When your Kids Don’t Touch their Lunch

  What do you do when your kids dont eat their lunch at school?  You arent there to make sure they eat enough, and they come home from school starving and want to eat a meal.  If this only happens occasionally, it might just be that your child didnt feel well during lunch or didnt have much of an appetite.  But if this happens more often than not, its time to take a look at the reasons why.

  Check out your school lunch schedule and talk to your child about the foods that are on the menu.  See if there are specific meals that they dont like.  Highlight these days and allow your child to take their own lunch.  Or you might choose to eliminate school lunch completely and pack a lunch each day.  If your child leaves their uneaten food in their lunchbox, you can see what they ate and what they didnt.

  Talk with your child and find out why they didnt eat lunch at school that day.  Maybe they want more time with their friends at recess and didnt take the time to eat.  There could be other factors that play into their lunchtime.  Try to find out the reasons and you can start working on a solution.

  Paying attention to the menu at school can help your child know ahead of time what is available for lunch.  Talk to them about eating a certain amount of their food.  You might make a rule that they cant have the dessert until they have had three bites of their vegetable and eaten half of the main food item.  You cant be there to enforce the rules, but if your child still comes home hungry you can make them accountable for their decision by not giving them a snack.