I need your advice...Cate can be a picky eater (shocking, I know!). Knowing she eats her packed lunch from home has been hit or miss. For the past three days, she has brought home the leftover sandwich with only two or three barely recognizable nibbles out of it. I also pack either applesauce (the only "fruit" she will eat) or vanilla yogurt (the only flavor she will eat) and occasionally one other thing, such at pretzels or cookies.
I make sure she helps make the decision of what goes into her lunch and ask her to promise she will eat everything. As you can imagine, the pretzels or cookies always get eaten and I presume the applesauce or yogurt are fairly well taken care of. Since the pretzels and cookies are always eaten, but the sandwich is not, I have taken those out for now. So she is left with two things for her lunch.
I also occasionally send her Spaghettios and meatballs which she does a pretty good job eating. I sent her Lunchables a couple of times and that was an absolute disaster. And I'm not sure she would find anything she would like to eat from the cafeteria selections.
So...do you have any advice for how I can get her to eat the right things I pack in her lunch? Do you / did you have trouble with your kids eating their lunch at school?
5 comments:
With Elizabeth it definitely seemed to go in cycles, but I'll have to defer to Cate for more on what we might have done to change it.
I think you're on the right track. Is it a whole sandwich? Perhaps a half is enough, though I know full-day kindergarten is ... well ... a full day. Is she picky about the way the sandwich is cut? If not, maybe try cutting it into smaller pieces.
well, as you know, i have not faced this situation yet. however, here may be a couple of tips.
1) try cutting the sandwich with a cookie cutter (cool fun shapes). might be a fun thing for her to show her classmates when they eat.
2) try a reward system. i believe you are already doing this for chores. what about adding "finish lunch" to the list. after a full week of eating her entire lunch she gets a treat or prize. maybe an extra goodie in the lunch or a surprise toy she finds in her lunch bag at the end of the week?
I like the cookie cutter idea. We have done that with home lunches on occasion. I empathize about the picky eating, but I have gotten the impression that Cate is pickier than Elizabeth was even at her pickiest age.
Bagel with cream cheese has been a staple for our two so far this year.
- Pat
Robert got a kick out of me writing messages on the ziploc that hold his sandwich, like "For Robert's Tummy Only" or "One Amazing Double Super Fantastic Jelly Sandwich" but for the pre-reading crowd maybe you could slip in an index card with a picture of her eating the sandwich and hearts and stars all around her head or something silly like that.
However it could be that there's not enough time to socialize AND eat. Robert came home with less than half a sandwich eaten a couple days in a row. I asked him why and he said that the lunch assistant was reading a book to them during lunch and he can't eat and listen at the same time.
When I was little I hated the way the jelly seeped into the bread. Absolutely disgusting. My mom finally came up with the solution of first skim coating the jelly side with peanut butter (to protect the bread) and a full coat of peanut butter on the other. I still do that even when I know the sandwich won't be sitting around for a few hours.
Which leads me to another thought - does the sandwich get smushed? I hate that too. A full sandwich will fit into the square disposable tupperware things or some lunch boxes have a special hard plastic sandwich compartment.
The cookie cutter and half a sandwich suggestions were both great ideas. Good luck!
-Cate
Confession of a not-such-a-great-cook mom: One morning I just couldn't muster the energy to make lunch so I sent Robert to school with the following...
apple, banana, 100 calorie bag of Oreo crisps, about 10 baby carrots in a bag
I felt really bad about it then I realized that was actually a pretty good lunch. The experts say "strive for 5" fruits and veggies a day and I just packed in 3 in one meal. Don't know if he actual ate it all though. It makes me feel better to think he did so I haven't asked. :)
-Cate
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