Aoife Hearne: How can I get my picky son to eat in school hours?

I'm worried now that my son is in secondary school he won't get proper nutrition during his school days

Dietitian Aoife Hearne: 'Despite the longer school day, there are ample opportunities to ensure he consumes the energy and nutrients he needs to stay healthy and grow.' Picture: iStock 

My youngest recently started secondary school. He’s always been a picky eater, but the early finish at primary meant I could feed him once he got home, so it didn’t matter whether he ate his school lunch or not. I’m worried about him managing the longer days without proper nutrition. My husband says he’ll eat when he’s hungry, but I can’t remember the last time he said he was hungry. What would you suggest?

The good news is that first-year students are still relatively young, so you can still influence their eating habits. However, as the weeks and months pass, their peers are likely to have a more significant impact.

Despite the longer school day, there are ample opportunities to ensure he consumes the energy and nutrients he needs to stay healthy and grow. Focusing on the meals that you have some control over at home (breakfast, after-school mini meal and dinner) will hopefully ease your concerns and ensure you meet his nutritional needs.

In particular, I would encourage you to focus on breakfast and dinner and ensure you offer foods your son likes, but that are also well balanced (wholegrain carbohydrate, vegetables and protein). Even though you may be time-pressed in the mornings, eggs in any form with some wholegrain toast or bagel set a strong foundation. Other great options include cereal and milk, toast and peanut butter, or a fruit smoothie. Milk and yogurt can also be useful additions to meals and will add essential protein and carbohydrates.

It is natural that your son will want some autonomy over the foods he eats. It would be worthwhile to touch base with him regarding his food preferences and what will work best before, during and after school. It may well happen that he is happy to have some snacks in school and have the majority of his meals at home or outside of school.

This doesn’t have to resemble a traditional school lunch, so don’t rule out things like crackers and cheese, popcorn, plain shop-bought pancakes.

It would be great if some fruit could be an option for snacks at school, but don’t worry too much if he only wants savoury snacks. Foods that are familiar to him are better than ‘healthy’ snacks left in the lunchbox.

The priority is to make the food he brings with him to school easy and familiar. You can maximise nutrition in the meals at home. The most important ingredient here is open communication and moving to a more collaborative approach as he gets older.

I agree with your husband that you don’t want to pressure children to eat when they are not hungry. While it is difficult to eat without the feeling of hunger, some children have more subtle appetite cues and are easily distracted, especially when the foods they like most are not on offer.

Keep in mind that energy requirements can fluctuate greatly during adolescence. During periods of growth, there is an internal drive to eat more, and you will likely notice this as your son gets older.

However, if he genuinely never feels hungry and could go without eating for a prolonged period, it would be wise to sit down with your GP to discuss further and get the support of a CORU-registered dietitian.

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