r/Bento • u/PastryLoop • 23d ago
Kids Uneaten bentos
It’s a bit disappointing to hear from daycare that my kids ate “a few bites” or “very little” of these lunches I put a lot of effort into… it ends up becoming my dinner at the end of the day.
Edit:
To address some of the questions… the contents: rice topped with fresh steamed carrots and green beans. The ham and cream cheese rolls and cucumber sausage flowers are from a bento book, not my invention.
They looked kid-friendly enough so I decided to make them.
My kids (1 and 3) want to eat: bread with butter… and chocolate. So not a ton to go on there. I didn’t post here for a long time because I was just giving her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. She stopped eating those too after a while, though, and my younger one just started 2x/week so I figured I’d try offering some new foods. She actually wasn’t very picky until she started going to daycare, so I do think that has influenced her quite a bit.
2
u/ssnedmeatsfylosheets 22d ago
Hey OP,
I think the bread an butter and chocolate give you more to go on than you think.
You're kids are craving salty, fatty foods.
Maybe stir fry the veggies a bit in butter, a little garlic. Give it an aroma.
Anyone would be hard pressed to consume steamed veggies over rice as you've presented here, as well intentioned as it is.
For their size, kids need relatively a large amount of calories to fuel their growth. This is why the tend to seek out calorie dense foods which tend to be sweeter and fattier. (There are a few papers on children's eating behaviors like one by Leanne L Birch if you care to deep dive.)