School Lunch vs. Brown Bag: Obvious Choice?

Many people believe that sending a school lunch is always the healthier alternative. Is it? School lunch has been under heavy scrutiny for good reason. However, I have done many diet recalls on children and have seen my share of issues with lunches brought from home as well. Therefore, I put a chart together that gets you to think objectively about your child buying vs. bringing a lunch to school.



(If you are having trouble reading this table,
let me know and I will happily send it to you directly!)

 Addressing The Issues: Brown Bag & School Lunch

If your child is brown bagging:
- Commit to providing food variety for your child. Even if you believe the same lunch you make is considered healthy, don’t make that same lunch every day. Sit down with your child and discuss menu options that they can get excited about eating.  When kids are invited to be part of the planning process, they will feel more inclined to eat the foods you provide.  I absolutely love Catherine McCord's super creative lunch ideas that also make healthy foods fun to eat.  Check out her quick video to inspire you on Weelicious. 
- Include a fruit and veggie in your child’s lunch every day. And for vegetables, branch out from carrots! Make a side salad, veggie kabob or even make fun faces out of veggies and provide a nice dip such as hummus for dipping.
- Concentrate on quality carbohydrates such as whole grain breads, rices and noodles. Low-fat chips are fine sometimes, but try not to use that as the staple carbohydrate in your child’s lunch.
- Make sure portions are right for your child. Some healthy bagged lunches do not provide enough calories to get your child through the day. On the other hand, too many “healthy” sweets might push your child over the calorie limit recommended for a child’s lunch.
- Include a low-fat dairy everyday – either a low-fat yogurt, milk or cheese. For those with milk allergy (rare), consider soy products as a good alternative.

If your child is buying a school lunch:
- Review the school menus with your child. Empower them to make healthy choices on their own. That includes, for example, making the choice not to have ice cream every day.  Allow the cafeteria experience to be part of the education experience!
- Encourage your child to eat the healthier meal items first to maximize their nutritional intake. Remind them that there is a limited amount of time to eat, and that their lunch will help them power out the rest of their day.
- Become involved in your child’s school lunch menu. Contact their school nutrition department and discuss any concerns you have with them directly.

The biggest thing I want to highlight is to get involved in the changes happening with school lunches everywhere. Schools get so many negative comments about their food, so when you see an improvement, let them know. Positive changes are slowly occuring, which is certainly something to be celebrated.  I am inspired by the changes being made in my city - Dallas, Texas. They have taken out many high calorie/low nutrient foods out and have added quality foods in their place. And now, a new initiative is on the horizon where Dallas Independent School District will be collaborating with Registered Dietitians from the Dallas Dietetic Association to educate freshman students on nutrition. These are the wonderfully positive things that are happening in my area. What about yours? Encourage positive change by recommending practical solutions that your school district can implement. Help to be part of the solution – for the sake of our children!

Parenting Styles and Child Feeding: What Does It Mean?

Health professionals were reminded in a great study that came out in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association back in 2008 that we must address parenting styles and family dynamics if we want to be successful in implementing dietary change in families. This study is consistent with many others published.  So with that, what is your parenting style? (If you haven’t yet, take the quiz in my previous post: Parenting Styles & Family Feeding: Take the Quiz!)

The good work started by psychologist researcher, Diana Baumrind, in the 1960’s helped us identify these 3 types of parenting styles – authoritarian, authoritative and permissive parenting. Now there are psychologists adding other styles, but we will zero in on the original three. The research I have done along with my own experiences with many family interventions reveal that authoritative parenting correlates to the best family feeding practices and lowest incidence of childhood overweight. Why? Because authoritative parents have a tendency to do the things pediatric dietitians and feeding experts recommend: monitor unhealthful child behaviors such as sugar and fat consumption; positively monitor, and take responsibility to promote child health and well-being through limit setting. They also have a tendency to model healthful lifestyles, which is a key component in your child’s learning process. On the other hand, authoritarian parents tend to food restrict and/or pressure children to eat regardless of the child’s desires. Permissive parents have a tendency toward poor healthy lifestyle modeling.  Therefore, it is not surprising that authoritarian and permissive homes produce the most overweight children.

The right parenting style may make your meal
times even more enjoyable.

So what’s the take home? It is clear that children need structure and clear guidelines when it comes to all kinds of behavior. But they also need and desire to have choice in matters. So, combine clear limits with the allowance of your child to make their own choice within those guidelines. Many child feeding specialists believe that regular and consistent times for meals and snacks promote feeding confidence in a child. The choices you give your child need to be age-appropriate as well. As an example, I allow my 6 year-old daughter to choose from a large selection of healthy snacks in our refrigerator and/or pantry during snack time. They are all there for her choosing. She feels empowered to make her own choice within the acceptable selection, and I am pleased that she is having a healthy choice.

If you took the quiz and found that you lean more towards a parenting style other than authoritative, don’t be upset. Many times our parenting styles fluctuate between the three styles. For instance, I notice that I sometimes deviate towards permissiveness when I am really tired, or more authoritarian-like when I am angry. So, take heart and know that knowledge is power. This information is designed to remind all of us as parents to be invested, consistent and clear about parenting for the sake of our home atmosphere as well as for the future of our children – in all areas, including feeding. If you want to read more about Diana Baumrind’s work on parenting styles, go to UC Berkeley's Institute for Human Development page.

More Reading:

Kyung E. Rhee, Julie C. Lumeng, Danielle P. Appugliese, Niko Kaciroti and Robert H. Bradley. Parenting Styles and Overweight Status in First Grade. Pediatrics 2006;117;2047-2054.

Hubbs-Tait L, Kennedy TS, Page MC, Topham GL, Harrist AW. Parental feeding practices predict authoritative, authoritarian, and permissive parenting styles. J Am Diet Assoc. 2008 Jul;108(7):1154-61.

Wake M, Nicholson JM, Hardy P, Smith K. Preschooler obesity and parenting styles of mothers and fathers: Australian national population study. Pediatrics. 2007 Dec;120(6):e1520-7.

Kyung Rhee. Parenting Style, and Family Functioning. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2008 615: 11

Parenting Styles and Child Feeding: Take the Quiz!

In my practice having counseled many families on food and nutrition, I have come to learn that parenting styles dictate the feeding style in the home. What is your parenting style? Take this quiz and get your score at the bottom. Next week I will discuss how these parenting styles positively or negatively impact the way you feed and expose your child to food. Remember, information is power. This is not meant to make you feel bad if the result is not what you desired, but instead give you insight into how to maximize your child’s experience with food. Try and answer the questions on how you really handle things instead of how you think you “should” react. OK, here we go…are you ready?


1. Your pre-teen son is watching a show and as you walk through the room, you notice that the show has questionable content that may not be appropriate for teens. What would you do?

a. Get mad, telling him that he can't watch the show.

b. Go ahead and let him watch it anyway.

c. Tell him that he’s gonna have to change the channel, but you could help her find a more appropriate show.


2. If your daughter hits another girl at school, what would you do?

a. Get mad at your daughter’s actions, and tell the other child to hit him back.

b. Ignore the kids and let them handle it.

c. Tell him not to hit other people, make her apologize, and if this is a second offense, take away one of her privileges.


3. Your son wants to go play basketball with his friends, but you know he hasn’t finished his homework.

a. Yell at him saying he should know better than to ask you.

b. Go ahead and let him go play with hopes he’ll do it later.

c. Help him with his homework to get it done faster so he can enjoy his friends.


4. What do you do if you kids don't listen you?

a. Yell often out of frustration.

b. Shake your head and let it go because you are exhausted.

c. Remind them that they need to do and follow through with having them meet those expectations.


5. You daughter is procrastinating her bedtime by saying that she would like something to eat. What would you do?

a. Make her go to bed hungry because it's her bedtime.

b. Go ahead and let her eat a snack before bed.

c. Give her a healthy snack, but tell her it's the last time she gets a late night snack because she'll need to start eating more at dinner.


6. Your children come along with you to the grocery store and are pointing to everything at the toy area close to the cash register. What do you do?

a. Flat out tell them no that they cannot have anything – this trip is not for them.

b. Buy them one or more items just to prevent a potential scene.

c. Tell them no, but explain that when they save up their money, you'll take them back so that they can purchase whatever they want.


7. What do you do when your child has a tantrum or emotional breakdown?

a. Send him to his room.

b. Give in because you’re tired and you just want him to stop.

c. Wait until he's done with his tantrum and explain to him there are better ways to express his frustration.


8. What do you do if your preschool child wakes up in the middle of the night from a bad dream?

a. Get mad because she woke up and tell her to just go back to bed.

b. Just grab her and pull her into bed with you so you can get back to sleep.

c. Comfort her and try to help her back to sleep into her own bed once she's calmed down.


9. If your child gets breaks a clear rule, what do you do?
a. Yell or spank the child and say nothing because they should know – they broke a well-established rule.

b. Don't do anything.

c. Discipline the child and then explain that there are better choices to make.


10. What do you think the main goal is for parenting and discipline?
a. To get your child to submit and follow rules laid out by you.

b. To keep the peace in the family.

c. To teach your children why rules are important and to help them learn how to make good choices.



Answers & Explanations

Count up your A's, B's, and C's.

If you had more 'A' answers, you are more of an authoritarian parent, which means you attempt to control your children's behaviors. You stress the importance of obedience in regards to authority. Most authoritarian parents rely on punishment.

If you had more 'B' answers, you are more of a permissive parent, which means that you have very little if any control. You let your kids set their own schedules. Most permissive parents do not demand the same type of behavior as the other to parenting types.

If you had more 'C' answers, you are more of an authoritative parent, which means that you believe that both the parent and child have certain rights that are both of equal importance. You tend to set rules and explain them to your children.

Wellness Lock-In: A 'Must Do' For All Families

I had an epiphany this past weekend. What if families scheduled random "wellness lock-ins" every 3 months or so where they purposely worked on healthy family lifestyle components? You know, things such as:

- Emphasized family time
- Family-wide random activities such as going to the park, riding bikes, painting, cooking (at least one physical activity)
- Meals together the entire weekend, emphasis on nutrient-rich/healthy cuisine
- Read stories together
- Plenty of sleep with naps an option any or all of the days
- Reflect on old pictures, tell family stories, things that remind your children of their preciousness & uniqueness
- Minimize computer and television time to 2 hours daily (or none at all)

These types of weekends should be sacred, so that would mean no other obligations other than family time. Day after day, I meet families that say they are too busy to do many of the things that I suggest in my private nutrition consulting practice. But if you scheduled an entire weekend devoted to doing just these things, I believe that it would set the pace for a new emphasis and outlook. We all have Blackberry’s, iPhones and/or other devices that dictate where we will be at any given moment, so why not schedule sacred family time and decline other things that may come up during that time? Let our calendars work in our favor for once!

I have to admit, my last minute trip to the northeast was cancelled. Since nothing else was planned, I was able to have uninterrupted time with my precious family. There was nothing on our social calendar, so we did all these things mentioned above. It was such a gloriously enriching weekend that made me think about all the other families out there that need to do the same thing. This just happened for us this weekend, but I can assure you that we will have these planned out in the future.  You see, we should never be too busy to make time for the most important people in our lives but sadly, so often we are. If we don’t have our priorities straight, we cannot live out and model the healthy lifestyle we so badly want for our own children.

I want to issue a challenge to your family. Take the Wellness Lock-In Challenge at least one time between now and the end of the year by blacking out an entire weekend just to hang out with your family. If you decide to do this, do not make a bunch of set plans (i.e., (9-10am bike ride, 10-10:30 reading, etc. No!). Instead, just keep it open and allow the love you share take the lead. I promise you that it will be the most nourishing thing you and your family can do on so many levels.  Set aside the weekend, and take the challenge!

Our "Wellness Lock-In" consisted of empowering the kids
to have fun with food and assist with meal preparation!
What will yours entail?

Snacking Tray for Kids

A fellow mom friend of mine, Julia Shelton of My Blue Canoe blog, shared a way she encourages her children to choose healthy snacks. It's what she calls their "snacking tray." She fills it up with a colorful variety of healthy snacks and her children make the choice of what they would like to have each time. All the choices are pre-prepared in advance for ease of execution, appropriately portioned out and all of them are nutrient-rich that help maximize their nutrition with each choice. What's also great about this idea is that it empowers children to make their own choice, which is really the key for your child's lifetime nutrition status.  Put your snacking tray in an easily-accessible place in your refrigerator so your kids can just grab and enjoy.

I absolutely love grassroots ideas like this one, mostly because they have been formulated in the homes of real-life families.  Let's continue to share with each other so we can invest in the health of all families by doing just that.  If you would like to share creative ways you encourage healthy eating and snacking in your own home, I would love to hear about them!

Julia Shelton is a wife, mother of two precious girls.  On her My Blue Canoe blog, she shares her family adventures and tries to focus on the beauty we happen upon in this journey of mindful mothering, intentional living, and plain 'ole having fun.