Can I ask for your suggestions for packed lunch ideas for teen please?

[ChopinandChangin]

This sounds simple but ….

Teen is underweight, can get school dinners in canteen but most days says they’re inedible. There are a couple of dishes will be eaten but really only one or two. Has recently seen dietician who has recommended that, given teen won’t eat what’s on offer in school, they take a packed lunch. Must have carb, protein and fruit or veg. Sounds simple?

It’s not! On the won’t eat/doesn’t like list are: sandwiches, rolls, wraps, tuna, egg, cheese, chicken, hummus, coleslaw, salad stuff, peanut butter. Basically everything that has been suggested isn’t eaten/liked/sometimes ruled out before trying. Will eat crackers but what about the bloody protein, where does that come from? Gave a small portion of cheddar today, it got nibbled at and rejected. I’d tell anyone else, just say they have to eat it, full stop, end of. Except, knowing my child, I can tell you they won’t. Said child is 15.

So, please hit me with any ideas you might have in case I have missed something obvious. Thanks!

What does your teen eat for dinner? Mini versions of this might work?

Have any other sandwich spreads been tried? Or pate? I realise that might sound ridiculous, just trying to think outside the box a bit.

pasta salad with feta?

Soups/stews with a bag of croutons to add when time to eat? cold sausages? halloumi?

salads with lots of beans, lentils?

Would sending some snacks work instead? Cereal bars, fruit, nuts/seeds, yogurts?

At 15 I would let her decide. If she is underweight it’s better to send her with something that she will eat than with a nutritionally balanced lunch that will come home uneaten.

If underweight, I’d just go with high cal items that your teen will eat, regardless of nutritional value.

Also high protein flapjacks are good if they’ll eat them.

Can she take a thermos type pot thing to take a hot meal, is that more likely to get eaten?

Sorry, just realised I assumed it's a DD

What do they eat for meals at home / in the evening?

I send mine with a thermos flask - it always goes down well and particularly nice this weather.

i think literally go to the supermarket and let them choose.

When not taking a thermos, mine have a bento style lunchbox. They take a selection - my youngest doesn’t like sandwiches or wraps much. She likes chocolate chip brioche so sometimes send her with a couple of cocktail sausages or a pepperami and then one of those. She will eat a croissant with ham so that’s another option. One of mine absolutely loves cold pizza, another falafels…

Tricky situation :-(

Would they have a meal replacement drink like Huel?

Let them pack their own lunch. Buy crackers or oatcakes, rolled up ham, salami sticks, cheese, fruit, butter, lots of bits and pieces for them to choose from but she’s to pack it herself the night before.

Another vote for food thermos, cook up a bigger portion of the dinner they like each evening and then warm it up the next morning, really piping hot, and put it in a food flask (that you've preheated with boiling water for 5 mins).

We’ve had success with a thermos. Heinz big soups are popular here. Good luck

I was just coming on to say get a food thermos so you’re not restricted to cold foods!

Would they eat pastry items, samosas, sausage or vegetarian rolls, quiche, spring rolls?

At 15, and with their long list of "won't eat", I'd let them make their own lunch, and I'd just go along with what they wanted.

What do they eat at home? What do they want to eat? Do you think it's all about being in control, or maybe it's food textures causing the problems. It must be a huge worry for you.

For protein I top up with clear whey, it's like squash

Picky DS eats fridge raiders for protein.

pasta salad
antipasto (so olives, sundried tomato, stuffed peppers, stuffed vine leaves, chorizo, salami, crackers or breadsticks)
tabbouleh

protein: pepperami/ chicken legs/ fridge raiders … would they eat frittata or quiche or is that too eggy?
carbohydrates: flapjack, crackers, muffin, malt loaf, Doritos (with salsa as a vegetable!), mini cheddars

Sausage roll? Pesto pasta plus crisps/crackers. Yes to flapjacks, you could make your own and put different fillings in eg dried fruit, nuts etc. Always fresh fruit for pudding or could be Muller rice/fruit corner if liked. Maybe cold pizza? (Yes pretty gross but some seem to like it).

When DD was 15 she stopped eating anything that might smell. So no tuna, cheese, egg etc. I think someone may have said something (not necessarily to her) and she was socially anxious at that age so very concerned about not drawing attention. She would eat shaped sushi rice, vegetables and things with a Mediterranean flavour, so for a few months it was an odd mix of mirin rice or pasta salad, roast peppers and chopped cooked meat, occasionally with a wrap and a fork to make it up. Gradually I was able to add in wrapped individual cheeses, crackers, bottles of bought cold coffee and bought fruit teas.
She got back into eating at intervals during the day and we moved back to meals which seemed more mainstream.
I think that teens have so much to deal with now it is important to not allow them to make food an issue: when our oldest was a teen we worried about her eating sensibly and her body image. With the youngest her food issues have been far more about social anxiety and fitting in.

I'd start off with chocolate or blueberry muffins or flapjacks

Either make them yourself or buy them.

This is what my DD buys from the school canteen most of the time anyway including those giant cookies

I'm sure I've seen flapjack recipes with protein powder in them.
High protein crackers.

what does DC eat? Start with that and put 4 things you know they eat plus 1 new?

Tuna pasta?

Pasta salad
Sausage rolls
Crisps
Scotch egg
Cereal bar

The classics?