Hi Mamas! My 5 year old son started all-day kindergarten last week. It has been a very exciting time but my son is also a VERY picky eater. For three days, I have tried to pack multiple things for him to eat in his lunch box (ranging from fruit, snack chips or crackers, string cheese, frozen gogurt, peanut butter sandwiches, and nutrigrain bars). Unfortunately he has been coming home with MOST of his lunch still uneaten. I'm not sure if it is a matter of his being excited and not that hungry, or if he simply is just not adjusting well to having to eat a cold lunch.
He was in all-day daycare from the time he was 6 months old and is used to the items that his daycare provider served, mostly hot lunches. And if he didn't like what she made for him, she would make a peanut butter sandwich and he would eat that. I checked the hot school lunch menu and unfortunately there are only a few items (a few days a month) that he MIGHT consider eating ... and I'm not sure at that because they put other items on the tray he does NOT like and won't eat so I'm afraid the hot lunch idea may not work. I am trying to find some sort of hot food container that will fit in his soft-side lunch box so I can pack things like fish sticks or chicken nuggets, things I know he will eat. Any suggestions?
Thermos FUNtainers, they come in a wide mouth and Target sells them for about $15. But my sister found some at Grocery Outlet (I know they have them in the Seattle area because a dear friend shops at one) last week with a "Superman" logo for $5 : )
Target, $15.00 widemouth Thermos. AWESOME!
Pour hot water in it for a few minutes, dump out the water, dry it. Put hot food in and it stays warm for hours!
I also vote for checking Target's clearance stuff right now for a Thermous brand wide mouth (short) container. I found one today for $12. It wasn't a huge sale, but marked down a bit.
I am excited to try it for my 1st grader.
My son hasn't been eating much of his lunch either - today was the first day he ate almost all of it. I'm guessing that it is pretty loud and distracting in the lunch room. I am guessing he'll get used to it and start eating better. I make sure I feed him a big breakfast, and he gets to pack a snack they eat midmorning. Then I let him finish his lunch when he gets home.
J.
We have used the thermos foogo food container and it seems to work fairly well, but I was just on their website (thermos that is) and they have a ton of options for kids now. They have a new line called FUNtainers. All kinds of colors and characters, maybe if you got a container he was really excited about he would also like what's inside more :)
i've got a picky eater too and i have to pack what she wants, otherwise the lunch comes back full and the kid comes back CRANKY.
since she went to all-day (first grade), she's not able to graze at home whenever she's hungry. we (i) had a horrible first week of school because she came home in such a funk. i would ask her 'what did you eat for lunch today?' she'd say 'well i finished my apple'. what?! no wonder you're cranky'. i told her she needed to sit and eat her lunch and move to the overflow table if necessary and she said she got kicked out. i went in to spy to see what was going on. turns out she's just a chatterbox at the lunch table. she'd been there for the full 30 minutes. her teacher had a talk with her and it's been going better.
so i would say it's not so much the cold versus hot but that your son is distracted. see if the teacher can help.
but as for the thermos, i'm with everybody else. have a stainless steel thermos one that works great. have a target one that has a little spoon in the lid. i don't feel like it works as well as the thermos but my daughter hasn't complained. this one looks cool http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?sku=14750231&... but kind of expensive to be trusting to a kindergartener.
or you could go more japanese: http://www.sourcingmap.com/flowers-stainless-steel-inner-... looks like it would hold more stuff.
oh, i also threatened to pull my daughter out for lunchtime if she couldn't eat enough to be full. she LOVES school so she wasn't happy at the thought of that :P
I also recommend the Thermos brand. It's worth the extra cost. I've tried other containers and none of them keep the food warm, so definitely go with the metal, Thermos container.
Thermos makes a short version with a wide mouth that holds about 12 oz.
It's a very useful size.
I have also had a hard time finding thermo containers--mainly because my daughter can't open them! Be sure to have your child can open it on their own and not put anything in there that will spill all over if they don't reseal the lid properly.
Good luck!
Target has a bunch of that kind of thing on clearance right now. I would check there.
why not ask him why he didn't eat his lunch. At 5 he should be able to tell you why.
If it is because it's cold you've got a couple options. He needs to get used to eating a cold lunch, you can't send a hot lunch for ever. or you can go to target and look in their lunch box/ water bottle section. they have several options that fit into a childs lunch box. Thermos makes a small silver container that fits well. Right now many of them are on clearance because of school starting. ( at least they are here)
