Please help with my son's lunch box

[preciousmum]

Hi there.
My son has started reception this year,he's on school dinner for now,but i noticed he's loosing weight,as he is very fassy eater.At school he would only eat pasta,or if chicken and rice is on the day's menu,anything that didn't look like mum's food ,he would not tauch it,he would only choose the steamed veg insted.Iam thinking of giving him packed lunch,but the problem is,he does not eat sandwich,and olso if i want to give him some left over pasta or curry,or veg...it has to be worm not cold.In my familly food are prepared evryday,we don't have sandwich,or cold meals,so this has contrebuted of the way he is,i think.I am really in need of a solution.Is it enaugh for him to survive on couple of carrots and a few floret of brocoly,till he gets home???.He's very healthy boy,he likes his veg, fruits ,nuts.
I am trying to find if there is any sort of container that keeps food warm.What do you think?Any idea?Am i exagirating?Please you taught.
PC:sorry english is not my first language.

yes, he won't die

www.gooutdoors.co.uk/aladdin-bento-0-6l-camping-lunch-box-p103948

I hope some good advice comes along with what to pack. My DD goes through stages at school where she doesn't eat enough. It's rather difficult because I am left to pick up the pieces of one very overwhelmed child at the end of the day. Between the staff they keep an eye on it from a distance and make sure she eats (just can rush off to clubs as well).

I would definitely let the teacher know and they can encourage your little one to.

Between now and the end of the holiday, introduce him to some cold meals.

English : Sausage roll, scotch egg, cheese straws, slice of gala pie.
Mediteranean : cold pasta pesto, cold pizza, tapas, antipasi
Indian ; pakora, samosa, cold chicken with a pot of sauce to dip into, bhaji
chinese: wonton, spring rolls, cold noodles with chicken

you have to look at the meals from another angle - what would be side dishes at a sit down dinner become the main bit in a packed lunch

English food with pastry is excellent for growing kids - protein, carbohydrate, fat and maybe even a smidge of veg

drink : refill a bottle of squash or fruit juice each day
and the meal with a piece of fruit : apple cut up in an airtight pop, banana, satsuma, pot of grapes

I havea "lunchbox" shelf in my fridge that I can grab from. NOTHING is prepack, all home made and then into the fridge.
Seems to work.

Thanks to all your ideas.).this web is fantastic

You might find he gets better at eating if you persevere with school lunches. Children rarely starve themselves but can be quite stubborn at trying new foods.

Mine have never had primary school lunches - I did not want to eat it when I visited, so why should they
at Secondary, the range / options / standards are much better because of economies of scale

for families who are used to home cooked, the longer you can keep them away from hidden salt, sugar and the evil palm oil, the better

My DD who is in reception has a thermos cool kidz food flask - they sell them on ebay.

She takes pasta in it - keeps it warm until lunchtime. You could use it for curry, pasta etc.

Will he eat cheese?

dixie - the thing you come up against in a couple of years time (my kids are year 6 and year 8) is the peer pressure to "fit in" with food.
Hot is definitely better, but is hard to get past the muller corners cheesy string mafia.

I would go for the Thermos flask rather than the most Bento Boxes. Good idea but I would not fill them in with the hot food. Even if the plastic containers are BPA free it is still not confirmed whether they are 100% safe as claimed by the manufacturers.
My DS is a big fussy eater. He does not eat his school lunches and would not eat many things if I put them into his lunch box. I give him plain food which he likes eating at school and that is enough for me. Of course I want him to eat more varieties of food but at least he eats something. He has a "bit" of food phobia which gets better with age. Good luck!

Yes we've had the cheesestring peer pressure and DD is only in reception.

DD eats sandwiches most days but does like the foodflask for a treat.

From another angle, could you ask about or look up the menu (lots of school menus are on the county council website) and try these dishes at home? Then he would be used to them and they would be like 'mum's food'.

Serendippy
NO NO No
have a look at this
www3.hants.gov.uk/caterers/hc3s-menusandotherinformation/hc3s-primaryschoolmenu/hc3s-primarymenuweek1.htm
a) if you cooked it it would never come out looking like that
b) when they cook it it never comes out looking like that !!

and Hampshire are MUCH better than many LEA's at such things.

once at secondary its easier....
www3.hants.gov.uk/caterers/hc3s-menusandotherinformation/hc3s-secondaryschoolmenu/hc3s-secondarymenuweek1.htm

How do you cook so much food and when for all the pupils in the region?
I remember years ago when I was a student I tried to earn a bit of cash at the college's canteen. When there were formal ocasions the manager would bring lots of frozen food and serve it pipping hot.
So, now I wonder about the journey of the school lunches. I guess eating school lunch is like eating something in the airplane. Do you think the food is being cooked during the night or a few "days" in advance?

Each school is supplied with the ingredients for the predicted number of pupils and prepares the meals on site.
The cook at DS school is lovely - her rolls in the morning smell wonderful.
She is given a budget and has to meet it price and standard
The advantage of a set menu is that it is balanced each day and across the term
HCC have VERY good deals with local suppliers
I'm sure other LEAs do to.

The menu on that website is bit carb heavy and low in protein, esp in vegi menu - you face 2 pasties and a piece of pizza for 1st 3 days of the week - makes me fill a bit ill thinking about it.

Am I the only intolerant parent to think that the OP's son needs to stop being pandered to and just told to eat what he's given?

granted, I wish it worked for my DS. If my DS does not want to eat something you will not buy him even with the best toys in the world. You tell him off, you are as strict as possible and it does not work. Some poeple think the child is spoiled but it is called a food phobia. I have seen on TV a programme about children with food phobia and it was advised not to push at them; many would grow out of it. I think the OP's child is fine so and mine. I have read about children who would eat only one or two things all the time which is a disaster. My DS is afraid of eating school lunch but at least he eats his plain boring food from the lunch box. The worst thing for us is when we go out and he cannot eat what we buy. We have been buying pizza almost every week and he is still not eating it because of the sauce. He is just afraid of trying it (he will not eat it even if he see the whole proces of making it). I am sure if he tried it he would have like it. You learn about food when you try it but he does not try it.

we had thermos flasks for our kids in juniors - dd wouldnt take one in seniors, but it did work well - id send the in with pasta, rice dishes (risotto/paella) even fish and chips! curry, soup, cottage pie....we tried all sort. had a daily rating system too - how hot the food was at lunchtime, did it travel well...it was specially good on days when we had busy afternoons with clubs and scouts, so at least I knew they had a reasonably hot meal inside them. Id make extra of main meals in he evenings and then freeze or reheat.

lakeland do this one

id recommend the best quality you can - I bought some from Sainsburys for about £9 but the were really hard to open and leaked and did not really keep food hot enough

granted
I suspect that OP is not English and is used to cooking proper meals at home
the switch to school dinners is a bit of a shock for children who have never encountered such food before

DN used to be like this, my sister in law used to give him two hot meals a day as that was what she was used to and was what she had grown up with (abroad). She used to give him packed lunch as a 'snack' and feed him a full hot tea when he got home

I send my dd with a thermos flask, with pasta/soup in half the week

I would be careful about curry though, often kids get teased because its 'smelly'

My DD has one of these. To give you an idea of size, it almost fits a tin of Heinz tomato soup. It keeps food nice and warm, particuarly if you warm the flask with boiling water first. It has a nice wide opening so you can eat out of it easily too. My DS didn't want school dinners to begin with, so he had packed lunches, but is slowly getting better and has several each week now. I would give him what you think is best as I know school dinners aren't always that nice - we get to go in twice a year and eat with the children and sometimes it's fine and sometimes it's, well, meatballs ...

You could try introducing him to sandwiches by cutting them into shapes with large cookie cutters, to make them look appealing (my DDs love round sandwiches). Or perhaps get him involved in making the sandwiches with you.