Is it realistic of your childs school to give them poached fish/chilli/curry for lunch and expect them to eat it?

[avenanap]

Just a thought. ds doesn't get any choice of what to eat at school so he often goes hungry. If your child were to be fed this at school would they eat it or is my ds being unreasonably fussy?

Chilli and rice (he hates spicy food)
Curry and rice
Smily faces
Poached fish, bolied potatoes, green beans and parsley sauce.
Fish pie

What does your child have for lunch? Enlighten me!

ds1 would rather go hungry than eat any of those foods, with the possible exception of the smiley faces

ds2 would eat the spicy food but wouldn't eat the fish

both went to nursery F/T and ds1 wouldn't eat a lot of the food there - he'd rather miss a meal than eat something he thought he wouldn't like. He seems to get by all day on a very small amount of food and he's 9 now and still pretty rigid about what he choses to eat.

I can't take packed lunches in, the dinners work out as part of his school fees, I did discuss this with the head who said I wouldn't be allowed to send him in with a packed lunch as it would be unfair on the other children. We agreed on a quiche/chicken or something that could be eaten out of the fridge. He has not passed this on to his wife though (she does the admin), who refused to give ds the quiche I had taken in as it was not a curry day (they were having chilli!). I've only got a few more weeks of this though, he moves to a new school in September where they have a vast amount of choice so I'm assuming he'll be eating no vegetables, no curry, no chilli, no fish...... He used to be fine and eat anything until he went to nursery. It all went downhill from there. I think he saw alot of children refuse food and he followed.

both mine would eat everything mentioned

I would love ds1's school to offer things like that
IMo, the school meals in our authority are pants (and as a teacher myself in the LEA, I wouldnt touch them with a bargepole)

I think that list of meals in the OP looks fine apart from smiley faces which are a bit prefabricated.

Easy for someone else to say, but I don't think there's a lot to worry about here. He has a hearty breakfast, doesn't always eat the lunch that is put in front of him, then has a snack and supper at home.

You said "He used to be fine and eat anything until he went to nursery. It all went downhill from there. I think he saw alot of children refuse food and he followed" so imho I guess he could revert to eating everything if that was what expected of him.

Hope it's better in the new school in September.

Just echoing Santa's good wishes for September. It is a lot easier in the state sector because you usually have the option of sending in sandwiches; my dc's haven't had a cooked school dinner in years. And it does sound from your other posts, avenap, as if your ds is one of those rather sensitive children to whom these issues can become enormous.

It just looks like food to me - still don't see the problem!

Riven - I doubt if they will heat up home food for you. I think you may have to stick to sandwiches.

dd2 would eat the lot - they both love curry and chili and surely it is never actually spicy at school?
dd1 would not eat the smily faces or the parsley sauce

www.clubjoules.com/pdfs/glous.pdf

menu for school lunch for Gloustershire

that looks like a good menu

ideally I'd want two more veg choices per day (four a day) so that the chance of them having something they like are greater

I think one of the reasons our children are so fussy now is that they are given too much choice...and therefore limit themselves to a tiny menu of things that they know. Our school offers about 3 choices (I vegetarian) every day and I hope it will encourage the children to try things they otherwise wouldnt - specially if their friends are eating it too.

DS1 would be delighted to be offered chilli or curry - both are his idea of heaven - DS2 would be delighted with the fish options.

dd1 and dd2 wouldn't eat most of the things on that menu

so dd1 takes packed lunch, dd2 will in September when she starts

they eat a good diet, they are just fussy how it is served - no sauces etc yawn

and to those that say oh they will eat what is put in front, well they will not

they were both great until about 2.6yrs then got fussy

they help prepare meals and we all eat together and they still don't eat it, so I don't stress anymore

what I do is think of a meal that both will eat bits of - so I do meatballs and rice, dd1 will eat the meatballs, dd2 the rice

or chicken salad with potatoes, both will pick at bits they like and ignore the rest

I am hoping that eventually they will eat whatever they are given but am not going to stress in the meantime

School lunches website - for some local authorities

www.myschoollunch.co.uk/

you can look at the school menu aswell. Some lunches come with a starter - fruit or crudities, so the children can get between 2-4 veg portions at lunch time.

and others listed here

www.nfer.ac.uk/emie/content.asp?id_content=1743&id_category=158&level=3

My ds is 9 and wouldn't eat anything from that list in the OP. He's struggled with food for years, doesn't really do combinations (eg I've only just got him to manage sandwiches and breakfast cereal this year) so there's no way he'd eat anything like chilli or curry where everything's all mixed up. Not even Jaffa Cakes because they're chocolate, biscuit and orangey stuff - too much at once, you see.

He takes packed lunch every day and probably always will, but only eats a very small amount of it at lunchtime and has the rest on the way home from school. Like I said, he'll have a sandwich now but before that it was some freshly cooked turkey or sausages (had to be fresh, wouldn't touch deli meats), and before that he'd have a handful of peanuts and that was his nod towards protein. He'll have a couple of buttered Ryvita and a homemade chocolate cookie, and that's all. Occasionally a few grapes.

At home he eats much better because I can supervise and give the right encouragement. But even so, he has a good nutritional diet but it's rubbish socially, he won't eat anything that 'normal' kids do, has never touched party food etc. Everything he eats is very plain, some meat, vegetables and some form of carbs (usually pasta - no sauce). And nothing touching of course.

In the past four years ds's eating has improved a lot but it's been horrendous hard work. We've eventually got to the point where he's no longer afraid to try foods and will expand a little when the time feels right, so we just go with that now and encourage the best we can. At least he does eat now, which is more than can be said for some.

Karen - that sounds like my ds1 - no sauces, nothing touching, plain food.

I am really struggling to stop myself reverting to my (very long ago) childhood, and saying "The poor children in India would be glad of it" But that would be very wrong of me, so I'm not going to say it.