Tips for 4 year old dd

[PeppaPigStinks]

Week three at school - first week full time and she is exhausted.

I think this is down to a few things:
She doesn't understand the concept of cooked lunch (free school meals) and picks a cheese sandwich every day.

She was 4 in July. Although used to doing nursery and long days this is all new.

She is adamant she wants to cycle to school (1 mile so not far).

She is fighting some virus I think - her brother has a runny nose and she was sent home on wed with a poorly Tummy!

So - can you help with some healthy and nutritious after school snacks please (won't eat bananas)?

How can I overcome her bot eating school dinners. At the moment I am considering packed lunch because I can put more nutritious stuff in. I thought about a reward chart?

Bless her, my ds has also just started.

Are you able to choose lunch for her? We get a menu for the week and I get to choose for him. He is loving it all and says school dinners are the best thing about school.

I have started giving him vitamins, just trying to ward off the new bugs and as he is tired and a bit run down.

Snack wise I am currently giving Weetabix with chopped fruit, he is apparently toooo tired for anything else!

Will she eat soup? I do various soups with beans or barley in to bulk them out. Heat up before school run then put in mug, it will be suitably warm but not hot when you get home and requires no chewing. Has an almost magical effect here!

I just thought soup too! So far we have never had any success with soup but I reckon if I take her to buy a thermal special soup mug that will be a good idea - thank you!

Twolefttoes- we discuss it every morning and yet she says cheese sandwich (the little monkey). Her teacher mentioned it also on Thursday when I dropped her off and they are going to try and encourage her to try other things.

Thank you! Good point kohlnoorpencil - she is a hot blooded girl ! Today for lunch I did fish fingers and veg. Her response "what time is it? We haven't had any lunch so why are we having dinner now"?!

If it helps, there are lots of grumpy pre-teen kids around. They are trying to get (back) into a routine whilst learning a lot of new things and rules as well as encountering all manner of bugs and viruses their friends introduced into the mix. This is the time of year that you might want to buy vitamins and probiotic yoghurts.

Dehydration might be an issue. DD (now 8) had a real issue about going to the loo when she started at school (luckily they did 1/2 days for ages). For at least a month so she was reluctant to drink much. She was used to a free-flow nursery, but school was different for some reason.

If your DD is happy to contemplate a 1 mile cycle she must be fairly active. I would recommend filling her up at breakfast. Porridge (I sweetened with tiny amounts of honey) worked well for us as did cheese and plenty of milk.

It might still be messy in the afternoons (I remember popping DD to bed at 4:30 one night in term 1!). It's not a disaster if she eats a few breadsticks/shortbread/fruit at the school gate. Definitely take a drink and send DD back into school for a wee as soon as she leaves for the day if that makes sense.

It's annoying, but I have always worked on the assumption that DD survives on pasta and baked potato for lunch so she has a proper meal most evenings.

Madcats- my dd is very active! When we dropped her to school in the car last week she was disappointed we didn't walk or cycle!

Today on the way in she told me she had a tummy ache. She did this last week so I am concerned something In school is worrying her!

My oldest spent the first term on sandwiches, I think for 2 reasons. First. It was the first foodhe saw, and since he wasn't sure what was coming up, he took something familiar. Second, he didn't always know what the rest of the food was like, so he took the most familiar plate.
DS2 gets tummyache when hot, tired or dehydrated. Seems to be his catchall for "I'm not quite right"