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Explain to your child that the body is like a machine that needs fuel to keep running and that depriving it from this fuel affects everything from his mood to his digestive system as well as his brain function.
Here are some ideas to encourage the child to eat at school:
- Involve your child in lunch planning, assembling and packing. When given the chance, young children love to help plan and prepare meals. When children have a say in what they eat, they feel a sense of control. This, in turn, increases the chances of them eating it.
- Have an open dialogue about what he/she likes to eat at school. Your child may go on a certain food “strike” where he/she refuses to eat a type of food or combination of foods. This is totally normal and is usually nothing to worry about. But it’s important to have an open dialog about food choices and preferences so that you can keep up with these “food phases”. Ask your child why they no longer want to eat a certain food—you may be surprised at what you find out. Perhaps it is the color or texture that is turning them off. Maybe the banana that you send in the morning ends up being brown and mushy by the time lunch comes around. Let them know that it’s OK to not want to eat a certain food and that they can try something new or a different variation of an old favorite.
- Make a fun presentation. Try making snack look like fun by buying a cool container with several compartments and putting snack that would provide your child with a rich variety of vitamins and nutrients with lots of different colors, textures and shapes. Include colorful veggies and fruits with tasty dips, protein choices such as cut-up meats, hardboiled eggs, chickpeas, yogurt, cheese, and then whole- grain foods such as breads, homemade muffins, crackers.1
Lama Abiad
MD, Pediatrics
