How to Plan Healthy Lunches for Kids

Video Transcript

"Hello, I'm Dr. Deborah Wheeler. I'm the Vice President of Academic Affairs at Argosy University at the Salt Lake City campus. I'm here in the kitchens of the Art Institute at Draper, Utah. We are talking about how to provide healthy lunches to your children. It's sometimes hard to get your kids to eat healthy, and you can pack healthy lunches for them. You might start by making sure you purchase shelf-life food if you know it's something they like and will eat often. If it's good and healthy for them, you might want to buy that in bulk. Make sure you buy things that will stay on the shelf for quite a long time. Buying dried fruits or packaged items that can stay on the shelf will make sure you have those items at hand for their lunches. Next, you want to make sure that you pack things that they will eat, and make sure that they don't trade them for that cupcake or that cookie. That's always the difficulty. Make sure you pack things that they like. Next, make sure you have enough variety. Make sure that they are not tired of the things that you're packing. Don't do back-to-back lunches of peanut butter or tuna fish. Give your child an opportunity to make sure they can try new things. Try different foods that they'll enjoy. If you'd like to get your child to eat a variety of foods, you might have them eat whatever it is they're interested in. If you have a plate of spaghetti and meatballs, you might find that the child doesn't like the sauce. That's fine. They can get their vegetables in another way. Maybe they don't like the noodles. That's fine. They can eat a piece of bread and still get their carbohydrates for the day. Make sure they have a variety and that they're eating the things that they really enjoy. That way, you'll find that they're getting the nutrients they need, they're getting the vitamins that they need -- as long as they're healthy and gaining weight. Check in with your doctor, of course, regularly to make sure that they're at a healthy weight, but you should be able to provide enough variety that the child will eat their meals whenever you prepare them. If you need more information on this or any other parenting topic, you can contact us at argosy.edu."