Easy Bento Lunch Box Ideas for Toddlers

Tired of fighting or begging your child to eat? The good news is most typically developing kids won’t starve themselves, they are just learning to use their own voices and opinions. There are some children who require more specialized feeding approaches so be sure to check with your healthcare team if you think that may be your child. More often than not, it’s a power struggle and letting go of the reins can make a huge impact.

Ellyn Satter is a dietitian that first began talking about the “Division of Responsibility” in feeding. It describes the parent’s role in feeding and the child’s role in feeding. It’s a bonus to start this as soon as the child begins to eat, but if you have an older child, don’t worry- it’s never too late to start.

Parent’s Responsibilities:

1. What to Offer: Parents choose the foods that are served. This includes a variety of healthy options. 

2. When to Serve: Parents decide the timing of meals and snacks, establishing a consistent schedule.

3. Where to Eat: Parents determine the eating environment, which should be pleasant and free from distractions.

Child’s Responsibilities:

1. Whether to Eat: Children decide if they want to eat or not. They have the autonomy to choose whether to eat the food offered.

2. What to Eat: They can select from the foods presented to them, allowing them to listen to their own hunger cues.

3. How Much to Eat: Children determine how much they want to eat, fostering their ability to self-regulate their appetite. 

Key Principles:

By respecting these roles, the Division of Responsibility can allow for more pleasant meal times and reduce mealtime struggles while helping children develop a natural, intuitive approach to eating.

This is often the most stress relieving information I give to moms. Don’t force your child to eat- the more we ask them to eat, encourage them to take “one more bite” or “just try it” plleeeaassee, the more they resist. Think about it, what else has your toddler said “oh ok” to once they started working on independence? Food is not much different. It needs to be pressure free and a safe zone for trying and saying “ew”. Do they mean it when they say it, probably not so keepy trying.

At this point, it’s about control and independence, not about the actual food. Trust the process.

1. Offer Variety: Provide a range of foods from different food groups—fruits, vegetables, grains, protein, and dairy. This helps ensure balanced nutrition.

2. Make It Fun: Use colorful plates, fun shapes, and appealing presentations. You can create food art with fruits and veggies! I also learned later in life that utensils need to be toddler sized for them to be able to appropriately use them.

3. Involve Them: Let your toddler help with meal prep. Simple tasks like washing veggies or mixing ingredients can make them more interested in eating. Starting this on a weekend day is a great way to get comfortable with slower, messier meal times and prep. Weekdays can be more stressful with everyone rushing to get dinner going after work. Growing a garden made my toddler love “red tomatoes”. We had to specify because she kept picking the green ones. 

4. Offer meals and snacks at regular intervals: Establish regular meal and snack times, typically every 2 hours works well. Consistency helps toddlers know what to expect and by offering food every 2 hours, if they decide not to eat a meal, you know they will have another chance to eat in 2 more hours. 

5. Be Patient and persistent: Toddlers are wired to be picky eaters. It’s normal for them to refuse foods several times before accepting them and then refuse them all over again. They will even say their new word “yucky” without any regard to the food actually being “yucky”. If they refuse a food, offer it again another time and continue to offer it over and over again. 

6. Limit Distractions: Try to make mealtime a calm experience by minimizing distractions like screens. Focus on eating together. Toddlers can’t really multitask so disctracting them at meal times is usually going to result in not eating. Set a time for 1 minute per year of age and only expect them to sit there that long. So a 2 year old, would literally be 2 minutes. Use this time at home to train them even at 2 to go 5 or maybe even 10 minutes, but after that, the expctation is too unrealistic.

7. Model Good Eating Habits: Show your toddler how to enjoy a variety of foods by eating with them. Toddlers learn by mirroring so they will do what you do. Make it count.

8. Small Portions: Serve small amounts to avoid overwhelming them. They can always ask for more if they’re still hungry. The toddler stomach is about the size of 2 of their fists so there isn’t much room to work with. Limit water until a few bites in so they don’t fill up on it before the meal. Remember that 1 tablespoon is actually a good amount for them! They may eat all the things one day and nothing the next. Go with it.

9. Healthy Snacks: Keep nutritious snacks on hand, like yogurt, cheese, fruits, and cut-up veggies. Always take snacks, for you and for the toddler. No one wants to get hangry and it will happen- especially for a toddler who is used to eating every 2 hours. 

10. Stay Positive: Encourage them without pressure. Praise them for trying new foods. Even picking up foods and putting them back down is progress. Keep food talk neutral and positive and refrain from saying “oh he won’t like that” or “I don’t like that” or better yet “I don’t like that so he won’t like that”. They are always listening and ever influential.

Remember, every child is different, so what works for one might not work for another. Keep experimenting and have fun! I also know this is much easier said than done, so just remember to be consistent over a long period of time and try not to stress over single instances.

Tips for Bento Success

Involve Your Toddler: Let them help choose and prepare their lunch. It can make them more excited about eating. Slice cherry tomatoes in the appropriate size and have your toddler put them in the lunch box. He may even eat a few for breakfast! Try to incorporate each food group and give your toddler choices. For example, I know I want to add in a vegetable so I would show my toddler the cucumbers and the green bell pepper and ask her to choose the one she wants. This works well close to the 2 year age and can help them try different foods. 

Use Fun Containers: Invest in colorful bento boxes or containers with compartments to make meals visually appealing. Silicone cupcake holders or other dividers a great option that helps toddlers easily reach in and take the divider out of the larger box. Having it’s own compartment will help them see the 3 raspberries instead of the 3 raspberries, cut up chicken, mashed potatoes, and leftover green beans all at one time. That can leave toddlers feeling overwhelmed. I would offer no more than 3 items at a time and 1 or 2 items is more likely to be eaten. You can even use “fun” food like sprinkles or chocolate chips. I have a dye free version of the sprinkles that we add to greek yogurt and call it “ice cream”. I don’t heat the food up if it is traditionally a hot food because I find most toddlers want cold food or at least not hot foods. Because of that, I don’t have to worry too much about packing foods in plastic bento-style lunch boxes or stainless steel containers, but I do pack them in glass if they are going to need heated for some reason.

Use Leftovers:  Anything you have for dinner can be lunch the next day. Packing leftovers of well-balanced meals is an easy way to be successful with bento box lunches. Include the protein-rich food you had at dinner, add in something green like sliced bell pepper, and then a fruit or dairy option. The goal here is simple, doable, and variety. If you keep it as simple as putting leftovers in a lunchbox, you will be more likely to continue the effort. I love a cute toddler sweet potato mini waffle as much as the next girl, but I don’t find that realistic for daily toddler meals. If my toddler doesn’t eat well at dinner or says  “I don’t like it”, it’s a running joke that I just respond, that’s ok- you can eat it tomorrow. Packing lunches from dinner and the main course helps give her another opportunity to try a variety of healthy foods without me having to make new foods every day.

Bento Box Meal Ideas:

I am usually referencing leftovers, so if we have Chicken Tacos on Tuesday, I will put the leftovers in the bento box on Wednesday as follows:

1. Shredded chicken, whole grain tortilla chips, veggie sides like avocado, and cut fruit like strawberries. I pack breakfast and lunch for her and often use breakfast/lunch foods interchangeably. 
2. Spinach egg muffins, sliced cheddar cheese, cut fruit, and cucumber slices
3. Hard boiled eggs and chicken nuggets (from leftover Chick Fil A salad), apple slices, peanut butter or seed butter if peanut restricted, and bell pepper slices or cut tomatoes
4. Chocolate banana oatmeal, blackberries, avocado, Almond Crackers
5. Steak, potato, asparagus, and mushrooms
6. Greek yogurt, sprinkles, fruit, sliced cucumbers and hummus
7. Hummus, Green bell pepper slices, taco meat, avocado, almond crackers
8. Creamy Chicken Gnocchi, watermelon, green bell peppers
9. Perfect bar, cherries, sweet potato, and cucumbers

Feeding a toddler can be both fun and challenging! Most people I have talked with lately also find it stressful and scary and for good reason! It’s important to cut or chop foods the correct way to decrease the risk of choking and a good idea to take a CPR class in your community. Toddlers are different from babies in that they typically have enough teeth to bite and tear the food. Babies usually just gnaw on the food item so finger sized slices works well, but for toddlers, small chunks is typically a better suited option. Of course, it depends on the food and the child so always check with your healthcare team for the best individual guidance.

These are just a few easy bento box lunch ideas and most can double as breakfast! Overall, I focus on healthy food items that can be combined into healthy meals. It may seem random, but she is just learning to eat so she will eat a lot of it sometimes and just a little bit of each food at other times. Of course, there are times where she doesn’t eat much at all and that is still ok- as long as she is growing well. If you send the same food multiple days in a row, consider serving it different ways. For example, watermelon is a favorite of hers so I served it on it’s own to start with. Then, after a while, I added feta cheese to see what she thought. I post what I pack for my toddler on Youtube so head over there and subscribe for ideas!