My little one hasn’t been eating at school very well so I’m going to start packing his lunch for awhile. I need some idea’s for a picky kid that won’t go bad and doesn’t require an any ice packs at the moment.
6 Likes
Not sure about what kinds of food. I’d Let your little one pick out their own fruit or side at least. Kids like to have choices.
2 Likes
Can you use a thermos?
Chicken nuggets
Mac n cheese
Soups
Whatever he likes
Fruits
Any veggies he likes
Yogurt
Cheese
Pretzels
1 Like
We bought bento boxes for our kid…here’s some of the things weve sent him
Edit. The bento boxes are insulated. The blue one is a omiebox from amazon that comes with a thermos.
We tend to utilize leftovers as the main portion and then add snacky foods in the other compartments. So he has plenty of choices but we’re not wasting a bunch of money if he doesnt eat everything.
He always eats the chips. And he usually eats the fruit.
2 Likes
I make small bags of “mom approved” things they can choose from every morning for sides on Sundays. (Veggies, fruit, crackers, gold fish, etc). And I’ll usually offer 1 or 2 “mains” . (Pbj, salad, pasta salad, hard boiled eggs, cubed cheese, turkey sandwich, even yogurt, anything with a lot of protein).
I noticed since I started letting them choose, their lunches come home empty, and my snacks last longer. Lol
Good luck! Lunches are the worst. 
They make freezable lunch boxes ( no ice packs required) my daughter is 15 and is still a super picky eater so I make lots of little Tupperware containers with different choices and then I make one with her favorite snacks, fruit snacks, veggie chips, pop tarts…
Rolled banana and peanut or almond butter
Yogurt
Apple sauces
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Salami
Cheese
Crackers
Homemade wraps
Quesadillas
Chips and salsa
Pretzels
Bear paws
Homemade goodies
Try to only give a little bit of each. My kids clearly love their bento boxes!
2 Likes
I’ve been making home made lunchables. It’s been a total hit. We’ve even made the pizza ones with thin bagels and the nachos one too.
What does he like to eat when not at school?
I’m not sure if your school does this but my school put the menu for the month at the end of each month. I let my kids decide if they are gonna want anything on the menu for the week (our district pre covid had like 4-5 choices) if not I let them pick what they want to eat for lunch for the week. I’ve found it helps limit the “picky” and helps me have some control over their diet.
This helped me and my daughter lives it still 7 years later…she just started middle school
Bag up some veggies some apples grapes,crackers cheese sticks lunchables stackable jello applesauce mixed fruit peaches veggies. Bag up some crackers
Dear u can give ur child variety of lunch e.g.
1.boil potatoes & bananas
2.chips & oranges
3.frenchtoast& dry fruits
4.small sandwich& cucumber
5.small burgers& Any juice
6.kabab&russiansalad
7.nuggets&carrots
8.pizza&small cupcake
9.zingerburger&kiwi fruit
10.rollparatha&any flavoured yougurt.
Try to give him little but daily change his menu,so that he can enjoy his lunch.
Hope this diet help u a lot.
Make 1 month planned different food&variety in
Lunch menu
Avoid giving him too much food. Here they get 20 minutes for lunch. By the time they get their lunch, get seated & start to eat they get about 10-15 minutes to actually eat. (Thats if the recess supervisors don’t take time off lunch for a few kids behavior 
so they may get 5 minutes to eat 
) I was filling those lunch boxes up. It turned out that they were overwhelmed with choices. By the time they decided what to eat it was time to clean up. Make it simple. A sandwich & carrot sticks. I like using sandwich containers with silicone cupcake liners to make something like a lunchable. A few different veggies in each cup along with Hummus. Cheese, crackers, grapes & strawberries. Sliced apples with pb in the middle rolled in raisins. Anything that is quick.
1 Like
Have him pack it. Meaning you’re doing it with his help and choices. And use encouraging words while doing so- this is the best lunch ever, can we make one for me just like it, I’ll bet you can’t wait to eat this tomorrow, you make a great lunch… etc… to help him look forward to it and enjoy it more. Also ask him to help you make a list of his choices for shopping.
1 Like
My kid is extremely picky. So I’ve packed his lunch since day one. Pbj, pudding, jello, juice, cheez its, brownie. Sometimes applesauce, chips, cookies, crackers
Bagel
Crisps
Jelly
Fruit
Raisins
Sandwich thin
Crisps
Yoghurt
Cheese string
Cookie/cake/choc bar
Peice of fruit
The no ice pack thing is hard. You can freeze the yogurt pouches and they are cold and thawed by lunch.
1 Like
Honestly my kids school has a lunch my kod loves…bow healthy it is idk lol but it fills him up more than what it would if i packed a sandwich or lunchables that would just be thrown away… but its goldfish, yogurt, string cheese and a muffin lol
1 Like
i used to freeze my kids sandwiches then they we still cold at lunch time i put chips in zip lock bags from the big bag,made cupcakes and froze them
Crustables, chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, quesadillas-chips, crackers, cubed cheese, apple sauce pouches, apple slices, orange slices, sliced strawberries-mini cookies, teddy bear graham crackers, fruit snacks, pudding. Mine is a toddler that goes to daycare 
Fruit cups/crackers & cheese/cereal/bagel/deli meat roll ups
lunchables ,you can make your own to save $ does he like yogurt, raw veggies n dip
I saw this post and thats what I’ve been doing . My picky kids love it
Uncrustables (thawed by lunch), crackers, fruit, juice boxes (or a drink period besides milk), frozen yogurts (go gurts rock here)
Honestly I pack apple sauce (the pouches not the cups) fruit snacks, pop tarts, jello, fruit snacks, gold fish, anything and everything I know my child will eat that’s not in the fridge or freezer.
Homemade lunchables. Get a few reusable containers with separate spots and just fill it with a variety of things you know kiddo likes. Fruits/veg/snacky bits. We like to do meat/cheese/crackers but you could sub with other “sandwich” fillers or things that don’t need refrigeration. And you can change it up with whatever you have kicking around! We’ve put chicken nuggets in there, literally anything that’ll fit !
1 Like