Nutrition on the Trail: The Lunchtime Saga

I thought I’d pull from my archives to talk about nutrition on the trail when camping with five young kids.

Many times, we would camp as a family for three weeks, visiting national and state parks, hiking across mountains or through forests and deserts during the day. Being on that “tent” budget and only purchasing a few new experiences once in a while, we tended to brown-bag our mid-day meals.  

No big deal, right? We packed lunches most of the year. However, for some reason when we camped when the kids were little, they balked at our trail time lunches. 

My father always said, if the kids were hungry, they’d eat. 

Maybe. But not just anything.

When hiking on a trail, you need to pack non-perishable, portable food that offers nourishment and stamina for each hiker. Our hikes usually took hours because we took our time and looked around. It is imperative that young children eat foods while on the trail that offer energy. Children have fewer reserves than adults. They need to eat more often to keep their energy levels up. 

We did get our children to drink water on the trail, but they still wouldn’t eat just anything. I tried to mix it up a bit. Peanut butter and grape jelly on white bread. Peanut butter and strawberry jam on wheat bread. Only peanut butter on one slice of bread folded—not cut. Peanut butter on celery, “ants on a log” for me and my husband [peanut butter on celery with raisins], and peanut butter only or with a choice of jellies on saltines, club crackers, or Ritz crackers.

You guessed it! The kids would only eat peanut butter.

After one week on the road, the children scattered whenever I brought the peanut butter jar out of the cupboard to make lunches.

We tried the packaged cheese and crackers and peanut butter crackers. But our children only ate “freshly spread” peanut butter on “crisp” crackers. They wouldn’t eat cashews, almonds, or even peanuts. Only peanut butter. We tried the various protein or trail mix bars, but no matter how many chocolate chips were inside or how much chocolate was painted on the bottom of the bar, the children thought the bars were too difficult to chew. And they didn’t like the cereal bars.

Fresh fruit doesn’t keep but a day or two when camping in the summer. Our children didn’t want apples. Grapes became juice by lunchtime in a backpack. And the grapes that didn’t become juice were too “squishy,” according to the children, to eat. And they wouldn’t eat dried fruit. 

We were reduced to pretzels, Wheat Thins, and Cheerios on the trail. Sugar is not helpful on a summertime hike. The body requires salt because of moisture lost through sweat. Cheerios were a concession because we knew our son would eat them.   

Therefore, I suggest you start offering nutritious packaged protein bars and cereal bars to your young children now, before you hit the trails. Cut them up on a plate as a snack. Get the children used to a variety of more sturdy fruit and perhaps add dried fruit to your menus. Feed them “ants on the log” at home and mix some granola into your jellies in the peanut butter sandwiches or try the Nutella, which our children hate. Try baby carrots or apple slices with peanut butter or Nutella. This will make life on the trail so much easier for you.

Picky eating shall pass. I tried all these suggestions every once in a while, hoping the children’s taste buds changed. It took us a while. Now the children don’t run from the sight of the peanut butter jar.

Do you have any suggestions about portable, nutritious lunches for young kids on the trail? Please share them here at Camping with Five Kids. They’d be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your 2025 family adventures will be filled with laughter and fond memories.