Back To School Meal Ideas + Preventing Allergies with Tommy

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My Facebook newsfeed is filled these days with Back To School pictures. Unstained clothes that fit, smiles from ear to ear, cute little lunch boxes and chalkboard signs that remind you of we’re the Pinterest generation.

This is my 3rd Mommy Monday Post. You can read my first post here and second one here.

Tommy isn’t going to school for at least a year but we’ve been having our own kind of firsts with food. Since we started solids, he has tried sweet potatoes, bananas, peas, carrots, chickpeas, lentils, watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, pears, kale, avocado and more either solid or in a puree I bought at Whole Foods.

I tried making my own sweet potato puree early on and T did not like it! He would rather eat a little cube that’s been boiled.

We didn’t do the whole, try one food and then wait and see if he has a reaction thing.

I told you guys Tommy was stung by a bee on the beach this summer and while I obviously wasn’t happy, it was sort of a relief to know that he is not allergic. Later that week, I decided to give him peanut butter. In hind sight, I didn’t really think this through and was probably was too nonchalant about it. Nick and I have zero food allergies and Tommy hasn’t had any bad reactions to shots or products like diapers or creams.

So, around 7 months I put a tiny bit of peanut butter on a puff and let him eat it. He smiled and me and carried on about his happy business. I’ve since given him tiny tastes here and there, no more than an 1/8 tsp at a time.

I read that exposing kids who are low risk for allergies early rather than later actually helps reduce their chances of allergies. [source]

He also tried yogurt recently and again, no weird reactions, YAY! Tommy enjoyed his first few bites of Chobani Tots Greek Yogurt pouch. They are made with whole milk, real fruit and vegetables and BPA free packaging. They actually have less than 5% lactose too, which surprised me. He loves orange foods so I wasn’t surprised that he was into the banana pumpkin flavor.

It’s hard to get him to eat more than 1-2 tablespoons of any single food these days. I read a suggestion to freeze the unused portion of pouches in baby food freezer trays but haven’t actually implemented this cost effective strategy.

I’m already stressed that he is not getting the proper nutrients he needs! It really is a struggle to get him to eat. I can’t even imagine what it must be like packing school lunches!

I’ve been working with Chobani over the past couple months and I love these ideas that they shared with us for Back To School lunch ideas that are fun to look at but also nutritious.

I guess the key to getting the kids to eat is make food look pretty.

The Chobani Kids yogurt tubes are also great ways to sneak in some protein to your kids’ lunches for a filling meal.

I like that Greek yogurt adds protein to a lunch box. I hated turkey or tuna sandwiches in school because they would get soggy. Greek yogurt wasn’t exactly around back then to my knowledge but it would have been a nice addition to my typical lunch box of snacks.

This back to school info graphic below is helpful in finding ways to fuel up your kids with nutrient-intense options through out the day instead of empty calories. One of my favorites is swapping sour cream or mayo for plain Greek yogurt. One tip missing that my nephews love is putting yogurt in smoothies.