Healthy Kids Lunch Box Ideas

Hassled over what to give your kid in his lunchbox? Don’t look at junk food, get creative with your cooking and presentation.

The biggest problem of your morning is what to pack in your child’s lunch box. Try to force feed him healthy food, and he rebels. Refuse him money to buy hamburgers and pizza, and he rebels again. Several times, you open his school bag and find that he hasn’t even touched the lunch you gave him that morning.

Are you destined to fight your child over something like lunch? No, you’re not. Get clever and creative. Don’t waste your time arguing with your child and trying to force lunch down his throat, just raid your larder and come up with interesting alternatives to the junk your child is habituated to eating. Very soon, he will (literally) eat out of your hands!

Cook healthier food. Most kids fall into the habit of eating junk out of the lunch money parents give them. Even when they’re at home, they demand pizzas or fattening sandwiches with mayonnaise and cheese. Don’t get into an argument with your child – if he wants pizza, give him pizza but eliminate all the harmful cheese and red meat toppings. Chop up some colourful vegetables, liberally use tomato ketchup and grate salted cottage cheese on the pizza. Your child will soon get used to these healthy pizzas.

Get an interesting lunch box. Presentation is everything for a child – if he feels his lunch box is boring, he is going to pick at his food. No amount of arguing will convince him otherwise. Instead, take him shopping and let him pick a lunch box of his choice. If he likes the outside, he’ll like the inside. On the first day of his new lunch box, pack a healthy salad for him to enjoy, and a chocolate toffee for dessert. He will forgive you for packing salad in his lunch, and soon get used to it as well.

Allow sweets but on certain conditions. No child in the world is immune to the charms of chocolates and pudding cups. However, eating them all the time daily is harmful to his health. Explain to him that he must be responsible about the amount of sugar he puts in his body. Allow him to eat one chocolate after lunch, and tell him you are allowing him to do so only if he promised to eat the healthy sandwich you have packed for him. He must understand that he must meet you halfway.

Include fruit and nuts in his lunch. Apart from sandwiches and the occasional ‘healthy’ burger, make your child’s lunch box fun by adding a dessert every day. On one day in the week, give him money to buy ice cream or another dessert. But on other days, make your own desserts – a slice of homemade cake, homemade cookies, a tin of sweet fruit like mango or grape or nuts doused in honey.