Flutter – setState not updating inner Stateful Widget

This should sort your problem out. Basically you always want your Widgets created in your build method hierarchy.

import 'dart:async';

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() => runApp(new MaterialApp(home: new Scaffold(body: new MainWidget())));

class MainWidget extends StatefulWidget {
    @override
    State createState() => new MainWidgetState();
}

class MainWidgetState extends State<MainWidget> {

    List<ItemData> _data = new List();
    Timer timer;

    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
        return new ListView(children: _data.map((item) => new ChildWidget(item)).toList());
    }

    @override
    void initState() {
        super.initState();
        timer = new Timer.periodic(new Duration(seconds: 2), (Timer timer) async {
            ItemData data = await loadData();
            this.setState(() {
                _data = <ItemData>[data];
            });
        });
    }


    @override
    void dispose() {
        super.dispose();
        timer.cancel();
    }

    static int testCount = 0;

    Future<ItemData> loadData() async {
        testCount++;
        return new ItemData("Testing #$testCount");
    }
}

class ChildWidget extends StatefulWidget {

    ItemData _data;

    ChildWidget(ItemData data) {
        _data = data;
    }

    @override
    State<ChildWidget> createState() => new ChildState();
}

class ChildState extends State<ChildWidget> {

    @override
    Widget build(BuildContext context) {
        return new GestureDetector(onTap: () => foo(),
            child: new Padding(
                padding: const EdgeInsets.symmetric(vertical: 12.0, horizontal: 24.0),
                child: new Card(
                    child: new Container(
                        padding: const EdgeInsets.all(8.0),
                        child: new Text(widget._data.title),
                    ),
                ),
            )
        );
    }

    foo() {
        print("Card Tapped: " + widget._data.toString());
    }
}

class ItemData {
    final String title;

    ItemData(this.title);

    @override
    String toString() {
        return 'ItemData{title: $title}';
    }
}