Not a WDW ?, but ? about school lunches...

[etwinchester]

I was just wondering what some of you pack for a childs llunch? It's hard since they can't have hot foods due to no microwaves and I don't want to keep making poor child eat PB&J.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dcat2u]

In the winter I have microwaved soup (real hot) and put it in the thermos with saran wrap before sealing with lid and then wrapped in tin foil. Kids say it is still warm when they go to eat it at lunch.

 

[Strings]

Our schools are peanut free zones. No PB&J for us. I plan on doing the thermos for things like spaghetti, stews, noodles, and soups.

 

[beattyfamily]

I invested in a metal hot food thermos. It really works.

I pack instant mac & cheese single serving, spaghetti O's, soups in the thermos.

I also make peanut butter and jelly, peanut butter and fluff, ham & cheese, turkey and cheese, etc...

 

[momxx5]

Ham sandwiches
Turkey sandwiches
Peanut butter w/crackers
Bagels



BTW - What are "peanut free zones"? Does that mean you cannot send in peanut butter sandwiches for children who like it? Is it a private school? That seems very restricting.

 

[MiraDawl]

As a kid, I remember HATING the thermos lunches my mother sometimes sent in. I usually had sandwiches, and my mother always bought us lunch boxes with ice packs, so turkey and cheese sandwiches wouldn't get too warm. Fresh raw veggies were always a fav of mine.

If your child get bored with lunches, you can always pack a light lunch, and have something made for when school lets out. I wasn't much of a lunch eater at school, but a bowl of mac and cheese afterwards always hit the spot!


~Mira

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

No PB here... too many kids with nut allergies these days to risk sending it (my own ds included!!)

my boys like to take a container with carrots and dip, rolled up meat (or pieces of chicken or other leftover meat), cheese, crackers, cucumber slices and anything you can dream up! Sometimes I'll add some apple slices that have been dipped in Sprite (keeps them from going brown and doesn't leave the yucky taste that lemon does)

what about bagels, wraps, pita pockets, tuna salad or egg salad in a container with crackers to spread it on, cold grilled cheese (yuck but my ds likes it!!) a cream cheese and jam sandwich, get a thermos and send leftovers.

In this day and age though I really urge parents to stay away from sending nuts and nut products...... it could mean life and death for children with nut allergies.... just the smell of the Pb can cause an anaphlyactic reaction in some of the nut allergic kids. There's lots of alternatives to PB and J..... let them have it at home!

Sorry... now I'll get off my soap box!!lol Hope there are a few idea's in there for you!!

 

[njcarita]

the only thing for lunch my son eats are pb&j and nutella sand wiches-
he has tried ham, ham & cheese, cheese etc and won't eat them.

i would have a hard time dealing with a school telling me my son and can't eat at school.

first i want to state that i amd not insensative to the issue of food alergies- one of my closest friends have two children with severe allergies- one is allergic to eggs, milk, nuts, seafood- and the other one is allergic to all these plus soy-

they are over frequently and i always buy the food they can have - the special chips and chicken nuggets etc that they can have!!!

so should the school these kids attend outlaw- milk- eggs nuts soy and seafood- because they can have an allergic reaction???/
where do you draw the line????

if lets say 5% of the school popultion is allergic to nuts- how can you than say to the rest who aren't you can not eat it- and what about the kids allergic to milk, banannas( MY BEST friend is allergic to this),etc.

just my humble opinion- FLAME coat ON

 

[Strings]

The allergies you listed are not issues because one needs to ingest those food to react to them. Peanut allergies are different. The oils from the nuts can become airborne, and people can have a life threatening reaction from just being in the same room as a peanut product. If there is a peanut allergic kid in the school, then it is realistic to ban all peanut products. Your kids' pb&j could kill his best friend.

BTW, my kid isn't peanut allergic, but I have seen a kid die from one.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

Not going to flame at all... but this is my child's life and I try to educate as many people as I can.

I've seen him have an anaphylactic reaction at 5 months old (to dairy products..... but he has outgrown that and is only lactose intolerant now and has the nut allergies) and it is the most terrifying thing any parent would have to go through.... to have the dr's push you away from your infant that's struggling to breath and not know if he will live or die.

If that means I have to push that the schools provide a safe environment for my child (or any other child with food allergies) then I'll do it...... you would do the same if it was your child.

Everyone has a right to an education and a safe environment for that to happen.

 

[BitsnBearsMom]

Oh and as strings mentioned nuts are different then other allergies for the most part b/c the oils and residue from them hang around and are very difficult to clean.

 

[imsayin]

Wow, what a topic. I am certainly sensitive to keeping the allergic kids safe, but I have a slight problem. My son will only eat peanut butter sandwiches (& a few other things) for lunch. Fortunately, our school is gigantic & they have peanut free classrooms. He was in one in kindergarten, which was fine, no lunch, but if he ends up in one later on, I would probably switch him. I sympathize with you parents that have to deal with these allergies on a daily basis.

 

[LadyBears]

Please don't flame me either.

I'm with njcarita & imsayin. My DD will almost only eat PB & J, PB & Banana, PB & Raisin or just plain PB sandwiches at school. She is a peanutaholic! In my DD's preschool, they send home any food the child does not eat so the parents can see what they ate. Whenever I have packed anything else, the ENTIRE lunch comes home. I have even "bribed" her with her favorite snacks. The teachers won't let them eat the snacks until they have eaten most of their main meal. She won't eat it. I have tried everything in several different ways: cooked, uncooked, "hot", cold. My DD will eat a whole jar of PB with a spoon for her meal if you let her! Once in a blue moon, she will ask for mac & cheese as a "warm up" (they have a microwave at the preschool). Even then, she only takes a few bites. In the fall, she starts kindergarten. I do not think they have microwaves there. So for her it will be PB in some form 99 % of the time. Anyway, as much as I can empathize with the allergy thing, why does that mean that children like my DD should be forced to starve at school? I don't want to think of how hard it would be if I had to tell her (or any other 5 year old) "Sorry honey, you are not allowed to eat for the next 5 days during the majority of your waking hours because 1 child has an allergy. You just sit there & watch that 1 kid eat. No you can't have anything to drink either, some kid might be allergic to that too."

As a mother, I would rather see my child eat something rather than nothing - even if that means PB! I don't even stop her from eating bananas. They make me nauseas (even the smell of them still in the peel!!) & I can not eat them. That doesn't mean my DD is not allowed to eat them. I encourage her to eat them.

 

[DiznEeyore]

Interesting topic -- esp. the peanut-free thing. I think that's a good idea; God forbid a child die from something in someone else's lunch!!

Now I have an offshoot question -- my ds is entering middle school in the fall and I have been told by other middle-school moms that "no one" in jr. high takes anything resembling a lunch box.

Now, my ds won't eat pb&j -- anything he will eat requires refrigeration, which isn't an option w/paper bags.

So is spending the $$ on school lunches my only choice?

I'd love any advice from other 6th grade-and-up parents!!

 

[summerrluvv]

My son ONLY eats PB & J sandwiches for lunch and on occassion will eat Chicken Nuggets. He attends pre-school (Early Intervention Preschool) and while the school is a peanut free school, he is allowed to eat the PB since no one in his class is allergic and they eat in their rooms. I tried to pack him other things, including microwave things, but he just wouldn't eat them so the teacher actually told us to just keep packing the peanut butter.

Personally, if my child was allergic to nuts, I would homeschool. I think it's a false sense of security to send a kid that could die from nuts to school, even if it's a PB free school. What if another child had peanut butter on their toast for breakfast and had a little bit of residue on their hands and the allergic kid came in contact with it? I just wouldn't risk it.

DS is starting kindergarten in the fall and I haven't heard anything about the kindergarten center being PB free. He is very excited about "buying" his lunch though and being a "big kid", so hopefully that will get him off the PB sandwiches for a while.

 

[summerrluvv]

Originally posted by DiznEeyore
Interesting topic -- esp. the peanut-free thing. I think that's a good idea; God forbid a child die from something in someone else's lunch!!

Now I have an offshoot question -- my ds is entering middle school in the fall and I have been told by other middle-school moms that "no one" in jr. high takes anything resembling a lunch box.

Now, my ds won't eat pb&j -- anything he will eat requires refrigeration, which isn't an option w/paper bags.

So is spending the $$ on school lunches my only choice?

I'd love any advice from other 6th grade-and-up parents!!

When I was in middle and high school it wasn't "cool" to bring your lunch. We bought lunch everyday. The price of a school lunch is cheaper than the price of groceries to pack those lunches everyday (at least here it is). In elementary it's 1.50 and in Middle and High School it's 1.75. I think that's a pretty good deal and from the looks of our districts menus online, the selection is better than it was when I was in school with more fruits and veggies, etc.

 

[Linda L.]

My two boys will both be in highschool next year. Since Middle school, grade 5, they have bought lunch every day. My youngest never liked lunch meat. He was a pb&J kid from the time he was a year old. His other favorites were chicken nuggets or pizza. Our school system sells those every day along with a few other choices. Of course now that he's entering high school, all the food is disgusting. He likes very few lunches and survives on some lunches and lots of junk. I don't think there's much you can do about it as they get older except have some good lunch foods available when they come home. They're home by 2 and starving. I often wonder where all the money is going that I'm sending for lunches, but I just want them to have a full belly, then come home and eat! He'll probably come home and make pb&j!

 

[marcyinPA]

My ds is entering 4th grade, and he consistently eats pb&j for lunch. He won't eat meat and cheese sandwiches at school because he says they taste funny (my guess is they aren't as fresh by the time he eats them, even with an ice pack in the lunchbox)

I don't know what he'd eat if it weren't for pb&j. I also pack things like yogurt, pudding, baby carrotts, grapes, and pre-packaged snacks (fruit snacks, cookies, chips, etc.)

By the time he reached 3rd grade, though, he mostly bought school lunch. I'd say he bought on the average of 3x a week. Our district has a meal card plan, where you load up a card with as much $$ as you want ($20 usually to start) and your child uses the card to buy lunch. They can also use the card to buy snacks, unless you restrict the usage on the card.

I'd say that most of the older kids in our school buy lunch. It seems like it's the thing to do once you reach the upper grades.

 

[frstimer128]

My DD is up for anything especially PBJs. She loves ham and cheese in a tortilla rolled up and cut into pinwheels.

As a preschool teacher I have seen lots of different lunches coming in. One that I remember was yogurt, nutrigrain bar and carrot sitck and grapes. This poor girl ate that every day.

I had one mom who would pack a PBJ along with hostess snacks, fruit roll ups, snickers bars and get this....SODA! The boy was only 2!! We had to have several talks with the mom and we sent home countless copies of "Healthy Lunch Lists". She never quite got the point.

 

[marcyinPA]

Originally posted by summerrluvv
When I was in middle and high school it wasn't "cool" to bring your lunch. We bought lunch everyday. The price of a school lunch is cheaper than the price of groceries to pack those lunches everyday (at least here it is). In elementary it's 1.50 and in Middle and High School it's 1.75. I think that's a pretty good deal and from the looks of our districts menus online, the selection is better than it was when I was in school with more fruits and veggies, etc.

Our district lunches are $1.80 for elementary and they go up on average of 5 cents a year, so I'm guessing this school year they'll be $1.85. The lunches are not all that well balanced, and very carbo-loaded. What makes me laugh is when they have, say, Pizza, green beans, lemonade and milk as a menu offering...and they are counting the lemonade as a fruit. Give me a break!!

They also have their own version of Lunchables with I'm not sure I agree with, but I think I understand why they do it....to get kids to eat. Anything. My ds9 bought them once and said they were "disgusting". They also do the pb&j uncrustables, and a chef salad in a shaker container (remind you of McDonalds??), plus Papa Johns and Dominos delivers pizza to all of our schools 2 Fridays out of every month. The other two fridays are "school made" pizza which of course my ds does not like as much.

I'm not sure about the middle school and high school cafs...but I think they have a hot bar, a cold bar, and a salad bar.