NWMR - Kids and school lunches

itsmevkb · August 2013

My oldest daughter has some issues with food (picky eating, unwilling to try new foods, scared of certain textures, etc.) I used to battle with her frequently over trying new things and getting her to eat and did things like "eat your chicken and then you can eat the crackers." Giving up the battles has been refreshing and we're now working more on just getting her more comfortable with just the idea of new foods, not even actually eating them. Anyway, this will be her first year eating lunch at school everyday and I know from the times she stayed last year for family lunch days that she is scared to death of the "mean" lunch lady at her school who monitors what the kids are eating. I found this article very interesting and am wondering if this would work for my child:

https://thefeedingdoctor.com/the-open-lunch-bag-policy-works-and-the-preschool-staff-love-it/

Yea, I might just end up being that mom who asks the lunch lady to leave my child alone to eat what she wants at her own pace.

BeachBum73 · August 2013

My dd is really picky too and doesn't always eat her whole lunch and I've come to be OK with it (I want to make sure she's getting enough to eat). I'll have to ask if anyone gives her a hard time about it. I think that article is great and encourages independence and decision making.

preggersin2011 · August 2013

I have friends that spent time in Europe- all kids ate the same thing, you weren't allowed to send in food from home. It wasn't typical kid food either. No one ever went hungry.

litzo27 · August 2013

I never went to elementary school in the states. What is a lunch lady and why does she care???

DS1 is starting kindergarten and I'm planning to send food with him simply because I have to make lunches for DS2 as well and I prefer to have a say in his eating choices at this point.

And to PP. I went to school in Russia and the system was the same - everyone gets the same thing. I was a great eater and didn't care but I remember several of my friends who were picky eaters and there were days when they would not eat the lunch at all (for example a common lunch was buckwheat, fish patty and this weird gelatinous drink. No fruits. No veggies). I remember them having a hard time concentrating the second half of the day because they were hungry.

itsmevkb · August 2013

preggersin2011 said:

I have friends that spent time in Europe- all kids ate the same thing, you weren't allowed to send in food from home. It wasn't typical kid food either. No one ever went hungry.

The point isn't really if anyone ever goes hungry. My point is more that I don't want food being forced on my child. Giving her the freedom to eat what she wants from her lunch without someone else dictating it, actually gets her to try more things and not freak out when presented with new food options (which she has done in the past).

None of you must have gone to Catholic school. If we ate hot lunch we were given a plate of food and had no say in the portion size and no say in if we liked every component of the meal or not. All that is okay except when you add in that we were expected to eat everything so as not to waste food (there are starving kids in Africa you know). Sometimes we'd try and get sneaky and put peas in our milk cartons but typically the nuns caught that. They would stand at the garbage and shake your milk container and if they found food they'd dump it back out onto your plate and make you eat it. Thankfully, it's not still quite that bad but there is someone who supervises the cafeteria and she does have a tendency to tell kids what they should eat first, second, last, etc. I don't want them telling my daughter that she can't eat her pretzels because she didn't eat all of her carrots or things like that.

dizzycooks · August 2013

If your child eats schools lunch, they will be required to have XYZ on their plate. Often there are choices, but there has to be 2 servings of fruit or veggie, a protein, carb and milk (unless there's a milk intolerance, then it would be something else). I've never heard of kids being forced to eat it. In fact, all too often I see copious amounts of food landing in the trash can because kids won't even try their food. If you are truely concerned, I would send a lunch from home that contains foods you know your daughter eats well. Then ask her about what the other kids are having and see if she wants to try it the next time it's on the menu.

ReeB83 · August 2013

litzo27 said:

I never went to elementary school in the states. What is a lunch lady and why does she care???

The cafeteria staff "the lunch lady" is often under pressure from the administration to make sure the kids are eating healthy. Where I teach, the kids get a protein, a starch, a veggie and a fruit with some milk. Wasted food is reported to the office. One day, the entire first floor decided they weren't eating their salads and the principal had a fit.

CarrieB. · August 2013

I think my DH is still scarred from a janitor that would yell at the kids and not let them leave until they finished their school lunches. This was public school.

I remember being afraid of the lunch ladies too because they were always yelling at everyone, but I don't remember them telling me what to eat. I brought a lunch though.

mittensonkittens · August 2013

I went to catholic school in the 1980's, and I don't remember anyone paying attention to what we ate. But there weren't many nuns left by that point. The nuns were always the most strict.

Want a personalized experience?

NWMR - Kids and school lunches

Re: NWMR - Kids and school lunches

Choose Another Board

Search Boards