Preschool lunch????????

[gabbysmom04]

We just signed DD who will be 3 in june for school. The school is from 9-2 so we have to pack her lunch. What do you pack for kids at this age? Most days at home I make pasta or soup. She is starting on friday! Thanks for the help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[tmarquez]

I have to pack DD's lunch daily for preschool (except Friday, that's pizza day). We do soup alot. She won't eat sandwiches, but she will eat the ingredients of sandwiches ...so I will wrap a slice of bread, a slice of cheese, and some ham or pepperoni...all separately. She also still eats those little toddler meals that come in a microwavable cup. Then she gets a fruit, a juice, a cookie, and one other snack type item to eat later in the day (she stays at school until 4:30).

 

[Tigger&Aidan]

Is she a picky eater or does she eat most things? Will they heat things up for her?

 

[lcdm]

You can pack the same things you give her at home. They make wide mouth thermoses (they sort of look like bowls) which keep things hot.
Other things my daughter liked:
leftovers from dinner (like pizza, hamburgers, mac & cheese, chicken fingers)
sandwiches (ham and cheese, PB&J, cream cheese & jelly) - sometimes instead of bread I would use roll-ups
Yogurt (if you need to keep the items cold just add a small frezzer pack to her lunch box).
For snacks: cookies in a ziplock bag, single servings of fruit cocktail or applesauce, granola bar, single servings of baby carrots & dip
Juice box or some type of drink box (Yoohoo or Strawberry milk) sometimes little bottles of water.
See what she likes maybe have her help you pack her lunch, now that she goes to big girl school.
I would usually pack a main item, a snack, a fruit and a drink.
Also ask the school to see if they have any guidelines or restrictions.
Our preschool requested no junk food (like candy bars) and only 1 or 2 cookies. I know some schools ban peanut butter.
Lisa

 

[MomNeedsVacay]

my DD loves pb sandwiches, but unfortuntely cannot have them due to class allergies. I pack a cheese stick, fruit cup or fruit, pretzels etc..... something EASY.

 

[mskay]

My DD2 goes to Mother's Day Out they don't heat up food for them. They ask that it be ready to eat and require little help from the teachers. She doesn't like a sandwich so I just put some cut-up ham slices and cheese in a container, a few crackers in a baggie, and mandarin oranges (I try to drain as much juice as possible so she doesn't come home covered in them). I don't send cookies or a real dessert per se since they give them a snack when they get up from their npa. She only goes twice a week so I just send the exact same thing every time. Hope this helps!

 

[islandmum]

my boys are pasta eaters at school so its either:

spaghetti bolognase
pasta with tuna
mac and cheese.

then they have a water bottle, and 3 fig newtons each.

They always want the same thing every day - good for me!

 

[BlondeAlligator]

My DD has autism & is a very picky eater...she has been in full-day special ed school since she was three. I found a Hello Kitty Thermos at Target & just heat up her spaghetti, mac&cheese or whatever in the morning & pack her thermos with a paper bowl. The aides at her school help her dump her food into the paper bowl & she uses a plastic spoon...not very Earth-friendly, I know, but better than having a crabby, hungry kidoo. Ask your school if they will let you do something like that; it works great for us!

 

[HappyDznyCamper]

As a preschool teacher(2yo) my advise is to pack things you know she likes and can eat with minimal help. So if she likes soup and can eat it on her own, most thermoses will keep it hot(pour hot water into the thermos 5 min before you fill it with soup).
As for the actual packing, if you can find a covered, divided plate, that is the easiest for the teacher to handle. I have a class of 8 kids and most have 3 to 4 items in their lunch(3x8=24 little baggies to open and empty), the longer it takes to open(and sometimes wash in between because I have touched the food) the longer my attention is divided(and the longer they have to wait). The other bonus of the plates is that I must send home uneaten food, with the covered plate all I have to do is cover it up and send it home. With bags I must handle all the food and repack it(sometimes it can be very "yucky")
With peanut butter alergies the covered plates are great for helping prevent cross contamination too.

 

[tanyaandallie]

My dd's school actually provided a plastic container that we have to use! It's awesome. I put a sandwich cut in 2 heart shapes, some type of cut up fruit (strawberries, apple, grapes, mango, etc) and either chips, veggies sticks or organic cheetos (which are not super orange so not as messy).

 

[PaulaSue]

I help with lunches at our preschool. Most of the kids take PB&J or bagels, yogurt, fruit, yogos, chips, and a note from Mommy. No lunches are heated at our preschool but some moms pack hotdogs in old style thermes (?) to help keep them warm.

 

[mom23boys]

My 4 yo DS loves when I make him turkey and cheese rollups, sometimes it is yogrut and a cheese stick. No PB is allowed at his school.

I also let him pick his extras he wants, usually a chewy bar or a pack of gummies and a piece of fruit (usually a banana). He loves packing his own lunch.

On occasion, we stop at the bagel store and he gets a bagel with cream cheese.

 

[mjantz]

Teacher of 2YOs here. We really have a lot of variety. We will heat up but do request that they not send things that have to be heated up every day because we teachers like to eat too!
Many of my students have something similar to a lunchable with sliced meat & cheese with crackers. Hot dogs & chicken nuggets are also very popular, as are jelly sandwiches (PB free school) & one parent makes sandwiches with flavored cream cheese & 'fancy bread' (like raisin cinnamon bread).
AFA fruits & veggies, its usually applesauce or bananas although grapes & blueberries do occasionally make an appearance. If shes a bit messy with the applesauce a bib is a good idea.
AFA drinks we have mostly sippy cups with a few juice boxes thrown in as well.
One thing I do suggest is letting her have a little 'treat'. It can be anything from a few cookies to a Hersheys kiss to a small baggie of Cheetos. But definately give her a little 'treat'. Because many years I've had a parent who packs only 'healthy' stuff with no 'treats' & those are the kids who go after everyone elses lunches. They're the kids who grab a few Yogos when they think no ones looking or try & swipe a few potato chips from the kid next to them. If they have their own treat, they won't graze from everyone elses lunches.

 

[mhm]

my DD loves pb sandwiches, but unfortuntely cannot have them due to class allergies. I pack a cheese stick, fruit cup or fruit, pretzels etc..... something EASY.

DD4's school is also peanut free, so we do soy butter & jelly sandwiches. Some kids don't like it, but our dd loves her SB&J! At first we just told her it was "special" peanut butter until she was used to it. Now she knows it's different & that she can't have PB at school because it can make some other kids very sick.

When she was 3, we sent alot of finger foods (lower mess factor) and alot of variety--half an SB&J cut into pieces, cut up fruit, dry cheerios, raisins, cheese, Puffin bars (a type of cereal bar), etc. Now we send V8 juice, yogurt, applesauce, leftovers, etc., as well. Occasionally we include a 100-calorie pack of pretzels or whole wheat crackers.

 

[PenguinWaiters]

DD4's school is also peanut free, so we do soy butter & jelly sandwiches. Some kids don't like it, but our dd loves her SB&J! At first we just told her it was "special" peanut butter until she was used to it. Now she knows it's different & that she can't have PB at school because it can make some other kids very sick.

When she was 3, we sent alot of finger foods (lower mess factor) and alot of variety--half an SB&J cut into pieces, cut up fruit, dry cheerios, raisins, cheese, Puffin bars (a type of cereal bar), etc. Now we send V8 juice, yogurt, applesauce, leftovers, etc., as well. Occasionally we include a 100-calorie pack of pretzels or whole wheat crackers.

Our school is peanut-free too, so we use Sun Butter which is made from Sunflower Seeds. I think it tastes just like PB, but smells like sunflower seeds - kind of weird but neat at the same time KWIM?

We usually pack leftovers of some kind for our DD - she loves cold spaghetti or Annie's Bunnies and Cheese. We also buy cheese sticks (like string cheese) and those packets of sliced apples too. We send a yogurt almost every day because apparently having a yogurt is a big deal there. Also, we send snack size cottage cheese, blueberries, grapes, cut up strawberries or cantelope, cherry tomatoes, pieces of cucumber, cheese "sandwiches" (bread and cheese that she will take apart and eat separately), cheese quesadillas (cooked the night before and cut up with sour cream for dipping), those little cans/cups of fruit -pears, peaches, etc, mini boxes of raisins, individual apple sauce cups, I could go on. I don't worry too much about there being a "main item" like a sandwich or anything most days - I just try to give her a good mix of dairy, grains and fruits or veggies.

I would ask at the preschool about the kind of treats most parents send. I agree with the previous poster that if everyone else is getting treats, the kid that isn't will be after everyone else's lunch. Our teacher told us to start sending yogurt again when we stopped for a while because our DD was asking to eat it from other lunches!