Smelly Food ...?

[Welsh Girls Allotment]

My three year old takes a packed lunch to school, in which she picks her own food, couscous, sandwiches, juice, left over curry or homemade bhaji's(not all the same dayI hasten to add!

. A little boy has told her that her food is smelly and now she is paranoid about eating it, she told me yesterday that he has been picking on her for ages and tells her that she is smelly, I asked her if she wanted to take different food food and thankfully she said no - I like the food we make together she said.

Yesterday she hadn't eaten a thing, not even one of her favourite biscuits that I had put in for her when I asked her why she told me about this boy picking on her. I asked her what he eats and she said sweets chocolate and crisps I asked her if she had told the teacher and she said no she can't, so I mulled it over all night and decided to mention it to the school - after all he just stating a fact I suppose her food does smell ! but now he has put her off eating it I need to do something.

Teacher wasn't available, so I spoke to the head she said she will inform the dinner lady and she will visit the hall herself dinner time to find out what is going and let me know.

I am in two minds whether she should even be in school at 3 as it is, nevermind that some grot bag is picking on her, but she is enjoying herself and wants to go, so I will listen to her

[funkypixie]

Hi,

It is so hard to know what to do for the best isn't it? I think you've done the right thing in talking to the head though - most schools seem to want to encourage healthy eating even if quite often they don't know what to do to achieve it.

Also, there is no excuse for bullying. My son often takes sunflower seeds in as a snack but stopped eating them for a while. When I asked why it turned out that one of the older boys kept telling him he would turn into a chicken if he kept eating seeds! It didn't stop him for long, thank goodness, but if I thought it was going any further I would certainly have stepped in.

Three always sounds very young to be at school but different children thrive in different environments and as long as your daughter is happy and settled, don't beat yourself up about it! My younger son is three and loves his time at the school nursery - I wouldn't want to take that away from him.

Anna x

[Stonehead]

We've had this with our oldest, now in P2. He takes a packed lunch with things like cold roast pork, boiled egg and salad; potato pancakes and chutney; left-over curries; and sandwiches of varying types.

But he comes in for a lot of peer pressure from the Ryevita, packet of crisps, Mars Bar and cola set.

What really annoys me is the difference that different dinner ladies have. They're on alternate weeks and one is the farmer's wife across from our croft. She's brilliant, talks about how great the Big Lad's food is, puts the bullies in their place and encourages him to talk about where his food came from and how we grew it ourselves.

The other dinner lady doesn't pay a blind bit of attention to any of the goings on.

As a result, we always know which dinner lady is on. One week, everything will be eaten; the next, it will be picked at or he'll be scoffing it on the bus on the way home.

What's even more ironic is that the school is bidding to be a "healthy school|, is holding healthy meal indoctrination sessions for all and sundry, and isn't doing anything about the goings on at lunch....

[Shirley]

I hope that this is dealt with quickly - don't you think that smelly food tends to equate to tasty food??

[Stonehead]

I hope that this is dealt with quickly - don't you think that smelly food tends to equate to tasty food??

I fed the OH a large dish of garlic mushrooms the other night. Going by your rules it must have been very tasty because we can still smell the garlic...

[Milims]

We've had the same thing with my two. I often put seeds in and my daughter stopped eating them - despite the fact that she loves them - the reason? A teacher asked if she was eating bird seed. I also used to make home made pies and cakes but they begged me to stop and put in "normal " food as the other kids were making fun of them. My answer was that I put a lot of love and time into baking the food that I put in and it was especially made and chosen for them and if the others have a problem with it then maybe they should go home and discuss why their mothers bought cake instead of making it any why when I made a wholemeal mince meat cake for the cake stall it was snapped up in seconds!!
Now that they are a bit older they have learned to ignore the comments more and are happy to eat what I put in - unless they really hate it but thats their choice with no outside influence. They've learned that they eat it or go hungry, and a pain in the tummy can start to outweigh the pain in the neck bully!!!

[2steps]

I have had this before with my two. at his old school my son used to get picked on for having fruit in his packed lunch. school didn't seem to care!

[baldowrie]

Stonehead

I fed the OH a large dish of garlic mushrooms the other night. Going by your rules it must have been very tasty because we can still smell the garlic...

Your just wicked

Teasing about what food smells like would not work with my son, he likes his food too much. However we did go through a stage that he wasn't eating his snack and getting stuff from the tuck shop because all the other boys did. Unfortunately he didn't have any money for the tuck shop. I got a bill and he got a lecture on credit and running it up!