Jill Castle, Author of Fearless Feeding, Talks About Healthy Eating
1. What tips would you give parents to have their children eat better?
Answer : Rotate through a variety of different foods, as the learning curve about food and eating is steep, and it takes a whole childhood to raise a healthy eater who likes a wide variety of food. Don’t panic over rejection. But, if you narrow the food offerings to reflect what your child will eat, you will be embattled in trying to get your child to eat more variety later on.
Don’t interfere with your child’s eating or reward any eating performance. Ultimately, this practice sets up the wrong food value system in your child, like stuffing past satisfaction and pitting healthy food against indulgent foods.
Don’t sweat the normal developmental stuff, such as picky eating, copying the food preferences of school friends, and experimenting with food or diet as a teen. These are NORMAL, and when parents understand and expect them to occur, a lot less drama and interference happen along the way—and kids may move through the stage quicker!
2. Do you cover childhood obesity in Fearless Feeding?
Answer : Yes! Although we are not a book specifically on childhood obesity, we help parents deal with it at home. For example, parents may think that if they “help” their child control eating, they will be able to control further weight gain. But, research shows that controlling a child’s eating, especially desirable foods may backfire, making the controlled or limited food more desirous to the child.
3. What makes this book different from what is out there already?
Answer : Fearless Feeding not only captures nutrition from 6 months old (when babies begin solid food) to the end of adolescence, it showcases what to feed kids at each stage, how to do it in positive ways, and why kids behave they way they do around food and eating. Parents often think if they know WHAT to feed, their problems will be solved. But we know that success with feeding comes from an understanding of children’s developmental milestones and positive feeding practices. We include real stories, recipes, meal plans, nutrient charts and additional chapters for trouble-shooting nutrition problems, shopping, and parents’ own challenges with food and eating.
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