This page is dedicated to my current posts regarding the food striker or picky eater.  If you are a frustrated parent looking to make changes in your family dynamics surrounding food, please read my posts.  I concentrate my “picky eating” topics on both parent behavior and child behavior choices.  The theories I discuss are researched based and work well.  Depending on the age of your child and the habits already formed, they may not change overnight.  It takes time to change any habit created over time.  The key is to be consistent. 

As a Nutritional Counselor, I have met many parents who claim to have the world’s worst eater.  Before you read my posts, take a second to think about your relationship with food.  Do you like it?  Do you or your partner turn your nose up to any vegetables?  How do you welcome new foods onto your plate?  Are you an emotional eater?  Where do you eat?  How do you eat (fast, slow, with electronics)?  Do you eat until you are comfortable or really full? 

Now think about your relationship with food and your child.  Do you call your child a picky eater?  Does your child hear you say “he or she will not eat broccoli”? Do you push food on your child?  Do you use food as a reward (potting training for candy)?  Do you make your child clean their plate?  Do you bring any form of attention to your child’s food (healthy or fun foods)?

I ask you these questions because as parents or guardians we need to have a good relationship with food for our children to have a good relationship with food!  Like anything else, we are role models and our children do as we do not as we say.  I also ask you these questions because how you handle food with your child is directly related to the amount of “power” you give food!  Most children love power and if food has power, they will use it!

The most important part of teaching your children to eat is teaching yourself to eat.  If you eat well, your children will eat well.  We need to focus on how to eat and not what to eat.  We need to enjoy our food and appreciate its power on our health.  We need to teach life long eating skills.  All of this is covered in my posts below with many more to come!  Please email at healthylivingrd@gmail.com with any questions or post them in the comment section of my posts.  I would love to hear from you.

Feeding Roles for Parents and Children (Division of Responsibility in Feeding)

Role model behavior tips and ideas to help take the pic out of picky!

Give your child the power to say no so he or she will say YES!

Let your child play with food to experience food

Can we make a picky eater worse?

Age appropriate tasks to get your kids involved in the kitchen

Nutritional serving sizes for children and tips to ensure adequate nutrition for the picky eater

My child is not eating….HELP!

Are you stuck in a rut?

 

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About the author: Clancy Cash Harrison MS, RD, LDN

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