Packing a lunchbox for your children can be difficult, especially with so many fun-size snack options making chocolate and crisps tempting to little hands. But with only 1 in 100 lunchboxes meeting the nutritional standards for your children to thrive, making sure you provide the best packed lunch possible is important.
Here, we worked with Suso to create an easy guide to help you hit your nutritional targets and get your children to eat each bite!
Make it exciting
Making your child’s lunchbox doesn’t have to be boring or tedious. Instead, you can have fun with it. Popular TikTok “mumfluencers” like @sulheejessica, who has 5.7 million followers awaiting her packed lunch creations, focuses on themes to intrigue her children into eating.
Whether this is sandwiches cut into the shape of popular television show characters or minion-inspired rice balls, making the lunchbox an exciting experience rather than a drab one could improve the likelihood of your children eating it. After all, who wouldn’t want a rice cake designed to look like a hedgehog?
Many other TikTok content-creating mums have taken to these creative and tailored packed lunches including @winnyhaynes (1.6 million followers), @adalynnslunchbox (1.4 million followers), and @ross_ini (469,500 followers).
Pack those vegetables
With studies finding that nearly half of all UK children don’t think they eat vegetables, sneaking some healthy foods into their lunches seems like an effective way to promote healthier eating choices in your kids.
Pasta sauce is the perfect place to hide your vegetables. Blended carrots, peppers, and even broccoli can be mixed into pasta sauce to disguise the chunks of vegetables your children might usually pick out (you can even add cream cheese into the sauce to help disguise the flavour!). You can even add pureed vegetables to your beans and other child-favourite items to increase their nutritional value. Hiding fruit and vegetables inside your children’s favourite sweet snacks is also an option. No one would suspect that the brownies have spinach in them.
However, promoting healthy eating habits is important for the growth of your child and the advancement of their palette. If possible, instead of hiding fruit and vegetables, encourage happy connections with these foods. Fostering a good relationship with healthy eating, where possible, is the best approach.
Find fun additions
To help start this good relationship with healthy eating, you should let your children experiment with their food and find flavour combinations they enjoy. Rather than worry, your child should be excited to try new things. Finding fun packed-lunch additions which not only taste good but also have high nutritional value can be a good education and point of encouragement for your children.
Including drinks packed with one of your 5 a day and fun flavours can spruce up your child’s lunchbox. And finding flavoursome fizzy drink alternatives can also make your child feel like their lunch is a special treat.
Preparation
Preparation is an important way to ease the stress of mornings. Making sure you have everything you need to simply pack into the lunchbox while trying to get your children out of bed can make the school run a much easier time.
Meal prep could help elevate your meals from standard sandwiches to a wide variety of choices. This can also be a money-saving measure as you buy and prepare food in bulk, rather than reaching for those additional snacks!
You can make preparation simple too by making extra food for dinner which can be taken to school, the food you already know your children love! And by having multiple meals prepped in your fridge, you can even offer your children the choice of which meal they are fancying for their school lunch.
Let your kids help the night before
Including your children in the preparation is even better. Not only will you be prepared, but you can teach your children the responsibility of packing their lunches and deciding on a healthy, balanced diet. Giving your children the option to choose their own meals could make them more likely to be eaten.
Your children could learn vital cooking and safety skills by getting involved under your careful supervision. This is a great bonding experience and one which will benefit even the fussiest eaters – experimenting with cooking could mean they try new ingredients. Knowing they had a part in preparing their food could make them more likely to eat it.
Getting your children to enjoy their packed lunch without adding a lot of chocolate and sugar is difficult. However, there are some people you can take inspiration from. Packed lunch packing trends all over TikTok and can give you creative ways to decorate and present the food, making your children more interested. And making food with your children can help too, encouraging them to experiment, try new ingredients, and take pride in their food creations!
