Fussy eaters - do school dinners help?

[Jemimapuddlemuck]

I'm interested in hearing people's experiences of fussy eaters and starting school.

DS will be starting in September. He eats a pretty limited diet, no meat at all, only very specific types of sauce on his pasta, pretty good with fruit and veg but won't have any potatoes (not even chips )

I could give him a packed lunch with a cheese sandwich every day and know that he'll probably eat it or I could take a chance on school dinners (which will be free).

People have suggested that seeing his peers eat will have a positive effect on his eating but what if he just refuses to eat? he's a stubborn little blighter. And do dinner ladies still do what they did in my day and stand over you till you clear your plate?? I'm sure they don't,do they? I'd hate to think of him finding lunchtime stressful in the middle of the upheaval of starting school.

He's at preschool at the moment but mornings only so food isn't an issue as they just have snacks which he's fine with.

Any views/experiences would be very welcome.

Also I'm assuming that now school dinners are free the vast majority of kids will have them? So I don't want to single him out and reinforce a view of himself as a fussy eater by bringing a packed lunch...

My very fussy 7 year old sounds very like yours and no it didn't help, in fact it made it worse. She lasted a week on school lunches before I changed her to packed lunches.
My son started in September and the first week nearly all the kids had school dinners, the second week I reckon half of them were on packed lunches.

My DS tried school lunches when he was in school nursery as I thought it might help with the fussy eating. There was a choice each day so I let him pick what he wanted, a week later the teacher approached me to suggest pack lunch might be better, he want even eating the things he loves.

He still has a packed lunch now and what they don't eat gets left in the lunch box so I know what he's had. (Which is ok unless it's a half eaten yoghurt or frube which gets everywhere !) I try and include something different/new in his lunch to encourage him try different things.

He is in y1 now and there is a mix of those who have school dinners/packed lunches. School have the menu on their website so you can see what's on offer each day over a term.

*wasn't not want

It didn't work with mine. We tried a week and I asked the staff not to push him (one of the assistants worked in the dining hall too). He sat politely and ate none of it. We do packs now. :)

I have found school dinners a blessing in this respect. Ithink it is mainly because the responsibility of getting her to eat is on someone else so I am not getting stressed about it. As we all know even if we can't act on it, not getting stressed about what they eat is the key to getting them to eat more stuff!

I know school will tell me if she's not eating enough to sustain her through the day, and at that point she can have sarnies.

It's worth a try. DD2 would eat school dinner 2/3 times a week at one point.

Then they had a cost cutting/making them more healthy drive and it went down to one day a week - when they had baked spuds

It was really annoying they have a good cook who'd come up with stuff the DCs liked and someone sent her a pile of new rules and recipes that weren't as good.

In our case yes, but it was with our fussy 3 year old so slightly different.
With dt1 it was very typical toddler food refusal, he would scrap the meat sauce off spaghetti and eat in plain, then another day scrape the meat sauce of and just eat that.
In our nursery there is no choice, so he has to have what is on offer, but the food is very varied and is really nice.

Since having a cooked meal at nursery he will eat most things at home, albeit painfully slowly.

I would say that they will remain a fussy eater

As a lunchtime supervisor I make them try a tiny spoonful bit they don't like it they don't eat it, there can be a massive amount of waste

I would suggest that you look at the menu and work out what they are likely to eat and enjoy (tho it won't be like mummy/daddy does it!)

Then speak to the school about getting a supervisor to check and report back to the teacher. You can always say that you don't even want them to try stuff if they don't fancy it

Oh no I misread your post, my dts start school in September too.
Yy then, I definitely found it helped, and I don't think dinner ladies stand over dc anymore. They might just feed back to the teacher that they have not eaten.

Fussy DS will be in y2 in September & we intend to still send packed lunches. Maybe seeing others tuck in will change his mind, but we'll see how it goes. Your son's diet really isn't that limited, btw, ime.

I've worked as MSA and we only made them eat if parents insist on it, and we don't like doing that at all, too busy for one thing. I would put that concern straight to the school to reassure yourself.

It works for me - ds is similar to yours, in Reception, and it means he is exposed to different foods at a time of day when he's more likely to consider them, and I can give him foods he will eat when tired at night.

I know he mostly eats bread but he does now eat the "bumpy fish fingers" and school pizza - but no other pizza. It's worth the money to avoid arguments over food, and means he will keep having school meals when it's free in Sept. Over half his class are on FSM anyway so hardly any have packed lunch.

If he was upset by the meals I'd have to reconsider, but the staff seem to handle it well, making him put some food on his tray each day but otherwise leaving him to it and ensuring he goes out to play whether he's eaten or not (they have called me in for a few meetings on the subject).

He was the same at nursery from 16 months - no choice, just didn't eat. Ate almost anything for the year before that though.

The fussy eaters support thread may be helpful to you.

It works for me - ds is similar to yours, in Reception, and it means he is exposed to different foods at a time of day when he's more likely to consider them, and I can give him foods he will eat when tired at night.

I know he mostly eats bread but he does now eat the "bumpy fish fingers" and school pizza - but no other pizza. It's worth the money to avoid arguments over food, and means he will keep having school meals when it's free in Sept. Over half his class are on FSM anyway so hardly any have packed lunch.

If he was upset by the meals I'd have to reconsider, but the staff seem to handle it well, making him put some food on his tray each day but otherwise leaving him to it and ensuring he goes out to play whether he's eaten or not (they have called me in for a few meetings on the subject).

He was the same at nursery from 16 months - no choice, just didn't eat. Ate almost anything for the year before that though.

The fussy eaters support thread may be helpful to you.

My DS is in reception and a fussy eater. At pre-school they suggested that seeing others eat would help him, but after a year of him rejecting most snacks they admitted that his peers had no effect and that he only ate what he chose to.

He has a packed lunch, pretty much the same lunch every day. At least he eats that! We work on expanding his repertoire at home.

It helped us, dd1 is very fussy but will eat at least something at school. Unfortunately there are now things she will only eat at school which is infuriating.