As your child heads off to preschool each day, it's important to make sure they have a healthy lunchbox. Having a healthy lunchbox planned helps your child to have enough energy to concentrate and play through out the day. Here are some tips to make sure what you pack gets eaten and enjoyed.

Packed with protein

It's super helpful to include some shelf stable protein to keep the snacks tasty and delicious even as the temperature heads up in summer and lunch pails sit outside in the sun. This rules out many forms of dairy, boiled eggs and meats. Many preschools also restrict nuts due to allergies, which can limit your options even further. Some great ideas whith a high protein count include bliss balls made with chia and other seeds, hummus with whole grain crackers or veggie crudités or veggie patties made with mashed vegetables, grains and cheeses. Roasted chickpeas are also super tasty and great for a snack.

Fun fruit

Children expend a lot of energy and need some sugars in their diet. However, processed sugars can lead to a quick spike in blood sugar, followed by a sad crash. Dried fruits such as apricots and cranberries can be a delicious addition to a trail mix with pumpkin seeds. You can also spice up plain fruit such as bananas by scratching a cute doodle onto the side of the fruit. It's invisible at packing time, but when the skin browns as the day goes on, it leads to fun surprise message from mum at snack time.

Sandwich cutters

If you find that your child comes home with all of their snacks eaten, but the sandwich still intact, you might need to revise the presentation. Try using a sandwich cutter to break the large sandwich square into fun shapes. This makes the meal seem smaller and less intimidating, as well as being fun. You can find sandwich cutters online, or at homeware stores.

Involve your children

As part of packing a healthy lunch for your child, it's helpful to involve your child in choosing from similar options and explaining to them the process of selecting a lunchbox full of items from the different parts of the healthy food pyramid.

A healthy lunchbox can help your child to concentrate at preschool and get off to a flying start on their school career. If you have any concerns about packing a healthy lunchbox, then why not chat to your child's preschool teacher? Preschool teachers have a lot of experience and knowledge in this area.