sorry, boring I know, but help please re hot dinners or lunchboxes for very fussy eater...

[hippipotami]

Am after some advice please.
Dd (4 and a half) will start reception in September. She will go full time straight away (after 2 weeks of half days)due to being a December birthday.

She is a VERY fussy eater. Hardly ever wants to try any new foods, will lick a pea and say she is full ("my tummy hurts")
Not only will she not eat many cooked foods, she will also only eat the filling of a sandwich, not the bread.

Dh believes she should have hot dinners when starting school, as she will see the other children eating and want to join in.
I on the other hand have visions of dd on her own in the hall with a plate of food whilst all other children have finished their dinner and been allowed to go and play.

Those of you with experience in fussy eaters - did the hot dinners work or was it a nightmare??

not a nightmare, but didn't work!

Dd(5) also a fussy eater started in P1 last August. She initially had "hot dinners", but came home every day having spent about £2 on a cheese sandwich, or a baked potato with cheese or mashed potato with cheese, a cake and a drink (not finished). Even after much encouragement from me and the dinner ladies, she wouldn't try anything new, so we decided not to bother. Next term she took a lunchbox with a cheese sandwich (much smaller), a "squeezy yoghurt" (fromage frais), a small piece of fruit, half a carrot and a biscuit, with a bottle of diluted apple juice. She eats some or all of it, depending on her mood, and it doesn't cost as much! This term she has branched out (God only knows why!) and will now eat tuna mayonnaise, so she alternates a tuna sandwich with a cheese sandwich.

My son suddenly decided to have hot dinners and he loved them for half a term but then he was bored and started to choose just baked beans out of the whole dinner. He asked me to stop them and i had to because baked beans every day is not what I was hoping for. Part of the problem was that the school published a menu which they didn't always follow, also they kept changing the ingredients in the meals he originally liked and he was fed up with all that. Shame. I'd rather he had hot dinners. Another thing to consider: in Summer Term kids want to be outside and they can finish their lunch box and go out quicker then the way hot dinners are organized. many of his friends stopped dinners then, so had he. If your child doesn't eat the bread, it's not a big problem, the fillling is far more important anyway. You could put favourite food, they all have it, may be past mixed with the things she eats in her sandwich? Pitta bread seems to be favourite for kids and you could put some ham and tomato, cucumber and some other stuff, may be tuna and sweet corn. Crossonants with ham and cheese are also popular with kids. i know how you feel because my first child is very fussy. Good luck!

My son will eat anything and when he started reception he had hot dinners. But the menu (which was supposed to be healthy) said they were to have 1 choice from A, say roast beef or fish pie etc, 1 from b which was carbs and 2 from c which was veg. Great on paper but my 4 yo didn't know the difference and it wasn't supervised or encouraged. He used to end up with crusty bread, spag hoops - classed as veg and baked potato followed by a jelly, not really his fault he was eating what he liked but it wasn't what you call a) healthy and b) value for money. We since have moved schools and it's packed lunch only and I know what he has and what he doesn't have he brings home, which is very handy. The point is - if your DD is unwilling to try anything, she probably won't be forced to have anything on her plate and you won't know what or how much she has actually eaten.

The problem with school dinners in most schools I know about is that if you're bothered whether or not they eat anything (I'm not -I reckon they won't starve to death if they miss a meal)you have no way of knowing how much they've eaten and how much they throw away. At least with a packed lunch you get the remainders back (euuugh) so you can check

Unless they get 'clever' and through away what they didn't eat!