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Help! My Child is a Fussy, Picky, Sometimes Defiant Eater - Here's What to Do About ItBy Gareth Williams
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Getting children to eat is a problem you may encounter from an early age through even the teen years. In younger children, eating problems can be either simple food preferences or a power struggle.
If you feel it's truly not a simple food preference, but is, in fact, your child stubbornly trying to control you, try to make certain a child doesn't feel he/she can control you. Do this by making sure the child stays at the table until at least sampling the food you've prepared. Acceptable behavior may, then, result in a reward, such as a favorite dessert.
In the case of a simple food preference, we all know the situation: left to their own devices, our children would choose pizza, or macaroni-and-cheese, or French fries, or some other food product they crave three meals a day. Vegetables are probably something just short of toxic waste in the eyes of your kids, but you still want children to eat well-balanced, nutritionally sound meals.
Instead of simply banishing your child's favorite foods from the menu, however, try sneaking in some healthy additives. According to one study, nearly 60 percent of children eat only one fruit or vegetable a day, but you can change that.
With pizza, for example, whether homemade or otherwise, add extra tomatoes, red peppers, broccoli, pineapple, and basil leaves. And, when making your own dough, try whole wheat as a healthier alternative.
For Mac-and-cheese, just mix in some vegetables such as carrots, broccoli and cauliflower. And by making them "stealth vegetables," perhaps chopping or shredding them up so they can't be as easily recognized, you've just given your fussy eaters a healthier meal.
With hot dogs, think whole wheat buns again. And think of serving them "Chicago style" - topped with things like onions, tomatoes, tomato slices, and peppers.
Spaghetti & meatballs is another kid favorite that you can doctor up with extra tomatoes (diced), along with chopped mushrooms and onions, and shredded carrots. All nicely hidden by some wonderful marinara sauce!
Whatever your child's favorite, from grilled cheese to peanut butter and jelly, this should get your creative culinary and parenting skills brewing and your children eating healthier, more balanced meals. And it should make those dinner-time battles a thing of the past.
We have dozens more. The sampling listed here are excerpted from our newest book, "Conduct Disorders and Anti-Social Youth," and is designed to give you all the tools you need to manage unmanageable students in the classroom, office and hallways. Learning more about conduct disorders can help you rapidly get more in control of an out-of-control classroom. To quickly improve your classroom management skills, learn all you can about your most misbehaved students, your conduct disorders. The time you spend in your classroom should dramatically improve because of it.
About the Author: Gareth Williams has been an expert in the field of parenting for well over 25 years and is the author of the highly acclaimed ebook 'Harmony at Home - A Parent's Companion'. If you're interested in learning the close guarded secrets of the 'Whole Child Aprroach' which will sky rocket your parenting skills to unparalled success in record time then please visit-http://www.instantparentsuccess.com
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