If you are like thousands of households across the nation, you probably pack your kids a healthy lunch before they head out to school. And if your kid is like thousands of kids across the nation, it may well be traded or tossed rather than ever get a chance to be eaten. There are dozens of reasons kids don’t eat the healthy lunches we provide them. These can include:

• No time – Some schools only allow 15 or 20 minutes between classes for kids to eat. Since socializing is part of eating together at school, it often means lunch gets ignored.
• Messy lunches – If you kid is a fussy eater they may not want to eat because they don’t want to get messy before the next class.
• Overwhelmed – If you pack too many options in their lunches kids can have a hard time dealing with it and instead choose to eat nothing.

A Healthy Lunch for A Healthy Kid

Here are a few solutions to helping your kids not only get interested in what you packed them for lunch, but also really want to eat what you have packed.

• Less is More – Especially with little kids, you might want to cut back on the number of items you pack in their lunches. Or you might want to consider packing smaller amounts of each item so they have time to finish what you pack.
• Beware Containers – While those little containers are cute and keep everything tidy, they take time for your kids to open. Worse yet, for really little kids they may not even be able to pry that lid off the container. Bento boxes are a great solution as they are divided containers with one big lid.
• Keep it Easy – If your kids are going through teeth changes, loose teeth can make lunch a difficult time. You might consider packing food that doesn’t require biting into such as roll-ups with sandwich meat or bite-sized bits of fruit and cheese.
• Treats Can Tempt – If you are packing a treat, even a healthy one like fruit, be aware that your kids may be skipping the main meal and just eating the treat. Keep the sweet elements down to just one or two so that they still have time and room in their tummies for the rest of their lunch.
• Ask an Expert – If you child has any kind of dietary considerations, allergies or trouble eating for any reason, talk to a specialist about it, They can help you devise a lunch diet that will make it easier for them to eat and enjoy their lunch. Remember, even with the healthy lunches we pack, if they get a bad reaction from it they won’t eat it. And in the end we just want what is right to help our kids eat good healthy lunches every day.