Having nightmares over school lunches!

School lunches are bane of my existence right now! I am even dreaming about them.

Yesterday, dd asked me for fruit salad so I spent most of my morning chopping fruit for her breakfast and lunch. I felt quite smug, thought I was finally on to a winner so did the same today. THEN the school rang to tell me not to send fruit salad for lunch because it has gone through her bag and they had spent all morning fishing rank, mouldy squashed fruit from the bottom of her bag!! TBH, I don't think the fruit salad has had time to go mouldy so it must be other food she hasn't eaten over the past few weeks but you can't argue with stupid so I slunk off with my tail between my legs and accepted hte fact that I am a crap lunch maker.


My kids won't eat anything!! It's not like I don't mix their food up, in the last few weeks they have asked for and I have made salad wraps, salad bowls, sandwiches, leftovers, even mini platters of kabana, cheese and biscuits. They just hate everything and I am spending so much money on food they want but refuse to eat.

Please, please. Help me find something my kids will eat! Bearing in mind, now it's hot so meat is out.

School lunches scare me and I've only got kinder kids.

What if they made their own? I know that means more mess etc, but if they had to contribute they might try and eat it lol.

We all packed our own lunches from an early age (around 7).

Otherwise carrot and cucumber sticks and hommus are a winner here, as are grapes, watermelon slices, corn chips, homemade biscuits (jam drops), Vegemite on roll up bread, avocado and cucumber sandwiches, and weetbix with honey.

But my kids eat everything in sight. I spend a fortune too!

I agree that I would also be getting them to make their own. DD1 is 7 and gets out the things that she wants in her lunch. I make her wrap but then pack in all the other stuff. She has meat in her wrap but she also has to remember to get an ice pack out of the freezer to go in it. There is also the rule that when she gets home from school she has to unpack her bag and put her lunch box in the kitchen so if it isn't there in the morning I don't pack lunch. that way any leftover food that hasn't been eaten goes into the next day, in the bin or in the dog bowl.

whst about basics - vegemite sandwich, apple and bikky.?

sometimes simple things are the faves.

My DD sounds like your kids but she doesn't start school until next year. I will be sticking with vegemite sandwiches because I know it will be eaten.

I don't even think there is any point to doing lunch orders for my DD as she wouldn't even eat a sausage roll or nuggets or anything that the canteen serves for lunch. She is so fussy!

:hug:

We had to make ours the night before, I remember. That way you can't complain you don't like it! What if you sit down with them and make a list of everything they'll be happy to eat, and then they can sort of put their orders in at the start of the week or something? Apart from sandwiches, how about zucchini slice, scones, hearty muffins (like fruit and oat), puff pastry tarts (I chuck a bunch of stuff like feta, cherry tomatoes, bacon in the centre of puff pastry squares. Or apples or peaches or something). Even if you freeze batches of muffins (I just looked up a recipe for breakfast muffins, breakfast, lunch, same diff), they can just pull them out as needed.

Otherwise. Let them go hungry? I mean, are they not eating because they think it's yuk, or are they preferring to skip lunch to play and socialise? You could see if their teacher can make sure they eat? My kids have their lunch for afternoon tea if they don't finish it. But if they're just doing other stuff, the food is there if they decide they're starving, but perhaps even if they have exactly what they want they wouldn't eat it if they're busy? Don't even know if that helps, but i hope you figure something out so they have some brain food for the arvo. Would they have a smoothie if you could figure out a way to keep it cool?

My kids were hte best eaters when they were young. Now they're so fussy, it's ridiculous. I probably should make them do their own lunches but quite honestly, our mornings are hectic and it's hard enough getting them up and dressed for school, I just don't need another thing to argue with them over.

THanks for your suggestions.

Make them make their lunches at night

I would take them to the supermarket and get them to pick their own? That's what I do with my DD and she is great with her lunches..
I found that if I try to give her anything that the other kids don't have then she is a little more reluctant to take it.. It's all about fitting in with the other kids!
A usual lunch for mine is a Vegemite sandwich, muesli bar, a bit of fruit, and one piece of junk (like and LCM or Le Snack etc) and she gets a poppa.. I find this is perfect.. If I try to change anything (I once tried to substitute to vege sandwich for a ham and cheese wrap) that's when I get issues!

Yep, I take them to the supermarket and they choose what they want.

Yeah we did ours the night before too. I was a nightmare in the mornings, no way my mum would have attempted to add another thing for me to do lol. I dunno, all the best. I *think* if it was me, I'd try getting them to finish their lunch for afternoon tea/dinner, and then perhaps there's an incentive to eat it at lunch. Who knows if it'd work though. It does in my hypothetical dreamland.

There has been a lot of trial and error for me this year, even with lunch boxes to avoid spillage. My tips:
- wrap sandwiches in foil or sandwich box (lots of accidents falling out of lunch box or DS unable to hold it)
- fruit in sealed container in lunch box that can't leak or zip lock bag
- he loves soft bread rolls with one day tuna, ham, jam and one day I do a homemade pizza and one lunch order day with a plain sandwich in his lunch box
- baked goods like muffins, slice and cake always get eaten
- the main goal is for it to get eaten rather than eating nothing so I have cut down on the salad component for him and save it for home as he would complain it was soggy
- ice bricks in summer keep the meat components cold so ham etc ok. And makes the roll/sandwich taste better too
- he loves cut up oranges, strawberries, mango, cucumber, melons.
Good luck!!

:hug: you poor chick. I've got nuthin, but my GF is going through this with her big girl ATM. She only realised there was a problem when she noticed a brown puddle next to her DD's bag. There was like 6 weeks of squashed deceased fruit in the bottom....yuck.

Little kids are so different to bigger ones.
Do you reckon if they did some baking on say a Sunday that would get eaten?

Nightmare here too and I only have one to contend with! Resorted to lunch orders twice this week. Dd wont do sandwiches. Frankfurters in a thermos to keep them hot are a fave. We do heaps of fruit in summer. I would persist with fruit but get some containers that won't leak. Dd had frozen berries yesterday and her lunch box was red from the juice last night. The small tubs of fruit are good when you dont have chopping time but a bit exxey. Frozen fruit is much more economical and great for summer.

Liebling's lunch box is cleared out every night to avoid the decaying food issue. He leaves all the crusts from his bread and brings home apple cores and any empty packets (school policy is for him not to throw rubbish away), so it needs doing.

Sandwiches, rice with kidney beans and veg, pasta salads are all winners for us. I will pop in the odd packet of snacks or cakes, but always fruit. Also sausage rolls, scotch eggs, crab sticks, carrot sticks and hummous, leftover pizza slices, tortilla wraps... all with a frozen water bottle in the summer (don't fill it up before putting it in the freezer!). Always stuff that Liebling likes and if he doesn't eat it then he goes hungry - if he were to prat me about then he will be making his own lunches.

I've been dreaming lunch box ideas too, and DS doesn't start kindy til next year! I've started a list of foods I will try and ways to store/present that might entice some food into his fussy little mouth!

I'm thinking it'll be lots of different but little things rather than two or three choices - so mini muffins/pike lets rather than big ones. Keeping stuff cold will be a challenge - I'll probably send stuff frozen, like yoghurt etc and hope it thaws by lunch.

Savoury muffins/pike lets - individually frozen so they stay cold til lunch (DS helps make them so he can choose what he wants in them).
Homemade popcorn
Corn cakes, rice cakes, cruskits, crackers
Dried fruit - dates, sultanas, apricots, apple, banana chips, cranberries etc
Home baked slices, fruit muffins, biscuits, muesli bars etc that they've helped make
Pasta/cous cous/rice salad (with a tin of tuna they can add if they like)
Corn fritters with dip
Sandwich Scrolls (rolled up like a Swiss roll and cut into slices) - salmon and cream cheese, vegemite, jam etc

I'd persist with fruit salad but look at other ways of storing - it's a bit rude of the school to say don't send fruit salad because it leaked IMO. Container then a plastic bag over the top maybe?

Why do they say they don't eat their lunches - are they super keen to get to play? In which case you want nutrient dense stuff that's quick to eat. Are they embarrassed about how it's presented? Ie they don't want to be seen with a container/packet/spoon etc? Is it too fiddly to open? Is it gungy by lunch time - hot, discoloured, squishy etc?

Have them pack some lunch the night before (non perishables), reward them for emptying their bag/lunch box when they get home each day...

My tried and true combo is: sandwich (often made in bulk over the weekend and frozen. With meat, cheese and spread) fruit, poppa (frozen in summer) and a snack box item. Snack box is in the cupboard and is only for lunch box treats. Sultanas, fruit bars, popcorn, sometimes biscuits, tubs of fruit/jelly. Shamefully now that I start work early and DS(18) and DD(16) supervise lunchbox packing 3 mornings a week far more leftover KFC heads to school than I would like. DS works there and brings home loads.
Whatever, it's chicken, it's protein and at least they pack it with an ice pack right?

There are lots of ideas on pinterest!