Taking a Detour: One good way to neutralize a kid’s food resistance

Oct 11, 2009 by

ConklinbookDSC_8156 “Yuck! I don’t want any of that!” your little one says when she gets to the table and sees the healthy dish you’ve lovingly prepared. You feel pretty strongly about her eating it. So what comes next?

Which is closest to your reaction?

a) “You have to eat one bite.”

b) “If you eat it all, you can have some dessert.”

c) “If you don’t…

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To Melissa G., the Recessionary Grocery Shopper: The Official Kid-Will-Eat-It Guidelines

Oct 1, 2009 by

Dear Melissa G.,

Congratulations! You have been named “ground zero for the new austerity” by one of our food industry giants, according to an article I just read in Advertising Age.  Industrial edibles manufacturers, scrambling to keep their profits up while consumers like you look for ways to spend less, are taking a hard look at you, the average grocery shopper, and how you think and behave.  Melissa, you represent today’s Every Mom:  the very picture of the grocery-shopping parent. You are the bull’s eye of the target for processed food manufacturers in this economic downturn.

It’s quite an honor, and a responsibility, a sacred destiny even, Every Mom. The wellbeing of the American child is in your hands.

While Campbell Soup was analyzing your habits and attitudes…

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Dr. Vincent Boggio’s recommendations on losing weight for French kids

Aug 23, 2009 by

ParisMarketFruitDSC_6832HEALTHY EATING IN FRANCE is pure temptation when you see such gorgeous fresh produce, offered here at a Sunday morning outdoor market in Paris. — photo by Anna Migeon

“What do I do? My child is fat,*” French parents are starting to ask.

French pediatrician Vincent Boggio of has published two books (Que Faire? Mon Enfant est Trop Gros*, 2004, and La Methode Papillote, 2008 ) to answer that question. His method for weight loss designed for children, with the support of their parents, is simple:

1. Walk 30 minutes a day,

2. Eat only during meals,

3.read more

On the French Front: Crazy French Beliefs about American Eating Habits

Aug 19, 2009 by

Stock eifel tower

I just got back from 17 days in France visiting my husband’s family there.

One evening at my parents-in-laws’ house, I met a woman whose first question to me was:  “But do you have regular meals at your house in America?”

I knew what she was getting at, but I felt defensive.  I knew she had a point, but I was irritated. Also, as if I would admit it at this point if the answer was no.

I felt like I was being asked if I had quit beating up my husband.  I felt like she was holding up a piece of our collective national…

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Strategies for Eating Mindlessly / Strategies for More Mindful Eating

Aug 3, 2009 by

Stock family eating 2

Eleven Strategies of Mindless Eating:

· Make food look like something else, a face, or a tiny airplane, or a rabbit, for example.

· Distract kids from the food itself, making eating a game so kids won’t think about the fact they’re eating.

· Make food and eating a battle ground of wills.

· Connect eating to punishment or reward.

· Tell kids to clean their plates.

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