Children with Fussy Eating and/or Paediatric Feeding Disorder (and their parents) can find the school lunch box a place of worry, stress, and uncertainty.
Are there going to be foods that I know I can eat?
Are my teachers and peers going to ask me how much I have eaten and pressure me to keep eating?
What if I am too dysregulated or overstimulated to eat my lunch?
These will be the things going through our children’s mind every single day when it comes to lunch time.
How can we support our children’s anxiety surrounding school lunch time?
Firstly, the school environment can be dysregulating and overwhelming for a lot of children, so having new foods in their lunch box is the last thing they want to be thinking about.
- Choose a smaller number of safe foods only.
- Focus on higher calorie foods.
- Avoid foods that are going to change throughout the day, leftovers taste very different after being in a school lunch box for 6 hours.
- Sensory seeking foods, e.g., crunchy, and bold flavours if that applies to your child.
- Alternatively, focusing on a big breakfast and afternoon tea if lunch is a challenge.
The goal of school lunches is not to expand their range of new foods, it is to create safety in their lunch box so that they feel comfortable eating, in whatever capacity eating looks like.
Rebecca Barnard
Occupational Therapist