My son would go through $10 a day for school lunches if I allowed it -- in fact he did one day last year! That adds up QUICKLY!!!

After that, he had to make/take his own lunch for a week which is what I am leaning toward this school year with sending cash one day a week just for something *special* ... During the summer, one of his chores has been to make his own lunch and he's gotten creative and is very good about it.



Any school lunch tips or things that you have found will work for a hungry kid who has a hollow leg??

I think you have it. He just has to pack a lunch. My 11 year old is the same way. The kid doesn't stop eating. He is very thin so weight is not a problem just a big eater. I pack his lunch for him and then the kids have an account at the school for lunches. I put $40.00 a month in there so he can get extras. He eats very healthy just eats a ton!

My DS will not take his lunch to school......he'd rather go hungry. Just feels like a geek if he brings his lunch. Lunch is $2 I think, and that was what he got. Some days he would get extra for a Gatorade or ice cream or something. He has a snack as soon as he gets home, too. He can EAT!!!!

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Ha - my older DS will not eat school lunch. Can you believe a kid that has never purchased a school lunch at his high school?? Crazy! Younger will buy every once in a while - maybe 1-2 times per month. So pretty much, I make lunch every day for one, most days for two. I'm OK with it, because I've never been too impressed with school lunch....ketchup is not a vegetable. LOL

cj/

Please call our school about this. I believe that they think it is. That is funny

School lunches have greatly improved in the nutritional value, however, they've still got a long way to go in our local schools. My children struggle with their weight and if they ate school lunches every day they'd be more over weight than what they are. It's more the norm in middle and jr. high to take a brown bag lunch. No one is made fun of plus it's cheaper than buying lunch. DD didn't buy a single lunch in the cafeteria last year. DS is allowed to buy lunch once a week. The other plus is not having to stand in line anywhere from 10-25 minutes.

But it is very heart healthy!!

I caught the weight loss show for kids last night....with Shaquile O'Neil. VERY informative. The school they were at, somewhere in S. Florida, I think, has to make lunch for $1 a plate. That is why so much potatoes, etc. Chef Tyler Florence showed them how to do a good healthy meal, that the kids will eat, for $1 or maybe a tad higher. I agree, school lunches have come a long way, but........ I also think parental involvement is key.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

Dont know what their like here, son's school in TN offered a soup and salad type option instead of a regular tray, prices still high but son picked the salad almost everyday

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Dd doesn't have a choice. She has to take her lunch everyday (food allergies). I do my best with what she can eat (that doesn't require being warmed up).

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I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

The lunches at my daughters school are terrible on most days. Terrible meaning unhealthy. Either the state or county imposed a healthier lunch rule last year. They can still sell ice cream but it must be low fat, sugar free or both. They can sell chips or cookies if they're the 100 calorie packs. But lunches still stink. Here's a typical week:
Hamburgers, fries, baked beans, a fruit(usually canned or frozen and full of sugar)
Chicken nuggets, corn, fried okra, fruit
Taco, chips and cheese dip, rice, refried beans, fruit
Hot dogs, potato wedges, leftover baked beans from Monday, fruit
Chicken sandwich, baked potato, green beans

They usually have 2 options for the main entree but neither are very healthy normally. I do think they've started baking their chicken nuggets or patties for sandwiches instead of frying. But they have some type of potato 3 or 4 days a week. They have salad one day, what's not eaten is left over and offered until it's all gone or too bad to offer anymore.

I try to send different things so my girls don't tire of taking their lunches. I let them buy once or twice a week at the most. They take sandwiches and just changing up the bread helps. We use regular bread, pita bread, tortillas for roll ups, buns and small rolls. My oldest takes either turkey or chicken with provolone cheese and mustard. My youngest takes ham or PB&J. I'll send chips(I usually buy those 100 calorie packs) or crackers, fruit for my youngest and veggies for my oldest(like carrot sticks with ranch dressing or carrots and broccoli). They will also take a Little Debbie or Hostess cake(my oldest loves the 100 calorie hostess cakes), pudding or small snack size candy bar. I also send water, juice or Propel. I also send along, sometimes, the packs to mix in their water that are sugar free. They love the pink lemonade, sugar free tea with lemon and propel. They're little packs that kids pour in their water to flavor them. My oldest loves taking a salad with cheese, turkey, bacon bits, carrots, broccoli and croutons. (we put the croutons in a ziploc bag to keep them from getting soggy) I've found that packing "extras" like fruit or veggies fills them up better. My oldest is a big eater and seems to get full when she eats the lunches I pack but if she eats at school, she comes home starving!

My ds school sells carnival food...giant pretzels, corn dogs, hamburgers, ice cream, etc. It is only a dollar a day so I can't really blame them. His last school cost $2.50 a day.

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Live, Love, Laugh

I wonder if the school understands that sugar free is much worse for children than the sugar. Our kids lunches stink too. Some kind of fried chicken that has been heated up in the oven at least 3 times a week. I know they have a hard job trying to keep cost down and fat content down. But with every lunch at our school it is 1 loaded with sodium a ton. they are not allowed to serve the children water because it has no nutritional value. Well I would prefer to have my kid drink water than the milk that they serve. They can have white milk. strawberry milk, chocolate milk. To me any kid is going to go for the sweet milk. My kids need water!!! With all the sodium content in the food give the kid a drink!!! My other question about lunches is why do they have to have a desert with every lunch? Skip the fat and sugar content of desert and add that to the main meal. My kids never get desert at lunch time and really hardly ever get it for dinner. That would also cut down on cost. At least I would think so. Oh don't get me started on school lunches. Touchy touchy I become. But I can still pack what I want so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I just see so many reasons why children are over weight.

My kids eat the school lunch almost everyday. (field trips aside).

They get a meat, vegie and fruit everyday and milk. They love the school lunches and I know that they are getting the fruit and vegies that they need. (plus at home). I think they are $1.75 and my kids are in elementary. Now this might change once they go up to the middle school. But for now, they enjoy the school lunches.

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This is going to sound really corny, but my kids associate their lunch from home with love. I don't know why....maybe it's cuz I'm not there with them all the time....but they really like that Mom made their lunch....yup, even at 13 and 17 (nearly 18)!

cj/

Addison, you can still send water with your children. DD and DS take water bottles daily. They fill the bottle half full and put it in the freezer. The next morning top it off with cold or tap water depending on the weather and how fast the ice will melt.
DD and DS are responsible for fixing their lunch sacks each evening after dinner. I make sandwiches the next morning.

Nope the school will not allow it. My oldest son had to have a prescription for water at school last year. He was getting chronic head aches due to dehydration I sent water in with him and I received a letter from that teacher that this was not permitted. So I had to call the Dr. and had to get a prescription for water. His headaches disappeared after drinking water all through out the day. This has been a fight with me for a long time. The kids get what 4 or 5 oz of milk at lunch then they get to stop at the drinking fountain 3 times through the day. All the while the teacher has her 44oz soda pop sitting next to her on her desk or a cup of coffee.

Oldest son says that he must have white bread if he is not going to be teased by the other kids. Is that true? Am I the only mom in the world who buys whole wheat bread (ie Roman Meal)?

Have any of you tried the white wheat breads and is the first ingredient whole wheat? Anyone know?

It is hard being a middle schooler... Kids really can be so cruel.

[quote=Cuthie;2845951
Have any of you tried the white wheat breads and is the first ingredient whole wheat? Anyone know?

[/QUOTE]

If you look at the "Whole Grain" white bread, there are little letters above that say "made with". It is not whole grain. The whole wheat is way down the ingredient list! Very misleading.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Middle school lunches here are $2.25, while the high school is $2.50. We are very lucky to have a salad bar at each, along with a huge assortment of other ala carte items available. I send $5.00 with each, each day except Friday. The money they have left from the rest of the week, they use on Friday or pack.

That reminds me, when my DD was in 1st grade, her friend thought it was so cool that I made her lunch every day. She said her mom never made her lunch. She couldn't even make her own because they didn't have "lunch" stuff in the house. She said her mom just didn't have the time. She too seemed to equate lunches made by mom with love. [



QUOTE=cjs216;2845917]This is going to sound really corny, but my kids associate their lunch from home with love. I don't know why....maybe it's cuz I'm not there with them all the time....but they really like that Mom made their lunch....yup, even at 13 and 17 (nearly 18)!

cj/[/quote]

I agree about the sugar free. I don't mind my kids having Splenda but not in large amounts. I don't want my kids having nutrasweet. When my oldest was in kindergarten, they were out of white milk(the only type my oldest will drink), so she bought a water, which they do sell but all they had that day was flavored waters. She had no problem with flavored waters, except it was cherry and she hates cherry anything and it was in her lunch box when she got home, it had nutrasweet in it!!

Oh, and last year at school, I went one day for lunch and they not only had white milk, chocolate and strawberry but ORANGE milk.......YUCKO......a few kids had it and said it tasted like a dreamsicle. Oh boy, isn't it good to know that our kids drink dreamsicles for lunch?
And our kids don't get "dessert" with their lunches at school very often but they have fruit everyday. Most of it's canned and swimming in heavy syrup. Occasionally they get dessert, like at Thanksgiving they'll have cookies or pie but on an every day basis, no dessert other than fruit or what's purchased extra by kids.

The lunches were $2.20 a day last year. An extra milk was .45. My oldest will easily drink 3 milks, so it made her meal $3.10 a day. She seldom bought anything extra except milk though. My youngest occasionally got to buy an ice cream or cookies but not too often.

Here in El Paso, it's rare for a kid in jr high to bring their lunch. They buy it.

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"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? " ~Epicurus

I make lunch for all three of my kids (and I have learned to do this the night before, otherwise I might not have time in the morning). I try to balance what they eat and always include some kind of fruit. I let them each pick one day a week for hot lunch. This seems to work for us.

Eight yrs ago, when my daughter was in 1st grade, her former school in Oklahoma did not have a functioning cafeteria. Everyday they catered in their lunches from fast food places like Pizza Hut or McD's, and another place I can't recall. They charged $2.50 a lunch, which back then was more than what a kids meal cost at these restaurants. I didn't like the fast food everyday and thought it was expensive too. Our hot lunches today are around $1.75, still much cheaper than what they were charging 8 yrs ago at that school.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Our school allows the kids to go back for second lunch, third lunch, etc. I'm sure that my son doesn't eat everything on his plate and throws away what he doesn't like then goes back for more and more until he runs out of money... He doesn't budget well when it comes to food if he's hungry.

We have the same problem and my DS is 15! He has to be kept on a short leash with his lunch account because they sell so much extra junk food and he likes to treat his friends! This previous school year I learned that I could receive an itemized list by email once a month that would show his daily purchases. That helps, but if I don't get the list every month and go over it with him he'll backslide quickly!

Our elementary school lunches are awful as far as sodium and fat content. They do offer fruit and vegetable choices (the kids get to pick their own side dishes), but even if the kids pick them, most don't eat them. For beverages, they offer white & chocolate milk and fruit punch. Lunch costs $1.60 and then you can add on extras (ice cream, chips, pretzles, Gatorade, etc.). You can limit your child to only a lunch and no extras, but if you do that, the child can not buy just a beverage.

Our schooll does have a lunch account for each child where you can send a check or deposit money on-line (for an extra fee, of course). The best part about this is that you can see what your child is buying. My DS was buying ice cream every day, so I had to put a stop to that. Now I have told him that he is allowed one 'extra' a week. If he gets more than that, I've threatened to limit his account so he can only get the standard lunch.

At the middle & high schools, they have a 'food court'. You can get the standard school lunch, but hardly anyone does. I've heard that it really adds up quickly for the a-la-carte choices.

Sarah..........mom to Jason & Devin

I would imagine that cafeteria lunch account software is basically the same from one state to another. Our accounts can be flagged to not allow a certain purchase. DS was buying 2 milks in 2nd and 3rd grade until I put a stop to it. Fruit in our school lunches is just that.....fruit: apple or an orange. No canned fruit. I can't understand a school system buying canned fruit. Seems to me the government subsidized fruit would be cheaper.

Wow you are lucky!!!!

I am a teacher and the school food in my county is awful. I try to bring fresh fruit for my kids a couple of times a week. I teach pre-K kids w/disabilities and my class is generally small(10-12) so it is not too expensive. I also scoop up BOGO free stuff to take to school. Another problem is everything is served w/o being cut up so if I didn't stay in the cafeteria with my kids and prep their lunches they wouldn't eat much. I keep butter, salad dressing, etc in my fridge in my classroom to try and make the stuff edible. Many of my kids will eat all of the food for the day at school so I try to make sure they eat well. I also feed them a snack before they go home since many don't eat again at home.

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Terri...mom to drama queen and the monkey-boy

Blessed are the parents who make their peace with spilled milk
and mud, for of such is the kingdom of childhood.

OMG,you are a fantastic teacher !!!!

my kids won;t touch the cafeteria food with a 10 foot pole!!!!it is just plain nasty,and kids are touching the food while going by .plain gross....5 year olds have to serve themselves..

homemade lunches for them...

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By the time you make ends meet, they move the ends

I would be down at that school so fast....urrrgghhh. Reminds me of a few "incidences" my kids had at a school in Jacksonville, FL. One was when my son came home and told me he couldn't have pizza, they MADE him eat spaghetti. He HATES spaghetti. I said, "why did you HAVE to eat spaghetti?" He told me the lunch lady made him take it since that is what he asked for. I was quite puzzled......after talking with DS, DH and I hauled butt down there to get to the bottom of it. WEll, the choices for the day were spaghetti, or pizza. There was no pizza ready, so DS said he'd go with spaghetti. Then, the lunch lady put some pizzas on lunch trays and put them up for the kids, BEFORE DS got his tray of spaghetti. He took the pizza tray down and started to walk down the line. She yelled at him, no, you said spaghetti, you're GETTING spaghetti, and took his pizza from him. She agreed all that did happen, and her reasoning was this: "we only make a certain amount of food based on what the children will eat. We don't make extra. I was like . Then, I asked her how she could justify the "extra" pizza that she caused,since she certainly could NOT serve the pizza that my son had taken (I'm sure she did, tho ). No answer for that one. I also told her the whole way she handled it was WRONG. He's in third grade. What a load of horse crap. The next incident was when the lunch room aide would not help my DD open her Capri Sun. She was in first grade. I ripper her a new one, too. The lunch room lady, not my DD. Come on people, she's in first grade for crying out loud. I'd been in the lunch room during lunch time, and these women were awful.....yelling at the kids on a megaphone.. One lady even told them "SHUT UP!!!!" That one got her a trip to the office, right behind me, who reported her!!!

I don't go for any crap from the schools. I'm the first to support the school, and know my kids aren't perfect, but, I don't go for people pulling crap like this with my kids.

OK, back to the point at hand. Addison, I would SO be in the office demanding some good reasoning why this woman can have a soda on her desk and the kids can't have water bottles. A friend of mine never let her kids drink out of the water fountain. She swears her brother got Hep. C from a water fountain. At the very least, water fountains are GROSS!!! I think someone should do a bacteria study on such things.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

ScienceDaily: School toilet water cleaner than fountains

Here's one.

I really can't go through life with paranoia -- I have a tendency toward it anyway! I usually avoid trying to think about those sorts of things and just do the best that I can and try to teach my kids about cleanliness and keeping their hands clean, etc. I have seen the janitors wiping down the drinking fountains throughout the day when I substitute at my kids' school.

I taught first grade years ago. One year, I decided to allow the kids to bring water bottles.... water = pee (a lot of it... even some accidents!), spills, refilling with a class of 25 - yikes! Needless to say, we went back to no water bottles unless they had a doctor's directive (ie bladder infection, etc). This was how I explained it to the kids too. If I had given it time, I'm sure that maybe some of the novelty would have worn off... but I wasn't taking chances!


As far as lunches from home... can some of you put some examples of what you send in your kids' school lunches? Thanks!

One more word on water bottles.......

I didn't say my children took water bottles to keep with them all day. Just water bottles to drink out of at lunch time. The bottles stay in their lockers or cubbies until lunchtime. It's not an all day long occurence.

I wouldn't go to the school over this one, I would go to the district office. A child should be allowed to bring a water bottle in their lunch.

I told DD last night, she should test the water fountains at school as a science experiment

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

My kids are good with sandwiches and don't have access to a microwave so that's the main event.
Sandwich: Lean(er) deli meats: Ham, Turky, Buffalo Chicken, Roastbeef, Tuna fish (favorite) or PBJ (seldom)
Chips/crackers: snack-size bags of Doritos or Wheat Thins or ziploc of pretzels or goldfish
Fruit/Veggies: grapes, apples, oranges, strawberries, banana, carrots, celery, mandarin oranges, or applesauce
Sweet: fat free pudding cup, granola bar, yogurt, couple pieces of dark chocolate , cookies

I just rotate it around so it doesn't get too boring. DS1 gets three sides and DS2 only wants two (and one must be a fruit/veggie).

cj/

We have lunch ladies about like yours. They yell, embarrass and humiliate the kids. They act like food police. They'll make them eat food before they can get ice cream....eat all of their food, not just some of it. So is it healthier to eat greasy french fries and corn dogs over the ice cream?? If parents don't want their kids to have ice cream, they won't send in money for it.
I've had to do my share of complaining just to keep my kids from being mistreated. My youngest came home from kindergarten, every day for about a week without her drink opened. I ask why and at first she wouldn't tell me but finally let me know that Ms. B told them to raise their hands when they needed something(no problem, good rule). My daughter sat there with her hand raised for almost the entire lunch period without being acknowledged. She tried to get up to ask them to open her drink and got yelled at.... And what's even worse is she tried to explain to ms. B that she only got up because her hand had been up the entire time....she was told to be quiet. And then we have the pudding incident.....I normally always send plastic spoons with my kids for their food. I had forgotten this day......dd sat and sat and sat and sat with her hand up...no reponse.....she opened the pudding and ate it with her fingers. The reason I found out?? She had it under her nails, around her cuticles, all over her clothes, in her lunch box.....and yes it was chocolate. When I ask why the mess....she told me she had to eat it with her fingers because it was almost time to go and Ms. B never came to see what she needed and she's scared to get up because Ms. B will yell and embarrass her. WHAT???? I told her the next time to just get up and get a spoon, if Ms. B doesn't come see what she needs and if Ms. B yells to let me know and I'll take care of it. Ridiculous that anyone would be treated the way they treat kids in our school.

I wonder if this school understands that making a child finish their lunch till it's all gone is promoting poor eating habits. The worst thing you can do to a child is MAKE them finish their plate of food. Kids should only eat until they are not hungry anymore. I love when my kids don't eat all their food and are full. To me this means that they understand their body and understand that they do not need anymore.

I was wondering if you have spoken to this Mrs. B and what her side of the story is.....

Thank you so much cj! HUGS... I needed help from an expert with a hollow-legged teen who has survived hanging out with other teens in a lunch room setting. Yikes! Again, thanks.

I should have mentioned that I don't allow them to take soda with their lunch. For the older guy, who has outgrown juice boxes, I send lemonade in 12-oz cans (Minute Maid or Tropicana) found in the soda aisle....or 12 or 16-oz Gatorade/Powerade, etc. That way he doesn't feel like a complete geek. Both of them would rather spend more time gabbing and such at the lunch table then standing in line to get it... I would send Snapple and the like but don't want to send glass bottles.
cj/

I let my DD buy lunch 1 day a week, the rest of the week she brings lunch. Nobody makes fun of kids who bring their lunch here, in fact it's kind of the opposite, if you bring your lunch then everyone knows you don't get free lunch and that you're not poor (everyone knows who gets free lunch). Kids here can walk home for lunch if they want (small town), water, soda, juice are all allowed to bring from home in lunches. Water bottles are allowed in the classroom (depending on the teacher). DD is a very picky eater and doesn't like most of the school lunches.

Lunches from home: turkey sandwiches, cold pizza, cold chicken tenders, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese & crackers,

100 calorie packs of Cheese Nips, popcorn, peanut butter Ritz Bits, ocasionally chips, carrot sticks & ranch dressing to dip, grapes, pudding cup, cookies, apple, Teddy Grahams

water bottle, Gatorade, ocasionally a soda, Capri Sun

I have a 16 yr old son with a hollow leg. Even in grade school, when the other kids were picking at their food and throwing half of it away, my son would bring extra snacks from home to help fill him up as there was no ala carte in grade school.

Last year our school district signed on to a new program called "My Lunch Money".com and I signed up for it because I hated having to remember to write a check each week. Well, it was eye opening. There were some days he spent over $10 on lunch and it also outlined what he was buying. It was not junk. The kid was really hungry. However, I am a single parent and I take my lunch to work every day so shelling out $10/day for his lunch does not fly with me.

Anyway, we had to sit down one night and have a talk about this. I felt really bad having to do it, because he is just hungry! We agreed that he would get $5/day for lunch and I would write him a check every Monday morning and it was up to him to determine how he wanted to allot that money throughout the week. One thing that helped was making sure he ate breakfast - either at home or school. Breakfast is a cheap meal at school and it is filling. (Breakfast didn't count toward his $25 lunch total - I gave him money to buy breakfast if he didn't take it from home). From home he usually grabbed a couple granola bars and a banana. That helped him to not be so starving at lunch. Then he would get the hot lunch first, unless it was something revolting. That is $2.40. After eating the hot lunch if he was still hungry, he had $2.10 left to get something from ala carte and we discussed what some of the most filling choices would be.

We did this for almost 5 months and it worked well. Some days he wasn't as hungry and he saved that money for another day when he was ravenous. The other thing is that we only live 2 blocks from the school, and his grandparents live across the street from the school, so if he did run out of money he could either run home and grab a hot pocket or whatever, or Grandma always has something.

I think you have to sit down and talk calmly together,;do your homework beforehand and work up the figures with how much you would be laying out for lunch for the school year at $10/day, $9/day, etc., and go down to $(the price of hot lunch)/day. Then find a figure that you can both live with. I mean we all have to live within our budgets don't we? Shouldn't we be teaching our children that? I had to ask myself what I was teaching him if I didn't impose a reasonable limit on lunch. I also told him why I take my own lunch to work every day.

We actually just talked about this a couple nights ago and have agreed to stick with the $5/day lunch for this coming year and he wants to stay with getting a check every Monday rather than going back to MyLunchMoney program.

~Amy

Great advice mitchum... That is a great idea to lay out how much it would cost at $10 a day for 179 days! I think that if he sees it written down on paper, he'll realize why he needs to live within our family's means.

We've been talking about it a lot this week and what we have decided is that he will eat breakfast at home, take a big lunch, and one day a week have $5 to spend as he wishes on the meal or a'la carte or a combination... his choice.

He seems very happy with this decision. He really does like lunch from home better anyway. He has not been happy with middle school cafeteria food (middle school is 6th, 7th, and 8th grades... he's going into 7th grade) -- he always enjoyed the elementary school cafeteria and I thought the entire district was on the same menu plan and so I never understood why he suddenly stopped liking it. Bad mom. Oh well. He's very forgiving.

I've said the same thing about making kids "clean their plates". I do NOT agree with it at all. I've made my viewpoints clear and have let them know that my kids do NOT have to clean their plates or finish their lunches. I'll monitor their eating habits at home and when they're at school, leave them alone. I feel they have enough pressure at school and the last thing they need is to worry if they'll be yelled at or humiliated if they ask for something. They know I'm outspoken so they've finally gotten to the point where they leave my kids alone. I'd love to speak up for every child but I can't, that's their parents job.
These lunch ladies still have the ideas that kids must clean their plates to get dessert and there's no changing their minds on that. So the best I can do is let them know that I don't share their belief on that and like I said they pretty much leave my kids alone now.

Our regular lunches are expensive and skimpy! Elementary lunches are $2 and only have 3 items. (either fruit or veggie and mashed potatoes count as a veggie). Middle School are $2.35! CRAZY! They have some choices, but the "premium" lunch is a joke (hamburger/fries, breadsticks/fries! Those aren't meals!) My 2 middle school students get 2-4 hot lunches and $10 a month for extras. (They usually only get extras when they buy so it is $.50-$1 a day). They have an account at school and can check the balance each day to budget their money. They are always allowed to pack more for lunch (within reason in regards to health).

I only let ds buy his lunch on occassion, like pizza or something like that. The lunches here are just awful!! I mean.....breadsticks with nacho cheese?????? That's the entree!!! They get some fruit,milk and a cookie with that and they call it lunch!! I don't think so!
Ds is pretty good about eating anything we sit in front of him so I never have to worry about him not eating. I try to keep at least 3 types of lunch meat in the house , along with peanut butter. Like others I buy different kinds of breads to switch things up. He really likes it when I make him a "sub sandwich". I buy the mini buns so they fit into his container. I think it's one of his favorite lunches. On occassion I'll make him a fluffer nutter as a treat. For sides, I keep granola bars, cereal bars, fresh fruit, crackers and those tiny bags of chips on hand. He also gets a fruit snack and a small "dessert" of jello or pudding cups or ,his favorite, a go-gurt. I'll buy juice boxes but he really prefers those aqua pods water bottles. Sometimes I'll send those kool-aid or lemon-aid singles with it so he can mix it himself.

Now my 6 yr old dd is a different story. She's just starting full days this year and is EXTREMELY picky. I have a feeling it will be the same lunch everyday. I just hope she don't get bored with it since she's not too keen on trying new things....ugh

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Amy mommy to Ash,Zach&Alexis


MyCoupons Is #1 for Holiday Shopping

Maybe "peer pressure" will make her more willing to try new things. She may see what other kids at her lunch table eat or bring and want to try too.

Good luck!

cj/

elem/middle school lunch here is gross lol most of the time i made lunch when they were younger, now i have 1 still in high school and at the high school they have a food court w/subway, pizza hut etc and lunch is about $3 in hs.

i worked at an elem school for awhile and typed up spreadsheets of nutrition stuff for the cook; they did have to follow a long list of guidelines for nutrition as specified by the govt; they had to have protein and veg and fruit and i think milk, anyway there are a lot of guidelines for that but the stuff was just so nasty!

a govt approved/nutritional lunch at our district could be bread, a portion of canned spaghetti, sp;oonful of canned veg and can fruit...
a snack could be milk and oranges.
meets the guidelines, but, yuck! who wants to wash down oranges with milk or eat canned peas and applesauce with a piece of bread and canned spaghetti *gag* the teachers would eat the same stuff too, I don't know why unless maybe it was free lol

Many children will say they are full just to get the snack. To me, that is a bad habit. Many of the parents don't realize that their child took maybe one bite of their sandwhich, did not touch their apple, gobbled down the chips and then said they were "full", can I buy a snack now. Most parents hope that their child ate least ate half of their lunch before throwing it away and buying more food. This is not usually the case.

I believe that now the students only have to take two items from the counter for it to qualify as a complete meal. Milk can be one of the items. The rule at our school is they have to take at least three bites or wait until the end to go out to recess.