How to Pack a Healthy Toddler Lunch

“What should we pack for lunch?” We’ve had several parents ask about lunch and breakfast ideas. The most important thing to remember is that EVERY meal you serve your child should include a protein, vegetable, fruit, and carbohydrate. We’ve found the bento box style lunch boxes can help with this.  

The toddler brain and body are growing at a rapid pace. Proper nutrition is essential to supporting optimal brain and body development. Helping your child develop an appetite for nutritious food from a young age will serve them throughout their lives. 

How to help your child develop a taste for vegetables:  

• Salt – basically every vegetable tastes better after it has been salted. Consider sprinkling a little salt on the veggies you serve your children, even the ones you send in their lunch box!  

• Fat – not only do fats make foods taste better, they also help us absorb nutrients into our bodies! Add a little bit of butter, olive oil, avocado oil, or salad dressing to the veggies you serve.  

• Modeling – the best way to help children get a taste for vegetables is to model eating them at every meal. Be sure to put a big serving of veggies on your plate at home and talk about how delicious they are when you eat them!  

• Consistency – put veggies on your child’s plate at every meal, even if they haven’t liked that vegetable in the past. Children often need to be exposed to something 10-15 times before they will get comfortable with it.  

• Gardening – if you have the room to grow veggies at home, your children will be more inclined to eat what they’ve helped grow. Even just a small pot with some greens or tomatoes can really help your children understand where food comes from and get them excited to try it.  

We love enjoying a sweet treat every now and then and we hope you share that experience with your child too! However, school is not a place where we eat desserts and other highly sweetened foods. Having a lot of sugar first thing in the morning or right before nap can sometimes lead to difficult behavior. We also know that too many sweet treats can lead to tooth decay and other health challenges for children.  

We respectfully request that you refrain from bringing the following items to school:  

• Chocolate milk, strawberry milk, or other sweetened milks  

• Cookies, cakes, brownies and doughnuts  

• Juice, kool-aid, Gatorade or other sweetened beverages 

• Jello or pudding