Picky Eating Therapy

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.

Serving Sizes for Children and Tips

Tips for Ensuring Nutrition for the Picky Eater

Kid Friendly Foods = Inferior Foods?

Let Your Child Say No, to Say Yes

Is a Picky Eater Made or Born?

Picky Parent = Picky Child?

Play with Your Food

Kids in the Kitchen- Age Appropriate Tasks

Trust Your Child to Eat

Stuck in a Rut?

Deceptively Wrong! Hiding Food does not Teach Healthy Eating

Help! My Kid did not EAT! A Success Story