National Pack Your Lunch Day ideas and advice
Here are some children's packed lunch storage ideas for National Pack Your Lunch Day on Thursday, March 10...
Babymel Kids Food Bag
An insulated kids lunch box featuring vintage trains and made from wipe-clean material. Includes an elasticated bottle holder, cutlery holder and grab-top handle. Suitable for three years plus. £12, www.babymel.com
TumTum Thermal Food Flask
An insulated, stainless steel food flask, featuring cartoons of a dog, cat or bugs. It will keep food hot for up to five hours and cold chilled for up to seven hours. It costs £17, www.tumtumtots.com
Zoo Lunchies
This colourful set of characters are the perfect solution for conveying a packed lunch in style and ensuring they resemble the shape they left home in when the time arrives to eat. They can be strapped on to your backpack and have a mesh pocket inside for transporting small change or that latest playground craze. This might be aimed at the younger market but there'll be one making an appearance in a grown-up office, guaranteed. £13.50 from Amazon.
Fred Stack and Snack utensils set
This brightly coloured set of cutlery will be just the inspiration kids need to ditch their finger food eating ways. Stacking together means they take up less space in the drawer and are also ideal for neatly-packed lunch boxes. The set costs £6.99 at Amazon.
Museum Dinosaur Water Bottle
Keep kids hydrated with this monster water bottle from the Natural History Museum. £6, www.nhmshop.co.uk
Packed lunch tips: From Amanda Grant, author of Healthy Lunchboxes for Kids
Always add a piece of fruit or vegetable to the packed lunch - it will become habit for your children to eat it.
Vary the fruits and vegetables - ask the children to help you to work through the colours of the rainbow each week/month.
Try offering a dip with vegetables. A small pot of hummus served with carrots always tends to be a popular.
Keep food chilled by putting kitchen paper around a frozen bottle of water and placing it in the middle of the lunch box. It will keep everything cool, and should thaw enough by lunchtime to give your child a refreshing drink.
If your child comes out of school starving and with food left in their lunch box, encourage them to finish what's left before offering anything else. Some children will deliberately leave the bits they don't like if they think something more interesting might be on offer after school.
