In response to my question about the power of brands last week, I heard many interesting opinions and comments! We are routinely bombarded by powerful messages from food brands everyday. As a toddler parent, you probably feel like you are constantly at war with these messages as you try to encourage your child to eat healthy.

No doubt, food brands have enormous power. Name recognition for Coca Cola, McDonalds, Frito Lay chips (Doritos, Cheetos, Lays etc.) is so strong even 3 year olds know about them! Not only that, their impressions about the core message of these brands form early; exactly what every savvy food marketer hopes to accomplish. Fast food is fun and exciting and soda brands are fun because bubbles are fun and people like them. Once these impressions are formed, they are constantly reinforced by clever advertising and pretty soon there is no escape.

So how do you manage the influence of popular food brands on your kids?

This is the question I asked last week. Here are some of the key points and tips I gathered from reader comments:

• Limit TV and exposure to kids commercials
• Explain to kids that foods shown on commercials are not healthy
• Teach kids to choose healthful foods
• Allow limited portions of “treats”
• Avoid mainstream media and associate with like-minded families
• Be a role model and exercise moderation in using heavily advertised foods
• Be a gatekeeper and control what foods are brought inside the house
• Home is the “sanctuary of healthy eating”

I think all of them are excellent tips for you to use in your battle against the irresistible appeal of food brands. One problem all parents face is that they are constantly having to react to the popular brand message and images. These tips, although useful, fall in the category of managing your reactive response to these brands. Unfortunately, you will never win the battle because the other side spends millions of dollars defending and reinforcing their brand message. They will find a way to break through your defense.

We need to play both defense and offense in this battle!

I have been thinking of an idea I want to share with you. It will allow you to not only have a defensive strategy but also an offensive strategy. I would love to hear your comments because I have not yet fully developed this idea and it remains in a conceptual phase right now.

By an offensive strategy, what I mean is that you need to build your family’s personal brand to clearly define your approach to food and nutrition. I don’t mean to suggest that you don’t have one already, but perhaps it could use some definition and clarity. I say this because not only do we face strong brand messages that try to pull us in one direction, we also face a large amount of nutrition advice from various sources. It can be simply too overwhelming at times!

How do you go about building your family’s brand on food and nutrition?

Brands are developed by highly paid professionals, so it is natural to be a little apprehensive about doing it on your own. Still, there are a few basic techniques anyone can follow! They can be perfected over time with enough practice. Here is a very high level conceptual framework you can use as a first step:

Core Values – the foundation for every brand

This is by far the most important step. It is also the first step!

Brainstorm with your family about what is most important to each member. At this stage, it does not need to be limited to food and nutrition; rather take a big picture point of view and identify about 10 things that are at the core of your family. It could be: being happy, being healthy, being together, helping others, being spiritual, being wealthy, having fun, being adventurous, learning and exploring, being part of a community, being environmentally responsible etc. Think broadly and remember what brings peace and joy to your family; what holds you all together.

Next, select your top 3 based on your current family situation. It may be that your personal top 3 are different from your spouse’s. But I can bet that there is at least one which will be common to both. For example, no matter how we do it, being healthy comes out a common value in our family. If you don’t find anything common in your top 3, you will need to sit down and work together until you find one. Remember, it going to be a family brand, not an individual brand!

Main Message – the core idea behind every brand

Once you have a short list of core values, brainstorm on how your family’s eating habits relate to them. Ask if what you eat, and how you eat, supports those values or if it weakens them. Focus not on the day-to-day details, but the general pattern over a sufficiently long period of time. Chances are that your family’s current pattern of feeding is more or less consistent with your core values. If not, you probably find yourself feeling guilty at times! Looking at your current eating habits through the lens of your core values will help you to clearly identify both the positives and the negatives features.

The goal is to keep the positives and get rid of the negatives. It is important to note that they are your positives and negatives based on your core values. Not because someone else is telling you so. Also note that they are not good or bad, they are simply positives if they strengthen your core values, or negatives if they weaken them.

The main message of your family’s brand on food and nutrition will be based on these positives consistent with your core values. It will be at the core of your marketing strategy!

Logo and Slogan – the marketing tools of every brand

Every brand has a logo and a slogan, which communicate its core idea. This is also something real, something tangible, that the brand owner uses to prevent others from copying the brand. This is where the rubber hits the road!

Why not have something similar for your family? This is how you can communicate with others, seek their support or prevent them from derailing your ideas. This is how you will protect yourself from every little nutrition fad that is made popular by the media. This is what will prevent you from impulse buying just because you saw a commercial somewhere.

Sounds weird? Well, next time your child joins a team notice how they immediately try to come up with a name and a jingle to go along with it. Then someone designs a T-shirt and before you know it, you have a nice, well-established identity for the team. It keeps them together and helps them win against other teams.

Why not have something similar for your personal food and nutrition brand?

Promote with Friends and Family – this is your sales force!

You don’t have the luxury of a strong army of sales professionals and a huge advertising budget to promote your brand. What you do have is the support of your friends and extended family. Help them do the same exercise. Don’t get stuck on minor details – for example, they may not be that much into organic foods as you may be. Rather try to find common connecting points based on common core values.

Think of this as a collection of microbrands all teaming up to be a significant force. Use Facebook or other social media to network with other like-minded people. Before you know it, you will have a collective brand at a much bigger scale!

Protect and Defend – every brand needs a good defense

Big business is fanatic about protecting their brands. They have an army of lawyers to go after anybody who tries to misuse their brands, logos and other copyright or trademark materials. They control how their brands are used and strive for an incredible consistency wherever they do business. They do not encourage use of competing brands by their employees and affiliates. They build multiple layers of defense, both externally and internally, to protect their brand equity. It is simply too valuable to give up.

This is what you fight every day. And this is where you have to make some rules. The list of tips in the beginning of this post is a good start, but you have to make your own rules. Too many rules can backfire, and also difficult to enforce, so try to pick a few and be consistent about them.

Notice how this conceptual framework shows these 4 strategies in a circle with core values in the center. Core values do not change but everything else can be refined and tweaked over time as your family enters a different life stage.

What do you think? I would love to hear your ideas!

Ask The Expert is a weekly column on Littlestomaks.com. The idea is to have a reader-submitted question answered by a nutrition expert or a pediatrician. Feel free to submit your question in the comments section below.

This week, Registered Dietitian Cindy Williams offers practical tips to help you get your growing toddler to eat a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables.

Question: How do I get my 3 year old to eat better? He never eats veggies and only eats a handful of items like chicken nuggets, pizza, pasta, rice, and cereal.

Answer:

Toddlers are notoriously fussy eaters. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, their growth rate has slowed so they usually don’t need to eat so much.

Second, as we fret about the nutritional inadequacy of two bites of toast for breakfast and desperately cajole them to eat a bit more, our darling child learns that with one tiny word – NO – they can make mummy and daddy act really funny. And if they keep on saying it long enough they might get really yummy stuff to eat. This is when the frazzled parents finally give in to the child’s incessant tearful demands for his favorite food and think ‘At least he’s eating something’. What can we do to win this power battle and come through it with a healthy child that eats a wide range of foods? Here are a few ideas.

1. Serve one new food at a time, along with familiar foods. Include one favorite food with each meal.
2. It can take up to 15 tries of a new food for your child to like it. Don’t give up on the first refusal. Try again in a few days.
3. Just like adults there will be some foods that your child won’t like even after 15 tries. Take a break and try again when they are a little older and their taste-buds have developed a bit more.
4. Add vegetables to the favorite foods e.g. pizza topped with cooked spinach, finely chopped red pepper or broccoli or pasta topped with thick vegetable soup as a pasta sauce.
5. Hide vegetables in favorite foods e.g. grated carrot and pumpkin in pasta sauce, mince and burgers. Fried rice with egg, corn, red pepper and carrot.
6. Try corn on the cob. Cut a cob in three to make it easy for little fingers to handle.
7. Toddlers can’t eat huge meals. Give them small snacks through the day. Try carrot sticks, baby tomatoes, cut fruit pieces, grapes and cheese cubes.
8. Try it raw. Serve raw sliced vegetables for your children to nibble while you make dinner. They may eat their whole vegetable quota before the meal.
9. Turn food into play. Give food fun names e.g. ‘moon squirters’ for baby tomatoes. Arrange food to look like a face, a house, a rocket ship or a train. My 4-year-old ate a pile of mashed potato with fish and vegetables because it was called ‘Tracey Island’ from Thunderbirds!
10. Make finger food. Toddlers prefer distinctive pieces of food that they can identify and pick up in their fingers.Eat as a family when possible. Children learn by example. If they see their parents and older siblings enjoying vegetables and other healthy food they are more likely to want to try it.
11. Involve your child in growing or picking fruit, vegetables and herbs. Taste it right there in the garden. It’s much more fun than eating at the table.
12. Point out interesting fruit and vegetables in the supermarket and let your child choose one to take home.
13. Let your child help out in the kitchen. They could drop tomatoes in the salad, shell peas, peel a banana, drop fruit into the blender or turn it on when making a fruit smoothie, pat out some pizza dough or sprinkle cheese.

REMEMBER…

You are not a restaurant

When a toddler complains that they don’t like their meal and that they want something different, empathize with them but don’t jump up and make something else.

You provide the quality, they choose the quantity

Young children are perfectly designed to eat when they are hungry and stop when they are full. They may miss a meal in protest at the ‘yukky’ food but their rumbling tummy will eventually have them eating whatever you have provided.

My niece went through this fussy stage as a toddler. One evening came the final showdown. She refused her dinner and demanded something else. Her dad told her that was fine; they would just keep it for her breakfast. Off she went to bed with no dinner and lots of tears, much to the horror of her mom. The next morning dinner was waiting. She refused it. Off they went to church. The dinner went too! Finally she gave in and the battle was won. Hopefully you won’t need to be this brutal, but it worked.

If necessary, give your child a temporary nutritional supplement

If you’re concerned that your fussy toddler isn’t getting enough nutrients, particularly iron which is critically important at this age, give him a temporary nutritional supplement. Nutrient fortified milk is great. Also give him fruit with his meals to increase iron absorption. Once you feel assured that he’s getting all his nutritional needs, you are less likely to fall into the ‘At least he’s eating something’ trap. You’ll be ready to take back the reins of power.

It’s a stage that will end

Hang in there. Keep serving up a variety of food and flavours. Take a few deep breaths, perhaps a glass of wine, and know that this stage won’t last forever.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com. All Rights Reserved

Disclaimer – Information provided in Ask The Expert column on Littlestomaks.com is intended to give you general guidance on a question related to toddler nutrition. It is not meant to be treated as medical advice. You are welcome to contact this expert for a detailed consultation on your specific situation to determine what actions, if any, you should take regarding nutrition and health of your toddlers. We do not recommend you to take any action based solely on the information presented in this column. Experts have agreed to provide their professional opinion on toddler nutrition related questions on a voluntary basis and no compensation is offered to them by Littlestomaks.com.

The title of this book resonated with me a lot! Except that in our case, we have two hungry monkeys on our hands!!

I first came across this book by Matthew Amster-Burton when I read a review in the New York Times last month. I contacted Matthew who graciously sent me a complimentary copy so I could write my own review on this blog. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as I read it cover-to-cover during the last couple of weeks. I wish I had time to try out a few of his recipes before writing this review, but I don’t want to delay presenting to you my first impressions about this book. I will surely be writing more about it as we try some of the recipes and tricks with our kiddos.

Overview

Overall, I found this book honest, delightful and deliciously funny! And of course, extremely useful because of over 50 recipes spread across the 21 chapters. Don’t let that scare you though – the book is just a little over 200 pages and reads extremely well, almost like a nice story!

Written in an informal and conversational tone, it keeps your interest while delivering a few chuckles if you have lived through the daily battles with a picky eater. As a dad, I could relate to Matthew’s trials and tribulations on many levels. In all honesty though, I must admit that I frequently felt pangs of envy since he gets to spend so much time with his daughter Iris while having a lot of fun experimenting with all sorts of recipes. His knowledge of food, different cuisines and cooking methods is very impressive. Although he has the right experience over the years as a restaurant critic and food writer, he does not take the high ground in this book and writes in a down-to-earth practical way. Here are a few things I really liked about this book -

• His overall attitude that you don’t have to be a good cook to share food with your child. No need to put so much pressure on yourself to make perfect recipes all the time.
• No reason to prepare a different meal for your child; make something that all of you can eat as a family.
• I loved the Little Fingers tips in his recipes for getting the kids involved in a cooking project.
• His attitude on picky eating – picky eating is annoying but not a medical problem. It sure puts things in perspective.
• Reading the chapter Sugar Makes Parents Hyper made me realize that my son’s interest in anything sweet is perfectly normal. Of course, it is fine to regulate the overall sugar consumption, but there is no point getting agitated by a few cookies during the day.
• Eating = Fun, that’s the attitude we need to cultivate as parents.
• Amazing stories of how he managed to teach Iris to cook pancakes and grilled sandwiches.
• Good breakfast tips- McCann’s Irish Oatmeal, french toast and syrup, homemade waffles

10 things I learned from this book I did not know before

1. You can blend spinach into meatballs. I want to try his recipe for chicken and spinach meatballs.
2. Some veggies, especially leafy greens can irritate the taste buds of a small child. That could explain the early aversion to vegetables.
3. All eel sold in the US comes from China even though a lot of eel is caught off the Southeastern US and shipped to Japan. Doesn’t sound very “green” to me!
4. Chicken Teriyaki is Seattle’s favorite lunch. I have never been to Seattle, so I did not know that. Amazing coincidence – our twins love to go to the local Mall to enjoy the Japanese style fast food Teriyaki chicken with fried rice.
5. Meat grinding at home can be fun for kids to watch as the “worms” come out of the other end. It also gives you higher quality meat since oxygen has not had enough time to turn it “stale”.
6. Quote from Ellyn Satter – involving children in cooking and gardening in the hope that doing so will make them eat better does not work.
7. You can mix shrimp with grits. I always thought grits were something you had for breakfast – and for some reason – I never thought of mixing it with shrimp.
8. Taste for food develops over time and is based on personal experience. Based on an experiment from MIT, if you know you are not going to like something, it is unlikely you will develop a “taste” for it after trying it. This flies in the face of “try a bite” strategy for getting your child to eat new foods.
9. Peer pressure works very well in getting people to develop a taste for different foods later during the adult years. I wonder – can it start early?
10. Iris had raw fish at 11 months in the form of mashed tuna from a spicy tuna roll. Bottom line – be adventurous (but not foolish) when it comes to exposing your child to new stuff.

What I did not like so much

• I thought Matthew was a little too harsh on Ruth Yaron’s Super Baby Food especially when it comes to food allergies. I admit, I have not read this book, nor do I plan to. I am glad things worked out well for Iris, but there is nothing more nerve-wracking for a parent than to watch her child throw up violently for no reason. In my opinion, it is better to be cautious at least in the first two years. I do like his attitude that of still finding ways to enjoy food when you have known food allergies by experimenting with recipes and ingredients.
• I am surprised that he did not mention Basmati rice even though Iris is a big rice-eater. Unlike jasmine rice, basmati rice is low in glycemic index and has a great texture and fragrance.
• He uses  a little too much butter in his recipes. I am also not a big fan of pork and bacon.
• I would have liked a few more vegetarian recipes.
• I love pictures, so it would have been nice to see the pictures of his recipes.

Recommendation

Overall, a very entertaining and yet a very informative book, which you may consider in case you find yourself

• wanting to read a real dad’s real experiences when it comes to raising a healthy eater;
• wanting to experience a variety of foods and eating experiences with your child;
• feeling overwhelmed and confused by tons of heavy technical information related to nutrition;
• feeling motivated to bring a sense of fun, adventure and enjoyment to family mealtimes;
• wanting to enjoy your child’s growth in the early years when the daily battles at mealtimes make you want to say I quit!

Overall, I give it a big thumbs up! Visit hungrymonkeybook.com to read the first 3 chapters and information on how to buy this book.

Leave me a comment if you found this review useful.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

This is a guest post by Christine Kane-McKenzie, owner at “Falling Through the Cracks”, a non-profit she created for single parents who have fallen through the bureaucratic cracks to help them achieve a better future. She is also a distributor for Juice Plus^+®.

A few facts about Childhood Obesity in Texas

The statistics in 1962 showed that 13% of the U.S. population was obese but by 2000 this rate had increased to 31% according to American Sports Data.  The population of Texas is about 24 million. The population of children, ages 10-17, ranks first in the US at 21.4% with 32.2% being overweight or obese, according to Trust for America’s Health .  With that said, those same children rank 31.7% overweight or obese across the US.  Their statistics also show that the state of Texas has 21.4% of children under 18 who are uninsured.  Finkelstein and his collaborating researchers reported in Health Affairs – The Policy Journal of the Health Sphere – a drastic increase in medical coverage for obesity through Medicare/Medicaid since 1998.  In 1998 approximately half of the over $78 Billion spent on health coverage was financed by Medicare and Medicaid.  Through 2006 that number is estimated to have increased $40 Billion. Taking care of our health now will alleviate most insurance costs attributed to obesity.

What I’m getting at here is our children need to understand the importance of good health, good nutrition, and proper exercise practices.  The first step to improving or maintaining a child’s proper weight is to inform the parents about nutrition, exercise, and quality time with children.

How do you determine if a child will be obese? Is it genetic?

The obesity-predisposing genotype is heritable in 10% of individuals according to a 2006 article in the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  Beyond genetics is the susceptibility to dietary variations, along with a major contribution of familial influenced learned behaviors such as exercise and regular activity away from the TV, computer, and video games according to researchers from Canada who published their findings in this article on PubMed.

Does this mean that everyone who has the obesity-predisposing genotype has to become obese?

No. It only means it’s a possibility.

The fact is anyone has the potential to become obese, unless they have hyperthyroidism, if their caloric intake outweighs their physical activity. Eric Ravussin, Chair in Diabetes and Metabolism at Louisiana State University and a prominent exercise researcher, was recently quoted in this TIME magazine article – “exercise is pretty much useless for weight loss”. Exercise is great to keep the body healthy and the ability to stave off disease processes such as diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and stress levels.  Being in shape strengthens muscles that support the skeleton and alleviates back problems. I, for one, am living proof that obsessively excessive exercise has done nothing for me when it comes to losing weight. I felt great but the weight just hung around. During a five year period I had invested in a local work-out plan and also hired three separate trainers as well.  I was well toned, to say the least, but still gained 5 – 10 lbs and was always exceptionally hungry.

Basically, we need to expend our energy on daily activities in balance with caloric intake. Think of it this way. Our ancestors (yes, even the kids) gardened, plowed fields, bailed hay, walked or ran everywhere, scrubbed everything around the house and barn by hand, took care of farm animals, and so forth, so their energy expenditure equaled or exceeded their caloric intake (in some cases they may have not had enough food).  In any case, there were still a few individuals who became obese due to genetics.  Now days kids get up, run out the door without breakfast, get on the bus for school, sit in a desk most of the day (most schools only have P.E. a couple times a week now), come home, relax in front of the TV/video game and eat unhealthy snacks before a hearty dinner, then off to bed.  Where’s the energy expenditure?

What can be done before it begins or reverse the weight gain in children?

Children follow what they see.  If your routine is to stop at the local drive-thru, you’re setting the scene for obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and other chronic health risks.  Delayed satisfaction is a great lesson for our children in this era of remote controls. Cooking wholesome nutritious meals together as a family will benefit everyone in more ways than one.  The main point is, as a parent, what we do as parents we pass on to our children.  We all want what’s best for them… is obesity one of those things?

Trimming the fat tips for the budget and the waistline

Here are a few tips for Cutting eating costs – even with special diets based on an article by the Chicago Family Health Examiner:

• Look up sites for coupons for whole foods.
• Go to farmers markets instead of the fruit & veggie aisle at the supermarket.
• Stop going out to eat so much and make good choices when you do.
• Have fun growing a garden with the kids – an herb garden, tomatoes, broccoli, and peppers are easy and really don’t take up a lot of room to plant.
• Look into supplementation  like Juice Plus+^® – 17 organic whole fruits and veggies, ground up and put into caplet’s for adults and chewables and gummies for kids for about $1.50/day.
• Another good site to look at is called “The Science of Appetite”. It has tips on what foods make you eat more, what people eat around the world, how to curb your appetite, and more.

Family fun and exercise = Quality time

Quality time is the most important part of having healthy balanced children.  Taking time to talk about health together is just as important as talking about drugs and alcohol to your kids.  Everyday should have some sort of fun activity that is shared by the family such as:

• Playing football or baseball
• Walks around the block a couple times a day
• Ride bikes
• Roller blade
• Skate boarding
• Dancing together

©2009 Littlestomaks.com
Disclaimer: I have not received any sponsorship from Juice Plus+^® and publication of this article is not an endorsement of their products by Littlestomaks.com

Getting your toddler to sit down at the dinner table and eat with you as a family is a task of monumental proportions for most parents, us included! It is something we all want, yet we struggle each day; only to pick up the pieces of our valiant efforts and move on to the next! We even stop going out to restaurants because we hate the looks we get from others – some sympathetic, some politely unapproving while some others rudely hostile! We wish for the toddler years to magically fly by hoping that one day our energetic monkey will simply learn to sit quietly in his seat and finish his meal like a grown-up, well-behaved child.

In her guest post The Power of Family Meals – Tips for Feeding Toddlers, Dr. Kathleen Cuneo offered some tips for making mealtimes a pleasant experience unlike the daily battles most toddler parents are used to. We have been trying some of these ideas, sometimes with success. But there is nothing predictable about our 3-year olds when it comes to mealtime behavior. Recently, however we stumbled upon a trick that seems to have worked a few times. I want to share it with you in this post.

A couple of days back, we took our twins to the community pool, and on our way back stopped by to pick up some pizza we had ordered earlier. As soon as we came home, we got the twins in their high chairs on the dinner table and immediately offered them a slice of their favorite cheese pizza. We got our own plates out and started with our own veggie pizza. A few minutes passed by, and still no one jumped out of their chair! So far so good, I thought – give them a few more minutes then we will see!

Suddenly, without any plan or serious thinking, I started a “question” game with the twins:

And my favorite food is?

PIZZA, shouted out my daughter.

I looked at my son, and asked “And what is your favorite food?”

He stopped, looked at me for a moment, his mouth full of the bite of pizza he had just taken. Holding the half-eaten slice in his hand, he shouted COOKIES! – well no surprises there!!

This is fun, let us keep playing I told myself.

And …. your favorite animal is? I paused as I looked at my daughter.

SHEEP, she answered, obviously remembering her recent favorite stuffed animal.

TRAIN, reflected my son – in his mind, a train was an animal! But hey there is no point debating on this topic with an imaginative 3-year old, right?

And my favorite animal ….I paused….is FISH!

They both looked at me and laughed. By this time, one full slice of pizza had disappeared.

And …… what is your favorite drink?

MILK (daughter), and a few seconds later, Hmmmm….ICE CREAM! (son). (we give him homemade OJ ice cream cup)

And my favorite drink…another pause…is WATER!

By this time, both of them were fully engaged in this game as the whole family enjoyed pizza. Almost 15 minutes had passed and everyone was still in their chairs. Their plates had a second slice of pizza now.

We kept on – the questions and answers kept going in a pattern, first my daughter, then my son, then me and then their mom, who by now seemed to be thoroughly enjoying this spectacle with befuddled amusement.

And …. who is your favorite person?

MOM! cried my daughter. I was so disappointed, but then the sight of mom’s beaming face was a memorable moment!

Eventually, we all finished the pizza. Mom and I even enjoyed a glass of wine!

Looking back, having fun is probably the most important trick of all. Play is the secret ingredient for success at mealtime!

What is your favorite tip for fun at mealtime?

In case you are wondering, the photo of our twins in this post was taken at a Thai restaurant when we went out to celeberate our 10th anniversary this year. It is not often that we find them having so much fun, but when they do, it is nice to have a camera handy!

Enjoy!

©2009 Littlestomaks.com

This post is a guest post by Kayris, a mom to two in Maryland. She writes about raising kids in the big city at The Great Walls of Baltimore. A proud AP mom, she especially uses the principles of Attachment Parenting in the kitchen.

Attachment Parenting is a style of parenting that focuses on creating strong and healthy emotional bonds between child and parent. AP parents believe that using love and respect to guide parenting decisions–from nutrition to discipline to how you teach your child to sleep–forges a strong and secure bond that lasts beyond childhood into adulthood. For more on the eight principles of Attachment Parenting, please visit Attachment Parenting International.

Among the many milestones a baby will reach in his first year, beginning the transition from breast milk or formula to solid food is one of the most fun. What parent doesn’t have a video of a young child sucking in spaghetti one noodle at a time, or a photo of a child wearing (rather than eating) the first birthday cake?

In the wake of the recent childhood obesity epidemic, it’s my opinion that introducing solids to your baby is one of the most important milestones as well. Starting in babyhood, you can stress the importance of respecting your body by practicing good nutrition, and by modeling healthy eating habits, you give your child tools to make healthy food choices as an older child and adult.

Think about all the people in your life and there is bound to be at least one, facing diabetes or another medical crisis, struggling to change a lifetime of bad food habits. It might seem difficult to imagine your baby as an adult, but the attitude you impart to your child NOW will last a lifetime.

As a mom to two, I’ve spent plenty of time wondering if my babies were eating enough, often enough, or a wide enough variety of foods. By making good nutrition and a healthy lifestyle a priority for our family, I now have two children that I consider to be good eaters. Each has their challenges, but here are some of the points that have worked for our AP family.

• Introduce Solids When Your Baby Is Ready–Most doctors will say this happens between four and six months, but let your child lead the way. Don’t let others pressure you into starting solids before your child is ready. My son, now 5 years old, let us know he was ready at 4 months when he would reach for food on our plates. My daughter, now 2, was closer to six months.. She showed no interest before then and it wasn’t until her sleep patterns changed that she was ready.
• Go Slow, And Keep Food Allergies In Mind–If your family has a history of food allergies, ask your pediatrician for specific instructions on when and how to introduce solids. Otherwise, try one new food at a time and wait several days in between new foods so you can be sure there isn’t a problem.
• Make Breast Or Bottle Number One–For the first year, breast milk or formula should supply most of your baby’s calories. Solids are extra. If you are breastfeeding, keep an eye on your supply, as introducing solids can decrease your supply. Read more about maintaining and increasing your supply at Kellymom.com. Personally, I always ended each solid feeding meal with my two children with a short five minute pumping session to keep my milk supply up.
• Never Force A Child To Eat–A baby that is not hungry won’t eat. Try to avoid forcing food on your child, and let his or her natural ability to gauge hunger and satiety develop. This is key to raising an older child that knows when to stop eating! If your baby isn’t interested, put away the food and try again later.
• Have Reasonable Expectations–Some children are better eaters than others. Food preferences are also partially genetic, so don’t be surprised if your baby strongly dislikes something. While some kids need to be offered a food ten times or more before they will accept it, some foods may never be accepted! Think about your own food preferences and you’ll likely find some strong favorites and some strong un-favorites. Neither of my children will eat carrots in any form, no matter how I prepare them; I’ve had to conclude that, for now, it’s a food they don’t like. In addition, pickiness is a natural stage that many children go through. Likes and dislikes will change over the years. Don’t be surprised if your baby happily accepts every food you give him, only to refuse to eat them as a strong willed toddler.
• Respect Your Child’s Individuality–This is especially important if your baby is your second child. Don’t expect or pressure your baby to do things like their older sibling did, or like the child next door. Each child develops at their own pace and in their own way. That goes for eating habits as well.
• Eat As A Family–Get your child used to sitting down with the family to eat at an early age. A study at Columbia University showed that teens who eat dinner with their families six to seven times a week are almost 50 percent more likely to remain substance-free than teens who eat dinner with their families twice a week or less. Teens who eat dinner often with their families are more likely to have better grades, lower stress levels and healthier diets. Family dinners three or more nights per week reduce a child’s likelihood to engage in risky behavior. Start your baby eating with the family now, so it’s an ingrained habit when they are older. In addition, eating as a family is a great way to bond with your children.
• Model Healthy Habits–Long before your baby becomes aware of advertising and is susceptible to tricky marketing aimed at kids, the person with the most influence is YOU. Make sure when your baby sees you eat, it’s wholesome and healthy food. If your diet could use some improvement, this is a great time to do it.

Finally, always remember the AP principle to feed with love and respect.  The healthiest food in the world doesn’t mean as much if the bond between parent and child isn’t there.

Find more information on Attachment Parenting and toddler nutrition here.

Photo source: marekf on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

I have asked this question on my Global Toddler survey, but I want to open this one up for everybody in a new poll on my blog. Please vote, and if you feel like it, leave a comment explaining your vote.

So where do you go for advice on toddler nutrition?

1. Your pediatrician
2. Nutritionist or Registered Dietitian
3. Internet
4. Trusted friend/family
5. Books or Magazines
6. Networking group
7. Other

Select up to 3 out of these 7 categories. I would love to hear your comments, especially if you choose the “other” category. Feel free to share your reasons for relying on your preferred sources.

©2009 Littlestomaks.com