North Sound Nourishment & Recovery
3213 Wetmore Ave., Suite # 13
Everett, WA 98201
(206) 660-3225
www.northsoundnourishment.com
After 13 successful years working for Children’s Hospital, Heather Paves left to focus on her private practice. She works with families to help change attitudes about food and encourage the Trust Model for child food intake. The model allows children to regulate the amount of food they need, which changes throughout their growing stages. This model teaches a division of responsibility between the parents (what to eat) and children (how much to eat). With school lunches, the school (when to eat) becomes part of the equation.
School lunches should have four to five different types of foods for children to eat and/or choose from, including calorie beverages like milk or juice. Choices allow children to learn healthy eating patterns and try different foods. An example of variety is a ham sandwich that can be prepared using traditional bread, a bagel, or as a wrap. Items that can be included in the lunch could be yogurt, sandwiches, vegetables, fruit, juice, milk or a cookie.
To save time and money, it is great to plan meals weekly before grocery shopping. Planning makes allows the lunch to be made quicker, since the decisions on “what” have already been made. One of the choices facing parents is whether to purchase in bulk or individually packaged foods. The best choice is the one that works for your family budget both monetarily and time.
The night before, non-perishable food and lunch boxes can be put out to speed-up the process of making the school lunch in the morning. The time in the morning prior to school is often hectic with getting the kids off to school, and preparing for the work day. A couple simple ideas to lessen the morning stress is to prepare the lunches the previous evening. To prevent soggy bread, buttering the bread helps prevent liquids from absorbing into it. Also, placing the meat, cheese or peanut butter against the bread and placing the condiments inside help with this problem. For older children, the condiments can be placed in a separate container for them to add at lunch.
Keeping Food Cold
An innovative way to keep food cold during the day is to freeze the juice box or yogurt the night before. In the morning, add these items to the child’s lunch bag, and they will act as a “blue ice” to keep the lunch cold. In addition, it does help to use an insulated lunch bag. These food items will thaw out during the morning, and should be consumable by lunch time.
Deserts, or “fun foods”, should be included to normalize the food item. When these items are included, they become a choice to the child, not an exception to be eaten immediately. Easy to simply throw in, these items include cookies, candy and other sweets. The portions should be small, like a small sized “bite” candy bar, or a couple small cookies. The idea is to allow the sweets as part of lunch, not the focus of the meal.
Related: Back To School Prep: For Elementary, Middle & High School Students