No More Picky Eaters

Back before I started this blog. Back before when my garden was tulips and daffodils, sage and lavender. Back when I started feeding my Little Man solids, the Good Apple and I made some decisions about our family and what we would be eating and how.


When I was pregnant, we cut out high fructose syrup and white flour. Then we went organic.


When it was time for the Little Man to eat, we decided he would eat what we eat and that we would eat well. We knew variety was the key and getting him to at least try foods. We are working on this with the Little Miss and it is much more challenging, but we are still holding our ground.


Planting the garden has helped a ton with the vegetable consumption of the Little Man, but it has turned him into a bit of a produce snob. Who wants frozen peas when you have snap peas off the vine as a snack in the summer?


While chatting with a group of parents recently, some were commenting how their kids would eat anything with Ranch or ketchup and other said theirs would eat only 4-6 things and they were frustrated with meals. I get that. We have our "standards" but that doesn't mean it is always easy or that the Little Man always has a smile on while digging into my latest creation.


Timing is EVERYTHING. I opened my email last night after I had put the kids to bed and there was an email from Elizabeth Pantley, the bestselling author of The "No-Cry" Solution Book Series. She was offering a special blogger contest to kick off the release of her newest book, "The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution - Gentle Ways to Encourage Your Child to Eat--and Eat Healthy." I want it all ready, actually, I REALLY could have used it last night. When it comes to crazy kid situations, I am always bouncing ideas off of my fellow mamas and consulting parenting books. This is a good set.


The book is filled with information, tips and solutions and it includes a chapter of recipes by many well-known family cookbook authors with fun recipes such as Pink Potatoes and Lord of the Apple Rings!


The winner gets a set of cookbooks and TWO sets of the "No-Cry Solution" series to keep or give away. I would give both away...to YOU!!!

The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution

The No-Cry Sleep Solution

The No-Cry Discipline Solution

The No-Cry Nap Solution

The No-Cry Potty Training Solution

The No-Cry Separation Anxiety Solution

The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers & Preschoolers

In addition I would add in:

The Petit Appetit Cookbook by Lisa Barnes

The way I will choose the winner, if I win (fingers crossed for ya) is by randomly choosing someone who leaves a comment below about why they think they have picky kids or maybe you don't! Give us your best helpful hint.


Here are some excerpts from her book. I know you will be hooked!
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“If your child is a picky eater, keep the correct goal in mind. The objective is NOT to make your child eat more food…but to be sure that food choices are healthy ones.”


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"It can be hard - almost impossible sometimes -to change your child's rigidly held eating habits. Instead of trying to overhaul every meal and snack at once, begin by making a few small changes, one at a time, toward a more nutritious diet. Pick just a few items to start with. Once these become routine, then change another couple of items. If you follow this process, you'll find that within a year you will have improved your child's overall diet significantly; and likely affected his lifelong eating habits."


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"What's in your kitchen? A typical home contains plenty of healthy food, along with an assortment of snacks, desserts, and less healthy fare. An adult can sift through all this and decide what's best to eat, picking healthy options and judiciously choosing the right time for and amount of junk food and desserts.Children, however, will naturally be drawn to the tastiest option, with no guilt over the resulting choice. They will open the refrigerator or pantry and pick the most appetizing thing they see.
How can you help your child make better choices? The best way is to put the healthy foods where they can be seen easily and allow your child to choose between the nutritious options in view. Place desserts and junk foods on high shelves or in opaque containers. This way you can dole out the treats when and where you feel they're appropriate."


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"Health officials call soda liquid candy. It’s easy to see why: there is no nutritional value in soda and a twelve ounce can contains 9 to 12 teaspoons of sugar. A 20 ounce bottle contains 16 to 18 teaspoons of sugar! Having just one soft drink a day can increase a child’s risk for obesity by 60%."


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"Make family dinnertime a routine because your children who eat with their parents will eat healthier overall, have better social skills, be less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs later in life, and stay closer to you emotionally throughout childhood, and perhaps beyond. Family mealtime does not have to be formal, structured, or complicated to reap great rewards. A night when you eat sandwiches around the table while chatting about anything under the sun counts just as much as those more formal dinners.There are four things that shouldn't be brought to the dinner table: lectures, reprimands, rigid expectations, and demands for specific conversation.The key to success for the family dinner idea is regularity-four to five times a week or more. Families that make a practice of dining together in a relaxed, pleasant atmosphere reap the most benefits."


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Don't forget to leave a comment about your picky or non-picky eaters!!


(I am not being paid to deliver this post, however, I do stand getting two sets of the books to give to my readers along with some cookbooks I will most likely pass on to my readers as well. - I know as soon as the Good Apple sees a stack of cookbooks for the already jam packed cookbook shelf there will be a *discussion*.) The winner will be chosen at random on November 30th, 2011.