Guest Blogger: How to Ensure your Kids Eat Healthy School Lunches

Guest Blog #147, Entry #618, August 14, 2011

The countdown has begun for my 2 teenagers and Kindergartner to start school next week and school lunches are always a challenge. When making school lunches how do you ensure they are nutritious and your child will eat them!

Packing nutritious school lunches

Today, my Guest Blogger gives tips to ensure your kids will eat healthy, and you will have peace of mind that the lunch won’t end up in the school cafeteria trash can!

______________________________

Parents!  This is the article for those of you who struggle with daily opening lunch boxes that have come home returned, untouched.  While I, as much as the rest of us, wish I could make dreams come true and send off lunch boxes brimming with cookies and candies for main courses, I am a pretty firm believer in consistent healthy eating.  That said, to me there’s little more frustrating than finding time that really never existed to plan out, purchase and prepare healthy lunches that don’t even get eaten.  If you’re an extra busy mom who can sympathize, than this is the article for you!  Here are some of my favorite, easy tips I’ve picked up that can help ensure that your children eat and enjoy healthy, delicious nutritious lunches.

Solicit Help Picking

Nothing is a more sure way to get the food eaten than to get your kids to help.  This means help from the very beginning.  Ask your kids what they like, really like.  Take them shopping and allow them to help pick items.  Now, clearly there have to be some parameters here or you’ll end up with a lunchbox of ice cream and chips.  But, if you give guidelines, like “you can pick 3 fruits, 2 types of whole grain carbs (ie: bread, wraps, pasta), two types of meat and cheeses, two vegetables, etc.” than you’ll be amazed you might just discover your son hates cheddar and turkey but loves pepper jack and roast beef or maybe loves peaches and plums but detests apples and bananas, the two fruits you’ve been putting in his lunch since he was 3.  They might love whole wheat ciabatta and detest white French bread (we can dream!)  Bottom line: if your kids helped pick it, they’re much more likely to eat it.

Get Their Help Making

As we all know, some of our kids are very particular about how their food is prepared…  And, there’s nothing wrong with that.  (Yes, I was the girl who was a firm believer that a sandwich cut diagonally was not the same as a sandwich cut horizontally.)  But, as long as they’re helping, and they can tell you that when you do or don’t peel their fruit that they probably will or will not eat it, then you can give yourself much better odds of sending them off with food that does get eaten (and maybe even enjoyed!).

Have kids help choose their lunch items

Save New Foods for at Home

Putting new foods never before tried into a school lunch box is basically setting yourself up for failure and creating a recipe for waste.  Stick with the sure bets when it comes to your childrens’ eating in an environment without you.

Pack the Same Lunch for Yourself

You will be amazed by this one!  If your kids see that they are getting the exact same lunch that you are getting, this simple fact may make them much more likely to eat it.  Most children want to imitate you; they think they want to be adults, so giving them this easy opportunity can be a win-win.  Plus, you don’t have to make two separate things and you save yourself time.  I’m a firm believer of not dumbing down food or making special “kid-food.”  Food shouldn’t need to be cut into smiley faces to be enjoyed, it should taste good enough that it’s enjoyed on its own merit.

Make lunch time a fun eating experience

Help Yourself Help Your Children

Now, there are things you can do to help yourself in this whole venture of feeding your children delicious, nutritious meals.  Remember that healthy doesn’t have to mean super elaborate and extremely time consuming.  It can be as easy as swapping white for wheat.  Exchanging cookies for granola.  Swapping pizza for a whole grain wrap with some pre-sliced turkey, pre-shredded lettuce and some pre-shredded cheese.  Remember: take the “cheats” when and as you can afford them.  If you know you’ll skip putting lettuce and tomatoes on a sandwich or wrap because you just don’t have the time to wash, dry and chop, then by all means, use pre-chopped.  Take the help wherever you can get it when it comes to healthier options for your children.  Don’t have time to peel and core and slice apples every morning?  Then throw in a banana or a cup of all-natural, no sugar added applesauce.

The truth is that only you know how best to help your children.  But, I do know this: helping yourself help them is where it starts.  Make it easier for yourself, and chances are you’ll make it easier on them.  If a meal comes back home un-eaten occasionally, it’s probably not reason to feel like it’s the end of the world.  Stick to what you know they like and what they will eat, as opposed to whipping up a brand new casserole and crossing your fingers.  And, as a final thought: teaching your children to appreciate food (hopefully by example) you might just pave the way for your children to start impressing you every day.

Freelancer Jocelyn Anne is most passionate about writing for families, particularly for creating healthy meals and eating habits that can be enjoyed by all.  At the moment, you’ll find her creating new healthy frozen yogurt recipes that can be made in ice cream makers but that she thinks you’ll find taste better than ice cream.

For more ideas to make nutritious kids lunches, click here.