Fruit in packed lunches

[creations]

Not sure if this should be here or pre-schoolers...

I need to change my thinking about fruit in packed lunches and could do with some ideas or BTDT thoughts.

Up to now (since April) I've been giving DS a packed lunch 3 days per week for nursery. I purposely choose 'clean' fruits which are easy to eat and stay 'dry' in his lunch box. So blueberries, grapes, cherry toms, strawberries (hulled), all things I know will still be nice and fresh when he comes to eat them. I've avoided sliced fruit because it's 'wet' and turns sloppy and unappetizing in a box, plus I hate the mixed flavours especially when mixed sliced fruits start to go acidic in a tub (like sliced nectarine, melon, avocado etc). Yesterday was the first time any lunch food was returned home uneaten - I discovered they are slicing ALL his fruit!  Not a job I was told to do but perhaps it was expected. Anyway, no one complained to me and he leaves there in 2 weeks, perhaps they don't mind doing it.

In Sept he starts a new nursery where they require all fruits such as grapes and cherry toms to be sliced in half. Obviously they consider them a choke hazard which I respect but even so I'm finding it hard to get my head around slicing loads of fruits and them being a sloppy mess by the time he comes to eat them.

I can give him a whole clementine as he can peel it himself, but what else? (I can't always get the ones with loose skin and the tight skinned ones are hard to peel).  Bananas get bruised easily, apples are often too big, I doubt whole apricots or plums are going to be allowed because of the pip inside being a choke hazard...

What do you do for fruit in packed lunch?
Any clever ideas how to keep fruits nice and fresh from prep the night before all the way to lunch time?

[M and N's Mom]

We pack fruit daily. We did invest in banana-guards (http://www.fenigo.com/BananaGuard.aspx) which do work. Apples, melon (with a small fork), pineapple, grapes, apricots (cut in half and the pit taken out).  Adding a small ice pack sometimes helps. I have found that my kids have a few fruits that are too mushy (pears) so they wont take them but mostly they get used to slightly brown apples (if they are cut in the morning).

Veggies are often a less mushy alternative.

[Mashi]

I also say the banana guard is a must!

I have some smaller pots with good secure lids that I use for packing things that need to be sliced.  I find that with things like small tomatoes, plums, apricots and grapes if you slice them and then just stick them back together and then pack them in the pot and pack it quite full, they tend to stay together and not get messy.  I slice peaches because DS does not like to eat them like you would an apple because they are messy, but I slice them and remove the stone and then assemble it back together whole and wrap it in foil. I prefer to put things in tubs rather than foil but hey    

[creations]

OK I'll get a banana guard.
I see what you mean Mashi about putting the fruit back together I'll try that. Mashi do you do this on the morning of the lunch or the night before? I'm going to have far less time come September as we need to head out the door at least 45 mins earlier than we do now and I just can't see me having time to slice and pack in the morning.

He does also have lots of veggies in his lunch already, DS expects both.

[Mashi]

I do it in the morning - it is a rushed job, I put together his lunch box in about 5 minutes and tbh not a whole lot of thought goes into it because it is really just his morning snack. He has breakfast at home and what I pack for him is really his mid-morning snack, he eats it at some point between 8:30 and 10am (they just choose to eat whenever they are hungry but 10am is about the cut-off point) because they have a hot meal served at noon.  Half of a sandwich, some fruit, tomatoes, yogurt, etc...just whatever I can chuck into his box and it only takes a minute.  I have about 3 small tupperware pots with good lids (easy to open, close securely so if he eats half and leaves the rest it does not leak!) that fit inside his lunch box and I choose based on which fruits I am sending.

[Roseii]

I'm a terrible mother, I slice everything the night before Tomorrow both girls have cucumber sticks, halved cherry tomatoes (in together) then halved grapes and cubes of mango. I also use small secure pots.

[creations]

lol I'm sure you aren't a terrible mother for cutting grapes, it seems I am the terrible mother for not cutting them  I haven't sliced a grape since DS turned 1yo (and met paretns on a first aid course who cut all grapes in quarters because one of their kids had choked on a grape half!)
Maybe it's just my own dislike of mixed fruit salad and the way they go kind of mushy.
Do your kids eat the 'wet' fruits with their fingers? If I gave DS cubes of mango he would certainly want a fork, not sure if the new nursery allow them or not. I might just do that, put a fork in a wait for the complaint from nursery 

[Mashi]

I sometimes send a fork but if DS wants one and I didn't then they will give him one (or rather, he is allowed to go and get one for himself)! I cant see them not allowing a fork?

[*Liz*]

Megan's nursery expects grapes quartered  . Totally OTT, since it is only the 3+ preschoolers that stay for lunch!

[Roseii]

The school have never mentioned halving fruits etc I don't think, it's my own neuroses so I now can't bring myself to not halve them kwim?! However if someone else presented my kids with whole grapes I wouldn't take them off them to halve!! And yes they just eat the fruit with their fingers. Actually I suspect they just tip the contents into their mouths directly from the pot

[creations]

Totally OTT, since it is only the 3+ preschoolers that stay for lunch!

My thoughts too.  Where he is now they are all over 3yo (in his room where they have lunch) and the new nursery they are all 3+, some closer to 4yo. What age are they allowed uncut grapes??

[*Liz*]

Megan won't eat them quartered - too small and too slimy - and they do confiscate if I forget  . So basically I don't bother, so when berries are out of season she has no fruit as I can't figure a presentation way either  . She likes apples peeled, and bananas only at snack time.

Thank god it's strawberry season  .

[Khalam's Mama]

I don't cut anything small and haven't for years. I do cut melon and put in a pot. Sometimes it comes home with the odd cube in and isn't mushy.

[Roseii]

Well the mango was a bust anyway Even my non-fussy kid wouldn't eat it!

[creations]

Yes I can imagine melon cubes alone in a pot.  So perhaps there are a few other soft fruits I can use but not mixed, and piece them back together like mashi said.  I just know I have to do this the night before though, no way will I have time to chop and fiddle in the morning.

When he brought home his left over bits (just once) from this nursery and I discovered they were slicing everything, my stomach churned when I saw his fruit box. green beans, baby corn, cherry toms and blueberries, grapes, strawberries all chopped and mushed together, wet and utterly unappetizing. There is no way I'd eat it and it had only been 1hr since lunch time.