Coping With a Picky Eater: A Guide for the Perplexed Parent

End the Food Wars!
Do you feel as if you're running a restaurant instead of cooking dinner for a family? Are you tired of dumping plates of uneaten food in the garbage? Then you must read Coping with a Picky Eater. This fresh, practical, and realistic guide explains to parents how they can avoid mealtime battles with kids aged one to six years, using sensible strategies that will establish a lifetime of healthful eating habits.
With cases ranging from the toddler who eats only peanut butter and jelly on white bread to the six-year-old who insists on scrambled eggs and cheese at every meal, pediatrician William G. Wilkoff, M.D., has been counseling picky eaters and their concerned parents for more than twenty years. Debunking common myths and soothing parents' fears, Dr. Wilkoff covers such practical matters as:

• providing appropriate nutritional guidelines for youngsters one to six, including serving sizes;
• dealing with nutritional saboteurs -- from indulgent grandparents to accommodating (or impatient) caregivers;
• resisting the temptation to "whip up" special orders that disrupt family meals and give the picky eater control over the family dynamic.

Dr. Wilkoff shows that by establishing reasonable rules when children are young, parents can not only eliminate daily fights about food, but also reduce the possibility of eating disorders later in life.

William G. Wilkoff, M.D., is a pediatrician. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.