Having nightmares over school lunches!

[~Kim~]

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?

[anney]

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.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

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.

[JLeigh29]

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...