What does your child eat during the school day?

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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.

Both boys (3&5) have been eating green/berry smoothies for breakfast since they were babies. I add raw oats, seeds, nuts as well. They CRAVE this and don't want anything else in the morning.

For snack I send raw nuts, crackers, cheese, always carrots and usually grape tomatoes.

For lunch (for my 5 year old 1st grader) I make casseroles or other meals in big batches and freeze them. Easy to just heat up in the morning. I put it in a heated up thermos before taking him to school. I always have each meal include a good carb (quinoa, brown rice etc) a protein (eggs, chicken, turkey) and 2 veggies. Have a good, healthy, fairly easy system going with this and the boys like it.

We do an O's type cereal and healthy turkey sausage, then yogurt and popcorn or some other grain like good crackers for snack. We pack snack and lunch separately. They really emphasize that at school bc the kids eat their lunch at snack all the time apparently. I just tuck snack into the outer pocket of dd's lunch bag that holds her lunchbox... For lunch she eats little flower punched shapes of turkey (was hoping shed switch to sandwiches after eating a ton this summer but she requested the flowers and hey whatever helps her eat her protein!), a big tiffin of berries, and then often a grain like crackers or puffed kamut, and often a veggie squeezer bc she will NOT eat veggies at lunch she likes them HOT or COLD but not lunchbox even w ice pack. Sometimes I've done goat cheese on crackers, w berries... We mix things up. Oh and her box has room for a tiny treat so like chocolate covered sunflower seeds, and sometimes whatever we've had around for a party, like muffins or veggie chips etc. we just found out the school is not nut free anymore so we can do pbj, muffins w nuts, pistachios.... But I still feel weird about that bc I'm pretty sure there's a kid in the grade up w a strong enough allergy that the classroom was nut free last year... But DD will be very conscientious about cleaning her hands after. Clearly folks send nuts everyday, I guess it switched last year and I'd read an old school handbook. But still.

Dd eats a ton of protein and veggies and pretty much anything at dinner. She's always starving after school so we do a free for all snack then, normally crackers and cheese and yogurt and nuts. She used to be sensitive to some foods but seems to be growing out of that, and seems to be doing ok on what she eats--but she definitely needs those three meals and two snacks! I stuck to the schedule over summer and woe to me when I delayed snack!

I'm envious of all of you whose kids still eat the healthy foods you taught them to like as babies. Mine will just completely stop eating things that were once their favourite for no known reason. Also when as6 starts eating a new food he drops one of the old ones. Drives me crazy. Ds4s preschool is nut, seed and egg free which makes his lunch harder.

We actually do this daily. My son is allergic to eggs and I have found the day goes best if it starts with dinner... This morning he had ground beef, fresh carrots, and fresh peaches with a glass of almond milk.

I just had to quote your answer when I read that when you rarely let your child eat Ramen, you throw out the MSG-laden flavor packet! LoL I do the same thing! I like to add a mixed veggie to it and my hubby always adds an egg to make a sort of fast food noodle soup.

FWIW- When DS was a toddler, I looked high and low to find an organic dried alphabet noodle for my son so I could add my own seasoning and meat to make a "homemade" alphabet soup.

This sounds really good. So I'd throw in some kale, strawberries, and the rest in the blender and it'd come out okay?

Do you happen to have a basic recipe you could share please?

Your DD has it right. Who needs to cook when you can just eat at room temp?



We have a new grocery store in a nearby town: Natural Grocers . We bought all our son's snack food there.

Healthy Lunches for Kids

(I love how that store smells. I just feel my stress-level sinking every time I go in there.)

Enteric coated capsules? I need to write that down. We don't eat a lot of fish these days because we really don't know where it's coming from. We're not so keen on Pacific-caught fish right now.
It would be nice if we could find farm-raised nearby. (I'm in Oregon, so if anyone knows of organic-raised Tilapia, etc. let me know.)

I am with you on the "unusual" breakfasts. I love to eat homemade burritos for breakfast. Not with eggs, but with meat and beans!

(Where's the "licking chops" icon??? LoL)

That sounds very nutritious and I know my son would love the berry taste. We have wild blackberries to add to that!

Will you post your recipe?

I've been looking for a study I heard about on the radio today (Sunday; Channel 1220am; Oregon-at around 2pm.) from the University at Albany, NY. It was done by (?) and concentrated on sugar and it's effects on the brain. There was some conversation (this was a fifteen minute interview of which I caught ten...) about how the scientists think there's a link to sugar and Type 3 diabetes. (I think this refers to dementia?) But the interviewee was also speaking about children and optimum learning.

Anyway, if anyone has a way to find this study and can post it here so I can read it in full, I'd appreciate it.

LMK if you'd like any brand recommendations. I have a great catch-all article I could link from a reliable resource.

Oh HK I'm right there with you. I stull have scars from the stares in the supetmarket when I Wouk exclaim to my toddler "Don't touch the fruit! Makes you sick!.... Here, have some chips..."

That said the kids all eat sausage or eggs with, oats, porridge or toast. Lunch boxes tend to be weird due to the intersection of the limitations on what they CAN eat and what they WILL eat...

Cute:

Break the Grains

As far as the smoothie, I make it in the blender for my two boys at the same time. I have a VITAMIX (with the pushing tool) which works really well since I use a lot of frozen items with very little liquid. It tends to get stuck and just spin in a regular blender. If you have a regular blender I suggest you let the frozen items sit out for a bit to defrost. This is what I put in it for 2 kids (all organic):

3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1 banana (put half the banana in first along with the kale ONLY, blend. Then add the other half and the rest of the ingredients)
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup frozen raspberry/blackberry
4 -5 cups kale (I use the baby kale from COSTCO. I freeze it so that it keeps longer)
1 cup frozen spinach
1/2 cup oats
Hemp seeds, chia seeds, flax seeds, walnuts
1/2 tbs spirulina
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
Multivitamin

After it is all mixed I pour it into bowls and add Vitamin C, Probiotics, Fruit/veggie powder, Elderberry powder, liquid OMEGA-3. I mix this all in. Then top it off with Vitamin D drops.
They eat it with a spoon although you could probably drink it too. For the vitamins I use caps and just open them up and dump it in. Like I said, they CRAVE this and can not go without...fine with me...:-)

On Friday, I took my 7.5-yr-old son to a homeschooling Lego car engineering event at MIT. Everyone seemed to have sandwiches (bologna, turkey, or pb). My son had spirulina and cherry-almond bars (lol). I forgot how far we depart from the norm now.

We're a nearly sugar-free, grain-free, dairy-free, processed/refined-free, etc. free household. We started the diet about a year ago when ds started neurofeedback. It's nearly eliminated my husband's Crohn's and greatly reduced ds's ADHD symptoms and helped with the mood swings.

I'd make the smoothie above from 1111 minus the oats.

Forgot to mention banana pancake recipe - two eggs, one mashed banana. That's it. MIx them and then pour on a skillet.

There are tons of recipes on pinterest for paleo or other breakfast foods. Type in paleo breakfast, spirulina bars, or homemade larabar.

Where do you get spurlina bars? Are they good?

If there were a "like" button, this recipe would get my vote! +1 oz of protein for me, please.

1111, thank you so much for taking the time to write out the recipe. I wish someone would make it for me every morning.

1111, Thanks! It sounds so healthy and yummy and like a brain food recipe! I would love to try this with my son and I already have a Vitamix.
What kind of multivitamins, Vit D and Fruit/veggie powders do you use?

I had so much trouble with dairy, and I know my husband still has problems (but he hasn't cut it out of his diet) that I've been thinking about trying to cut it out of DS9's diet as well... he refuses to try almond milk though, and loves his cereal & milk for breakfast. He honestly doesn't get a ton of diary other than that and a glass of chocolate milk here and there, though.

I know for me, though, if I get an accidental serving of dairy it's like I've got a frigging hangover! Tired and listless and foggy brained.

I want to try the smoothie!

Thanks guys for the positive response! It really is a gem of a breakfast. I use the Rainbow Light multi for the kids. They are not fond of chewing it so I just throw it in the blender. I use caps of Vitamin C, Fruit/Veggie caps, Elderberry from VITACOST. Their own brand. Their veggie one does not have garlic. Believe it or not, I used to use one WITH garlic and the kids still ate it...:-0. NORDIC NATURAL liquid strawberry omega 3, JARROW probiotics and BIOTICS 400IU Vitamin D drops. You can get it all at Vitacost although I suggest getting the probiotics local since it is refrigerated. ( I am NOT a sales rep for Vitacost, I promise....:-) The reason I don't put the powder in the blender is that I am afraid it would get lost, stuck to the sides, since you can never scrape it all out.

Also, I know this is going to sound pretty strange but speaking of pancakes, this is what I do...
I prepare the batter (Bob Mill's 7 grain). Then I add 1 banana mashed, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, unsweetened coconut flakes, 3 shredded carrots, 1/2 large shredded beet...I know, sounds crazy. You could steam the veggies and puree before mixing it in but shredding raw works really well.

I mix this in with the batter and pour it into a large baking dish. Makes it about 1/4 inch thick. Bake for 45 minutes 350 degrees. I put parchment paper over it so the top doesn't get so crispy. Then I cut it into 4 pieces and the kids will eat one piece each. So here you have 2 servings of veggies/kid in PANCAKES! Seriously, they taste really good. And they are red and pretty. You could even get a cookie cutter and make shapes out if it. I top it off with unsweetened raspberry jam and berries. The kids favorite food! You could put anything they like on top though.

Just though I'd throw it out there. I have told many people and most do not dare to try this. But the ones that do are amazed!

I'm definitely going to make those! Thanks 1111. Thread officially bookmarked.

I officially suck. That is all.

I know how you feel, deacongirl.

I tried three times to post in this thread yesterday, and it wouldn't go, but it's just as well. I'll just say, wow -- kids that eat stuff. Cool.

My DD likes chocolate milk and coffee with half-and-half for breakfast, though she's also been known to eat a Wendy's chocolate frosty. Sometimes she also has dry cereal and craisins.

I know she eats one decent meal each day because I pack her a Bento box, and there isn't enough food in it that she can entirely avoid eating vegetables without going hungry.

Today that box contained:

a single-serve packet of hummus
2 Baby Bel cheese rounds
3 Stretch Island Fruit leather packets
a whole grain flatbread, cut into flower shapes (which are easier to dip into hummus)
a generous handful of sugar-snap peas fresh from the bag.

Last week, I neglected to send her with a lunch one day, and she wound up eating plain potato chips out of the vending machine.

We are often gone for dinner (extracurriculars) or we all eat at different times, so that tends to be whatever she ferrets out of the fridge. Or candy that she has stashed in her room. Dad is a horrible enabler there.


So yeah. I think I pretty much officially suck at this too. But I haven't killed her yet, so that's something. LOL

Ok, after that, I'll try again.

Ovaltine for breakfast -- I survived twelve years of school on Hershey's cocoa for breakfast, so I'm a whole level above that with my kids. Lots of vitamins in Ovaltine. DS only drinks a bit of it if I give it to him for breakfast, but both of them have it at bedtime too. DD can't live without hers in the morning. So far this school year (one week down, way too many to go), I've managed to get a few slices of bacon into DS for breakfast, and DD loves sausages and will eat one in the morning, mostly. She had half a waffle instead, today. Neither of them will be worrying about getting fat until they're at least 40, so that's not an issue here -- rather the other direction, for them. As many calories as possible is good.

DS eats school lunches, and DD takes a PBJ, chips, juice or tea, sometimes applesauce, sometimes pudding, and sometimes eats more than half of everything.

Dinner ... we won't go there yet.

We try to make a lot of dinners from scratch using fruit and vegetables that are in season. Venison is consumed regularly along with lots of other red meats and fish. I like to cook (and eat) as does DW. I started giving DD DHA milk since she was a toddler and as she is actually pretty sharp (despite her blond tresses) I am loath to stop now. Greek yoghurt and honey from our gracious bees is a frequent dessert.

We don't buy soda so DD drinks only DHA milk and flavored seltzer.

That was the orthodox good news.

DD loves refined carbs in her breakfast cereals, Klondike bars (Heath bar best) and potato chips. She eats like fats; plenty of good cheese - Stilton, real cheddar, Parmesan, feta, Brie, buffalo mozzarella etc, processed meats
; guanciale, prosciutto, Jason Serrano, soppressata, chorizo etc, bacon, pork belly, butter and so forth. Also a huge fan of salt - Marmite on toast with butter being almost a Holy Sacrament, will also just eat Maldon salt crystals on their own. PBJ sandwiches are a huge favourite too.

DD is not a huge consumer of veggies but she does love tomatoes, cukes, peas etc from the garden. She just devours nuts, plain, salted or roasted.

Not an overly organic, vegan or borderline rabbinical about diet household at all and DD is doing just fine.

Saturday is dietary delinquency day here. We often order in a pizza or eat out and have dessert on Saturday nights. I aim for produce and protein-centric meals 90% of the time and look forward to our 10% meals. With 4 meals per day, I try to set aside 2 "no limits" meals each week where we can indulge in our favourite less healthy foods in reasonable portions. Usually, one is breakfast at a local greasy spoon.

Aquinas, we have Sunday night as pizza night. We do get the pizza from the health food store but ONLY because it is the best we have ever eaten around here. The kids also look forward to the weekends when daddy takes them drive through for a biscuit..:-)

Then of course cake, icecream etc anytime there is a party at our house or someone else's. Or a party at our house with the family "just because". They love sweets but do not ask for it. When it is served they truly enjoy it though.

Exactly our approach, 1111. Couldn't agree more.

A good friend of mine once said, quite aptly, that you should be able to eat ice cream whenever you want it, but that you shouldn't want it every day. Words to live by. A few days of anticipation makes the reward all the sweeter! (Said the pleasure delayer.)

DS6 most exceptional gift may be at sensing disguised vegetables.

But he still eats smoothies ... by trial and error we ended up with cooked spinach in it, kale didn't work for us as it has a slightly more noticeable taste to DS. You can get quite a bit of spinach in a smoothie, but we started with around a heaping tablespoon and worked up to a little more. Definitely banana for anti-vegetable taste. And then blackberries are the one fruit that seems to get the color back to fruity from green. And then whatever else is in the fridge. Some people use a piece of beet or beet juice to color it, but DS seems to sense this as a vegetable. And we mostly use yogurt but sometimes a real icecream instead, just has that extra smooth and yummy taste (and yes sugar).

Other things we actively try to get into DS are vitamin E in it's natural form/s such as in almonds/almond milk or peanut butter. And then selenium which is not found in a lot of foods, we try to make sure he gets about a brazil nut a day or every other day, we put ground brazil nuts in our saturday pancakes. The nuts are not hard as DS eats trail mix willingly. Fish oil, the nordic natural chewies, he still thinks they are candy, has been on omega 3s forever.

100% whole wheat bread, at least lately, I somehow missed for years that regular "whole wheat bread" is generally only a small percent whole wheat flour.

The one thing I still wish I could find a way to get into DS is anything tomato such as pasta sauce or a fresh tomato. As a toddler he'd eat a dish of ketchup if he could, but gave up anything tomato by around 3.

He takes goldfish type crackers, pretzels, and juice boxes for snacks. Happy we are not at a school where that would be looked down on... instead it's the opposite where other people here probably think we are stuck up about our food because the juice box says "reduced sugar". DS eats hot dogs, chicken fingers, pizza, cheerios and homemade muffins when there are any. Eats a reasonable amount of fruit and tiny quantities of raw veggies when forced. Craves cookies and candy, generally has something in that category daily, but in moderation, one cookie or one small lollipop.

Polly, try freezing the fresh kale. It seems to take away most of the flavor. I can tell in my smoothie when I use frozen or not.

We have always given DS Omega 3. I used to give him probiotic supplements as powders or chewies when he was a baby because of antibiotics he took for ear infections. Now that he is healthier, he gets 2 servings of probiotic yoghurt a day in addition to the milk he drinks. His breakfast is mostly multigrain toast with melons and milk or Cereal with blueberries and milk. He eats sunflower seed butter sandwiches on whole wheat (his favorite food) and cucumbers and carrots with fresh fruit and yoghurt for lunch. For snack it is a cheese, fruit, crackers combo. For dinner, it is a protein, a wholegrain (quinoa, brown rice etc) and 2 veggies. No dessert, but he can have a fruit if he wants. Occasionally he eats icecream for dessert.
We eat out twice a week and there are no restrictions on the food he eats then. Also, we attend a lot of birthday parties and his old school used to allow birthday cupcakes. The new school has a "no outside food" policy, so no cupcakes at school this year.
We did not give him sugar or sugary foods until he was 3 years old. So, he does not miss sugar and is not crazy about it and can either take it or leave it. But, his favorite food is anything tomato related and will eat anything dipped in ketchup - including steamed broccoli, asparagus etc!
I used to make smoothies regularly 2 years ago and stopped for some reason. Thanks 1111 for inspiring me again! I buy organic Kale from costco all the time. Now, I will try to freeze it to see how that works out!

Ashely, you are welcome...:-) And YES for ketchup. I am sure if I put it on ice cream they would still find it delicious...

And cupcakes in school, sure. Not a fan of having a cupcake for morning snack, but hey, if it is someone's birthday and there is a party I am not going to deprive my kid. I just smile and say "How wonderful", inside I cringe though....:-)