title: Flutter - DrowpdownMunu Items not populating from List
body: <p>I'm stuck with a DrowdownButton that is not populating any data.</p>
  <p>It's populating from a list passed from the previous screen.</p>
  <p>My debug indicates that the list has data that can be parsed. The output just produces an empty DropdownButton.</p>
  <pre><code>import 'dart:async';
  import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
  import 'package:shared_preferences/shared_preferences.dart';
  import 'menuList.dart';
  import 'package:flutter_calendar_carousel/flutter_calendar_carousel.dart' show CalendarCarousel;
  
  class OrderInitiate extends StatefulWidget {
    final List childData;
  
    OrderInitiate(this.childData);
  
    @override
    _OrderInitiateState createState() =&gt; new _OrderInitiateState();
  }
  
  class _OrderInitiateState extends State&lt;OrderInitiate&gt; {
  
    double buttonWidth = 200.0;
    DateTime selectedDate = DateTime.now();
    DateTime tempDate = DateTime.now();
  
    @override
    void initState() {
      print(&quot;OrderInitiate: initstate begin&quot;);
      print(&quot;ChildData: &quot; + widget.childData.toString());
    }
  
    _dateSelected(date) {
      setState(() {
        selectedDate = date;
      });
    }
  
  
    String itemSel;
  
    @override
    Widget build(BuildContext context) =&gt; new Scaffold(
  
          appBar: new AppBar(title: new Text(&quot;Start an Order&quot;), actions: 
          &lt;Widget&gt;[
          ]),
          body: new Column(
            children: &lt;Widget&gt;[
              Center(
                child: Column(
                  mainAxisSize: MainAxisSize.min,
                  children: &lt;Widget&gt;[
                    Text(&quot;Select child:&quot;),
                    new DropdownButton&lt;String&gt;(
                      value: itemSel,
                      onChanged: null,
                      hint: Text(&quot;Select child&quot;),
                      items:
                        widget.childData.map ((item) {
                        print(&quot;DropDownButton item: &quot; + item.toString());
                        print(&quot;Child Id: &quot; + item['ChildId']);
                        return new DropdownMenuItem&lt;String&gt;(
                            value: item['ChildId'],
                            child:
                            new Text(&quot;ChildFirstName&quot;),
                        );
                      }).toList(),
                    ),
  
                    Text(&quot;${selectedDate.toLocal()}&quot;),
                    SizedBox(
                      height: 20.0,
                    ),
                  ],
                ),
              ),
              SizedBox(
                width: buttonWidth,
                child: RaisedButton(
                  onPressed: () =&gt; _StartOrder(this.context),
                  child: Text('Start Order'),
                ),
              ),
            ],
          ),
        );
  
    _StartOrder(BuildContext context) {
      Navigator.push(
          context,
          new MaterialPageRoute(
              builder: (BuildContext context) =&gt; new MenuList()));
    }
  }
  </code></pre>
  <p>My debug lines give the following output:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>DropDownButton item: {ParentId: 4, ParentLastName: testparent, ParentFirstName: TestParentSur, ParentUserName: TestParent, ChildId: 3, ChildLastName: Test2Last, ChildFirstName: Test2, ChildUserName: test2}</p>
  <p>Child Id: 3</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>I've been stuck on this code for the last 2 nights, so hopefully someone can help.</p>
  <p>I've studied numerous List and Item generation tutorials and stackoverflow items with no luck.</p>