School Dinners - children eating pudding first?

[MissingLincs]

I work in a primary school and sometimes help out in the dining room at lunch time. I hear the dinner ladies telling the children to eat up and eat some more and eat your dinner before your pudding (which is what my mum always told me as a child growing up in the sixties). When I mentioned it to my daughter, she told me that the dinner ladies should just let the children eat as much as they want in whatever order they want to.
As mums... please give me your honest opinion of how you would feel if your child only ate a little bit of their dinner or ate their pudding first and left their main course?

Just to add... our school kitchen cooks from scratch.

I couldn’t care less if DC eat their pudding first. Of course I’d like them to have a balanced meal, but the order in which they eat is irrelevant.

I do care if they’re given shitty messages about clearing plates whether or not they’re hungry.

I agree @Zarene

DS is younger (still a toddler) but he often gets everything at the same time and it's up to him what he eats and in what order.

I usually serve pudding at the same time as the rest of the food, pudding is never a reward here. Sweet foods = savoury foods in value and therefore desirableness. That’s the theory! I’ll update in 10 years 😄

I wouldn’t like it if every day my child were eating pudding but little to none of the main meal. That wouldn’t be good for them.

Parents choose: what, where and when
Kids choose: if, how much and in what order

Is what I try to follow!

Couldn't care less.

I wouldn't give them a bug enough pudding to fill them up.

@LethargicActress

I wouldn’t like it if every day my child were eating pudding but little to none of the main meal. That wouldn’t be good for them.

Pudding doesn't have to be a massive bowl of sponge cake and custard. It can be a small yoghurt, or a satsuma, or a biscuit... Not many kids are going to be full on that

@LethargicActress

I wouldn’t like it if every day my child were eating pudding but little to none of the main meal. That wouldn’t be good for them.

Unfortunately that's what happens unless the dinner ladies remind them to eat their dinner. The amount of waste food is unbelievable but you have to give up trying to persuade them to eat. Unfortunately we know a lot of our children won't have a cooked meal in the evening.

Depends on the pudding.

And pudding isn’t essential.

I quite often give DD everything at the same time, so it wouldn't bother me.

IME kids eat all their pudding regardless of when it's served so it doesn't really matter when it's given if pudding is just a finite amount of something.

I would expect them to eat the meal first and then the pudding as is the standard order when you eat dinner? I don’t think they have to finish all of their main meal first but should have a good go at it else they’ll get full up on the pudding.

Always eat dessert first…you never know what might happen!

Ha ha .
I eat my pudding first because I am a grown up and I can . 😁

So if you go out for dinner you order dessert first?

I wouldn’t want garlic mushrooms after Eton mess.

As long as ds is fed and not starving hungry at home I don't stress really. So pudding first would be fine assuming they're generally small and low sugar anyway, I can't see the harm.
I wouldn't be massively happy with somebody insisting ds cleared his plate. I've always tried to teach him to listen to his own appetite so that would be a bit confusing!

I'd rather my dc eat their main meal first and then their pudding but ultimately it doesn't matter.

I've been helping in the dinner hall at the primary school I've been working in this week. The dinner ladies there have been asking the children if they're sure they've had enough of their main meal before they take it away and bring pudding. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

@GTAlogic

I'd rather my dc eat their main meal first and then their pudding but ultimately it doesn't matter.

I've been helping in the dinner hall at the primary school I've been working in this week. The dinner ladies there have been asking the children if they're sure they've had enough of their main meal before they take it away and bring pudding. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

It's interesting that your child's school serve the pudding separately. We serve on a 'flight tray'. I work in a school where about 300 children have school dinner, with most on free school meals whether they are government free meals up to year 2 or universal credit key stage 2 children. Sadly, the food wastage is generally untouched vegetables and, for the older children, food they personally didn't choose. We often get upset children because they don't want what has been pre- ordered for them.

I hear the dinner ladies telling the children to eat up and eat some more and eat your dinner before your pudding This is one of the things I hated about primary - people with bad attitudes to food overseeing my child's eating. I opted for packed lunches so they could eat what they wanted.

I would not care if my kids ate the dessert first. Or only the dessert. Or whatever.

I would only care if overall my kids were not eating enough of the right foods.

I think if there’s a pre-order system there should be enough for children to have what they’ve chosen. My two often make the decision to have school dinners/packed lunch based on what’s on the menu and would be upset if presented with something they hadn’t chosen/didn’t like.

I honestly don’t care what order they eat their food in - given how tight lunchtimes are, I can understand them wanting the eat pudding first, in case they run out of time.

DD just started reception and her school serve it all at once too. By my understanding, they are offered the veg and encouraged to take a small amount to try but never forced. The initial half term was a novelty of being offered a dessert daily, choosing own food and the order in which it is eaten. After a shock on first week where they had to get up before many managed to eat dessert, she took to eating her dessert first so she didn't miss out.

Fast forward a few weeks and the novelty has worn off, she doesn't have dessert daily and is slowly starting to eat vegetables and try other options. I've learnt that when they have good eating habits from home, they will override eventually but I had to let it happen itself.

I would never want my child to be asked to eat more than they want to. I was unimpressed when one of my children came home from primary school with a sticker for finishing their meal. We really need to stop this message.

I am under no illusions about what my children eat. It would not surprise me at all but if I found out neither of them touched any fruit/ vegetables. I also wouldn’t be surprised if I found out they had their pudding first.

The only thing that would upset me is if I found out they hadn’t eaten anything all day.

It doesn't bother me at all, I would have done the same at that age!

At my son's school they have 15 minutes to eat their lunch before they have to leave, bang on 12.15 for the next sitting to come in. DS will often eat his pudding first because he is a very slow eater and with talking to the other kids as well he never has time to finish his lunch.

I don't agree with schools giving puddings with lunch at all really.

I get it's the only hot meal some kids get to eat. But it sets a habit that's entirely unnecessary.

I'm the big bad wolf at home because I don't allow a "pudding" after every single meal. Fruit, fine. Sometimes biscuits. If we feel like a bar of chocolate of an evening, fine.

But there's just no need to offer school puddings. Use the cash for a decent main course instead.