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This is the most dreaded part I do as a parent — preparing my children’s lunch for school. I easily run out of ideas and more often than not, just give them money for it. And it does get expensive.

The idea of packing lunch for school is to ensure that your children are eating right and not wasting money buying food that may be overpriced. In some schools, lunch are subsidized, hence it is free. But you can’t be sure about it’s nutritional value as well.

So, doing a little bit of what a friend has suggested, I’ve rounded up the kids and discussed with them what they want to bring to school for lunch. This way, I’d eliminate packing them food they won’t end up eating, which means it will just go to waste. Letting them in on the decision also helps to know the kinds of food they’d love eating. During the discussion, as parents, we can also provide inputs like why having fruits is important or why certain foods are better than the ones they actually like to pack.

Have a checklist handy when you’re discussing, so that this becomes your list for when you do the grocery and cook the meal. It should make it easy for mothers who think of what to cook next, when the kids have already said what they really want to eat.

And aside from food and drinks, make sure to also incorporate taking supplements in you kids’ diet. School can be very demanding and they may need lots of vitamins and minerals just to get through the week.

With diabetes and obesity on both sides of our family, my DH and I have decided that we simply must be healthier this year.  Now, he is a great cook, and makes us tasty,  balanced meals (unless I’m cooking, in which case we have spaghetti).  One change we’ve made in the past year or so is that we have fresh fruit with our meals instead of canned fruit–it’s a lot healthier to slice up an apple or pear than to get those fruits in heavy syrup. 

But snacking…that’s another story.  The kids don’t want fruit or vegetables very often, and I can sympathize with this.  Sometimes eating a banana just doesn’t cut it.  And any fruit that has to be peeled (like oranges) or sliced up (like apples, if you’re my kids) is a pain, and cookies are so much easier to grab.  But store-bought cookies are so full of sugary and fatty extras and preservatives that we just have to cut them out…not the least because we adults grab them as much as the kids do.  Besides that, they are getting those unhealthy things everywhere else they go–cake at birthday parties, candy and soda in vending machines, chips with school lunches.  So, it’s not like they’ll never get to have delicious junk food again.

So, we’ve been trying to focus on easy fruits (bananas and grapes are popular), granola bars, baked crackers, pretzels, popcorn, nuts, and small portions of other things (we just finished the Christmas chocolate, eating no more than one piece a day). 

Let me tell you, this has not been popular at our house.  We’ve never been much into junk food, we almost never buy soda, candy, or chips, and we only have dessert with our meals on Sundays.  But this new cutback has produced so many gripes, whines, moans, and complaints, that I’m tempted to go out and buy them a candy bar just so I have somthing to stuff in their mouths to keep them quiet.  The only thing that keeps us determined is knowing that it’s more important that they are healthy than that they are happy about it. 

But like most worthwhile things, it’s a pain in the neck.  It would be easier just to buy chips and cookies.  I suppose that Professor Dumbledore had it right when he said that we’d sometimes have to choose between what is right and what is easy.  Of course, he had house-elves to make snacks for his kids…

Obviously, healthy eating, especially during pregnancy, includes a lot more than a list of things to avoid.  When you really only need to add about 300 calories a day for a healthy pregnancy, it matters even more what you actually do put into your body and your baby’s body. 

But for those of who try in whatever small way to eat healthy, we know that it’s not the things we should eat that give us problems, but the things we shouldn’t.  I mean, a chocolate-covered granola bar is healthy, right? 

So, for those who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant, here is a list of don’ts for eating during pregnancy.  Some of them might surprise you. 

• Unpasteurized dairy products (milk, cheeses).  I didn’t even know you could get these things unpasteurized these days.

• Raw sea food.  Oysters and raw sushi are on this list.  Though why anyone would eat an oyster is beyong me, and living with two shell-critter eaters has not solved the mystery.  Anyway, these things could have bacteria that can harm you and your baby.

• Fish.  This is more of a “limit yourself” than a strict “don’t.”  But even cooked fish can have unhealthy levels of mercury, which can affect how your baby’s brain develops.  However, a couple of servings of fish a week can give you a good boost of vitamins.

• Alcohol.  Even though my mom was told to drink a Porter a day through her pregnancies, you should avoid all alcohol.  Period.  Don’t mess with this one. 

• Caffeine.  If you’re as lucky as I was, your body won’t want your morning cups of joe (a miracle in my case; I’ve been a faithful coffee drinker since I was 14).  But this also includes teas and sodas, and yes… even chocolate.  This is another brain thing–your baby’s.  Caffeine can cause ADHD and learning disabilities in fetuses.

• Diet drinks.  The ones with aspartame can cause headaches in both you and your wee one.  If you must drink these, choose the ones with splenda or stevia.

Don’t forget to replace all those don’ts with some healthy do’s, like eating more often, eating fruits and vegetables, and drinking plenty of water.