Gentle Ways to Encourage Your
Child to Eat—and Eat Healthy
Eating should be enjoyable and family mealtimes a time for bonding, not battles.
In their eating habits, children follow their own rhythms and preferences, not necessarily to be difficult, but because they express the needs of the particular child. But parents sometimes lose sight of this, and that's when parent-child conflict over eating can develop.
In The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution
Elizabeth Pantley presents four wise principles for parents to remember. First, the long-term goal is not to make your child eat a particular thing, but to present a variety of healthy options for meals and snacks. Second, since children go for the tastiest looking food first, put healthy foods where they are most available and in view of the child. Third, understand what the proper portion and serving sizes are for your child. And fourth, follow good food rules.
Under the fourth principle, Elizabeth Pantley mentions 11 common rules people make about mealtimes, and she explains which ones are wise and which ones are not. For example, "make a routine for family dinnertime" is a great rule to follow, while "clean your plate" is not. For each rule, Elizabeth explains the reason why the rule may be good or bad. The 11th rule, of course, is you don't always have to follow the rules.
Most parents will appreciate the almost 70 pages of tips, tricks and tactics for solving picky eater problems. That advice will enable them to pick the right "battles" and win the ones they pick. The final section of the book, "The Experts' Favorites," offers helpful recipes from well-known cookbook authors. Even the recipe titles, like Lord of the Apple Rings, sound inviting.
Children born today can expect to eat 189,800 meals and snacks in their lifetime. Getting a child off to the right start is vital to well-being, and Elizabeth Pantley's talent lies in explaining to parents what causes picky eating, and how to develop eating preferences which will sustain a child for a lifetime.
Elizabeth Pantley has also written The No-Cry Sleep Solution, The No-Cry Nap Solution, and The No-Cry Separation Anxiety Solution.
From The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution:
--“Picky eating is a universal problem for parents during the early childhood years. It's popular to blame picky eating on weak, indulgent parents and stubborn, power-seeking kids. But after months of research and interviews with several hundred parents, I can confidently say that this theory is totally off the mark.”
--“Anytime I discover that a majority of children share a trait, that tells me it is normal childhood behavior…”
