Hungry for Love: Creating a Mealtime Environment That Builds Connection, Life Skills, and Eating Capabilities

Making the most of family mealtime goes well beyond the recommended food groups. According to public health expert Charlie Slaughter, the most important aspect of the meal is not its nutritional merit. When it comes to serving up the stuff that leads to a thriving life, the real sustenance comes from the more important things you feed—your love, your care, and your connection.

Hungry for Love: Creating a mealtime environment that builds connection, life skills, and eating capabilitiesshares Charlie Slaughter’s unique and time-tested perspective on how to reframe meals so that they strengthen the all-important attachment between parent and child. By revisiting dinner table dynamics, mealtimes can result in positive personal growth, and an altogether happier family.

Shared time spent during meals presents manifold opportunities to influence development. This easy-to-read, invaluable guide covers essential factors, from shifting the focus on what and how much a child eats to capitalizing on the time to share experiences about the day. Almost every chapter is followed by a “Food for Thought” segment that facilitates parents in putting the lessons in practice. With heart, humor, and a healthy point-of-view, this indispensable guide to family mealtimes will help you become a more powerful parent and build more connection and joy in your home.

Charlie Slaughter, MPH, RD, is a public health expert based in Connecticut. For thirty-five years he has worked closely with families in the areas of family mealtimes, child development, and prevention. His book Hungry for Love furthers his passion for helping parents and early childhood educators create environments around the table that build deeper emotional connections, important life skills, and eating capabilities. He has given several hundred workshops on the subject at the local, national, and international levels. Slaughter is currently leading an effort to help more children develop a secure attachment by bringing the Circle of Security Parenting(c) intervention to Connecticut communities. The author was recognized in 2013 for this effort when he was awarded the first ever Circle of Security International Award. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, and loves spending time with his two grandchildren and stepdaughter.