My 4-year old granddaughter has not been eating her lunch at preschool. Each day her mom carefully prepares a healthy meal, lovingly placed in clean and nicely identified storage containers that are washed and set to dry at the end of the day, ready for the next use.
Needless to say, mom is not happy about the barely-touched lunch that returns home from preschool….
This little girl is not the best eater, and if left to her own devices would survive on snacks and treats! The rule in her home is that no snacks are available during the afternoon until after the lunch stored in the refrigerator is eaten. Most days the lunch does get eaten about 3 or 4 p.m. followed by pestering for a snack.
So, that is all well and good, typical 4- year old kid, EXCEPT, that when dinner hour arrives at 6 p.m. the child is not hungry and dinner for the family is trying and unpleasant! A later dinner doesn’t work for the family as a group. The suggestion has been made to eliminate the late afternoon snack, but there are others in the household who benefit from that snack. It might be possible to have a talk with the preschool as it offers the children a late morning snack. But how do you eliminate that late morning snack for one child when others may need it? What to do??? What would you do?