6 Tips For When Your Child Is Not Eating Well At School

One of the most surprising problems my daughter encountered in her first year of Kindergarten was eating at lunchtime.

She had gone from a small and quiet preschool setting with 10 other children to the hustle and bustle of 60+ kids in the school lunchroom. I was especially worried the first week when every day she brought home a full lunch box with a few bites taken out of her sandwich. In addition to being hungry and over stimulated by the day she was melting down in the car at pick-up and our evenings were unpleasant until she balanced out. I posed this question to feeding therapy expert Dr. Kay Toomey who has developed the SOS Approach to Feeding over the last 30 years...

“What can we do when our children are not eating well at school?”

Dr. Kay Toomey gives us 6 helpful tips to improve your child’s eating at school and let me just say these work…

What do you do when your child is not eating very well at school? This is a problem encountered by so many parents because of how short most lunch and snack times are in our schools (15-20 minutes on average). Throw in on top of that the fact that the majority of U.S. schools do recess AFTER lunch, and we have a recipe for disaster for children who are picky eaters to begin with.

First, get your school to put recess BEFORE lunch. Get involved in your child’s school lunch program and encourage your school’s administrators to put recess BEFORE lunch. This helps children get their bodies ready for eating and helps them to be hungry for their meal. Having recess after lunch means that many children don’t eat because they would rather go outside to play. Studies show schools with recess before lunch have fewer behavior problems with the children in the afternoon than schools with recess after lunch.

Second, pack your child’s lunch (and snacks) yourself. You will have much better control over what is offered and your child won’t have to wait in a lunch line.

Third, pick foods that are very preferred and really easy for your child to eat. Meat and bread sandwiches are actually very time consuming to eat and most children won’t finish them. Raw vegetables like baby carrots or fruits with peels on them are some of the most difficult foods for children to eat from an oral motor standpoint. Try these ideas below instead:

Make lunchmeat “sandwiches” between 2 crackers. The crunchy crackers are easier to eat than chewy bread, and they force the meat into particles that are faster to get down.
Make a high calorie shake or fruit smoothie for them to drink
Slice all raw vegetables very thin and serve them with a dip (e.g. ranch dressing, hummus, boursin cheese spread, guacamole, cream cheese, soy nut butter)
Peel fruits like apples and store them in a zip lock baggie or sealable container with a little lemon juice or 7-Up to keep them from turning so brown.
Pre-peel the oranges or tangerines and pack just the slices
Cut fruits or cheese or meats into small cubes, and give them a cocktail fork or seafood fork to spear and eat them with.
Pack them shelled edamame or snow peas (they can be eaten cold, uncooked)
Pack a cold pasta salad with small pieces of pepperoni (use noodles like elbow macaroni versus long spaghetti noodles)

Fourth, make sure you serve your child a Protein, a Starch and a Fruit or Vegetable at EVERY meal and snack. Also make sure that you offer different foods across 2 full days to prevent food “jagging” and food “burn out”.

Fifth, beef up Breakfast. If you child doesn’t eat well during the day at school, start them with better nutrition before their day begins. Consider serving the traditional pancakes or bacon for breakfast. But also consider serving them their favorite macaroni-n-cheese or chicken strips at breakfast. There are no Food Police who say you have to give low calorie and low nutrition cereals for breakfast.

Sixth, fill in the nutrition they missed by giving a big After School Snack and pushing dinner back a bit. Children need to eat every 2.5 to 3 hours across the day, from start of meal to start of meal. Help regulate their blood sugar if they are not eating well at school by giving them good protein after school. This will help your after school time go much better at home.