I was given a copy of Food Fights by Laura Jana and Jennifer Shu. I knew right away it was going to be a funny, smart book giving parents insightful information about feeding their children and yet they would arm themselves with humor and stories along the way. The byline is: Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed with Insight, Humor and a bottle of ketchup! Oy, only a mom would write that. When my 2nd son was born the only way we could get him to eat meat was with ranch dressing. Oh, and telling him that every single meat was chicken. Roast beef, nope chicken. Hamburger, nope chicken. Moms of children all get the food fights that go on when your children are very young. Here's a how to book on handling it with the grace and dignity of a mom.
What the book Food Fights does it teaches you to pick your battles. Is it worth it to fight over x? These smart doctor moms know. How do you handle throwing food? Should you give heaping helpings? (uh...no!) How to eat out with your small kids or grocery shop! Should your kids go to nap with a bottle? (not unless you want them to have cavities) They even give us the what to do with a child who has lactose intolerance. Oh how I wish I had this book when my first born was a baby! I have lactose intolerance and never diagnosed it til my son was in the 7th grade and noticed he had issues too. Doh!
This is a must have book for any new parents. So in addition to What to Expect When you're Expecting they should also have a book on how to handle Food Fights. Want to win one? Enter the rafflecopter below and good luck on winning it! Here's a short excerpt:
WHAT’S LACKING IN SNACKING
What’s Not Lacking in Snacking
One of the biggest problems with snacks is, quite simply, that they typically
consist of high-calorie, unhealthy foods rather than nutrient-dense,
healthy foods. With fresh fruit all too frequently replaced by juice and
other sugary drinks, more candy, less milk, and the prize for the largest
increase in snack foods over the past 30 years going to chips and crackers,
what’s clearly not lacking in snacking is salt, sugar, and fat.
Smart Snacking
So now that you know what not to serve for snacks, we wanted to make
sure to impress on you the fact that snacking can and still should play an
important role in your child’s daily diet. Simply put, the right approach
to snacking can help keep kids from getting hungry and cranky while
also giving them added energy and (if you plan it right) added nutrients.
By following simple, smart snacking advice like the tips below, you
can ultimately help your child grow better, think better, and stay active
throughout the day and throughout childhood.
• Snacks should not be the exception to the rule that food, in general,
should have nutritional value. Make sure you commit to applying the
same noble goals in choosing your snacks as you (hopefully) do for
your child’s meals.
• Keep finger foods on hand. Finding foods that are quick and easy to
grab and serve is actually quite easy. Simply cut up some fresh fruits
or veggies; keep whole grain crackers, pretzels, or ready-to-eat (and
preferably low-sugar/high-fiber) cereals on hand; and then let your
toddler or older child handle the feeding part independently.
• Don’t be fooled by packaging. Labels on snack foods for kids, along
with sugary children’s cereals, seem to be the most commonly misleading
when it comes to nutrition. Don’t let creative labeling such as
“fruit snacks” or “low-fat” lead you to believe that sugary treats are
necessarily healthy.
• Figure out some “free foods” that your child can eat at any time. It’s
entirely appropriate to agree on some healthy “free foods” (such as
fruits, vegetables, yogurt, or hard-boiled eggs, for example) that your
child can sit down and eat whenever he’s hungry. Remembering that
your ultimate goal is to help your child learn to eat when he’s hungry
and refrain when he’s not, your role is to simply make very sure that
the criteria you use for creating this list is based squarely on the food’s
nutritional value.
• Keep junk food out of sight and out of mind. This means not
only limiting the amount of junk food you buy and allow into your
pantry, but also the amount of television your child is allowed to
watch. With literally thousands of television ads designed specifically
to make your child’s mouth water over unhealthy snacks and cereals,
turning off the television—not just when you’re eating but keeping it
turned off throughout the day—can go a long way toward preventing
unhealthy eating habits
Great tips for keeping the little ones eating healthy and now to enter the giveaway:
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