Food in Thermos

I have not used a thermos for that specific length of time, but last school year, I bought my son a small wide-mouthed thermos so he could take meatballs, mac & cheese, pasta, etc. and it worked great!
I would get it ready at about 8:00 and he had lunch at noon and it was still hot.
I would fill it with hot (not boiling) water & let stand for about 10 mins before putting the warmed food in the thermos. A few times he said it was still "almost too hot" so be careful!

Hi Mama-
My mother used to send food in thermos' all the time when we were kids. I really think it's fine. The food won't be totally warm...it may be room temp by then, but it should still be okay to eat. If you have concerns, then send jarred or pre-cooked meats and teach him to eat them cooler/cold. He won't allow himself to starve. =)
I hope this helps. Good luck with the thermos. Those things are great!
-E. M

Serv-Safe (the certification that restaurant managers and chefs have to go through for food safety) dictates that food can hold for 4 hours at room temperature and still be safe. You're going a little past that, so there is a potential risk. Will he eat the sausage cold? If so, you could just have the daycare keep his lunch in the fridge. I don't think I'd want to risk leaving room-temp (or warmer) meat out longer than 4 hours; a case of food poisoning may turn him off of sausage, too...

I didn't read the other responses yet so I may be offering a repeat, but no, the meat won't go bad. I give my oler son leftovers in a thermos quite a bit & what I do is boil up some water that I then pour into the thermos to 'heat' it up. I warm up the food in the microwave (a bit longer than usual), dump out 90% of the hot water & then put the food in the thermos. My son reports that msot days, his food is still plenty warm.

Hi R.,

Yes, meat can go bad in a thermos that long. Sausage being a pork product would probably be the worst meat to risk. I would suggest cold meals, even finger foods, would be best. Just FYI, even though he doesn't have an allergy to pork, it's probably is exacerbating the other allergies. Food allergies are usually from a weakened immune system. If you would like some ideas on how to build it up, I'm willing to share.

God bless,

M.

That's what we do with my daughter for school. She's 11. We put spaghetti w/meat sauce, leftover chicken w/veggies & potatoes and sometimes lasagna. I just microwave it pretty hot to start out with (about 3 mins), put it right into the thermos with the lid on tight and it stays from 8:30 to about 11:30. I think it should be fine for that amount time but I'm not a biologist. :)

I agree with Denise - if I "pre-treat" my thermos with hot water and then pour hot coffee in it, it stays hot for a VERY long time. Just make sure that the sausage is well cooked before putting in the thermos.

Your other option is to purchase one of those $25 microwaves and "gift" it to the daycare :)

Good luck!

I recently went on a camping trip with my daughters' girl scout troop and I made tea before we left and put it in a thermos. It was still HOT 8 hours later and it was still warm 30 hours later. I was amazed! My daughter uses a thermos daily for chicken noodle soup and it works well.

Fill the thermos with boiling water and let it stand for ten minutes or so. Then pour out the water and put the meat in hot from the pan and seal the thermos. It should stay nice and hot until lunch time and be fine. Your son may even have to wait for it to cool a bit before eating it this way.

i warm the chicken nuggets at 7 am, wrap them with aluminum foil, then put them in the thermos. my kids say their nuggets are warm/not cold when they eat them for lunch.