food volume for lunch question

ToastieSimons

DS1 has been in school for a few days now and i'm still struggling with how much to pack in his lunch.

The 2nd day I sent a jelly sandwich and other snacks and he didn't even finish it or the snacks.

Today I sent a waffle sandwich (2 waffles with fruit cream cheese), apple sauce, 4 vanilla wafer cookies, goldfish puffs, and a pack of special k pastry crisps.

he ate everything but like 2 bites of his sandwich.

is this just something that happens?  Half the time I'm going to throw food out?  I'm just trying to figure out how much I should send.

meglew

When DD1 started kindergarten last year, a lot of her lunch came home in her lunchbox.  Like a pp poster said, he might be leaning to eat at a different speed.  DD is a slow eater AND a people watcher, which made for a bad combo when eating at school.  It took a couple of months, but she learned they only have 25 minutes and to chat a little less.

We usually pack a sandwich or roll-up, a piece of fruit/fruit slices/applesauce cup, and yogurt.  Then, she also has cheese & crackers or veggies and hummus as a snack.

minerswife17

I hate to tell ya but my DH is like this at 31. Lol some days he eats most of his lunch and others he eats his apple and that's all.

ToastieSimons

LalaMama81 said:

They do have to learn to eat in the allotted time and depending on when their lunch is, they may or may not be hungry. 

Several things - I think that is carb heavy - DD would want more variety. Also, her snack after school is whatever she didn't eat from lunch. Not like stale sandwich crusts, but finish your carrot sticks. Stuff that hasn't gone bad. Today she had crackers, hummus, a sliced apple, 5 carrot sticks and 6 TJ's cat cookies. Trail mix for snack. All but 1 cracker, a few apple slices & a few carrot sticks were left. She ate that when she got off the bus. 

My kids have special needs.  DS1 attends a special needs school.  Carrot sticks and veggie sticks are red light foods and not allowed.  They're too easy to choke on.

He eats a TON of carbs, most of his protein is dairy, eggs, sausage and some limited ground meats.  He can't have sausage at school (another red light food) so we use dairy as his protein for lunch and occasionally eggs.  He cannot have fruit snacks, dried fruit, nuts, peanut butter, cookies, candy, most raw fruits and veggies.  he won't eat anything out of a pouch and snubs most veggies on their own.  We're slowly working into expanding his variety at school but he just started full days (9-3 5 days a week) and I'm starting with foods I know he'll eat so that he's not hungry.  He doesn't say any words or communicate at all so I can't ask him what he would like to eat.

At 4 he's only 30 lbs so his weight isn't an issue.

lexusolsen

Could he eat a quesadilla? Or a wrap cut into "sushi" rolls? You could make the quesadilla with beans and cheese and the wrap with humus and ground meat. Cucumber slices or watermelon? That sounds like a challenging situation.

Dd gets with a pb & j it wrap, an apple sauce pouch (or some other fruit), juice box, and carrot sticks.