Toddler Lunch Suggestions for Mother's Day Out

[KUvsOU]

I also posted this on the Toddler board, but wanted to see if I could get some more feedback on this side as well. After the first of the year, my DS will be starting a full day (8:15 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.) Mother's Day Out program. My question is what types of things do kids typically take in their lunch. He will be a little over 18 months by then and I usually feed him a hot lunch and he had not mastered a fork and spoon yet. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Shawna
Mom of Cade 6/16/02

[MelissaTC]

My son's preschool gave us a list of suggestions. Here are some:

cheese and crackers
mini pita filled with - apples & cinammon, warm and wrap in foil; cheese; lunch meat; tuna; chicken salad
grated or chopped carrots
sandwich but cut into small pieces
cooked pasta- pick interesting shapes, colors- splash w/ salad dressing

my friend makes her daughter a pasta salad with cheese, tuna, spinach

I usually send my son with a sandwich (grilled cheese, cut up and wrapped in foil) or cheese & crackers with cut grapes or bananas. I have also done the pita thing with lunch meat and cheese and he seems to like that as well. At DS's program, he gets there at 9am which is one hour after breakfast. He eats a snack at 10am which can be anything like graham crackers and juice, cheese, yogurt, applesauce, etc.. He then eats lunch at 12pm. That is a lot of food for him in such a short amount of time. He usually doesn't eat a lot of lunch. I pick him up at 1pm and he has a snack after his nap (@4:30) and then dinner (6pm).

HTH!

[emmiem]

I usually send my two year old with cheese cubes and some cut fruit in tupperware. Also, some animal crackers, milk and juice in sippy cups. I do not send apples because they discolor. I believe carrots are too hard for them still to chew. I cut up strawberries(her favorite), grapes, mandarin orange, clementine tangerines(they are seedless), blueberries, or fruit cocktail. Her lunch is always completely eaten up. On non PDO days, we then can use the sandwich or grilled cheese idea. My DD generally still does not use utensils.
Emmie