How can I get ds to eat his sandwich at nursery?

[FrannyandZooey]

Ds has just started nursery and is having his lunch there. They just let them eat what they want from their lunchbox and let them decide when they have finished, which I approve of, but the problem is ds will not eat his sandwich, he will eat all the other stuff and then get down. At home no other food appears until some sandwich has been eaten, otherwise no carbs will pass his lips (he is fruit and veg fiend). It's not a big deal, but once they choose to get down the lunch is taken away and they can't go back to it, so last week by picking up time he was a bit wobbly and frail, having had just an apple and a cereal bar.

Any ideas? I have resorted to cutting them into interesting shapes in a pathetic attempt to make them look more appealing...

tell him that he can choose a treat after school , but only if he eats his sandwich at lunchtime.

Yes possibly...we seem to be using bribery more often than I would like these days (i.e. at all)

i know what you mean. it is difficult especially when you can't be there.

Can you give him a smaller sandwich and up the amount of other fruit and veg in there? So if he doesn't eat the sandwich there's other stuff he will eat? Maybe a banana and an apple or grapes (I always feel that bananas are a more filling fruit, IYKWIM). Or try a wrap or a pitta or something instead of bread?

dotn give him anythign esle
that what i did wiht ds1

and hahahahha re bribery
al of parenting is bribery

Could you not package the sandwich separately and ask the nursery staff to ensure he gets this first?

i todl ds1 ( hwo was 4 when he started shcool) that every time he didnt eat his sarnie everythign else woudl disappear one by one till we ended up wiht only the sarnie
adn yes i did hte shapes thing and drew faces on his banana

My ds used to do this at school and would come out starving.
I bought different shaped biscuit cutters to make the sandwiches look more appealing and also put them loosly in a plastic bag in his lunch box but put all of the other stuff in containers that are quite hard to open, hence sandwich was easy to get at and he used to eat that whilst trying to get at the other stuff iyswim.

Ah, very cunning, FeelingOld.

also cuit crusts off and make them tiny

LOL you are all very ingenious and sneaky

cod you will not credit it but I already cut all the crusts off etc

He is a carbohydrate refusenik - rarely eats bananas either - is on some twisted version of the Atkins diet I believe.

I did consider just putting a sandwich and nothing else in, but am partly using lunch as a distraction from the fact he is being abandoned at nursery (has gone well so far but he is still slightly wobbly about it) so want to include nice treats, and also don't want the nursery staff to think I am even more barking than I clearly am

I think asking him to please eat at least one before he eats anything else may work. Or I could tell him if he doesn't eat them, cod will get him.

dd2 is much happier to eat fillings and bread separately..could you put some buttered bread fingers in with the filling in chunks?

how about sneaking carbs in by other means - potato or pasta salad, home made flapjacks etc?

Those are both great ideas - have also put a hot cross bun in which he may eat a bit of - but potato salad would definitely be a hit (mayonnaise addict), or pesto pasta.

I can't think of many fillings that could go in chunks, bundle - we are veggie - but I guess he could always just have cheese that day. Oh, but I gave him cheese chunks last week and they got left as well

pitt
i tell you they all love pitta or wraps - tell him its a pancake

frnayy how is the nursery thign going otherwise

cheese, cherry toms, cucumber chunks. also would he eat eggy bread? or small chunk of omlette with potatoes/veg in it?

bread sticks? oat cakes?
actually, you know what I;m going to say - don't sweat it. give him a cereal bar when he comes out/on the way and forgeddaboudit.

so right
god but it pissed me off whne ds1 did it

mini breadsticks with cream cheese dip?
buttered bread roll with salad sticks?
mini pittas filled with grated carrot???

(am out of ideas as do not have this problem (DS1 had packed lunch for school picnic y/day and didn't have enough, had to supplement with extra fruit from school supplyu ) but like idea of setting cod on him)

Give him felafel to take (carbs along with the protein)?

give him a cold suasage

Sausage or felafel also top idea

I don't care about him eating all his lunch, HC, honest, but he needs the calories. Last week he was a bit of a limp dishrag when I went to pick him up.

He thinks pittas are boring because we have them loads . He does like wraps - how do you transport them?

Cod it is not going badly, thanks. He got a bit upset last week apparently. I had had to wake him up to take him there, he didn't eat his sandwich, and he was a bit wobbly that week anyway (potty training?)

Anyway they managed to calm him down with a story and he had obviously had a good time when I arrived. I asked him if he wanted to go again this week and he said "No. Actually.....yes"

get one of thsoe littel boxes i told you about that fit inside the luncbox you shoudl ahev bought(!)

get the right size adn it fits one roudn of sarnie or a wrap cut in half

i htink learnign to go somehere when youa re unsire is a VEry Good Thing