Reluctant eater at nursery

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My DS 3 has always been picky with food (and needed a lot of persuasion to learn to sit and eat by himself). He has recently started nursery. Today at pick up we were told that he refused to sit and eat his lunch and asked to sort it out. What do we do? He is usually ok at home. Sometimes he will get up a lot etc but he will normally sit and feed himself. How do we make him eat when he is a thing nursery?

The nursery asked you to 'sort it out'?! Did they have any suggestions on how they were going to support him or discussions about a way forward? If not, that sounds a bit rubbish to me.

This is second hand from my husband (they most likely said a lot more but the jist of it was can you please make sure that he is able to eat independently-which he is but he can be a bit of a princess needing a lot of persuasion to sit down and stay at the table while eating).

I had same issue with my DD, in the end I gave the nursery a couple of recipes she liked and they had them on hand when she refused everything else. When she got a bit older to encourage her to try they would only bring out a sandwich as a last resort although the pickiness continued at home also. Eventually she started to eat and try things and now eats everything 😊. He may just need some time to settle in to his new surroundings, I would give it some time and make sure you give him a big meal/big breakfast to compensate. If the nursery won't work with you on finding options or strategies I would prob look elsewhere.

I've had a chat with him and he has promised to eat tomorrow so I will se how it goes. If it doesn't work out I will go in to observe before trying to think up a strategy that the staff can use.

Your DH probably said "oh he never sits down at home", so they asked him to try and work on that.

I'm sure the message has been edited by your DH

I would be surprised if that's what they said, and if it is then they are not being very professional! The majority of the children I work with would not sit at the table or eat lunch when they first started - they generally eat snacks/convenience food either walking around or in front of the tv. We worked with them and now they all sit for most of the mealtime and will usually at least try most foods. As long as you are encouraging the same at home, I don't see what else you could do?