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with Nataly
Hi, I am Nataly and I am the co-founder of Work It, Mom!
I write the daily Work It, Mom! Blog where I talk about issues affecting working moms, goings on in our Work It, Mom! community, new site features, updates,and contests. I also share my own juggle between work and family and love to see members jump in with comments. Come and visit often!
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OK, I am exaggerating. But according to a new study (with an admittedly small sample size):
71 of the 74 kids received less than a third of recommended dietary fiber, while receiving way more sodium than recommended… and most of the kids’ lunches did not meet the recommended standards for servings of fruits and vegetables or for milk.
Yikes.
So of course the first thing I did was go through the various lunches I pack for our daughter to see just how badly I am doing. Well, various is another exaggeration — our daughter basically eats three things for lunch:
Pasta. With cheese or hot dogs or veggies or cheese. Yes, I know I wrote cheese twice, that’s how much she likes it. I buy whole wheat pasta but there are days when I just make the quick out of the box Annie’s mac and cheese, which I am certain has too much sodium.
Rice or couscous. With veggies or raisins or ground meet, minced to the point that she doesn’t realize it’s in there. I should probably try brown rice. And the couscous is out of a box, so definitely sodium overload. Strike two.
Cream cheese sandwich. With jelly or cucumbers. With edges cut off. Not cut diagonally under any circumstances. This seems fairly safe, although yes, the jelly does have sugar. We recently all switched to the overpriced but nice tasting Fiber One whole wheat bread so I am feeling good on the fiber front here.
I’m a big fruit person so she does have some fruit with her lunch daily. I am patting myself on the back right now for that. As I do, I stlighly freak out about her starting kindergarten next year, where they will definitely not heat up her pasta and rice and we’ll have to do more sandwiches. Which is only an issue because we’ve not had success beyond the cream cheese sandwich variety.
Packing lunch every day is one of those chores I find really annoying, for some reason. But I need to find it less annoying and see how I can squeeze in some more nutrition into it. Any ideas?
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I use the Laptop Lunch box for my little guy http://www.laptoplunches.com. When we first started daycare a year ago, he didn’t like sandwiches so his lunch always consisted of plain meat or fish (chicken breast cut-up or wild salmon pieces - both cooked plain), steamed veggies (broccoli for calcium) and then almond crackers (for more calcium) and half an apple or sometimes a homemade granola bar (which you can put things like ground flax, wheat germ, sesame seeds, dehydrated blueberries, oats, etc.)
Sometimes lunch will have other less nutritious things in it (sandwich) and then we just do a very plain, very healthy dinner (steamed veggies, plain fish, quinoa/rice). Or breakfast will be the ultra healthy nutritionally packed meal of the day.
~Monica | January 16th, 2009 at 1:39 am
My first reaction was, well, kids are picky, so can we really blame the parents for their lunch choices? The dilemma you describe is pretty typical. We pack healthy things for our 15-month-old daughter; sometimes she eats it, sometimes all she wants is cheese curls.
Second thought was that the “study” wasn’t exactly high quality. I wonder how lunches in say, San Francisco, compare to those in Texas.
Third, how many adults get their quota of dietary fiber and fruit? I know I don’t always eat what I should. The American way is not that of whole grains surrounded by veggies, with little dairy and meat.
I think this is more indicative of how Americans eat in general, than that daycare parents are killing their kids with their lunches. And I think your very valid point about the transition to real school, with increasingly limited lunch choices, is more of a concern to me than that ‘Susie’ eats canned vegetable soup every day.
I like your blog, by the way.
Carolyn | January 16th, 2009 at 7:58 am
I find it annoying too. I like the laptop lunch, but many of the suggestions are not easy, meaning, I am not sure if my son will try it. like steamed asparagus, forget about it.
vera babayeva | January 16th, 2009 at 8:29 am
You can use the thermos containers to send a “hot” lunch with kids. I have one that I put hot water into (run it through my coffee maker since we don’t do coffee in the mornings at home), then let it sit in the container for 5 minutes. While that’s doing it’s thing, I heat up whatever hot lunch my youngest wants. It keeps it warm until lunchtime - not hot, but since he doesn’t eat sandwiches it works out fine. I also send a piece of fruit in with him. Unfortunately, I’m usually heating up prepared foods for him - which is really high in sodium. Need to work on that one.
patsyk | January 16th, 2009 at 9:15 am
I can tell you that most daycares or centers who are licensed and regulated will serve menu items with the primary core components meeting the Dept Of Health and Agricultures guidlelines for food service to children.
However, in recent years, with the alarms going off about “organic” “whole grains” “less sodium” and on and on, it make not only parents pull out their hair, but daycares as well.
As a rule of thumb, making sure you cover that lean meat component, dairy, and choice of 2 from fruit and veggie (in a lunch meal)
is the base.
I have always heard it said that the outer perimeter of the grocery store is the healthiest and therefore will aid you in your endeavor to eat more healthy choices.
My experience with that is that it is mostly true. Be cautious of lunchables, lunch meat with a high salt content, over processed cheeses, and breads.
The inner aisles of a store that have boxes and canned this and that can be the biggest puzzle when preparing food and in today’s world where you have time constraints or simply cannot afford the luxury of making every thing from scratch, you will have to make some educated decisions about which products you can do with and without.
You are striking out as bad as you thought tho IMO. You are being more conscious of what you are feeding your children which is a start.
I will say this of daycares, we have to shop the middle aisles too and have to juggle the same puzzle pieces while trying to provide healthy and child friendly meals to the kids.
I always encourage every parent tho, no matter who I talk to, to always offer NEW things to your children weekly.
Broaden their horizons in food and menu choices.
If you are having to tailor a menu to suit their picky palate, you may be robbing them of chances to try a bite of something they may eventually RAVE over! =D
Snugglesmama | January 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
also forgot to mention that bread component is also necessary for a lunch =P
Snugglesmama | January 16th, 2009 at 10:27 am
My oldest is in preschool, and I truly dread the years to come of packing a daily lunch! We eat very healthy meals at home but it seems challenging to think up a lunchbox-friendly meal five times a week!
For me, lunch and dinner do not seem “right” if they don’t include a vegetable. Luckily my oldest daughter loves veggies, including raw (i.e. lunchbox-appropriate!). However, I hope my toddler widens her palate before SHE enters school, because currently she won’t touch raw vegetables. (Or, often, even cooked vegetables!)
Shannon | January 16th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Veggies rock over here, when we dip them in melted cheese or powder cooked veggies in parmesan cheese
Snugglesmama | January 16th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Well and that being said as well, a transistion to school lunches, depending on where you are is a whole scary venture too.
Where I live, I see “healthy” lunch choices offered at a HIGHER price than the average joe lunch stated on the menu.
I see much processed food, and a lean to more kid friendly choices rather than a balance.
Lower income families who are on the “food reduced price” get the main line lunches not the side line healthier food choices that are on the “other” list.
That is sad, and when the staff were inquired about it, their views were simply that “this is the only good meal some children get each day so we have to make sure they will be full on it and it has higher caloric value”
Not my imagination, this is a reality.
I have seen other districts create a more healthier choice, however, the end result is, the kids zoom straight for the hot dog or sandwich line.
I guess the only way we can keep our kids eating healthy is by role modeling good eating ourselves.
Snugglesmama | January 16th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I think we worry way too much over things like this. I think that what we cook for our families and pack for our children’s lunches is, in part, a reflection of a.) who we are, b.) the type of parents we want to be, and c.) how much guilt we still feel about working and sending them off to school or daycare — which totally misses the point, which is that they need adequate nutrition and they are getting it.
You are doing fine. She eats whole grains. She eats veggies. She eats protein. Even if she doesn’t know she’s eating it, she’s eating it. You’re not packing Lunchables every single day and stopping at McDonalds on the way home! Don’t be so hard on yourself. That study? Not important.
Lylah | January 16th, 2009 at 11:11 am
My kids are old enough to make their own lunches (10 ad 14), but my younget one at least still follows my plan:
Sandwich (100% whole wheat, whatever protein source floats their boat)
Fruit
Veggie (Most often the pre-cleaned “baby” carrots, but also celery sticks, raw broccoli with ranch dressing, sliced cucumber etc)
Dairy (single serving milk or yogurt or cheese)
Snack (treat of a cookie or granola bar or peanuts and dried fruit, or, if not having milk for dairy, single serving of OJ)
You can get precut apples for the fruit, or grapes work well. When I was still making lunches, it took me 5 minutes the night before, because I just followed the formula and didn’t think too hard.
Gwen | January 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I have a very healthy 10 year old who was VERY VERY picky for a very long time. I had to pack his lunch every day until this year…miraculously he now loves school lunches, so I can blame them if it’s not nutritious. Also, he just started drinking milk again after a 6 year hiatus.
But before that I was so bad at packing healthy lunches. Mostly I just defaulted to Lunchables…bad Mom, bad Mom, I know. I’d pack fruits and veggies but he wouldn’t eat them. I’d pack milk or juice, but he’d just go thirsty until he could drink water. My point is that somehow (maybe through our breakfasts and dinners?) he managed to get a reasonable healthy diet. And as I said, he’s very healthy.
Karla E. | January 16th, 2009 at 11:15 am
I think Karla E makes a good point: Just because you’re packing a healthy and balanced lunch doesn’t mean your kid is eating it.
Lylah | January 16th, 2009 at 11:22 am
I read that too and you know what I said, meh! Just do your best and it will work out in the wash. Think about it, do you think our moms were measuring the amount of sodium in our peanut butter sandwiches when we were kids? If I get all my fruits and veggies in one day it’s a miracle. Everybody needs to take a deep breath and relax.
Aftercancer | January 16th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
baby carrots, apple slices, pretzels, broccoli trees,PB and J,cherry tomatoes,small yogurts or those little yogurt shakes,nuts,granola,raisins,mozzarella sticks?I find it’s not the nutrition but the variety that’s hard. We do buy some school lunches since there IS more variety and I find she eats things she usually won’t at home- because the other kids do!
Starrlife | January 17th, 2009 at 8:19 am
These are really awesome comments, everyone — thank you. I’ve made a list of new things to try for our daughter, btw, so really helpful, appreciate it.
Monica — that’s really helpful perspective, you know. To see the entire day vs just one meal. Breakfast is a big meal in our house and it’s generally fairly healthy, so that matters.
Carolyn, I think that’s exactly right — what we pack reflects how we eat.
Snugglesmama — what a great point about the cheaper options being less healthy. I think about this a lot. When we immigrated to the US I used food stamps at school for lunch and always got tater tots because they were the cheapest and I could get more — definitely not the healthiest. Leaner options, especially those including protein, always cost more.
Lylah, come live at my house, ok?
Karla — what a great point.
And like many of you said — we do our best, enough stressing.:) (Now I just have to put this into practice:)
Nataly | January 17th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
I wouldn’t worry too much about not packing a healthy enough lunch. I’ve seen what the schools serve, and it barely passes as food, and a lot of it winds up in the garbage. Continue giving your daughter whatever she will eat.
Anna Warmuth | July 18th, 2009 at 4:30 pm