Free Workshop for San Antonio Parents: How to Shepherd Your Child's Appetite, in San Antonio May 5

Mar 31, 2012 by Anna Migeon

May 5, 2012,
9 – 11 a.m.
at La Altura Pediatrics: Dominion Hills Plaza 21195 IH-10 West, Suite 2101 San Antonio, Texas 78257

Are meals a battle?
Having trouble getting kids to eat at the table?
Have you become a short order cook?
Do you make two different meals for one family?

Through this interactive workshop, you will:

• Identify which tools you are using to try to make kids eat that actually make things worse, and get equipped with the right tools — the ones that work!

• Find out how to cultivate the right atmosphere and habits in your home so children both eat happily AND behave.

• Discover how to practice “masterly inactivity”: do less to accomplish more.

• Learn how to leverage children’s natural appetites to motivate them to want to eat what YOU want them to eat.

• See how to have more fun in…
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Solution for Picky Eaters: PediaSure, Why Not?

Nov 9, 2011 by Anna Migeon

I just learned of the existence of PediaSure. Apparently it’s been around for at least ten years, but I just discovered it, seeing one of its commercials for the first time. I’m chagrined, but shouldn’t be surprised, to learn that such a thing exists.

There may be some justifiable use of this product, though it’s hard for me to imagine any. For a child who is physically or mentally ill or has genuine, physical sensory problems, I’ll suspend judgment for now.

If it’s for the typical picky child, though, PediaSure is a “solution” that offers false security while aggravating the problem of pickiness in a child. It’s a child’s solution to the problem, not a wiser parent’s solution.

PediaSure will resolve the root problems of pickiness about as well as giving in to a terrorist’s demands or giving a child the candy bar he’s throwing…

The Tempting Apple: How to make raw fruits and vegetables appealing to kids

Nov 21, 2009 by Anna Migeon

This post was featured on Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday on Feb. 5, 2010

Let me just say right off the bat that the best ways to make raw fruits (and vegetables) or anything else that’s healthy more appealing to kids are:

1. Avoid giving them junk food. Ever. Kids who eat junk food develop a taste mostly for junk food.

2. Also: catch them when they’re hungry. Food plus hunger and nothing else equals kids eating.

3. Perhaps most important: do not push them to eat whatever it is. At all. Ever. Kids who are never pushed to eat will naturally like raw fruit. Kids who aren’t pushed do not develop food resistance.

Other posts here expound upon those topics at length. But here is a bit more on the topic of making raw fruit appealing.

The other night, I went to…

Getting Kids to the Dinner Table: What is the parent's job?

Nov 13, 2009 by Anna Migeon

The proper attitude for parents at the dinner table (and a lot of other places) is “engrasa y aprieta,” a Spanish expression meaning literally to grease and to tighten.

A balance of both greasing and tightening is generally needed to successfully bring order out of chaos in your family meals.

If you are joyless and grim about what, where, when and how much your kids eat, you need to lighten up.  Make it fun, make it delicious. If on the other hand, you are haphazard and careless about how, when and what they eat, you need to tighten up.

Bringing in some structure requires discipline on the part of parents and children, but maybe not in the ways you might think.

Knowing when to grease and when to tighten is easier if you know what your job is a parent and what is the children’s, with the labor clearly divided.

The parent’s job description:

DO:

1. Be in…
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