Food after school

[onetothetwotothethreetothefour]

DS9 is hungry after school (active and complains about small school dinners). School dinner is at 12:45pm.

I've tried:

1. Giving him a filling snack at 3:30/4pm and then his main meal later on around 5.30 to 6pm. The snack to keep him going until dinner time and then the evening meal more filling to go to bed on. He often leaves some of his tea, gets full quickly and looks tired whilst eating it so asks for more food before bed at 7:30.
2. Giving him tea at 4pm (he always eats all of it) then supper at 7ish (cereal/porridge/toast). He is out at sports club twice a week.

I think 2 is the better option and wonder who else does tea this early. His twin isn't keen on tea this early then DH and I don't always want what they are having or want to eat that early so I feel like I'm always in the kitchen 3-7!

I struggle with puddings and snacks and what to give him after school if I did tea earlier. He wants 2 or 3 snacks after school.

He won't eat:
Solid fruit (only smoothies)
Chicken (unless in breadcrumb)
No cucumber, peppers, cherry toms, cubed cheese (healthy after school snacks).
Some potato. Leaves most of his chips. Pasta is his favourite carb.

I think he needs more protein but he doesn't like chicken or fish unless in breadcrumb so we do beige food every other day. He says it's the texture. He does like cottage pie/spag bol/chilli but will often leave a lot of the mince.

I have a hollowed legged ds who is very nearly 9. I do opinion 1 as well eat main meal as a family together so when his dad gets home, he's at a club 4 nights a week after school so it's the best compromise I came up with.

I usually just give fruit and maybe a cracker and cheese for snack at 3.30 and then dinner about 6. Cub night is the only day he has supper which is toast and grapes as he's starving after that.

Hope this helps 🙂

I work as an MDS at lunchtime - school meals aren't that big and sometimes I doubt count as a full meal, ie ratatouille with rice (no protein contained), macaroni cheese on it's on, ie no veg despite other option being a roast. Jelly and ice cream are often served, not exactly filling. Portions of fish are small, it's just two fish fingers or two sausages even for 10/11 year olds. Small portion of veg. Just wondering if he could have a packed lunch with something more filling contained, and also you can ensure a balance of protein, fruit/veg, carbs etc.

His sports clubs are Monday and Thurs so I give him tea at home an hour before they start (5:30). I tried his proper tea afterwards at 7:30 but he was too tired to eat it and needed something to fuel his exercise.

I struggle with protein after school. He will still ask for more if he has just had a smoothie and crisps.

He does like cold meats like satay skewers.
Cheese is hit and miss.
He doesn't like solid fruit.

Milk and peanut butter? He loves those.

Would you do 2 dinners. My DDs train 17 hours a week just now so granted that probably is more than average so after school they will have a dinner maybe some pasta and chicken, sushi, wraps ad soup, then at 8.30pm they will eat a dinner when back home.

I really dont like to ever restrict and prefer to fill with nutritious food over snacks ( dont get me wrong many snacks are also involved lol)

All his friends have school dinners and he doesn't want packed lunch.

He does eat a decent breakfast of cereal and toast but doesn't like hot food like eggs or bacon so we have pancakes a few times a week to get some protein in.

Op the school dinners are absolutely tiny, my DDs are the same and want them over a pack lunch but they come home starving.

Neither of mine would eat school dinners or a packed lunch in secondary school and would have breakfast at home and nothing to eat until they got home from school.

They would be starving as you can imagine.

Rather than have them start snacking and then not be hungry for their evening meal I just brought forward their tea time to start at approximately 4.00pm and then later on in the evening they could have a snack/supper.

That worked really well for them and saved me the worry of them devouring snacks instead of a meal when they got in.

This is it. He starts snacking after school then won't be hungry for evening meal.

To add to this, he only likes fruit in a smoothie and the only veg he'll eat is:

Carrot
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Baby sweetcorn

Things get very samey! The only meal he'll devour is chicken nuggets with pasta pesto and broccoli and carrots.

He has issues with the texture of food.

He won't eat any fruit or veg with a skin on like peas, sweetcorn or apples etc. Has to be a smoothie or boiled broccoli, cauliflower or carrots. No roasted veg.
He likes a few mouthfuls of mince/sausages but says they are 'dark'.
No chicken as too chewy (nuggets, chicken burgers and chicken legs ok)
No fish unless in breadcrumb.
He prefers pasta, rice and mash to cooked potato things like chips/waffles/wedges which he often leaves most of. He does like Yorkshire puddings though.
He loves saucy/wet food like pasta and sauce, baked beans, tinned stuff like spaghetti hoops.
He won't eat smoothies with bits in.
Likes cheese sprinked on food but rarely cubed/sliced as a snack.
Likes cold meat snacks like satay skewers.

I struggle with protein and fat. He has lots of energy but is very slim. My Dad's side were all slim though.

We do option 2, have done for a while and all have adapted to it.

So much easier on the digestion.