How To Cope With Your Picky Eater - Short Order Cooks Vs Force Feeding

Through the ages, parents and children alike have engineered creative plans to alternately, encourage better participation in eating, while avoiding new foods at all costs. Children have been known to hide spoonfuls of alien objects referred to as "dinner" in their napkins or slip it undetected to the family pet under the table. Children will even tuck small bites into the pouches of their cheeks, hoping to go unnoticed as they sit there looking like little chipmunks.

We have plenty of advice to offer stressed parents, but in continuing to "fight the good fight", we also want to tell you some of the things you should not try:

Do Not Bribe - Offering rewards for trying new foods may backfire. Studies have shown this technique often creates an aversion to a particular dish. One mother would try to coax her daughter into trying new food by offering small gifts. As much as the girl wanted the toys, it was not enough to taste anything new. Eventually, the mother accepted that her daughter was not going to change her preferences and stopped worrying so long as the girl remained healthy.

Another type of reward system to avoid is offering dessert at the successful conclusion of a meal. While it is perfectly okay to have dessert, using dessert as a bribe places too much importance on sweets. Instead, serve fruit as a dessert either solo or combined with ice cream or yogurt, or frozen in popsicles.

Force-Feeding - "Oh, come on hon! I promise, one little bite won't kill you," a beleaguered mom pleads as Junior tightly compresses his lips and turns his head. A Starship Destroyer could not get past that blockade so there is really no point in trying. Besides, we really do not advocate force-feeding since chances are great the child will dislike that food for a long, long time.

In an interview with Food Fit (www.foodfit.com), pediatric nutritionist Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob also advises not to force-feed children. "That's just going to create a negative association with food and eating," he explained. Offer food to kids in a very matter-of-fact manner and avoid associating stress with mealtime."

You also want to avoid your children becoming members of the "Clean Your Plate Club", which parallels force-feeding. This can build resentment towards parents and encourage overeating later in life. Children's appetites fluctuate at different times in their lives, meaning they simply may not have room in their stomachs to finish a meal. Serve smaller portions on smaller plates and let them decide if they have room to eat more. Then, respect their decision to decline eating the remainder of food on their plates.

Ellen Satter, a registered dietitian and family feeding therapist, probably said it best by stating, "Parents are responsible for what is presented to eat and the manner in which it is presented. Children are responsible for how much and even whether they eat."

Short Order Cooks - Dr. Ayoob says that parents should not be short order cooks. "A parent's job is over once they present a good, balanced, nutritious diet," he said. Dr. Ayoob also cautioned against offering too many options. "Providing one or two alternatives at a meal allows kids to feel like they have choices, but too much freedom can be problematic."

The bottom line is that children will eat when they are hungry. Preparing two separate meals, one for your picky eater and one for the remaining family members is mainly going to cause you more stress, while creating expectations and perhaps even resentment. Instead, include one or two foods that you know your picky eater will eat and let him or her decide to add food to the plate. However, if your child chooses not to eat anything - fine. There will be another meal or snack in a few hours and you can be sure he will eat something then.

Do Not Supersize Food - Adult-size portions can sometimes be overwhelming for little eyes and little stomachs, so scale things down by offering smaller servings on smaller plates. April Y. of Radcliff, Kentucky said she used to have a hard time getting her six-year-old and four-year-old children to sit through an actual meal. Then, one day after seeing her daughter host a tea party for her teddy bears, Mom got the bright idea to serve dinner on (carefully washed) toy dishes. "It has been great," April says. "Veggies aren't so yucky when served on pink princess plates." Jason Katzenback shows you step-by-step how to successfully cope with Picky Eaters with his highly praised resource Help There is a Picky Eater in The House! Full of Proven Strategies and Great Picky Eater Recipes that are Guaranteed to Help. For more details and to claim your copy of this Step-by-Step resource, visit this site now: http://www.mypickyeater.com

One Change Can Make All The Difference

Ever wondered why some people manage to keep their weight off easily and others just pile it all back on when they stop that new diet? The answer is easy, it comes down to one simple change. Before we get to that simple change, you need to keep in mind these rules of thumb when it comes to dieting. 1. Never do a diet which forbids a food group. This is simply asking for trouble. One day, not . . .

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