Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Brain Food

What does your child eat during the school day?

---
We try to give our son a good blend of carbs, proteins and fats at every meal.

For instance, we always send him off to school with a full breakfast. That usually consists of an egg that's scrambled with spinach and sausage. He gets a pancake or waffle with real maple syrup and milk and juice and vitamin.
He doesn't always eat it all, and that's okay. (He's on the slim side for his height, btw.)

This year, he has not only a snack that has to go to school, but also a lunch. (There's no cafeteria at this charter.)

DH and I have planned what to pack for each so he doesn't "crash" after snack time. Since we've talked with him from about five on about the importance of blending carbs and proteins, I think he'll remember.

Okay...maybe he'll "forget" and eat all the carbs at snack.

Poor teacher.

So, what do you feed your child's brain?

Books

Food for thought.

My kids eat cereal with no more than 10g sugar every morning and maybe fruit, yogurt, or a boiled egg.

They bring their lunch and take either a sandwhich with no sugar added bread, real peanut butter, and 100% fruit jelly or natural turkey(no nitrates) and cheese sandwich, 2 snacks (no sugar added applesauce, fruit, crackers, fruit ropes, cheese sticks --stuff like that) and a juice box. Once in a long while they take Ramen with organic all-purpose seasoning(I don't let them use the seasoning it comes with)in a thermos or a thermos of spaghettios.

I have 4 kids and 2 are adopted with rough early childhoods. i have never had a lick of trouble with any of them in school with regard to behavior, ability to sit still and focus, or being too tired at any point throughout the day, unless of course they had a string of days when they stayed up too late. My personal belief is that it has a lot to do with the fact that they eat very little sugar on a regular basis and very little food with neuro excitotoxins. I hope this gives you some ideas.

I give my kids the same as I had every day of my school life. A sandwich, fruit, one sweet thing, crackers and water. I used to give them yogurt but now they won't eat it, same with cheese, boiled eggs, cold meat in fact practically anything that might be more interesting.

DD5 is totally obsessed with nutrition and where food comes from... so i think she's feeding her own brain at this point.

she went to her grandparents' place for a "vacation" this weekend and she took kale chips and vegetable soup that she made (mostly) herself, three kinds of cheese and about 10 kinds of fruit & veg since the grandparents are liable to fall back on frozen dinners.

so i guess the biggest thing i have to worry about getting into her is tact! she gets so exasperated with people who don't understand why she eats the way she eats. privately, i am super amused by "MERLIN'S PANTS - JUST THINK ABOUT IT LOGICALLY!" but she really can't go through life like that.

Doubtfulguest, I have a dd like yours. She is a nutrition freak. She was 3 when we visited Bronx zoo. They have no healthy food so I was trying to feed her grilled cheese and fries. She not only refused, she yelled at me," mom, stop trying to feed me junk food. I am not going to eat." My biggest worry as she starts 3 days of full time school is getting enough calories into her. I started making a list of lunch menu ideas yesterday- basically each meal will have sauteed veggies, raw fruits, nuts or lentils or eggs, rice or bread or pasta and yogurt. For snack, raw veggies and homemade muffins. All stuff that I know she loves and hopefully will eat.

A good snack option is a smoothie in a thermos. We aren't school age yet, but this is my preferred on-the-go meal for DS. It's no more than dumping a 1:1 ratio of frozen fruit and almond (or other) milk in the blender with a scoop of whey protein. If I'm feeling fancy I add a Tbsp of a nut butter or ground flax seeds. I could see a small smoothie working well at snack time. If you want the smoothie to digest more slowly, make it a casein protein or whey-casein blend.

A great option for healthy fats, if you don't already do this, is a pharmaceutical grade fish oil supplement with breakfast. You can buy either enteric coated capsules or flavoured oils, which are surprisingly kid-friendly.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could offer standard "dinner" meals for breakfast to increase protein intake in the morning. My colleagues used to laugh when I are tilapia with steamed veggies and beans at 9am, but that sort of meal gave me the greatest mental clarity early in the day.

ha, yes - Lovemydd!

last year, mine went to a school with a fancy-pants kitchen and she just filled up on everything that looked good to her, much to the delight of the cooks. this year we're homeschooling so that's easy, but every time she goes to dance camp i'm amazed at the sheer volume of lunch we're packing every day. every other kid has a normal sized lunch box, but her lunch bag is a TOTE BAG... it's actually bigger than her dance bag!

We feed my daughter more or less anything that won't kill her.