OT Need ideals for breakfast and lunch for a 3 year old.

[Tiggerlovinggrandma]

I'm looking to broaden my DGS's usual pancakes for breakfast and peanut butter or grilled cheese for lunch routine. Nowadays he only takes a bite or two and he's done. Would like other meal suggestions for a 3 year old.

When DH and I were young, our moms were both cereal for breakfast and PB&J for lunch kind of parents. Perhaps a grilled cheese every so often or pancakes on Sunday. It was the same old, same old. We think our DGS has gotten into a similar rut. Of course we didn't help matters. We fed him what he liked and kept on making what we knew he would eat. We think now he could use some new ideals to spice things up a bit. Trying new things can't hurt and it may even help with his current sluggest apetite. So please suggest away....

 

[bamor]

cut up turkey or ham, cheese, carrot sticks and crackers
Whole wheat roll up with PB and sliced apples
english muffin pizzas or Grands bisquit pizzas
A packet of Annie's easy mac and cheese with chopped broccoli

 

[Dopey19]

scrambled eggs, waffles for breakfast
Lunch - tomato soup, turkey sandwhich, celery & PB, mine likes salad too!

 

[NHdisneylover]

*sticking wit heasy things to make here* though of course the possiblities are endless. Theses were all stand bys in my house when the kids were little:

Breakfast:
oatmeal
cereal
fruit and yogurt
toasted english muffin or bael with cream cheese or peanut butter
scrambled eggs

Lunch: (or course with fruit or veies pretty much always on teh side)
any type of sandwhich (turkey, ham, cream cheese and cucumber, tuna salad, etc)
crackers and cheese or diced lanh meets
quesadilla
boiled egg
roll ups with basic sandwhich makings in tortillas/ or put the makings in a pita pocket
soup
veggie sticks and hummus (little ones love to dip)
microwaved bakec potato with cheese or lunc hmeet on top
chili and cornbread

 

[imortalcandy]

mock sushi
piece of bread, crust cut off, flattened
smear with PB
put raisens in a row
thin apple sticks
anything else you want
roll up tight and cut into slices

My DD3 and DS2 love these, you can even give a yogurt (soy sauce) to dip

 

[bas71873]

My DD is and always been a pretty good eater. She's 6 now and breaksfast are usually something along these lines:

1. bowl of cereal w/some fruit...she likes bananas, strawberries, oranges...
2. pancakes (sometimes frozen, sometimes homemade)
3. fried eggs w/bacon & plain toast (she hates butter)
4. waffles (sometimes frozen, sometimes homemade)
5. french toast sticks
6. bagal w/fruit


Lunch is harder because she won't eat lunch meat so she usually takes PB&J for lunch w/some chisp or crackers, a gogurt or applesauce and some gummie treats. Occassioanlly she'll take some sliced bolonga and a cheese stick.

Dinner - she eats just about anything I fix....she likes all meats, seafood, pasta, most veggies, rice, potatos, salad

I am very thankful that I don't have an extremely picky eater like my niece & nephew. I might go crazy

 

[Lstar311]

My DS is 2 and a half. He doesn't have the biggest variety of what he'll eat but heres the norm for him:

Breakfast:
waffle
cereal (dry)
cinnamin raisin toast
bagel w/ cream cheese
blueberries
strawberries

Lunch:
peanut butter on wheat bread
cream cheese on wheat
chicken nuggets
fish sticks
yogurt
applesauce
nutrigrain bar
mac and cheese

 

[katied]

DS (will be 3 in 2 months) - normal breakfast is yogurt (DS is in a yogurt rut, and cannot image breakfast without). We then will also give him cereal or toast. Otherwise, scrambled eggs (he loves to help make them - which makes it more likely he'll eat them). Cut up fruit and cheese.

Lunch - the key for DS is "dipping sauce" If he can dip, he's happy.

A variety plate: cut up veggies with ranch dressing to dip. Cut up cheese. Cut up or cubed meat (maybe chicken leftovers) with BBQ sauce to dip.

Pasta - we'll mix some of the sauce in, but then also give him sauce on the side to dip. Normally rotinni, because the size and shape seems the most appealing to him. When we make the sauce, we normally add in shredded carrot and red pepper, which helps add to the nutrition content. Mealballs may be on the side (he'll dip these in the pasta sauce).

Meat n cheese roll up - lunch meat or leftover meal, melted cheese, flour tortilla, rolled up (into a tight circle, so he can hold and eat it) and then sour cream or salsa to dip in. We'll normally have cut up apple or cooked corn on the side.

That's just a quick sample. DS seems happy with leftovers, so lots of times lunch is just based on what's in the fride. If we have frozen lasagna (DH will make 2 trays at a time and then freeze in serving size pices), we'll eat that.

 

[deniselozano]

Those are all great ideas! My 18 month old is allergic to gluten, dairy and soy, so he can't have the majority of what was listed. Being allergic to gluten, he pretty much can't eat the majority of processed foods, so he has a super healthy diet. Anything that I list that sounds like it has gluten I get the gluten-free version at the health food store.

Breakfast-
Cream of wheat w/ cinnamon, sugar and butter
Whole cut up mango
Muffin

Lunch-
Hummus on crackers
Turkey, sliced tomato and avocado
Butter noodles with sliced avocado and leftover meat

 

[DrummerBoy523]

In order to get our almost 3 yr old to eat, we have resorted to bribes For some reason, after his teething, he has become quite picky. Here are a few things he WILL eat:

Breakfast:
Yogurt & mini M&Ms mixed in, or Dried Cranberries or strawberries in season
Plain Oatmeal with butter & Brown sugar mixed in
Eggo Waffles
English Muffins or Toast with jelly/jam/preserves
Bacon

Lunch:
Character Mac & Cheese (for some reason he wont eat the regular??)
Grilled Cheese
Cream Cheese Sandwich or Cream Cheese on Ritz
Spaghetti Ohs (call me a bad parent, but it IS something he'll eat LOL)

Good luck!

 

[MSSANDRA]

No big problem with the same thing if it's a really healthy choice. Maybe try a healthy verson of pancakes?? I convenced DGS 3 he would love the quaker oatmeal one and he does like them. We add apple sauce to the batter. Top with a healthy choice that you can change, fruit, peanut butter etc.

For the lunch just make sure you are using whole gain bread and the sandwiches are fine. Serve with baby carrots or any raw veggie and cut up fresh fruit.

DS loves doing a "party tray" anytime. Use a sectioned platter and fill each section with a healthy fun finger food. Sliced turkey, lowfat chesse, crackers, grapes, carrots, apple slices whatever!!
He loves to serve himself and eats well.

Other choices:
breakfast- try whole grain waffles, toast and jelly, oatmeal, cheese toast, bagles, english muffins....

lunch- " party tray" above, pasta & sauce, yougert, fruit, cheese, left overs

 

[ShootingStarMom2]

I really like some of the ideas I saw here! We keep a lot of fresh/frozen fruit on hand. DS will eat what we have for dinner including meat finally. He refused to eat meat until we had turkey one night. He tried chicken soon after and decided porkchops and roast beef are actually yummy.

breakfast:
cereal
english muffin
plain toast
french toast
pancakes
scrambled Eggs with cheese
yogurt
yogurt Parfait (yogurt, fruit, granola)

fruit (snack or side for all meals)
bananas
cherries
strawberries
apples
kiwi
grapes
frozen blueberries

lunch/dinner:
chicken nuggets
mini muffin pizzas (english muffin with sauce and cheese, toasted)
plain rice
corn/corn on the cob
cheddar noodles with broccoli
cheese sandwich
baked potato
peas
ravioli
beans (pinto, black, kidney)
string cheese/cheddar cheese cubes
any crackers, but especially Triscuits
pita pocket or wheat taco shell
applesauce
baked apples
noodles with parmesean (try a fun shaped noodle, DS loves bowtie)

They sell cute bread cutters that will make the sandwich look like a dinosaur or heart. You could also try a sandwich sealer, we got ours from Pampered Chef. They make any sandwich look like an "Uncrustable". They are fun for grilled cheese pods.