Most prepackaged lunches come with drinks, and homemade ones should too. Most come with soda or another sugary drink that is not healthy for anyone. Choose twelve ounce water bottles and drink crystal sticks instead. These offer no calories but lots of taste.
The invisible Koolaid is also a good choice, because kids really don’t need a ton of artificial cooring and preservatives. I had a student once who I eventually figured out was acting out depending on whether or not he had had a certain kind of in the pouch drink that day!
People talk about ADHD, but seriously, as soon as we got him drinking milk, smoothies and other healthy choices, he became a fantastic student, and went from the least popular boy in the class to the most because he was in control.
Fruit juice is okay in a lunch box if it is only eight ounces and 100 percent juice. I often dilute mine with seltzer for a spritzer, or you can just add it to the water bottle to give it a bit of extra taste.
Snacks in the lunch meal are simple, so there’s no need to go all out in this department at home either. Give the kids pieces of celery, some peanut butter, and some raisins. Let them make their own dessert creations.
Raisins are naturally sweet, and there are dates, figs, and other dried fruits like pineapple rings, apricots, and apples.
Just be careful with the dried fruit as some of it can be preserved with some fairly heavy chemicals. Go for natural ones in health food stores where possible.
Be especially careful with apricots, as they often use sulfites to preserve that lovely orange color, but can trigger an allergic reaction.
