Picky Eater goes to Preschool, WWYD?

[lovin2shop]

My son's school has set up a cafeteria and no longer allows kids to bring their own lunch due to the increasing issue with food allergies. I totally understand this change, but the big problem is that my kid doesn't eat the provided lunches. At all. They are pretty tight with the snacks, so yesterday from 8:30am to 4:30pm (I work out of the home), he had one graham cracker, and this is a typical day. He won't even drink juice, so he gets a milk with lunch and water the rest of the day. I'm really struggling with how to handle this situation. We've done lots of therapy in the past, and my ped feels like although he definitely still has eating issues, he has enough on his acceptable list to get in a fairly healthy diet. And his weight/growth has started to progress nicely in the last year. So, the goal was to try to continue to "mainstream" him (for lack of a better term), by reducing the emphasis on what he eats and dropping the therapy so that food was just not such an issue anymore. We were doing nicely with this approach until this situation arose.

I've spoken with the principal about it, but we haven't come up with any solutions yet. They really don't want anyone to bring their lunch, and I don't really put all the emphasis back on food by having him be the only one to not eat the provided lunch. One of the things that I liked about this school was the fact that we could bring a lunch, but we really like everything else about it, so I hate to change over this one issue. We have a friend that has a child with very similar eating issues and school provided lunches. Her child just skips lunch for the most part, but I'm hesitant to do this because they are still struggling big time with growth chart issues. Does anyone have any good suggestions on how to deal with this problem? I'm really stuck on this one! Thanks.

[tny915]

Wow, this is tough. I have a very picky eater as well, and some days all she'll have for lunch is milk. She won't eat food school provides. Some days I send her with a lunch, and still all she'll have is milk.

Is there any way that your DS could be carried through with a good breakfast and a good dinner? I know it's not ideal, but as you already know, there's nothing that we can do to make our kids eat. He'll definitely be hungry after school and I would think he'd really eat what you offer by that point.

Sorry, not a ton of advice for you. Just wanted to let you know I feel for you. Good luck with this.

[Jenn98]

It sounds to me like this is way more than just a general picky eater. Can you have your pedi write a letter saying he needs his own lunch brought in because of medical issues? I bet if you push the principal and stress how important this is he would be willing to bend for you. Goodl uck!

[californiagirl]

Is there anything the school can do to make lunch more edible for him (is there something like bread or applesauce on his acceptable list that they can have available? would a partitioned plate help?)

[Tondi G]

One Graham Cracker is not an acceptable lunch for a growing child. How can he focus on the activites etc?? The school either needs to make things available for him that he will eat or they need to allow him to bring his own lunch. If they give you a list of allergic foods that he can't bring that should be sufficient! Toddlers are finicky and they can't expect them all to like the food they are serving! I understand not wanting him to stand out with his own lunch from home but if he will eat it and won't eat the school food then it has to be. I'm sure he would rather have food he wants/enjoys eating then sitting with a plate of food like everyone else and be hungry!

If the school can't be understanding and accomodating I would start looking for another school. Maybe you could get your ped involved and haev them write a letter explaining his needs??

Good Luck
~Tondi