I don’t know about your preschooler, but mine has a randomly occurring attack of the food fussies. This is especially acute during the Christmas season, when sweets abound. While vegetables and fruit are not in short supply around our house, the sweets are calling in a big way. Soon they’ll be leaving our house in the form of cookie baskets, and all will be well.
However, we do have ongoing food fussy issues in our house. Some are understandable: I remember despising onions and tomatoes as a child. Others are a little mysterious: my daughter’s extreme dislike of mixed foods is one of these. When we have spaghetti, she eats the sauce and the spaghetti separately. I can work with this. I’ve discovered a couple of snack time tricks –with a snack container that has little sections that are preschooler-size, it’s a lot easier to pack the right portions for a four-year-old, and the different parts of the snack will never touch each other, at least not until they reach her stomach. Not much we can do about it then.
The tiffin box is a stacked metal box that clamps together with a metal clasp. It’s made out of nontoxic stainless steel, it’s washable, and it has little compartments for different courses, so that kids who don’t like to have parts of a meal touching each other can have the different parts of the meal at different levels of the box. Some boxes come with forks and spoons, and each level acts like a bowl. While the tiffin keeps meals warm for a while and is excellent for takeout, an insulated thermos is best for soups. It’s also not compatible with the microwave, of course!
The bento box is another solution for children who need small portion sizes and separate sections for different foods. It can accommodate dips, crunchy snacks, and mini sandwiches, all in the same wooden or plastic box. There is a whole art form around making bento snacks. For those like me who are not too adept at creating visual masterpieces with food, I highly recommend the cookie cutter sandwich. Choose a soft bread, make a sandwich, and cut out pieces with a cookie cutter. The result: cute little sandwiches, and you get to eat the crusts (don’t you always?). Ah, the lengths that we will go to for family harmony.