- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
School-Aged Children
Moms of picky eaters.. HELP!!! School lunch related
I need some help. My biggest stressor with Macie going back to school has been the lunch. I am about in tears after just a few days. She won't eat. She was crying when DH picked her up today and she said later it was because she was hungry.
We can't pack in her lunch anything with peanuts so that rules out pb sandwiches. She won't eat any meat except hot dogs. I made her a sunflower butter sandwich and she took one bite and wouldn't eat the rest of it.
So we got to thinking that maybe it is behavioral and if she got hungry enough she would eat the school lunch. We were wrong. The only thing she "ate" for lunch today was milk. She also wouldn't eat the snack that they had today. Sigh.
My question.....What should I do? I can work around this and get a thermos and send mac and cheese or find a few things that I can send to school just to get some food in her tummy but then I wonder if she will ever learn to eat. The problem is is that she just won't try anything. We had tears the other night when we ordered pizza and we got her cheesy bread since she doesn't eat pizza. She always eats lots of cheesy bread from Pizza Ranch but this was a different brand. She never touched it.
(She has been tested for sensory processing disorder and they didn't tell me for sure that she had it or not. They just said that " she could benefit from food therapy". We did therapy for about 3 months and had to quit because we couldn't afford it. So we had her tested through the school system and she didn't qualify for therapy because you need "2 special needs" to get it covered. )
So my question is... Would you get the school lunch and have her not eat anything some days in hopes that one day she finally tries something or would you pack her lunch and hope she outgrows it just so she has a full tummy.
My DH is also a picky eater and to this day will not touch fruit or vegetables. At all. 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Moms of picky eaters.. HELP!!! School lunch related
What DOES she eat?
Can you try a "bento" box lunch of things she'll eat? We use GoGreen lunchboxes for the kids. They seem to work really well and everything is compartmentalized (and not in a "create your own bento" type of way - super easy).
DD#1 is my PB/J eater. Her preschool was totally nut-free. She did like Sunflower seed butter, but hated soy nut butter. Maybe try soy nut butter?
Also, is it JUST peanuts? WIll they allow almond butter? Have your DD try that - I love the stuff.
What about just a jelly sandwich? Or cream cheese and jelly? Or a bagel with cream cheese? Or a grilled cheese?
String cheese? Granola bars? Muffins (healthy like banana, carrot, etc. that you can make and freeze)? Yogurt? Pasta (my kids will eat it plain with some parmesan cheese sprinkled on)?
It would help if we knew "what" she ate.
Also, my DD#1 has just started to try new foods. Sometimes it's good, sometimes not.
DD#1 had feeding issues. We had to visit a feeding hospital for 6 months (every 3 weeks). Insurance covered it for us. Do you have this in your area at all?
GL!
I feel your pain. I've been there with everything you've described, except DS couldn't have PB as a baby and so developed a taste for sunnut and soy nut butters. If she likes cheese, will she eat a cheese sandwich, cheese stick or something similar? Food chaining helped DS a bit. He started with toast only. Then we moved to french toast and eventually he started eating pancakes/waffles and some sandwiches much later too. He recently dropped meat. sigh
I would go the thermos route and see if you can try some food chaining with some things she does like. You have to go really slowly, though. I'd also try what the PP suggested. DS survives on granola bars, PB crackers, PB sandwiches and will sometimes eat a muffin. We also put Cracklin' Oat Bran in his lunch as his dessert. He thinks they're cookies and I'm not going to correct him.
DS is pretty picky.
Today was his first day of first grade and I sent a hot dog cut up in a thermos with a little tupperware of ketchup, a squeezy yogurt, and some PBJ crackers (no food restrictions). I've also done that with chicken nuggets, but he doesn't like mac and cheese like that - I think it doesn't stay hot enough. I've also sent chicken soup, but I worry about the thermos leaking.
He doesn't like sandwiches, per se - but will eat pieces of ham and a roll separately (yeah, I know - he's a weirdo).
The other alternative is to send a bunch of snacky things that will fill her up - yogurt, fruit, veggies pieces (he doesn't eat a lot of either fruit or veggies, but enough that I can send some).
He also likes pizza, so he buys once a week on the pizza day.
What about the lunchables at the store? They can get pricey but if she'll eat them it may be worth it. They have pizza ones, wraps, chicken nuggets, crackers and meat and cheese, make your own deli sandwich ect.
What about a home-made wrap. My son likes a tortilla with ranch spread on it with lunch meat and cheese rolled up.
I"m not quite sure, my first instinct would be to just let her be hungry and when she gets hungry enough she'll eat but you've already gone that route!! HMMMM Sorry you're going through this.