{"id":2489,"date":"2021-08-18T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2021-08-18T13:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/?p=2489"},"modified":"2023-08-09T01:44:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T08:44:35","slug":"healthy-lunches-my-approach-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/healthy-lunches-my-approach-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to School Lunches!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While our kids were home learning remotely it may have felt like \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/make-snacks-count-how-to-use-snacks-to-keep-your-kids-healthy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">snack-time<\/a>\u201d was all the time. I know that\u2019s been true around my house! Now that they\u2019ve headed back to school, it\u2019s back to making school lunches!\u00a0 Sending kids off to school each day with a healthy lunch is important and returning to a more regular eating schedule and better habits will be healthy for all of us. Since lunch counts for approximately 20% of daily calories, it should be healthy and satisfying.<\/p>\n<p>There are some things you can do to make your kid\u2019s lunches count nutritionally. I often tell parents that almost everything can be solved by talking with our children. In terms of nutrition, this is just as true. Our kids are eager to learn, and we can use that to help them make wise food choices. Whether your child is served lunch at school or brings lunch from home, success starts with your discussions at home.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>School meal programs can provide much of what children need for health and growth. However, it\u2019s important to help children make wise choices from what is served. Review the lunch menus to get an idea of what is being offered at your child\u2019s school. Ask your kids what they ate. If they got the salad bar, did they eat the veggies or just the croutons? Did they toss the fruit that came with the pizza? Use this as a chance to talk about nutritional basics.<\/li>\n<li>You can also consider going to school to volunteer at lunchtime \u2013 doing so will give you a bird\u2019s eye view of what really happens. If you have suggestions or concerns, talk with the teachers and principal to help make a change.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you pack lunch at home, there are some basics that you can try to cover:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Pack a fruit and a veggie. Both will be more likely to be eaten if cut into pieces.<\/li>\n<li>Pack water \u2013 not a sweet drink.<\/li>\n<li>Kids\u2019 serving sizes are smaller than ours. For example, half of a sandwich is usually enough. I find this to be true even for athletic teens.<\/li>\n<li>Have your children pack their own lunches \u2013 with your guidelines and watchful eye.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>As a mother there are some household chores that drive me slowly insane, day after day. Making lunches leads the list of things making my hair go gray. One afternoon a few years ago on the way to his lacrosse practice, my son asked if we could stop by his school locker to pick up something too big to carry on his bike. Indeed, the sack of old lunches filling his locker\u00a0<em>was<\/em>\u00a0big. And smelly. Turns out he wasn\u2019t eating much of what I had packed. The carefully cut veggies, fresh fruit, wholegrain bread? All\u2026moldy.<\/p>\n<p>That was\u00a0<em>IT<\/em>! Later that night I had one of those \u201cLook out: Mom\u2019s head is spinning\u201d moments that all children see occasionally. Now I no longer make lunch &#8211;\u00a0<u>they<\/u>\u00a0do. I made some rules: each lunch must have a fruit, a veggie and some protein. \u00a0Water only;\u00a0no sugary drinks. This system has worked well and, my hair is looking less gray!<\/p>\n<p>Students spend many\u00a0of\u00a0their waking hours at school, and a large proportion\u00a0of\u00a0their daily food intake is eaten there. Healthy lunches set the stage for healthly habits that protect your child from struggles with weight later on. As parents, we can help ensure that their lunches count as a\u00a0nutritional bonus\u00a0by talking with them, letting them be involved and becoming involved at school ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Resources For Parents<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/skip-the-sports-and-energy-drinks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Skip the Sports and Energy Drinks!<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/juice-for-kids-9-things-to-know-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Skip the Juice<\/a><\/p>\n<p>My Doctor Online<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org\/ncal\/healthy-weight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eat well, Be active, live better<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While our kids were home learning remotely it may have felt like \u201csnack-time\u201d was all the time. I know that\u2019s been true around my house! Now that they\u2019ve headed back to school, it\u2019s back to making school lunches!\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[283,422,74,176,175,582,267,547,177],"class_list":["post-2489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthy-eating","tag-back-to-school","tag-back-to-school-jitters","tag-child-nutritional-tips","tag-healthy-lunch","tag-healthy-substitutions","tag-national-nutrition-month","tag-nutrition","tag-school","tag-school-lunch","ages-all-school-ages"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1691570675:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"slide_template":[""],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["30"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["default"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":["58"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["293"],"_thumbnail_id":["807"],"wpfp_favorites":["8"],"qode_seo_title":["healthy school lunches"],"qode_seo_keywords":["healthy lunches, kids lunches, making healthy lunches"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw_text_input":["healthy lunches"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskw":["healthy lunches"],"_yoast_wpseo_linkdex":["63"],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["3"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1691570635"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2489"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3544,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2489\/revisions\/3544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}