Does anyone elses child find the “tiny” school meals “too big”

[SchoolFoodEaten]

DD is 8, Year 4.

She’s always been a small eater, as in she’d eat hardly anything. She’s small for her age (still in age 5-6 clothes) and has some SN – not bad enough for an EHCP but she is on a support plan at school.

She’s FSM as I’m a single parent on a low income (doing my masters right now).
I always offer her a portion of my food in the evening; lasagne or curry or sausages and mash etc. She will never eat it though, occasionally if I have fish fingers or sausages she’ll have those on a sandwich but she usually asks for a ham sandwich and some cucumber, or some crackers and fruit.

In the summer she ate just sandwiches as she said it was too hot for hot meals.
I feel like I’m doing something wrong, parents on the class whatsapp are moaning now the meals are tiny but DD doesn’t eat it all, it’s written in her home/school diary (due to SN) what she’s eaten and often she’s left half or more and been sent out to play early and she says she’s often out there before her friends. When you ask her why she says she’s full.

A typical school portion will be say: 2 sausages, a spoon of mash and a small spoon of peas. She’ll eat all the peas, 1 sausage and maybe a forkful of mash and then be full, she very rarely eats the pudding at all. If you ask her she says she likes the food but there’s a lot of it. She’s the same at home at weekends and during holidays, eats a small portion of the lasagne or curry etc then has a sandwich in the evening.

I’m not worried as she’s healthy albeit quite small for her age. But I do feel a bit of a fraud when all the other parents are saying “James came home and ate a whole other meal as schools lunches are so tiny” and I’m like “they’re too big for mine”.

Just wondered if anyone else’s DC is the same?

But I do feel a bit of a fraud when all the other parents are saying “James came home and ate a whole other meal as schools lunches are so tiny” and I’m like “they’re too big for mine”.

why do you have to SAY anything?

My DD doesn't eat her whole school lunch, but comes out wanting snacks, doesn't eat that much at dinner

She's always been more of a grazer than a big meal eater.

She's (almost) 6 and in age 7 clothes, tall and skinny. Her cousin (8 months younger) is 5 and in age 4 clothes, but probably eats twice as much!

If she's healthy and not hungry I wouldn't worry.

You don't have to say anything. Let her eat what and when she wants.

A typical school portion will be say: 2 sausages, a spoon of mash and a small spoon of peas. She’ll eat all the peas, 1 sausage and maybe a forkful of mash
Mine (6 and 4) would eat about the same except none of the mash as they refuse to even try it. They will not accept it is the same as the inside of a jacket potato but that's another story. DS might eat both sausages but he definitely wouldn't feel hard done by or that it was a small meal.

Both are a normal weight I think. Hardly ever work it but last time I did they both had 50th centile BMI.

And the problem with school meals is it's the same portion in YR as Y6.

My DS who has SEN eats hardly anything at lunch at school. He’s a small eater anyway, but also finds school lunchtimes overwhelming from a sensory perspective so means he has no appetite/can’t eat much

It’s a bit of a non event. They think it’s not a lot, your child (who you say is very small for their age) thinks they’re enough. My son is autistic - he does eat considerably less than his peers and is particularly about what he will eat. He finds the dinner hall a bit stressful and prefers to eat his dinner slowly, sometimes coming back to it over and over at home. But it wouldn’t really occur to me to answer another parent saying ‘these school meals are small’ with ‘well MY son thinks they’re too much, he rarely eats his!!’

DS was usually in the age below clothes for height so not tiny. He ate small portions until he turned 9, just not that big an appetite. Lunch was often half a sandwich, an apple and a yogurt or equivalent amount in KS1.

I think it's great that she's able to self regulate. I was raised to finish my plate and struggle with my weight. My DH easily stops eating when he's full and doesn't gain weight. I know which I'd prefer.

I regularly have a school meal. The adult portions are meant to be bigger than the child portions (and obviously cost more) but I always ask cook for LESS than a KS2 child serving as it’s too big for me (I rarely have the pudding). A full KS2 serving of todays roast dinner was two slices of turkey, three roast potatoes, a serving spoon each of cabbage and carrots with gravy. Then they could help themselves to the salad bar and fresh bread. Our children can say they don’t want anything they don’t fancy and most choose only one vegetable or ask for fewer potatoes. The full serving is about what I dish up for DH and adult DS at home! Maybe some school meals are “tiny” but I’ve worked in a few schools and none of them had “tiny” meals.

Not in a well run school kitchen it shouldn’t be…..

I had to take DS off school dinners in y6 because he was on the cusp of becoming underweight and he was already one of the smallest in the year.

A month after taking him off school dinners, he was back up to his usual centile, had more energy, and had a growth spurt.

Having access to enough food to sate you is fine. Becoming underweight because you're still being given a portion that barely sated you when you were half the age is not good.