Child not eating school lunch

[rp1608]

Hi all

I send my 5 and 7 year old to school with packed lunches, and they are not eating them, I tell the school, but they say they do the best they can, but if I sent them to school with a chocolate bar, they WOULD make sure they don't eat that. I have complained to the school many times, what can I do, any ideas? Oh we try to provide nice food obviously.

Thanks

I think the problems is staff in schools can encourage/try to persuade children to eat but they can't force them. The only thing you could do as a parent is say you don't want them leaving the lunch hall until they've eaten all/at least 75% of their food and not to be given permission to leave. Are they having foods they would normally eat at home? Would they be more likely to eat a cooked school dinner?

This really isn't the schools fault there are many children in the dinning room they can't just focus on your two. You need to work on your DC making it clear they need to eat. Is it possible they are just excited to go out and play therefore they don't bother with lunch?
Maybe give them a large snack for their first break instead like fruit and a granola bar.

My Dsis never ate at school the whole 13 years she was there my mum would make sure dinner was ready at 4pm because she was starving.

I didn't eat at school at primary really. Dm reduced back the lunch until she found what I would eat: 1 digestive biscuit and a drink.
Dsis used to take 2 large roll sandwiches and fruit and sometimes soup as well-and we were both hungry when we got home.

I also found the more I was expected to eat, the harder it was. So when dm was insisting on putting sandwiches etc. in mine, I couldn't eat a bite. Getting the dinner ladies to insist I ate would have increased my stress and made it harder for me to eat.
I can go long periods of time without feeling hungry even now. I get a hungry headache before I feel hunger pangs typically.