school lunches

[Pug Girl]

My daughter starts preschool this year! hurray for her! I have never had to pack lunches before since her babysitter provided lunches.

What are some healthy suggestions for lunches that a 4 year old can handle on her own. I am already thinking cut up fruits and veggies, hummus, string cheese, hard boiled eggs, crackers (like cheese its or graham crackers), cheese and crackers, etc.

what are other suggestions outside of peanut butter and jelly? The school has asked us to be sensitive to nut allergies when packing lunches. I understand and support it. My other daughter has lactose issues so I understand the concern of other parents.

What about drinks? Do you send water? Does the bottle sweat all over the lunch? Should I wrap it in a paper towel? My kids are big water drinkers. I want to avoid daily juice boxes. I am not positive they sell milk at the school, but they might. They have a hot lunch program so buying milk might be an option.

Thanks so much

[SuzCa]

As far as drinks, I mostly send water. Juices have too much sugar in them. Lets see, I have tried cheezits, berries, grapes, half a ham and mayo or jelly sandwich with butter, applesauce, raisins, sunflower seeds, half a fruit bar, granola bar, a small pickle if they like them.

My dd rebelled and would not eat cafeteria food from the second grade on.

[Lois]

I would think the water bottle would not sweat on the food (which will be in bags/containers?) if its just a few hours and it is indoors. (I bring my lunch to work 4 days a week, and on Mondays I leave it in my car and it gets really hot lately). I think you have some good starting ideas. Do they have snack time too? At our preschool the kids/parents brought the snacks (for the whole class, in a rotation), and typically juice was the drink there, so I wouldn't do more juice at lunch. Make sure she can get the packaging open and knows she can ask for help if she can't (Kids have a really hard time opening Gogurt--yogurt is another great option--even up to 2nd grade or so). She will probably tell you what other kids bring and ask if she can have it too....

[BC-tysa]

Yes, gogurt is a good idea, its pretty sugary, but you can freeze it and it will still be kinda slushy when lunch comes around. I would say buying her a milk everyday is pretty expensive. Around here, it is like .75 each for a small thing and its pretty full of sugar. You can buy TruMoo (or similar) at most grocery stores and it has way less sugar. You can put it in a thermos if she east early, or pop it in the freezer over night if she eats later in the day, then it will have time to defrost by lunch.You can also cut a banana in half, then its easier for little hands to open. But no matter what you do, if you have the time, I would definitely suggest buying bigger stuff and packing in sandwich bags or whatever. Buying the "prepared" sizes is a much more costly way to go.

Either way, like Lois said, she will have some suggestions of her own after school starts.

[Pug Girl]

Thanks for the suggestions! There were a few things I didn't think of. I forgot about just plain old jelly and butter. She does like that. She is a really good eater, so whatever I put in it she will probably eat. I am going to have her teacher send home whatever isn't eaten for the first week or two so I can get a good feeling of what she is and isn't eating.

75 cents for a milk? Our elementary school sells it for a quarter. That is what I was kinda thinking of they do sell it. I will really have to check that out.

I am not sure what time she eats. We do pack early though because she will be there at 7 am. The school will feed her breakfast between 7-7:30. There is a morning snack and then lunch later in the morning. I want to say lunch is at 11:30, but I am not positive.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am open to more if there are any

[BC-MAV]

The best peanut butter alternative to PB that I found was Sunbutter brand sunflower seed butter. (younger DS was allergic as a baby and toddler) It is high in protein, look like PB, and to me taste like PB. The soy brands were pretty yuck. If you are not going to do milk then I would make sure that she has some dairy in her lunch like cheese stick, cheese circles, frozen yogurt, or pudding. I prefer packing fresh fruit or juice boxes and ditto to water. You can also freeze bread or freeze sandwiches the night before so they are still cool by lunch

new ideas: (to me)
cream cheese and sliced strawberries or other fruit to make a sandwich
PB or Sunbutter on celery with raisins
breakfast lunch (hard boiled egg, cold bacon, OJ, raisin bread)

I would rotate a menu because DS didn't like eating the same thing 2 days in a row. 1 or 2 days I would do a hot lunch in a thermos (mac and cheese with hot dog, noodles,, red beans/rice). Fridays I would do homemade luncheable using a large bottle cap to make the circles of cheese and meat and I didn't use a thermos because I didn't want to wash thermos and water bottles Friday afternoon!!

[sheryl]

Good ideas above. Also, I got those wide mouth thermos (short) and I put things like spaghetti, raviolis, soups, things like that.

[Mom_2_Dillon]

Oh the dreaded school lunch ordeal. Lol. I think I may have the pickiest 4 1/2 yr old ever. I spend so much time trying to give him a good healthy lunch and he hardly eats any of it. Sigh... I've tried school lunch too. He doesn't eat that either. I love to hear these tips!

[Melsmom]

My dd is going into 1st grade but I have always packed her lunch and snacks. I do sandwiches or cheese and crackers or pb and crackers. Club crackers have the wheat mini sticks. I always include in a gogurt to the lunch and chips and/or granola bar and I either include cut up veggies or fruit or I buy those smashed pureed fruit. No preservatives or sugar added just pureed fruit and I buy the little water pods and either include a juice or I buy the organic milk/choc. milk sippy boxes. I get them in target and they are great and look like a juice box and fit. I have never had to wrap up the water. I bought a hard sandwich container. Keeps from getting her sandwiches all mashed up. Everything else goes in zip loc bags.

[Pug Girl]

So questions about using a thermos...

How hot should I heat the food up to in the morning before putting it in? How long does the food typically stay warm in it? Is there a better brand than others?

(I have never had to use a thermos before for food! I heat mine in a microwave at work)