lastly, keep an eye on what your kids eat at breakfast and dinner. If you get one good solid meal in your toddler a day, that's a real accomplishment. We have to remember that kids get distracted by all the stimulation at school so eating may not be a priority during lunch and kids are pretty good about eating when they are hungry.