Please Help With My Kid’s Lunch Dilemma
August 14, 2009 by Jennifer Walker-Journey
Filed under Parenting
I admit I’m not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. That said, I need some help here from you mothers who have a clue about some of this school-age kid stuff. What do I do about lunchboxes and lunches? Here’s the deal, Truman is buying his lunch at school. I paid enough into the plan that he should be set for most, if not all, of the first semester. The school apparently serves a decent lunch and they got rid of the fryer, so I felt good about the food he was offered. What I didn’t bank on was other kids bringing their lunches to school. When Truman spotted someone eating a made-from-home lunch, he wanted one, too.
Not a girlie-girl's lunchbox!
I’m fine with that, except I have not clue what kind of lunchboxes kids carry these days. Yes, I want my son’s lunchbox to be the same design as all the other kids. The reason? My mother apparently waited until the last minute to shop for my lunch box so I ended up with a Six Million Dollar Man one. I was mortified. Back in those days lunchboxes were metal and clunky. I was fine with that, but Six Million Dollar Man? That’s a boy’s lunchbox. I ended up “accidentally” smashing it one day and after that my mother resorted to paper sacks.
This week I browsed Walmart and Target’s selections and even went online, but I’m just not sure what the most common styles are among elementary school students these days. And I can’t make plans to have lunch with my son to spy for myself – at least not until September. (They make us parents wait until then.) So, please help me with that.
Also, our school is a peanut-free zone. What exactly is a Mom supposed to make her son? I’m used to making peanut butter and jelly or peanut butter and honey sandwiches, but those choices are obviously out. I could do deli meat, but won’t the meat go bad before lunchtime? Or do I need to put one of those frozen ice packs in his lunch everyday? That would take up a lot of space. Is there a cool lunchbox that remedies that? Or are there other peanut-free lunch selections out there? Sigh…Am I really this clueless of a Mom? (Don’t answer that.)
Seriously, any help you can give on this matter would be appreciated. E-mail me or comment below, and I would be most appreciative.
Photo, RetroLand
Why don’t you show your son a few designs and see what he likes?
Deli meat is fine, and it won’t go bad as long as you refrigerate it overnight before. You probably won’t need an ice pack, but a small one might be worth looking into.
Also what’s the point of making a school a peanut free zone? I understand preventing allergies, but to me that sounds like it’s going way too far.
There are peanut-free spreads that taste almost exactly like peanut butter but they are made from sunflower seeds–one is called sunbutter, http://www.sunbutter.com. There is also soy nut butter: http://www.soynutbutter.com/. These spreads taste so much like peanut butter that my peanut allergic son won’t go near them with a 10 foot pole. You see, many peanut allergic individuals have an aversion to the smell of peanut butter and the peanut taste, in addition to having an allergic reaction. The taste is so convincing, he does not believe it is “fake” peanut butter, and the memory of his big allergic reaction is fresh in his mind still.
I would recommend trying one of these spreads at home. There are even chocolate and cinnamon sugar varieties! We also use hummus, easily available at most supermarkets these days. Cream cheese sandwiches or cream cheese with jelly is good too. Peanut butter alternatives are available in the natural foods section of most supermarkets now.
Hope this info helps a little. I know it’s tough changing routines, especially with kids and their favorite foods! Usually the peanut free school situation ends by middle school, once the children are old enough and mature enough to understand what they need to do to protect themselves from accidental allergic reactions.
Best, Jennifer B
You could also try other nut butters such as almond butter or cashew butter. My son loves them both.
Deli meat sandwiches aren’t going to go bad in just a few hours without refrigeration. What you could do, is freeze their beverage (say, juice box or whatever) and then stick that in their bag. It will act as the cold pack and will thaw itself by lunchtime.
check out this website, they have quite a few creative lunch ideas. http://www.amazingmoms.com/htm/baglunches.htm
Try to steer him toward an insulated lunch box and get some little freezer things to keep stuff cold. They had some at Target in the camping section in the shape of footballs and soccer balls.
Take Truman shopping; I bet he has some ideas about what he’d like. If he wants to get something like the other kids have, he will. If he wants to strike out on his own and be unique, so be it. Capra last year picked out a round, pink soccer ball lunchbox, then ended up preferring to eat in the school cafeteria most days.
What to pack? Depends on what he’ll eat! Capra likes pretty basic stuff like a ham and cheese sandwich. When she was younger she loved it when I cut them in shapes with cookie cutters. Then I usually add some sort of fruit (grapes, apple slices, mandarin oranges, cantaloupe), a juice box or G2, and maybe some pretzels or sun chips or something like that. She used to like pitas and hummus but got burnt out on it. Her newest thing is rolling up salami and cheese and skewering them on a toothpick. Some kids like sandwiches rolled up in mini flour tortillas with a little cream cheese to hold it all together. She likes Lunchables, but I limit her to one a week. Sometimes she likes boiled eggs, packed with little salt and pepper packets.
Thanks for making me laugh out loud about the “Six Million Dollar Man” lunch box! Isn’t it amazing how those memories stick with us?!
My kids love anything that they can dip! Hint for packing cut fruit so it doesn’t go brown: squeeze lemon on it before putting it in tupperware.
Check out these lunch suggestions:
http://www.schoolfamily.com/school-family-articles/article/735-5-sack-lunches-kids-love
Also just some good basic information about helping you navigate the school thing with your child!
Lisa