Nursery World - Out to lunch

Snacks and light meals on the go need not be fast food. Eve Boggenpoel discovers some healthy choices in hand for both children and adults Whether it's off to school or out for a day trip, providing a packed lunch is often seen as a convenient and cost-effective way of ensuring a healthy diet. But when children are such notoriously fussy eaters, is this a realistic possibility?

Whether it's off to school or out for a day trip, providing a packed lunch is often seen as a convenient and cost-effective way of ensuring a healthy diet. But when children are such notoriously fussy eaters, is this a realistic possibility?

Concerns over children's nutrition have become a staple diet of the media, with regular items about child obesity figures and junk food. But according to Dr Penny Stanway, author with Sara Lewis of The Lunchbox Book, a new guide published this month, all this serves to do is create a climate of anxiety and unnecessary pressure.

'The first thing to do is to relax and enjoy food again,' says Penny. 'If you want to introduce a child to healthy eating patterns, eat well yourself. You are the child's role model, and what's good for you will be good for them.' If a child continually sees you snacking on crisps and chocolate while they are forced to eat Brussels sprouts, they are bound to rebel.

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