So you want low-carb kids and healthy kids but don’t know where to start? You want to ditch the junk food and help your picky eaters?
Keep reading because I have recipes, tips, and a quick video that will help you make changes from today!
All this PLUS a free guide and 50 snack ideas list.
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Low-Carb Kids – easy things to change today
Without a doubt, the number 1 question I get asked once people discover we eat low carb, wheat-free and sugar-free – is “is keto safe for kids” and “what on earth do you put in your kid’s lunch boxes????”
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We have all grown up with the traditional sandwich, or more recently, wraps in our lunchbox. It is easy, just throw something half decent inside 2 slices of bread and voila – lunch.
But is this really a good lunch? The wheat is 80% carbs, which means they will be hungry again in an hour, wheat causes leaky gut and malabsorption of vitamins. Modern wheat contains amylopectin and gluten.
Bread and wraps are highly processed which removes any nutrition then fortified again. Basically, wheat is a rapidly absorbed carbohydrate with a high GI full of reactive proteins causing a leaky gut.
What’s wrong with bread for kids?
Yes, children do have slightly different nutritional requirements from adults: they need more healthy fats and quality protein. But filling their plates with empty calories in the form of white pasta, bread and rice is no nutritional kindness.
Think of a really healthy sandwich, now take away the bread and what you are left with is the nutritious elements – meat, salad, cheese, mayonnaise etc. You will not be deficient in anything by giving up your wholegrain. Bread is a filler, a stodgy bulking agent to your lunch.
But don’t we need whole grains for fibre and vitamin B’s? By increasing your vegetables, protein, and healthy fats, you have more than covered your required fibre and vitamin intake.
Modern-day wheat actually causes a leaky gut (even though most of us are unaware) and malabsorption of vitamins. Wheat is bleached, bred to fight disease, bred to be resistant to viruses in the field.
We have all been told to eat healthy, whole grains, and there is no disputing the science that when whole grain flour is substituted for white flour, there is a reduction in colon cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. But by increasing your vegetable intake when eating LCHF, you far exceed any loss of fibre of Vitamin B group from not eating whole grain bread.
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My children would always bring home their sandwich crusts, or my daughter, would pick out the filling anyway and leave the bread intact to go straight in our bin – what a waste. So
- Low Carb Kids 2 – a printable guide to get your kids involved. How to plan their lunchbox each day.
- Low Carb Kids 3 – a 2-week guide to school lunches
- Low Carb Kids 4 – how to make a low carb lunchbox, and more Low Carb lunchbox ideas
- Low Carb Kids 5 – healthy sugar-free snacks for after school
- FREE printable PDF Healthy Sugar-Free after school snacks
- Low carb Kids 6 – an entire month of lunch box ideas.
- Low Carb Kids 7 – My guest post on Diet Dr, “How To Raise Children On Real Low Carb Food”.
- Low Carb Kids 8 – How to help your child eat real food – with an action plan
- Top Myths Of Low-Carb Kids
How To Start Low-Carb Kids?
- Begin by thinking what you would ordinarily be putting in a sandwich and give that. Children love picking at a variety of different foods and grazing on a mini-buffet
- Get a lunch box with little compartments. My youngest actually has a small fishing tackle box for his lunchbox. Or use little containers, silicon cupcake cases, bento boxes, etc.
- Start slowly. If you have a fussy eater, your household will not be a happy one if you go straight in and change everything overnight. Start by changing one aspect at a time. Maybe just remove the bread and give them their regular fillings, but keep everything else as it was. If they really can’t do without a sandwich, find the thinnest bread or thinnest wrap so they are exposed to less wheat, but eventually, the wheat must go. Make them oopsies or egg wraps. What about wheat-free crackers? No more cakes, biscuits, muesli bars. Slowly cut down on the high-sugar fruit.
- Use cold meat as a ‘wrap’ and put a slice of ham or roast beef, with some cheese or vegetable inside. Roll them up and you’re done.
- Take a look at one of their ‘typical’ days lunchbox. Now if you removed the wheat, cakes, biscuits, muesli bars, flavoured yoghurt – what is left? Not much? Think honestly about how nourishing their lunches are? How many vegetables are in it? How much QUALITY protein? How much HEALTHY fat do they eat? Fish? Bread and anything made with flour and sugar are purely stodgy bulking agents with no nutritional benefit.
- Some children are picky eaters so their parents try and get them to eat whatever they can when they can. These children, when you analyse their diet, are getting their energy through nutritionally devoid foods such as bread, flavoured yoghurts, muesli bars, processed snacks. They snack continuously and then never eat their dinner – good old fashioned meat and veg. Don’t blame the child for having a poor diet, encourage them to try new foods. I think it’s interesting when those picky children come here for playdates, yet they eat everything I offer. Many times, there is a power struggle at home and they know their mum will let them do it. They are always obliging with me, they might not like something, but they always try it out of politeness.
- If you can’t get your children to eat their greens, why not try my healthy low-carb chocolate zucchini cake. Perfect for lunchboxes.
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Quality Proteins and Healthy Fats
Further reading: Guide to healthy fats
Choose 1 or 2 of the following. Get your children to make their own list of things they enjoy and plan their own lunches.
- Cold meat such as chicken, turkey, beef, lamb, ham (I always choose ham off the bone and buy a good brand with minimal additives)
- Sausages (wheat-free, 85% or higher meat content)
- Shrimps or prawns
- Cream cheese stuffed meatballs
- Tuna mayonnaise – just open a tin of tuna and mix with 1-minute mayonnaise.
- Boiled eggs
- Last night’s leftovers
- Salmon and cream cheese sushi
- Cubes of cheese with olive or chorizo
- Nuts for those allowed to bring them to school
- Unsweetened natural yoghurt
- Chicken drumsticks
- Fat Head sausage rolls
Low-Carb Kids – Vegetables/ Fruits
Ask your low-carb kids to write down their favourite vegetables or fruits. Cut them in ways that make it easy to eat.
- Cucumber – sliced and used in place of crackers, or hollowed out and filled.
- Seaweed slices – you have to search out for a good brand of these in your Asian grocer. Many packets do not have the ingredients in English and many have way too many ingredients. These are a superb snack and full of iodine which many people lack for good thyroid function.
- Capsicum slices
- Apple slices
- Berries
- Healthy veggie kebabs
Low-Carb Kids – Treats
Children love a little treat at school, and for afternoon tea. And these sugar-free versions will keep them happy while keeping them healthy.
- Lemon cupcakes
- Choc/mint truffles
- Orange flourless cake
- Waffles with cream cheese and berries ‘sandwich’
- Smoothies
- Nut-free peanut butter cookies
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I’m just starting to make the transition now. My eldest (7 yo) is going to be the hardest to convert. I will take it slow and sub one thing at a time I think. The bread will be the hardest to ditch.
Wish me luck 🙂
Excellent. That’s exactly what I did. Slowly transition them to low carb and no bread. It is just as challenging for you as it is for them, but as time goes on it gets easier as you get into a routine of what to make them. I went from 1-2 loaves a week to only half a loaf and then making the decision to not buy any more and packing away my toaster and bread maker. Bread is such a convenience, but such a stodgy, zero nutritional one. You also save so much money by not buying bread, cakes, biscuits, crisp etc. Good luck and let me know how you get on. Take a look at my pinterest page for more wheat free lunches, low carb kids ideas. Libby.
Hi Libby. I’ve been gluten/sugar free for a few months now and wanted my kids to follow suit. Lo and behold I find this gem of a website! Love all the lunch ideas in it. So simple and versatile. Keep up the awesome work!!
Thank you Fatima and welcome. I am so glad you found my website and it is helping you and your children. I have another post coming up Low Carb Kids 8, so stay tuned. All my best tips and tricks.
I am just going to start transitioning my children this week- with school lunches. They have been off bread for several years but I’ve never eliminated everything else that needs to go. I’m super-nervous. My 9 year-old son loves junk. Wish me luck! Thanks for such a great website!
Good luck! Go slowly and just improve as you go. Remember how far you have come. Well done and show them my recipe archives so they can choose to make something they really fancy.
Portion control of fruit is important. Berries and melons are the best -and kiwi. Bananas are probably the worst fruit you can pack. But you are making steps in the right direction.
When we are on the low carb bandwagon (we’ve gotten a bit sidetracked) I make lettuce wraps. Just get a couple of big lettuce leaves, spread with mayo and add lunch meat!
My 4 year old is possibly on the Autism spectrum and has many food aversions because of it. He is on a gluten free/dairy free diet but loves them both! I let him eat dairy more now but I have traced his moodiness to food. He has food jags where he will find something he likes then eat prett much only that. He goes in spurts but if something tastes odd texture wise forget it. My biggest problem is just getting him to try something new. Currently he eats about 3 bowls of cheerios a day because it’s all he will eat. I’m constantly battling between letting him starve until he’s willing to try something decent and let him eat what he will because he’s “different”. Wonderful website, very informative and helpful. Going to start out slow to remove all the “healthy” gfcf snacks we eat and go the whole food route further. Thanks
Any tips for toddlers? My 4 year old is delightful, but my 2 year old is a menace. I know he’ll eat cheese, yogurt, berries and cold cuts, but veggies, green veggies especially, are hard. My goal this summer is to cut out the processed foods all together and move them towards eating more LCHF as we do, this has two benefits, firstly helps my kids get and stay healthy and second, will hopefully help with the 2 year olds seizures.
Amy you are brilliant for starting them so early. I totally understand how a 2 year old can be a “menace”. My now 10 yr old started LCHF with us at the age of 7 and he was a pasta, toast, pizza and rice boy. We often joke he was the carb king! It only made me more determined to change his eating habits, even if it took a year (which it probably did). Ok, so start slowly. Our mantra when we first started out was “you don’t have to like it, but you have to try it” and they were allowed to leave one thing on their plate. This gave them the feeling of control, little did they know I added enough of the other items that I didn’t care which one he left. Yes there were tantrums (mainly theirs 😉 ) but this isn’t a race. Slowly don’t replace things, or tell them you will buy it next week to spread out the carbage. How I increased their vegetables was by using sauces, butter and cheese!!! Add them to the table and let them loose with it. Kids love broccoli covered in cheese or butter. Eventually I cut back on this but it was a great stepping stone to getting them to accept green veggies with each meal. How about making stir fries with ever increasing little bits of greens, make kale chips with their favourite seasoning, chocolate green smoothie, creamed leeks, creamed spinach, green pizza, avocado and cream cheese mixed together and call it “slime” for their food. Kids love anything like that. And make bunless burgers wrapped in lettuce, spinach and feta pie … As you mentioned your 2 year old has seizures, LCHF has been reported to help immensely gain control with this aspect. A ketogenic diet has been known for years as a therapeutic adjunct for seizure control. I wish you all the best of luck. Join my closed Low Carb Support Group too and ask all the questions you need there too. 🙂
I’ve started a low carb lifestyle about two weeks ago. For myself and my 3 children. So I am constantly searching for new recipes. Since school is starting up next week I was freaking out about what to pack in their lunch boxes. I came across your article and as I was reading started to laugh at the similarity of the ages of our 3 children. Mine are almost 7, already 10, and almost 13. My eldest loves to cook and always comes up with the weirdest combinations. The middle one is such a character and always has a comment about what is being served!!! The youngest is somewhat of a picky eater but never wanted to eat his bread before so he is loving this new carb free change. Thanks so much for the great ideas and tips.
YAY, I love your comment. I’m so happy you have found it isn’t really that hard to make the change, do it slowly and let them have a hand in it. Baby steps and encourage them experimenting, it has got to be fun (for all of us 😉 ). No one wants tantrums, from them (or us).
Is there a Gram/amount we should shoot for? I have had great success bringing in between 30 and 50 (I’m nursing my 1 yr old) I have an 8 year old girl, and I’m kinda lost if how much she should have.
I don’t count carbs for my 3 children, they are active and within the normal weight range. Children are more carb sensitive than adults are, but each child will differ in their needs. Do they need to maintain strict blood sugar control? Do they have weight to lose? I never give specific goals because of this reason. Come and join my Low-Carb Lunch Box closed group where you can see what other parents pack of school lunches, and get some tips and tricks there. I also post my kids’ lunch boxes so you can see what I make them each day.
Hi,
I’ve recently been given the challenge of cooking for a pescetarian girl (11yo) AND a 13yo growing boy who does not love fish (other than sushi). On top it, my daughter is a picky eater. Usual options of turkey wraps, cooked chicken, or chicken noodle soup are no longer available. She ends up eating lots of carbs (very little fruit) and only a little veggies. Both kids are slightly overweight for their height and, thanks to my genes, are likely in for a lifelong weight battle unless I help shift their palates. Sometimes I end up making two separate proteins for dinner. And Shrimp stir-fry is getting old.
I could use some help with more ideas, particularly for my daughter. (While I’ve also offered canned tuna as well, she isn’t interested in it and is unwilling to taste). HELP!
It always amazes me how many children choose to go pescatarian or vegan, yet don’t like vegetables. As you have seen, they begin to base their diet on carbs carbs carbs and probably ultra processed protein alternatives. I feel for you. This is going to be tough. Does she like dairy and eggs? Would she eat salmon and cream cheese quiche? Cheese salads? Prawn cocktail? Fish curry? If she is overweight, and unwilling to try new foods, are you stopping the snacking so she is hungry at meal times and so more willing to try new foods, even if it is a bite to begin with? What about tuna in mayonnaise until she gets used to canned tuna? Why has she chosen to be pescatarian. If it is for moral and ethical reasons, then explain you can support her, but she has to be ready to eat the alternatives. Gosh parenting is tough enough without this curve ball. Why not join my Low Carb Hacks group. You can see what I pack each day and pick up some ideas 🙂
Hi,
So I want to radically change how my kids and I eat. My oldest 6 doesn’t like any dairy or protein while my youngest lives on ALL protein, she doesn’t like starch, fruit or veg. If I give them a plate with carbs, and protein and veg, my son will eat all the starch and veg and my daughter only the protein. What suggestions do you have that can get us going in the right direction?
Thanks and thank you for the awesome website.
Why not come and join my Low Carb Lunch Box group, we discuss all things low-carb for families. Start slowly by making the same meal for everyone and have some rules. My rules used to be the were allowed to leave 1 thing on the plate, which meant they actually ate all the other items. I also made sure there was enough of the other items so they weren’t hungry. Eventually this stopped and they have to eat everything. We also played guessing games with “what’s in our food” which they thought was fun when I made new recipes. They also used to cover their food in a lot of cheese or butter, or whatever they like to “drown out” the item they don’t particularly like. Then this slowly stopped too. I made this video which might help with some tips. Good luck. I’ll see you in the group. 🙂
Hello, I’m here because I want my children to be healthy with me. I struggle with making everyone a different meals. My daughter is obese. She struggles to lose weight unlike my son that can just drop the weight. She is 8 and he is 10. She weighs 30 pounds more than him. She exercises, drinks water, but loves to snack and eat sweets. We don’t eat out maybe once or twice a week. We don’t have a lot of junk food at home. No cereals only rice krispies and cheerios. We only buy 1% milk and almond milk. The only thing I can see that is affecting her weight is bread, tortillas, spaghetti pasta, and occasion frozen chicken fingers. I found this website looking for low carb lunches for kids. I hope I am at the right spot. Starting my kids in low carb diet with me today. Wish me luck and pray for us. I need it very much. I want my daughter to be healthy.
Victoria I am so glad you have stumbled upon my website. Why not join my Low-Carb Lunchbox Hacks group. You can see what I pack for my 3 kids and hubby each day. It’s amazing how much snacks and sweets add up in the day, and eating out twice a week can also be undoing all your hard work, especially if the meals are served with soda, fries and a dessert. Once you start to stop the bread, tortillas, spaghetti pasta (super high in refined carbs and sugar) you will notice some changes occurring. It may be tough going at the beginning so why not pick one thing to give up (for example the sweets or desserts) then improve slowly. Take a look at my Low-Carb Hacks sheet. It will also give you quick and easy ideas. I’ll see you in the Lunchbox Hacks Group 🙂
I have a grandaughter who has seizures and is now going to be placed on a modified atkins diet no more then 15 carbs a day. She is only 3 years old. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.
Hi Tandi, why not come and join my FREE Low-Carb Lunch Box group. you can see what I pack for my kids. There are some keto recipes and ideas in there too. Also, have a look at my lunch box recipes.
I have an 8 year old who needs to cut way back on his carbs due to health concerns. Problem is he does not like and veggie and in fact will make himself gag while eating it, he eats a few fruits but in large quantities have a lot of sugar. He does not eat much meats except the usual cheeseburgers, hot dogs, nuggets, etc. I am struggling to find ways to open his mind without him body shaming himself into starving his body. Please help!
Hey there Nicole, those foods he is relying on sure are high sugar (large quantities of fruit) or ultra-processed (nuggets, hotdogs and no veggies) so I can see your need and desire to get him off these. I would love to see you go slowly and replace then remove one by one for a smoother transition. Start by making over his favourite recipes so he feels the comfort of his regular meals, but you know you have removed all the processed nasties. For example, why not make him the cheeseburger casserole, omit the gherkins, and add plenty of cheese. Then how about homemade chicken nuggets, so no more processed meat, fillers, seed oils, starches and preservatives. Next, slowly reduce how much fruit you give him and then slowly swap in low-sugar berries instead of high-sugar fruit, and with limited quantities. These slow but progressive changes will be easier on you both. Physical and mental health are equally important. You are so caring to ensure there is no body-shaming. ❤️ Involve him in finding new recipes here and planning some meals together. It will take time, but begin with 1 little change each week, by the end of they year you will have changed 52 things. Some will go well, some not so well and that’s to be expected and that’s OK. Why not join my lunch box group and you can see what I pack for my kiddos. Be proud of any changes you make and celebrate with him with non-food items. A new comic, a new you, play a game or spend time together. Last week inside PRO I taught a class on how to make lunches and how to help picky eaters if you need more help. You’ve got this 🙂 Imagine if you had started a year ago 🙂 xxx