My son was starting to look like a skeleton and so I caved. I didn’t want to do it. I vowed we were done, but a little over a week ago I spread some peanut butter and jelly onto two pieces of bread and threw them into a lunch bag for my first grader.
I let him take a home lunch to school.
Why? Why did I let him take a home lunch again after I swore them off earlier this year?
Because the poor little guy is scaring me. He’s the skinniest 6-year-old I have ever seen. Watching him play basketball two weeks ago it really hit me. I could see the bumps of his ribs sticking out of his way-too-big jersey.
He never complains that he’s hungry. He doesn’t ever ask for snacks. He is just happily starving.
Don’t get me wrong, he has plenty of opportunities to eat what he needs and wants. He just doesn’t.
I don’t know if it’s a laziness thing. I don’t know if it’s an I-don’t-care thing, but my husband and I are staging an intervention.
We are going to plump him up.
So here we go again. We’re back to picking and choosing what days of the week my boys will eat school lunch and I’m packing calorie-rich stuff for them on the other days.
Why? I noticed that day after day he was telling me he ate a chicken patty for lunch – our school district here offers a chicken patty every day as a backup to the main dish. If my son doesn’t like what’s offered, he can always have a patty.
That’s partly why we gave up home lunches. I knew both my boys liked patties and so they’d be able to eat something they liked each day.
Well I’m pretty sure my second son hasn’t been eating his patty. He can’t be.
We sat down with him and told him our concerns. Then we told him we decided to let him take home lunches again. You should have seen his face light up. He was excited to eat – that’s got to be a good sign. Right?
We’re going to make sure he gets many, many opportunities to eat things stocked full of calories. He can’t just have toast for breakfast anymore. He can’t skip his after-school snack. And he has to eat all of his dessert.
I’m also thinking of having a nightly ice cream treat. Sounds perfect, right? It does to me.
Let’s hope it works. I need to round out my poor little skeleton.
Boogers on the Wall 