Advise on Lunchbox for Toddler please

The pop-top bottle are better than the ones with straws.. cartons often get put back I boxes with only half drank so they spill everywhere.. Many lunch boxes come with this type of bottle now anyway.. like the 'fruit shoot' bottles, and a sandwich box.

Mine get (aged 10, 9, 7, 5 & 3)

1. a sausage roll/sandwich/salad tray,
2. 1 piece of fruit or a lidded bowl of mixed fruits.. strawberries/kiwi/apple/grapes,etc or dried fruit & cheese.
3. 1 packet of crisps.. everyone else has them so they haven't had a pack up if none are included.. the small tesco value packs suffice.. they are crisps.. smaller packs and MUCH less salt and flavourings than other crisps..
4. 1 biscuit/cereal bar

My children have always had some kind of savoury: sandwich, sausage roll, pasty, rice or pasta salad, some fruit: small apples, peeled oranges when very tiny (good idea to stick in a wipe with oranges), grapes, banana (if they can manage not to squash it), some kind of snack thing: cheese, cheese string, cheese triangle, sometimes crisps (agree that value ones are good, they have far less additives in flavoured versions, and plain simply contains a small portion with just potato, salt and oil), and some kind of treat: home made cake (tray bakes or cup cakes are good), couple of plain biccies, occasionally a shop bought choc biccy in shiny paper, oh the excitement! Usually they have a yoghurt as well, fromage frais is good for tinies as it doesn't gloop everywhere and they can finish the tiny pot, or things like frubes are good as you can freeze them, then they keep everything cool and are defrosted by lunchtime.

It's a good idea to put some of it in a box within the lunchbox, the little ones designed for sarnies, that way they can put the sticky rubbish in there, or just encourage your lo to pop the rubbish in his sandwich bag. Of course the nursery might be happy for the leftovers to be thrown away there, but mine have always gone to schools that insist they bring it home so that you know what they have eaten!

We also use the drinks bottles with pop up lids, old fruit shoot bottles or water bottles are good, as it doesn't matter when they lose them, and they're fine to reuse a few times so long as you give them a good wash each time. My older ones use sports bottles now, but they don't tend to lose their stuff quite so often!

Before giving your lo soup I'd ask his nursery about their views on it, as he will prob need some help with it, and I'd stick to veg options as well. Childrens flasks don't tend to keep the food really really hot, so if you did put it in piping hot at the start of the day it'd prob be cool enough for him by lunchtime, best to do a test run though!

Always a good idea to do a few practice runs anyway, just to find out what he likes best and what he can cope with, some of mine could do pasta salad, some couldn't! Also the speed at which he eats is important, you need to make sure you don't put too much in!

Hi there :beer: There are loads of ideas in this thread - back to school packed lunch ideas.

A lock and lock drinks bottle is guaranteed not to leak.

I'll merge this thread to that one later, to keep ideas together

Penny. x

My dd has been using a "cool kidz thermos flip top beaker" from Wilkinsons since last September. In her first year of school we had 5 or 6 different beakers that leaked but we've gotten through just using this one this year.


sammy_kaye18 - we do cheese and jam My two like cream cheese and raspberry jam together!

Ideas for putting in lunchboxes...........

• cherry tomatoes
• boiled egg
• melon cubes, satsumas, kiwi, chunks of pear, grapes, plums - I've found that if I cut up the fruit or peel the satsumas the kids are more likely to eat it. They're in such a hurry to get out into the playground that anything that holds them up won't be eaten!
• Oatcakes with cheese
• carrot sticks/cucumber sticks
• dried apricots
• malt loaf
• hot cross buns
• muffin pizza
• sandwich fillings.... tuna & sweetcorn, cheese ham & lettuce, sardines, egg & tomato, corned beef
• Salads.... pasta prawn, chilli bean rice, pasta & sausage

These are all things I give my 3 and 5 year olds for packed lunches - hope that helps someone.