Meal Replacement Shakes

[Karen2603]

Hi, my daughter who is in Year 8 has always been a fussy eater, at primary school she had a packed lunch and what she ate was quite closely monitored, now that she's at high school she is left to her own devices and on checking her ParentPay account she only seems to eat high sugar snacks, I tried changing to packed lunches bet she wouldn't eat anything then! I have been thinking as a last resort of giving her Slimfast milkshakes for lunch just to make sure she is getting some protein and nutrients! I would appreciate any views/suggestions please!

Oh God don't do that. What does she have for breakfast and for her evening meal?

No I would not give her skin fast shakes. Surely a multi vitamin would be better. Can't she go back on packed lunches?

She'll have cereal such as weetabix for breakfast and for evening meal she'll have maybe very plain chicken pasta and raw carrots and sweetcorn (the only veg she will eat)! Thank you for the feedback, I'll try her on packed lunches again x

No, I wouldn't do meal replacement shakes. For a start slimfast is designed for weight loss and is therefore deliberately low in calories. I also think it might give her odd ideas about food/calories.

If you do go near meal replacement shakes, use 'proper' ones, not ones aimed at weight loss. Try Complan or My Protein.

But avoid if at all possible.

Try reverting back to packed lunches.

Is it just a fussiness or does it run deeper? As long as she is eating breakfast and dinner, lunch is Ok to be quite light - she'll probably get hungrier as the weather gets colder (I used to!). Can the school not restrict sugar-laden foods?

She is just fussy, has been since a toddler, I think sitting down to eat food just bores her so she'll take the quickest option! I'll go back to packed lunches and try multi vitamins, that was a good suggestion, thank you, and also put limited funds on her parent pay account! The school has independent caterers providing snacks such as muffins and sugared waffles, intended as treats as well as a proper meal I assume! Thank you for all the suggestions, I'll give the shakes a miss! :)

Not slim fast. You don’t want to promote any restrictive diet even if inadvertently. She would be better with a regular or homemade milkshake or smoothie.
Would pasta salad work? What time does she finish school can she not have something on toast/toastie etc then.
Does she eat pizza? If so cold pizza can be made fairly healthy. Just use a wholemeal pita topped with tomato sauce cheese and whatever topping.

Don't use complan either. Speak to the doctor OP. Her diet sounds very, very low in calories and it's worrying. Complan won't provide any roughage or much at all really. It's designed for people who are too sick to eat proper food....to keep them alive.

Thank you all, I'll look at other options for packed lunches, I was just looking for opinions on shakes as a supplement to enhance her nutritional intake as she is very fussy about fruit and veg (just telling her it was a standard milkshake), doesn't sound like a good option though, so back to the drawing board! x