Hellobee Boards

@emilye519: have you tried sending stuff that she "doesn't like" anyway? Since it takes over 15 exposures to a new food before kids get used to it, I have always packed a balanced meal, whether or not I think the girls will eat them. And then if she only eats half of what I pack, oh well. But a lot of the time, they'll surprise me with what they eat when someone else is giving it to them.

My husband often worries about foods I give--because his reasoning is 'Lo didn't like eggs last time, so we should just stick to giving Cheerios", or whatever. Whereas my reasoning is, "LO didn't like eggs last time, so I'll keep giving them every other day until she gets used to them". And it really works--it took me almost a year, but I finally got LO1 into sweet potatos, and it took me about a dozen offers before I could get LO2 to eat eggs, but now she will.

I stick to a formula for lunch--usually a main entrée, and two sides, one of which has to be a "real" veggie. The other can be a veggie or a starchy veggie, or a starch.

I agree with @Anagram: I often send things that LO doesn't particularly like to eat to daycare. I make sure that there are plenty of things she does like and will eat in her lunch, but I've found that peer pressure (other kids eating what is in their lunch) and distraction help her eat things that she doesn't ordinarily like. My LO is the same with meat, she's not much of a fan, but I send it whenever I have it, and sometimes she eats it all at daycare!

As for ideas, cold pizza is a hit with my LO, as are omlettes. We also do cheese tortellini, chicken sausage and breaded chicken fingers. I also often do leftovers from dinner - bites of hamburger, grilled chicken, pasta dishes. Can you tell my LO isn't into sandwiches?

My son will only eat processed or ground up meat. He also doesn't eat cheese straight up. So we try to feed him a lot of eggs. Can you do omelet with shredded veggies in it? I make a big thick omelet with grated carrots and zucchini (the small holes on the cheese grater) with bits of ham or bacon or cheese and let it cool. Then I cube it up and serve with ketchup. We also serve cut up hot dogs or chicken sausage, corn dogs, nuggets, Canadian bacon, meatballs, cubes of cold meatloaf, pasta with meat sauce, macaroni and cheese, nuggets, fried rice with eggs and bits of meat and veg, pizza quesadillas (basically just add sauce and mozzarella and mini pepperoni to the tortilla), grilled cheese or grilled ham and cheese, pigs in a blanket, and tiny chicken wontons.

I serve with raw carrots (with a little hummus), frozen peas, corn, or peas and carrots. They're the only veg I can get him to eat plain/raw.

I also include some kind of fruit, a few Goldfish graham cookies, and a gummy vitamin cut into 3 pieces as a treat. I include a pouch as back up.