Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed With Insight, Humor, and a Bottle of Ketchup

by Laura A. Jana, Jennifer Shu

Knowing what to feed children is one thing. Getting them to eat it is quite another!

In Food Fights, 2nd edition, the authors tastefully blend the science of nutrition and pediatrics with the practical insights of parents who have been in your shoes?offering simple solutions for your daily nutritional challenges. Whether you’ve got an infant, toddler, or young child, Food Fights promises entertaining, reality-based advice on:

? How to pick your battles (and arm yourself accordingly)

? Whining and dining, throwing food, and other dietary distractions

? Heaping helpings, TV dinners, fast food, and other nutritional minefields

? Eating out, grocery shopping, and travel

? The 5-second rule

? Drinking and dozing, juice, soda pop, and other classic drinking problems

? Sick kids, vitamins, body weight, allergies, constipation, spitting up…and so much more!

This revised second edition also includes new chapters on healthy breakfasts, what’s lacking in snacking, and supermarket sanity, and serves up important guidance on making sense of package labels and choosing foods wisely. Add the cornucopia of resources such as recipes for success, a nutrient primer, and phone apps that help families stay on a tech-savvy track to good nutrition and this new and improved edition of Food Fights is guaranteed to leave you satisfied.

Genres: Parenting, Nonfiction, Food, Health, Nutrition

346 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Emy · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVED this book! In my quest to find people to "tell me what to do" with raising a child, this book was great. Written by doctors as part of the AAP, they give specific suggestions on when to lose the bottle and paci, etc. How to get your kids to eat better, etc. I really appreciated this book. I breathed a sigh of relief when I was done reading b/c it answered so many of my questions as a new parent.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine. It's very obviously written by pediatricians so while a lot of the advice is pretty conventional, it's less fearmongering/shaming than it could be. Still a pervasive attitude of "making sure there's enough of ___ and ___ and ___ and ___, etc." I don't think you need this if you are already knowledgeable about healthy habits and are committed to offering toddlers more than just the classic "kid-friendly" foods and set limits around time and location of meals and snacks. Could be a useful reference if you aren't as sure and would feel more comfortable with MDs telling you what's is or isn't worth worrying about.

Breastfeeding info was generally not too bad--plus points for mentioning low milk supply often just being a perception rather than a reality and that mom's diet changes may not necessarily be the cause of gassiness or difficulty sleeping, negative points for directing you to consult with your doctors about breastfeeding challenges (but like I said, written by pediatricians)

Useful bits:
* the list of the advantages of meals at daycares was pretty good, and nice to include for not shaming families who don't have full-time childcare providers from family
* offer milk with meals, water with snacks

Bad info:
* they really need to update the chapter on allergens, that's definitely out-of-date to recommend waiting on introducing nuts and shellfish until after 3 years of age.

[Angela Hahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covered all the relevant topics with getting young children to eat and more! The book had straightforward advice and examples with research and recommendations to back it up. The great layout and topic-appropriate imagery also made it enjoyable to read.

[Brianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Helpful tips on developing healthy eating habits with kids, but the tone was truly ridiculous. If you can get past that, good stuff for helping kids have a better relationship with food.

[Hannah • So Obsessed With · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

My eighteen-month-old is a picky eater, which can be very frustrating. I know it's common at this age (and often a control / asserting independence issue more than anything else), but I felt like I needed some reassurance and practical advice. Thankfully, I loved that this book was positive, encouraging and helpful. The tone was occasionally corny, but I'll take that over judgmental/discouraging. I skimmed a few sections that weren't relevant, but I appreciated the overall advice. I So Liked It and thought it was a good starting point in my "picky eating" research.

[Ana De Pould · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would have really loved to give this more than two stars. The information was helpful, and presented in a way that I could take it, run with it and experiment. However, all the cutesy language and metaphors kind of got in the way. It's almost like they tried writing to the lowest common denominator. There's a subtle difference between presenting information in a way "everyone will understand" and "oh my gosh let's make references to 'it's not easy being green' so we can be fun and playful and reach everybody!" I could have done without the latter.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some interesting thoughts on feeding. Most of the book is geared towards feeding your toddler but there was a little info about feeding an infant. There was definitely food for thought!
The one annoying thing was the writing style-it was like the authors were trying to talk to a friend and it fell flat just coming off as weird. I was reading the book because they are pediatricians who are imparting knowledge, not because they are my girlfriends.

[Mrs. Frankenstein]

This was a very informative book but it was missing some information that I would have liked. It does not discuss portion size or frequency when first introducing cereal or baby food. Overall, I found it very informative but since my little guy can't tell me he is full or still hungry it would be nice to know a little more about what the appropriate amount of food is to offer.

[Eileen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book for my child development class. As a preschool teachers, gives a lot of good advice, insightful, humorous and makes you feel like you're not the only one with problems concerning 2-3 year olds..

[Brette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great resource. I liked that it was so balanced -- nothing extreme or unreasonable. The authors were careful to point out which battlegrounds are worth standing firm on and where it's all right to compromise. Will go back to this one as a handy general resource.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was full of obvious advice. Nothing very helpful in it that I hadn't heard, although it made me feel better about my food fights with Abby by realizing that there are a lot worse things that we are not dealing with.

[Ashley Carlson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seriously think that this is great for ANYONE who deals with children.

I have had a tremendous time getting MY Little One to eat anything...and of course I'm still having a hard time, but this book helped me RELAX and CHILL OUT!

Awesome!

[May · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much info of interest and some parts very questionable practice given current recommendations. Since i was reading the revised edition you would think it would have addressed the problems but did not. Oh well.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every mom should get this book when they leave the hospital. Good book.

[Lori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good quick read. Very readable with just enough info and tips to be helpful but not enough to be overwhelming.

[Cristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good tactics and recommendations included. Nothing earth-shattering just a good reminder for those with young children.

[Gello · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very simple and basic information. Probably not very helpful for the parents I work with.