I posted last year about my daughter feeling a bit of peer pressure about bringing her lunch to school. She was afraid friends would tease her, even if no one had.

This year she’s actually had a classmate comment that she’s eating too much healthy food.

Sure, kid, whatever.

My daughter had no idea how to handle this, so we went over a few ideas.

First my husband and I asked if she knew what her classmate was eating. Nope, not a clue. They don’t sit together at lunch or anything, so she’s never seen what the other girl eats. She doesn’t even know if the other girl buys school lunch or brings it from home.

Then we talked about what she could say. Nothing snide, although it’s sure tempting. We suggested that they could talk about what each of them likes to eat for lunch.

I also reminded her that she got a comment from a teacher about only bringing healthy foods when I put a cookie in for a snack for the first day of school. Everything else very, very healthy, but schools are so insane about sugar these days that a single homemade cookie was cause for a reminder to only bring healthy things. I tend to think that cookie was probably better for her than a lot of what most school cafeterias serve, at least in combination with the other foods she had.

She was taking it a bit hard because this is her first year at a new school and that made the teasing just a little harder to deal with. It’s tough when you’re the new kid, even though I know there’s at least one other new kid in her class.

Fortunately, she also loves what I’ve been sending for the most part. Makes things a little easier even if her favorite lunches to bring aren’t exactly the classics.

Still, I’m trying to think of interesting but reasonably healthy treats I can include for her. It’s tough to balance teaching healthy eating habits with helping her to feel more comfortable as she adjusts to a new school but I know we can do it.