Toddler Daycare Lunch Ideas?

[jasta]

My 3 year old DS is a pain with lunches for daycare. At home, he likes warm lunches - pizza, grilled cheese, pirogies, dumplings. He does not like cold foods - cheese sticks, yogurt, ANY TYPE OF SANDWICH!!! I have racked my brain long enough with ideas for him for daycare. I have the thermos which I will put in the whole wheat baked chicken nuggets from Purdue or a hot dog, but to have those 3 days a week just bothers me! Any ideas on some good lunches????

 

[mjantz]

Will his daycare not heat up food? You might try soups or ravioli. I recently saw some mini cheese ravioli that would be finger food size at Whole Foods Market & I believe whatever brand of food has Sesame Street characters on it has some frozen raviolis as well. Will the pirogies or dumplings not keep warm in the thermos?

 

[kccmommy]

What about making some of the warm things he likes, wrapping them in foil and putting in an insulated lunch box. They won't be hot, but they won't be cold either. You could also get a thermos and put his hot things in there.

 

[Danemom]

Sometimes switching the bread works to make a sandwich more appealing. Maybe you could try tortillas or pitas. Tortillas can be rolled burrito style or rolled and sliced into "pinwheels". Be creative with the filling too. Peanut butter, honey, and bananas were a big hit when my kids were small. HTH!

 

[aanderson5]

I would be really careful keeping food at a warm temperature for several hours. Bacteria double every 20 minutes in warm temps. You could really be asking for trouble.

I think the suggestion of asking the school to heat his food is a good one. You might also want to try feeding him cold stuff at home for a few days to find something he like. Maybe pasta salads or try giving him somthing he can dip, like pita or vegies in hummus. My 2 year old will not eat a sandwich, other than peanut butter, but he likes all the parts of a sandwich. So today he had ham slices, a cheese stick and a bun with butter. Is there anything he will eat cold? Even if it does not make for the most balanced meal it would be better if he ate some fruit and a granola bar at school and you can give him healthy hot meals at home.

 

[Misty89]

Hi -
I work in a daycare center, all of my lunch kids are between 2- 5 years old

I care for 10 children each day, it depends on the day, but up to half of my kids have something along to be heated. They really like it..they eat better, more of thier lunch, than the ones with a all cold lunch.
Totally find out if they will heat food for your child. we use it to warm our lunches even. - find out if teachers at your center are bringing cold lunch all the time too?( i bet not) - seems odd a center would not have something to heat food.....they have to be able to heat bottles for babies somehow! a stove or a microwave, something to heat things.
seems fishy to me
there are so many options for warm food.......( warmed at center)
1)Leftovers from you dinner the night before,
2)would you be willing to send Mac-n-cheese? Alot of the Kids really enjoy that - not sure if you like your child eating it. ( the pre-made mac singles are gross, I have not meet a child yet whom likes them LOL)
I have many more ideas if you want to hear them......

I also agree, sending food that is warmed at home and sent in is not a good idea....i used to work in the foodservice industry, it is just asking for bacteria growth, even with "heat holding" thermos.


Tina

 

[barkley]

none of the daycares (except the family home type) in the area we lived in would heat up stuff either. gotta figure if someone's got 10-12 kids and even if it only takes 2 minutes each that's 20 minutes someone is waiting to get theirs or if they do them ahead of time the ones done at the begining are going to be cold by the time they hand them out (and bottles were only done in the infant centers).

for my kids i invested in a wide mouth thermous-and heated the items before i sent it. chix nuggetts, mac n cheese, spagettio's, soup, left overs. i did'nt do pizza or grilled cheese since it gets soggy when it sits in a lunch box.

now one of the things ds loved at that age that he still loves to this day is bean burritos-so i would send that thermous with heated refried beans and cheese in it along with a couple of small flour tortillas. ds loved to take a spoon and make his own (and refried beans/cheese are high in calcium and protean)

 

[Misty89]

edit

 

[Piglets Mommy]

My DD's Daycare won't heat anything. I have a hard time finding things to send for her too...she loves PB&J, but I don't want her to have that every day. She likes cheese sandwiches too, and i try to sneak turkey or ham in between 2 pieces of cheese. I also send Mac&Cheese or pasta in a thermos, but now that I read this, i'm nervous about that.

 

[Minniemouse07]

Both of my kids (6.5yo and 2yo) have loved and adored fruit spread sandwiches (no peanut butter) since they started eating table food.

Our daycare also allows food to be heated up so we also send in pasta, ravioli and other leftovers.

Dd is in first grade and she cannot heat up her lunch, so she just has sandwiches.

Another option, if you cannot heat up lunch...maybe hummus and pita? I know ds would scarf that down. You could add raw baby carrots, peppers and grape tomatoes too!

 

[Patti_C]

I have an in home daycare, they have warm food every day, with the once in awhile cold sandwich, but always a veggie and fruit. I was wondering if and why they don't serve there own food.. All the centers that I know of in my state make and serve there own food. Also IMO, I would think the kids would get jealous of what other kids are bringing.

 

[HM]

I use a "Spaghettios thermos" for my kids when I send hot things. It's the size of a soup bowl and is an insulated keeper that has Spaghettios characters on it. I bought them at our grocery store a couple years ago. Today they had spaghetti and meatballs for their lunches. Last week it was leftover stew and clam chowder. I don't use it every day, but it does help use up leftovers and is a nice change from sandwiches or quesadillas.

 

[jasta]

Thanks Everyone for the ideas. They won't warm up the food at daycare cause there are 22 students in his room (it's a Montessori School with 6 rooms, so if everyone wanted food heated...u can imagine how long!). They do offer hot lunches to be bought from an outside vendor, but it is $5 a meal. I will try different breads for the sandwiches to see if he likes. I have always used the thermos for warm food, but after reading all the comments, I don't want to do that anymore!!!