Lunch ideas...picky eater with milk allergy

I am trying to figure out some more lunch alternatives because my mom helps watch the twins and is complaining about the lack of variety in their food. However, Max is allergic to milk, butter, margerine, and cheese and that limits our options. Plus he is a very picky eater. She has started feeding them their dinner foods for lunch and then that leaves us wondering what to do for dinner. Here is the foods they will eat:

Breakfast: scambled eggs, dry cereal, soy waffles, dry wheat toast

Lunch: peanut butter & jelly or just peanut butter sandwiches on wheat breat, turkey dogs, bananas, raisins, watermelon

Dinner: white meat chicken nuggets, breaded cod, carrots, peas, corn, oyster crackers

Snacks: dried fruit, animal crackers, juice fruit snack (chewy), grahm crackers, pretzels

3-sippies of soy milk per day totally not more than 20 oz. given between meals

Our ped wants us to up the calories because they are in the 25% for weight and 90% for height. Max refuses any protien without breading except the turkey dogs and scrambled eggs. My mom is of the "diet" mind so she is fighting us on our choices :headbang: , but I have spoken with my friends and our menu seems to be the norm. My one friends toddler ate nothing, but cheese-its for two months and her doctor said at least she is eating.

Can anyone think of some other lunch or dinner options that don't include milk, butter, margerine, or cheese that we are not thinking about? We try to give them tastes of what we are eating, but it gets thrown to the dog 95% of the time. I just hate the thought of all that wasted food when money is tight in this economy.

 

My guys are at or below the 5th percentile so I can totally relate about the calorie thing. We try to maximize calories as much as possible and still eat as a family. I don't think your LO's diet looks too bad; at least yours eat *some* veggies (unlike mine). <_<

Can Max drink Pediasure or Pediasmart? I know these can add extra calories, but they might contain milk products.

Can they eat beef hot dogs? I believe they have more calories than turkey dogs, and you can find some natural, nitrate-free types. Costco sells some good ones that my boys love. Costco also has some really great lightly breaded Tilapia fillets that we all enjoy.

Some other things (without dairy) that my guys also like:

Spaghetti/noodles and tomato sauce. Messy but good and you can put meat/veggies in the sauce.
Bologna
Fried ham
Sausage (grilled and chopped; Meijer's sells beef, chicken and turkey brats in my area)
Meatballs (with or without sauce)
Meatloaf (you can add veggies and/or wheat germ)
Chicken noodle soup (we strain out the chicken, noodles, and veggies and let them self-feed)
Avocados (usually mixed with banana puree)
Pizza (you could use soy cheese or make it cheese-less with just sauce and toppings)
Grilled salmon
Hamburger bits or veggie burgers
Sweet potato fries
Zucchini and squash sauteed in olive oil with a splash of soy sauce (2 of the few veggies they will voluntarily consume)

We try to cook a lot of the foods they eat in olive oil, which can really up the calories in a healthy way.

I think it's great you are letting them taste your food, even if they don't eat it. It never hurts to let them get used to "adult" foods! I usually offer just about anything we're eating, but give them other things at meals that I know they'll like so they have options.

I hope there are some ideas here that you can use. I'm sure that others will chime in with some other suggestions.

Good luck, and I'll put my thinking cap on and see if I can come up with anything else!

 

what about soy yogurt?

mine love the lunchables jr. I know he can't eat the cheese out of it (I have one that doesn't).
spaghettios
chocolate or strawberry frosted mini wheats
soft canned or frozen veggies
chicken noodle soup
Ramen noodles
PB&J
toast with nutella
hard boiled egss
rolled lunchmeat (usually turkey)
breaded chicken nuggets
smoked sausage or Lil smokies (they like them rolled in crescent rolls)
mac and cheese (that probably wouldn't work b/c of the allergy)
any kind of pasta
bbq chicken

My DS is so picky, most things are refused. These are things he will generally eat, but can be hit or miss. He loves snacks (crackers/carbs).

 

I was really surprised, but my girls loved steamed veggies and even cold broccoli, carrots, and cauliflower. Sometimes they would dip it in honey mustard dressing..don't know if that is an option for you or not. My girls love meatballs with barbecue sauce on them, spaghetti is a big hit as well. They also like barbecue chicken pizza as a little bit of variety from the normal type of pizza.

When my girls wasn't eating well I gave them smoothies with flax seed meal and wheat germ for extra nutrition. Also my girls loved banana smoothies with peanut butter..adds protein and calories. I would think you could use your soy milk to make some various types of smoothies for extra calories in their diet. We also made smoothies with juice as well.

 

One of mine has a dairy allergy as well as peanut, eggs and fish. I'm actually jealous that yours can have peanut butter and eggs We do almond butter, so it's not too bad. Here are some of the things I feed mine. I always give a fruit with every meal and a veggie with lunch and dinner.

Breakfast:
Earth's Best waffles
Homemade pancakes made with soy milk. I make a bunch and freeze them.
Dry cereal- Banana Nut Cheerios, Strawberry Frosted Mini-Wheats, Fruit Loops
Kashi cereal bars
Bananas. They have to have one every day. Little monkeys.
Toast with jelly or cinnamon/sugar. I use dairy free butter.

Lunch:
Yummy brand dino chicken nuggets.
Sweet potato fries
Ballpark beef hot dogs
Almond butter and jelly sandwiches
Leftover meat from dinner
Whatever else is leftover from dinner- veggies, pasta, etc.

Dinner:
Boneless pork or chicken in shake n' bake or homemade bread crumbs
Meatballs or meatsauce and pasta
Meatloaf
Pasta and dairy free butter

Snacks:
Teddy Grahams, Scooby Snacks, Apple Cinnamon rice cakes, Veggie Sticks(in organic section), raisins/craisins, crackers


That's just some of the stuff I can think of. I'm always trying to think of new things too. Dairy allergies stink!

 

My boys LOVE black beans and kidney beans. (Will can't eat wheat or corn so I understand how tricky dealing with picky eaters can be when they also have food allergies!)