Low Carb Lunch Ideas For Kids...Help Me Out!
 

So, my 6 year old son has been doing some behavioral therapy with a neurologist and one of the things that he has stressed is that we need to cut back on the chips, bread, pasta, etc. I don't want to go into too much detail because it's hard for me to explain, but basically he is working with my son on focusing, processing and retaining information and coordination. He says that cutting back on carbs will help him focus by maintaining blood sugar levels.

Breakfast is easy....my son loves turkey bacon and sausage and eggs. Snacks are manageable. But I have been sending him a PBJ sandwhich to his summer care program and now I am at a loss! I've never done a low carb diet myself, so I don't really have any ideas. He's not a terribly picky eater...

Help me ladies...I need portable, low carb lunch ideas that won't make my 6 year old feel like he's on a diet and will be ok in his lunch box until lunch!

string cheese, peanut butter and celery, turkey rollups (take lunch meat, and roll up lettuce, tomato, may, mustard etc in it you can hold close with a cocktail toothpick to make it fun), roasted peanuts, how about boiled eggs? that is all the kid friendly food I can think of off the top of my head. good luck!

Make a home made "Lunchable" type meal. Buy a neat container with compartments and cut up healthy things like meat, veggie, etc.

AnnieDrews...that is an awesome idea! I seriously think that will work for us. He loves Lunchables and I can get creative with it and he can pick what he wants! Thanks so much, I knew I asked here for a reason!

Also like the idea of turkey rollups!

And thanks for the link JerseyGyrl. When I posted, I figured you'd have something helpful. I was riiiight!

Did the neurologist give you any information about say, good whole carbs v. processed carbs? Because a good, high fiber bread, natural pb, and sugarless fruit might be a fine alternative.

Or perhaps the neurologist could recommend a good nutritionist who is well versed in this type of diet for a child?

I don't think any kid needs processed sugar or white bread, but their bodies are growing and they NEED some carbs. I would want to be very certain that I wasn't cutting out too much of the wrong thing.

There are probably books on Amazon that go into more detail about this type of diet for children. Good luck!

ThicknPretty, You've gotten helpful replies already, but it sounds like your son is to "cut back on", not eliminate those starchy carbs altogether. There are alot of low carb diets out there, and if stabilizing blood sugar is the idea, you might want to research diets like The Insulin Resistance Diet, or South Beach. These are moderate carb diets, and for some people that's enough to stabilize blood sugar. Ask the Neurologist to be a little more specific in his recommendations. NiteNicole is right, a 6 year old has basic nutritional needs that need to be met for proper growth and developement. I think you really need more info from the doctor.

I didn't go into great detail on the original post because I kind of didn't want to lol. I know that my child has nutritional needs to be met and so is the doctor. He is not asking us to cut anything out COMPLETELY, but has said that it will be beneficial for us to cut back wherever we can.

Lunch is probably the carb-heaviest meal he would have...with the sandwhich and the chips or pretzels, so that's where I was needing to make some changes.

He had honey nut cheerios with turkey bacon this morning so we're definitely not going crazy on carb reduction, but I feel very comfortable with the plan the doctor has suggested and we've seen amazing improvements in his behavior and in other aspects since we've been more mindful with the carbs (this is paired with the therapy, of course).

We're so used to thinking of grains as a "necessary food group," that we forget (or never knew) that for most of human history, grains were not part of the diet at all.

If all of human history were to be seen as a 24 hour day, we've only been eating grains for the last 15 minutes.

Also, low- or no-grain doesn't have to mean low-carb, and low-carb doesn't have to mean no-grain.

It's certainly possible for children to thrive on healthy low-carb diets, and healthy no-grain diets. There are still some hunter-gatherer societies who do so, and they're generally remarkably healthy people.

It can be difficult to sort out the "truth," because even dietitians aren't usually well-versed on healthy low-carb, and healthy low-grain diets (unless they're also diabetic educators, or they happen to have an interest in the field of nutritional anthropology).

Lunchable Idea
 

One thing you might look at are Japanese bento boxes for kid's lunches. They're cute, and have lots of separators for all those little things you want to add.

One caveat however...I wouldn't put toothpicks in a lunch for a 6 yr old. As a teacher, I've noticed that even middle school kids poke each other with things, or he might forget and take a big bite!:)