Packing School Lunches for Children with Food Allergies

This is the first part of a 3 part series.  This summer is flying by and before we know it, it will be time to head back to school. When you have food allergies this means time to start packing lunches- lots of them. Here are some tips for making those lunch packing days easier from Tami Pyles. She is a certified AllerCoach and a food allergy mom who manages her daughter’s life-threatening food allergies.

Have a Plan

When you pack lunch every day it is easy to get in a rut and have the same thing over and over. To combat this mundane mealtime habit each year before school starts my daughter and I sit down and brainstorm a list of what she would like for lunches and snacks. We use the internet for inspiration as we create the list- there are lots of great sites out there that offer allergy-friendly lunch ideas. We write it all down from simple snacks like what fruit she wants to fun meals like turkey and cheese kabobs. We hang this list on the refrigerator and reference it when planning for lunches. It is great to get the ideas on paper early and then all year you have a go-to list when you need some new ideas to keep lunch fun and interesting.

More to come next week!

About Tami:

Tami Pyles is the Founder of Thrive On Consulting. She works with individuals and families with food allergies to learn practical day-to-day management strategies to Thrive On; and she provides food allergy training and education to groups and companies. A published, national speaker on food allergy topics, she has her own blog, Thoughts for Thriving On, where she shares ideas for living safely with food allergies. She lives in Louisville, KY with her husband and two daughters, and is actively involved in the local food allergy community. You can also follow Tami on Facebook and Twitter.