Reception child won't eat at school

[Dumpyjo]

I desperately need some help with DD (4). She's always been a picky eater so she's on packed lunches at school. The last few days it's come home totally untouched and most other days she just nibbles at it.
She says she doesn't know why she hasn't eaten it.
I spoke to the school and they said all they can do is gentle encouragement which obviously isn't working.
Any advice??

Have a look on FB for Hungry Happy Healthy- she does lots of "picky" lunchboxes
Definitely would unpack everything and put it into bento style lunchbox
You could do mini sausages cut up, grapes/berries, banana chips, pretzels, some crisps, a yog pot and call it a day. Dark chocolate melted over raisins or dried mango
As long as you have tea ready (slow cooker maybe or quick and easy favourites) it won't matter much. One of mine never ate at school as they did a timer/countdown clock - he'd sit and stare and be anxious about running out of time so simply just didn't eat lol

I don’t think we could manage with those restrictions. As in I think it would be dangerous to send my chronically underweight, heavily food restricted child into that environment all day. I respect allergies as I have a ton myself, but I would probably have had to put dd in a different school.

dairy is our main ingredient. Dd barely eats meat or eggs and absolutely no beans, legumes, or pulses. She ate cheese in one form or another every single day for lunch in primary. Typically some sort of soft cheese. She would sometimes pair it with a yogurt.

My DS has autism, is in secondary school and has never eaten anything at lunchtime in school since he was 5yrs old, but will happily eat lunch at home.
It’s something to do with the atmosphere in the school.

I try and get him to eat something at breakfast but thankfully, he’ll eat a decent sized dinner in the evening although the options are quite limited.

I don’t think it matters if she doesn’t eat at lunchtime although make sure she has access to water so she doesn’t get dehydrated.

My dd never ate at school, she could never really explain why. Drs were constantly worrying she had an ED (she’s very slim).
She is 21 now and eats very healthily really.

Many factors could be causing it.
she may feel rushed
could be too much in the lunchbox and this is overwhelming
awkward packaging
noisy atmosphere
the smell of the lunch hall

all of this can be very daunting to a young child. Especially if she has no issues with food at home

Yeah dairy free options are usually shit. She has my sympathy, I was diagnosed at 11 (now 45) and things have got better but nearly 35 years ago there was nothing...I grew up in cornflakes with orange juice on them.

What does she eat at home? I found doing picnic style food for dd worked well, so sausages, mini scotch eggs. Sausage roll etc with a tub of ketchup . Other days she would have slices if French bread and a tub of spread, a plastic picnic knife and she'd do her own.

As an adult I still hate Luke warm sandwiches and soggy bread so I try to avoid sandwiches for me and dd. But can you do bagels or the like maybe?

By the time they get their head around the transition into the lunch hall and sit down, it's lunch time over. Also in big schools they often have lunch early, like 11.30am. at home if you have it at 1, it's a big difference.
My son makes it home alive every day, he claims he eats very little, but he survives. They do have an afternoon snack (fruit) in our school though.

Mine never ate her lunch at school. She wasn’t hungry when they said she should have been so she would just have it after school.

I’d do snacky stuff, biscuits, breadsticks, cubes of cheese, grapes, carrots sticks. Stuff she can graze on.

ds has a dairy allergy they can offer a df version of the main meal or he can have jacket potato or ham sandwich. It’s poor they are not more accommodating

Thank you everyone. Reassuring to know that others don't eat at school but are fine.