Our kids are usu­al­ly so active at school, and their lit­tle bod­ies are grow­ing at a rapid rate. So, It’s impor­tant to take care of what we pack in their healthy lunch box and to be sure it’s filled with nutri­tious snacks and food to keep them recharged for the whole day. Pack­ing a nutri­tious lunch can help them con­cen­trate bet­ter in class and gives them more ener­gy to get through the school day.  Below are some tips for pack­ing a healthy lunch­box for your kids, and I hope it can be help­ful for you!

1- Create & Keep It Simple

Kids love the vari­ety, and they got bored very eas­i­ly, to avoid that always ask your chil­dren what they would enjoy eat­ing for their snack or lunch. Even if they ask for some­thing not healthy, you can add a small por­tion of it to sat­is­fy their desire and then add your healthy por­tions. It is not good if it doesn’t get eat­en. So, go with their desire in a smart way! If they don’t like cer­tain foods at home, they won’t like them in their lunch box. Don’t pack too much food – small por­tions are easy to eat and allows your child to move on to oth­er activ­i­ties. Involve them in prepa­ra­tion, pack­ing and make it fun! You can use Cook­ie Cutters to cut up fruit or sand­wich­es or make a themed lunch box. It takes no extra time than nor­mal. It will help to get them excit­ed about healthy foods. 

2- Healthy Always Win!

Pick the health­i­est options for your chil­dren. Lim­it sweet treats in their lunch box. If you want to include some­thing sweet, a plain bis­cuit, oat­meal bar or mini muf­fin is best.  A healthy lunch boosts children’s ener­gy, helps them con­cen­trate and learn through­out their day. Food is fuel, so let’s fuel your lit­tle learn­ers with the right nutri­tion to get them through long school days.

3- Rock With Protein

Pro­vid­ing a healthy serv­ing of pro­tein at break­fast and lunch is the num­ber one way you can help your kids stay pro­duc­tive and atten­tive through­out the day. The amino acids in pro­tein-rich foods pro­vide a steady source of ener­gy, help­ing to increase moti­va­tion and con­cen­tra­tion. Research has shown that high-pro­tein diets can decrease symp­toms of ADHD, pro­duc­ing bet­ter behav­iour, atten­tive­ness, and social func­tion. That is school lunch sam­ples for kid-friend­ly proteins:

• Hard-Boiled Eggs
• Nuts
• Hum­mus
• Low sug­ar yogurt
• Sliced turkey
• Canned tuna

4- Omega 3s Are Your Friend For a Healthy Brain Development

Research shows that omega 3’s can help with brain func­tion, heart dis­ease, blood pres­sure, hor­mone pro­duc­tion, and so much more. And they may be espe­cial­ly ben­e­fi­cial for improv­ing behav­iour­al symp­toms of kids with ADHD. That is some school lunch ideas for get­ting omega 3s in the lunchbox:

• Nuts: wal­nuts, almonds
• Baked or smoked salmon
• Eggs
• Avo­ca­do
• Extra vir­gin olive oil
• Canned tuna

5- Fibre Is Your Gold Star!

There are a lot of rea­sons to encour­age fibre in your kids’ diet, and to make sure you are get­ting enough as well! For starters, fibre is fill­ing, and it may help to pre­vent dia­betes. Of course, the most obvi­ous ben­e­fits of fibre have to do with diges­tion. When paired with good hydra­tion, fibre keeps your diges­tive tract mov­ing along as it should. It pre­vents, and can even treat, con­sti­pa­tion so you don’t find your­self up in the mid­dle of the night with a kid who is in pain and can’t poop! Here are some ideas for kids-friend­ly high fibre food:

• Grains: Whole wheat pasta/bread, quinoa, brown rice
• Fruit: Pears, apples, berries, bananas, avocados
• Legumes: Peas, lentils, black beans
• Hum­mus
• Plain pop­corn
• Broc­coli
• Oat-based foods 

6- Water Is Life

Make sure your kids always have their water bot­tle with them at school, when play­ing sports or when trav­el­ling.  Car­ry­ing water with them will con­stant­ly remind them of the impor­tance of drink­ing plen­ty of water.  

Quick Tips

For Healthy Lunch Ideas For kids

• Have your small invest­ment in good-qual­i­ty lunch box­es and small cool­er bags. Keep them all in one place, so you don’t waste time gath­er­ing them in the morning.
• Wash lunch­box­es thor­ough­ly after every use.
• For busy fam­i­lies, pre­pare lunch­box­es and sand­wich­es the night before and keep them in the fridge overnight.
• Dur­ing warmer weath­er, include a frozen bot­tle of water in the lunch­box.  It will still be cold by lunchtime and will keep the food cool too.