They Say: Parents Pack Bad Lunches

My daughter gets the kind of lunch kids dream about. Sandwich. Fruit. Snacks. Milk or juice. But is that good enough?

A new study says parents aren’t packing nutrition in their kids’ lunch pails. We’re packing what we know our kids will eat.

Can you blame us? We don’t want to hear from our daycare providers that our kid was the one throwing a fit at lunchtime. And we don’t have time for the “sneak it in there” recipes in all the parenting magazines. So we cut corners. We pack a fruit cup rather than cutting up fresh fruit, because if we chuck in an apple our kids are going to moan about the peels and the teachers at daycare aren’t likely to sit down and peel it for them. We pick up crackers with the processed cheese of our childhoods, and we close one eye so only the words “whole wheat crackers” register.

According to the study in the January issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, seventy-one percent of packed lunches don’t have enough fruits and vegetables. One in four pre-school kids don’t get enough milk with lunch.

Interviews with parents revealed more than sixty percent were packing foods they thought were nutritious – but not expecting their kids to eat them. More than sixty percent also packed foods they figured the kids WOULDeat.

So what’s the trouble? It’s hard to track what your kids are doing out of sight. You can balance how much “good” and how much “bad” they eat at home during dinnertime, but kids don’t have that guidance at a
daycare centre. It sounds like parents are giving their kids too many choices. If you know they will overeat on snacks, don’t pack them. Are we really afraid our kids will starve if we give them choices of healthy vs. nutritious?

It’s their first shot at learning to eat well and make healthy choices outside of the home, but they’re still little kids. They still need some guidance from Mum and Dad. When we’re not there, that means
making the tough choice for them.

Image: Family.Go