This coming year, I already know I want to spend more time in God’s Word. When I read scripture, it gives balance and perspective to all that I do. Don’t know why I procrastinate opening up the Bible, but I do. This year, no matter what, I want to make reading scripture a regular part of my day.

Okay, I’ll go one more and make a second resolution. This one is really for you. There are moments when I want to stop writing the Baby Bites blog. Yes, it’s true. I’ve posted twice a week for over two years.

Who knew sugar does so much harm?

Sometimes the blogs come together in a few minutes, mostly they do not. I love to research nutrition and health, so I usually have something to write about. When I don’t, then I get creative. My resolution is to find new ways to help you in your family’s health journey. Every week, I’ll do my best to give you the latest vital health information.  If you have any topics or questions you’d like to know more about, let me know.

My last blog, A New Year’s Resolution for Your Family’s Health, brought up a common problem parents face. Even when  you do your best to feed your family healthy foods, well-meaning friends and family keep giving your kids sugar. Especially for those who want to cut out or cut back on the sugar your family ingests, I’ll begin my resolution by offering reasons which will help you to explain to others why sugar is harmful:

• Sugar interferes with healthy eating, by substituting empty calories for nutritious foods.
• Sugar promotes picky eating.
• Sugar is addictive.
• Sugar can lower your Vitamin E levels.
• Sugar suppresses the immune system.
• Sugar feeds cancer cells.
• Sugar can contribute to hyperactivity, anxiety, depression, concentration difficulties, and crankiness in children.
• Sugar can cause behavioral problems in kids.
• Sugar can produce a significant rise in triglycerides.
• Sugar can cause drowsiness and decreased activity in children.
• Sugar can reduce helpful high-density cholesterol (HDLs).
• Sugar can promote an elevation of harmful cholesterol (LDLs).
• Sugar can cause hypoglycemia.
• Sugar contributes to a weakened defense against bacterial infection.
• Sugar can cause kidney damage.
• Sugar can increase the risk of coronary heart disease.
• Sugar may lead to chromium deficiency.
• Sugar can cause copper deficiency.
• Sugar interferes with absorption of calcium and magnesium.
• Sugar can increase fasting levels of blood glucose.
• Sugar promotes tooth decay.
• Sugar can produce an acidic stomach.
• Sugar can raise adrenaline levels in children.
• Sugar leads to periodontal disease and cavities.
• Sugar speeds the aging process, causing wrinkles and gray hair.
• Sugar can increase total cholesterol.
• Sugar contributes to weight gain and obesity.
• High intake of sugar increases the risk of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
• Sugar contributes to diabetes.
• Sugar can contribute to osteoporosis.
• Sugar can cause a decrease in insulin sensitivity.
• Sugar leads to decreased glucose tolerance.
• Sugar can cause cardiovascular disease.
• Sugar can increase systolic blood pressure.
• Sugar causes food allergies.
• Sugar causes free radical formation in the bloodstream.
• Sugar can cause toxemia during pregnancy.
• Sugar contributes to eczema in children.
• Sugar can overstress the pancreas, causing damage.
• Sugar can cause atherosclerosis.
• Sugar can compromise the lining of the capillaries.
• Sugar can cause liver cells to divide, increasing the size of the liver.
• Sugar can increase the amount of fat in the liver.
• Sugar can increase kidney size and produce pathological changes in the kidney.
• Sugar can cause depression.
• Sugar can increase the body’s fluid retention.
• Sugar can cause hormonal imbalance.
• Sugar can cause hypertension.
• Sugar can cause headaches, including migraines.
• Sugar can alter the mind’s ability to think clearly.
• Sugar can increase blood platelet adhesiveness which increases risk of blood clots and strokes.
• Sugar can increase insulin responses in those consuming high-sugar diets.
• Sugar increases bacterial fermentation in the colon (diarrhea)

May 2011 Be Happy And Healthy.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

The resolutions you make for 2011 will make all the difference for your family’s health in the coming year. As this holiday season closes, I see that it’s nearly impossible for parents to fend off those who don’t understand the benefit of healthy eating for kids, no matter the season.

Parents, who attempt to be good role models and provide the most nutritious of foods and snacks, face detour after detour. When your spouse doesn’t see the necessity of healthy eating, you’re sabotaged at every step. If you are going it alone, it’s easy for other family members to sabotage your best efforts. This parent often feels defeated and needs all the support they can get.

Tristan wants to know why some grown-ups think sugar is love.

It’s not much easier for the household where both parents are on the same healthy eating page. They often come against well-meaning friends, neighbors and even family members. What can you do when loving Auntie, teacher (yes, even Sunday school teacher), or grandma gives your children candy? What about your baby?

This holiday season, I have been amazed, on numerous occasions, at the well-meaning adults who give not just children, but babies (like Tristan) candy, cookies, cocoa, and soda. Somehow it’s fun for them to share their sugar habits with even the smallest of children.

Keeping Sweets from Babies
I’m old enough to remember a time when adults protected, that is prevented babies (usually to age two), from consuming sweet treats. So I expect more from adults. You don’t have to teach children to eat sugar. On the contrary, sugar consumption at an early age usually leads to picky eating. Today, the problem is compounded. Not only are desserts loaded with sugar, but it’s high fructose corn sweetener and artificial colors and flavors that are the concern. If you have a child under two, inform the loving adults in his/her life no sweets at all until after the second birthday.

One Healthy Resolution
The average person eats between two and three pounds of sugar a week! When you make cutting out sugar (at least as much as possible) as your New Year’s resolution, you will be cutting out much of the artificial stuff in food as well. Not only will this one change keep your family healthier, but you’ll help to educate those around you by your family’s commitment to healthy eating. You can’t change them, but you can help them to see why you have chosen to eliminate harmful sugars.

Be Proactive
Share your New Year’s resolution for healthy eating with everyone. Keep it about your family. You want the next year to be free from colds, the flu, ear infections and any creepy crud that may go around. Obesity is a national hazard, one you want to avoid for your family. Then, before each holiday, remind family members of your resolution to avoid sugar. If the adults in your children’s lives begin to understand that you are not being mean, but wanting a healthier 2011 for your kids, you may begin to gain their support.

Take every opportunity to share healthy concepts and how they have affected your family. I’m astounded that people with disease, don’t relate what they eat to their illness. Name a disease and sugar makes it worse. Sugar is an inflammatory and weakens the immune system. Sugar is commonly called “cancer food.” Sugar is a cancer-feeder, because cancer thrives on sugar. When you cut off sugar, you cut off an important food supply for cancer growth. Yet, family members going through cancer treatment continue feed the cancer.

NO Support?
It’s very frustrating to me that adults push (yes push) sugar on kids. They really don’t see the problem and definitely don’t understand the long-term consequences. Some adults will ignore your request. You are still the parent. You are your child’s advocate and protector, not your child’s best friend.

Explain to Aunt Susie or your next door neighbor, that you appreciate the half-pound box of gumdrops she just handed your child, but he/she can only have a handful. Then take the box and put it away. Hopefully, your explanation will help to educate. If it doesn’t, don’t worry.  You will then have control over how much is consumed. Parenthood is not popularity contest. You have been entrusted with your family’s health. It’s up to you to make 2011 a healthy year.

Click Here for reasons to avoid sugar.

May 2011 Be Happy And Healthy.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

Duke eating disorders specialist Doctor Nancy Zucker says up until now, little research has been done on adult picky eating. Now she, along with researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, are launching the first national public registry for adult finicky eaters: The Food FAD (Finicky Eating in Adults). They are hoping to find what drives adult picky eaters, who can be isolated because of their eating habits.

A mom recently wrote me, “I just wanted to make your readers aware of severe picky eating in kids. I am a mom of three and I am a severe picky eater. My daughter is just like me and eats like me, so I was beginning to wonder about nature versus nurture. My two sons eat like normal kids. There is so much medical research going on now stating that there may be a genetic link to picky eating… Thank you for your input on this!”

I responded, “What we learn to eat is mostly cultural. If you have a picky parent, you are more likely to be a picky eater yourself. What we experience as toddlers can stay with us for a lifetime, unless there is a willingness to change or an intervention. Now, kids with sensory issues (like with autism, sensory integration disorder, and super tasters) have other problems to overcome, but they can be taught to enjoy whole foods. It most likely will take more time and patience.”

Things aren’t always as they seem. The next email revealed the real purpose for her comments, she wanted to educate me that picky eating is sometimes unchangeable. “I am part of a group of over 5,000 members of adult picky eaters. We are working with Duke and UPMC about an actual genetic/DNA link.”

Obviously, I needed to enlarge my definition of picky eating for this mom. Most children aren’t super tasters, have heightened tactile issues or have compromised taste receptors. Moms are interested in getting their kids to eat more veggies. If there is a specific issue or obstacle, they usually let me know right away, so I can address it.

Is There a Physical Component for Some Picky Eating?
Of course. If a child is Autistic or has Sensory Integration Disorder, it’s almost a given he/she will be a picky eater. Picky eaters are eating…something. If there’s a physical component to a child’s picky eating, it’s not an excuse for junk foods. Parents must teach their child how to enjoy whole foods. It’s done all the time with the help of physical therapists and of course, with the Baby Bites steps.

Many times adult picky eaters will eat only white food (simple carbs: sugar and white flour), devoid of nutrients. The people on the adult picky eating site confirmed this. They are eating unhealthy (mostly junk) foods. Bob’s comment about his picky eating is ambiguous, “I think I would like to change the way I eat. But sometimes worry a part of me would die if I ever did. It’s almost a badge of honor to me.” Doesn’t sound as if he really wants to change, now does it?

DNA, Genetics & Motivation
There’s more going on here than DNA or genetics. An adult picky eater has years of unhealthy patterns to overcome. A smoker knows that he/she is harming their health, but that alone isn’t enough to motivate change.  A smoker has to WANT to kick the habit…so does the adult picky eater. The health consequences are just as harmful for an adult picky eater as the smoker.

What  do I call a healthy adult extreme picky eater…lucky. I would never conclude smoking is benign, because a few smokers don’t get cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Just as with the smoker, it may take years for junk foods to take their toll. Because a few extreme picky eaters are seemingly healthy, I don’t believe for one minute that most are. In fact, the ones who seem to be beating the odds, most likely have serious disease in their futures.

You can’t force anyone to live a healthy lifestyle. The adult picky eaters, who I have met, are comfortable in their discomfort. An adult must be willing to take the steps to initiate change. Parents have the advantage, because they control their child’s environment to expedite change.

Healthy eating is a learned behavior, even if there are physical obstacles. Challenges were made to overcome. Adult picky eating sites want you to believe that this is a condition they have no control over. As adults, most are like Bob, not really wanting to improve their diets. These sites deliver moral support and now they want public sympathy and approval for what they feel they cannot change. Obviously, it’s easier to learn to enjoy whole foods as a child. Learning to like whole foods as an adult takes determination. The same Baby Bite steps work for any age, because the cornerstone of the steps is multi-sensory learning.

If picky eating is named a disorder, I believe many parents will use that as an excuse for giving their children junk foods. I have not come across one child who has not improved when the parent has removed the junk foods from the home and implemented multi-sensory learning at the table.

Transformation
I’m an optimist. I believe not only children, but adult picky eaters have the ability to transform their eating habits. People can change, when motivated. I’ve seen kids with Autism, sensory integration disorder and other issues become healthy eaters. Does that mean they eat everything? No. It does mean that junk food has been eliminated and their variety of accepted whole food has increased.

What would happen if a genetic link is found or if they call picky eating a disorder? Will it make people healthier? No! For optimum health, people will still have to learn how to eat whole foods.

There is hope. Even though there may be physical reasons for extreme picky eating, it doesn’t automatically denote change is impossible. Do adult picky eaters want to find a medical breakthrough that will enable them to enjoy whole foods? For many they want confirmation that they have a “disorder.” This will help them feel better about being a picky eater, but won’t change a thing.

By the time a picky eater reaches adulthood, eating patterns have been ingrained. It’s not impossible to change, but definitely it’s more difficult. The optimal time to transform a picky eater is in childhood. Adults must want to change; be willing to do the work. And it’s work to change a habit. More work if there are physical issues such as limited taste sensors or heightened sensory issues. I believe people always have the ability to change…but it takes more than wishes.

Next: How Parents Make Picky Eaters Worse: Click Here.

Click Here for information about eFoods Global food storage.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

The most important factor in raising a healthy eater is what you eat. Yes, if you want your children to eat whole foods, you must eat them yourself.

Moms often ask, “How do I get my husband on-board with healthy eating?” This seems to be a universal problem; even the First Lady can relate.

I am very pleased that Michelle Obama has brought healthy eating to the forefront with her campaign to end childhood obesity. The only issue I have with the campaign is that it doesn’t go far enough. There are plenty of children and adults where weight isn’t an issue, but they’re eating junk foods just the same. Picky eaters universally love junk foods.

Michelle recently spoke to the National Restaurant Association. She encouraged them to take unhealthy items off their menus and replace them with healthier options.  While this sounds good in theory, the problem isn’t with the restaurants. We live in a free-market society. Menus will change, when people stop ordering unhealthy items. Restaurants need to make a profit. You can be sure, if an item stops selling, it’ll disappear from the menu. It’s not the restaurants fault we order junk foods…it’s ours.

President Obama enjoying a frozen ice
(Ingredients: water, high fructose corn syrup & artificial colors and flavors derived from petroleum)

A L.A. Times columnist wrote a piece about the First Lady’s campaign for healthy eating and  President Obama’s penchant for junk foods. He took a lighthearted look at the President and the food he regularly eats. The piece was accompanied by 13 photos of the President chowing down unhealthy junk foods like chicken wings, pancakes, cheese-steak, hot dogs, waffles, fried chicken, shaved ice, pizza, fries and cheeseburgers. (To see the photos Click Here.)

I must admit the opinion piece made me giggle, because I didn’t realize that others were noticing the same thing…the President ignores his wife’s recommendations for  healthy eating. But, it’s no laughing matter. Malia and Sasha are watching him (from the opinion piece, apparently so are others). What he does is even more important than what he says or what the First Lady’s recommendations may be for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, for Michelle and moms whose husbands are junk food addicts, there isn’t an easy answer. Many times husbands think that they have eaten (fill in the blank) all their lives and they’re okay. The truth is often that they are not okay, but living in denial.

Daddies (and sometimes mommies)  have a tendency to overlook their health issues or think of them as minor. For many young parents, time is on their side. They are still young enough that their junk food habits have not yet caught up with them. For some, they just don’t care, believing the doctor will have a prescription to fix whatever health issue may come down the road. For others, they don’t make the connection with their health issues and the food they eat.

There is no magic pill. Eating junk foods is feeding an unhealthy habit. Unhealthy habits or addictions can be junk food or a smoking habit, drinking, sugar addiction, or drug habit. The first step is to realize you have a habit and it’s unhealthy. The second is to want to change. You cannot make your spouse change, but you can make it easy for him/her to change by refusing to purchase junk foods yourself and having healthy options in your home. (There’s not much hope for Michelle, her husband eats out all the time. I don’t think she cooks much either.)

To raise a healthy eater, you must be one…your children are watching what you eat.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE

A sin tax is taxing soda and other sugar-laden products sabotaging the health of many Americans.

Here’s what President Obama said concerning sin taxes on junk foods: “I actually think it’s an idea that we should be exploring. There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.”

A garden encourages healthy eating.
Dani is proud of her squash crop.

Obama continued, “And every study that’s been done about obesity shows that there is as high a correlation between increased soda consumption and obesity as just about anything else. Obviously it’s not the only factor, but it is a major factor.”

While on one hand, a sin tax may sound like a noble idea to reverse the trend toward obesity, although with government’s other hand, they are subsiding High Fructose Corn Sweetener (HFCS). Corn and soy are the two crops most subsidized by the government. Corn is obviously used in the manufacturing of HFCS.

Many farmers choose to accept support from the production of subsidized crops like corn and soybeans. They would not receive support from growing riskier (yet healthier) crops like tomatoes, broccoli and carrots. A government subsidy offers a cushion, making other produce not as profitable, as many farmers don’t want to risk a failed salad crop.

Will a Sin Tax on Junk Food Encourage Healthy Eating?
The U.S. Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPyramid urges Americans to eat a variety of foods and limit our intake of sugars. Yet, the government’s subsidy of corn keeps the price of junk foods, like soda, low. Because legislators, from states receiving subsidies for corn, don’t want to do anything that will reduce the demand for their subsidized product, they oppose a sin tax on junk foods. They also oppose removing government funding of their crops.

Instead of government being Big Brother telling us what to eat, remove government funding of corn and the price of sugary junk foods will naturally increase. People will cut back on sugary junk food when the cost of  HFCS is not kept artificially low by subsidies. Salad produce won’t be an expensive alternative to processed cookies and a sin tax won’t be needed.

Click Here for the Baby Bites Store.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Children’s programming is only slightly regulated by a 1990 law limiting commercials to 10½ minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays.

Many of the ads are for sugary cereals, salty snacks, candy, and fast foods. Programs like SpongeBob SquarePants are essentially program-length commercials for foods whose labels feature the licensed characters.

Among children and adolescents from ages 6 through 19, obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years. Obesity increases the risks of type 2 diabetes and many other diseases and health conditions.

Kids are a targeted consumer market.

Pester Power
Margo C. Wooten, Director, Nutrition Policy of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (SCPI) said in a 2003 report, “Parents are fighting a losing battle against food manufacturers and fast-food restaurants. Those companies use aggressive and sophisticated marketing techniques to get into children’s heads, attract their attention, manipulate their food choices, and prompt them to pester their parents to purchase products.”

Consider these findings from a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation:
For children under the age of 2:
More than four in 10 (43 percent) of children under the age of 2 watch TV every day and nearly one in five (18 percent) watch videos or DVDs every day. Most parents (88 percent) of these under-2-year-olds who watch TV every day say they are in the same room with their child while they are watching TV either all or most of the time. Seventy-four percent of all infants and toddlers have watched TV before the age of 2. A child’s first request for a product is at age 2.

For children under the age of 6:
On average, they spend about two hours a day with screen media (the same amount of time as they spend playing outside) and three times as much time as they spend reading or being read to. Seventy-seven percent turn on the TV by themselves. Sixty-two percent use the remote to change channels and 71 percent ask for their favorite videos or DVDs. For more information: see the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report on Children and Electronic Media.

America is far behind other countries in protecting children from predatory advertisers. Countries such as Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Austria have imposed a ban on advertising during children’s television programs. TV advertising and sponsorship of programs aimed at children below the age of 12 are prohibited. In Austria and the Flemish part of Belgium no advertising is permitted 5 minutes before or after programs for children.

In Britain, The Independent Television Commission’s code on advertising says, “No method of advertising may be employed which takes advantage of the natural credulity and sense of loyalty of children.”

Small steps are being taken in the U.S. to counter predatory marketing to children.  McDonald’s popular Happy Meal will no longer include a toy in Santa Clara, California. On April 27, The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors banned toys in kids’ meals with more than 485 calories, more than 600 mg of salt or high amounts of sugar or fat.

Ultimately it’s up to parents to be informed about the consequences of junk and fast foods. Removing toys from unhealthy foods is not punishing children, but is a indicator that many parents are being influenced by advertising campaigns directed at their children. (To learn how toys and fictional characters can help you transform your picky eater into a healthy eater Click Here.)

Prevent Pester Power with Parent Power

>Limit TV viewing (Don’t use the TV as a babysitter).
>Prerecord programs on TiVo and speed through commercials.
>Watch videos without commercials.
>Explain to older children how advertisers work to get you to purchase their product.
>Teach them to think critically about marketing messages they see on TV.
>Encourage children to earn the money and save up for items they want.
>Especially in tough economic times, reassure your children that they will be safe and taken care of.
>Don’t have junk food in the house. Come up with healthy treats for your children.
>Be a good example.
>Learn the power of “NO.”
>What every child wants is to be loved. Give your children time and attention.

CLICK HERE for ordering information for Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater and The Forest Feast: Baby Bites Mealtime Adventures.

For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine, CLICK HERE.

Take The Baby Bites Quiz

Find out how proficient you are at promoting picky eating in your prodigy.

If your offspring is eating primarily fast foods, white flour, sugar, and only a few whole foods, you’re headed in the right direction for raising a picky eater. Picky eaters universally love these foods while refusing to eat whole foods, especially green veggies. “Vegetable” might as well be a four-letter word, because a truly picky eater won’t touch one with at ten-foot pole, much less a fork.

To find out if you’re proficient at promoting picky eating, count each of the following twenty-five picky eater indicators which apply to your parenting style. At the end of the quiz, tally up and see how well you scored.

I …
• seldom read nutrition labels.
• never reprimand negative remarks about the food served: “That’s yucky,” or “I don’t like that.”
• take my child to fast food restaurants or for that matter any restaurant, more than twice a week.
• am unsuccessful at getting the family to eat dinner together.
• allow my kid to “graze.”
• allow my toddler to throw refused food on the floor in defiance.
• believe that artificially fortified cereals and breads are just as wholesome as whole grains.
• keep a smorgasbord of processed snack foods where my kid can easily reach them.
• don’t permit my child to help prepare a meal or with grocery shopping.
• serve processed breakfast foods like kid cereals, breakfast bars, toaster waffles, instant breakfast and oatmeal.
• sometimes fill my toddler’s bottle with fruit drink, chocolate milk, or soda pop.
• permit my preschooler to snack on favorite items (raisins, cereal, etc.) while the family eats dinner.
• make the foods I’m sure my child will eat and repeat (i.e.: always serve PB&J for lunch).
• insist that junior cleans his plate at every meal.
• don’t save candy for special occasions, after all kids grow up so fast.
• permit my family to frequently watch television during dinner.
• agree: green vegetables are yucky; therefore my child doesn’t have to eat them.
• discourage my preschooler to touch food with her hands.
• often drink diet or regular soda pop and my child does too.
• bribe my picky eater (with dessert or watching a favorite video) for eating a refused food.
• often use packaged, canned, and prepared foods.
• serve sugary desserts most nights.
• insist on the One-Bite Rule. (Only one bite is required of a new or refused food.)
• set an example for my child by frequently eating junk food myself.
• resort to being a short-order cook, because my precious child refuses to eat what’s for dinner.

How did you do?
Less than 5 boxes checked:
It’s doubtful your child will become a picky eater. Nutritious meals are the norm for your family. It’s likely that you rise early to prepare a hot breakfast and you’re a habitual nutrition label reader. In fact, your prodigy most likely thinks veggies are a snack!

5 to 10 boxes checked:
There’s a fifty-fifty chance your prodigy will become a picky eater. Because your child isn’t learning to enjoy whole foods, she’ll most likely make poor food choices. Weight gain will most likely become an issue by the time she’s a teen.

Over 10 boxes checked:
You’ve succeeded as a “cool” parent, who promotes picky eating. Your kid probably doesn’t eat many vegetables or whole grains. Obesity is almost a given. If your child isn’t presently overweight, he’ll certainly struggle with his weight as an adult, because white flour, sugar, and atlered fats are the mainstays of his diet. He’ll be at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other diseases.

If you’ve checked the last box:
There’s no need to tally your answers. Your child is unquestionably a picky eater.She’s the envy of the other kids in the neighborhood, who are expected to eat brown bread and atrocious vegetables!

Find out more about the free Baby Bites Ezine, Click Here.

To learn how to transform your picky toddler, preschooler, or grade schooler into a healthy eater…
Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store Now! Click Here.

His mom didn’t rush to clean off his fingers, but she talked about the various textures with him. She offered lots of positive reinforcement and praised him every time he complied with her request to touch new foods, especially foods in a sauce.

Because Danny had such difficulty in touching gooey foods, his mom made it a point to have him experience various textures while playing: finger painting, gluing paper objects, and making edible play dough. These activities use the hands as tools and eliminate any pressure of having to eat something with a gooey texture. A plus for any child is that these are fun activities.

Once touching sticky sauce-like substances is no longer difficult when playing, then touching and eating food with sauces won’t seem unpleasant.

Involve your child in multi-sensory culinary experiences.
Happy Pancakes are easy and fun to make for breakfast!

Danny’s mom noticed he had other difficulties surrounding tactile issues and she eventually had him tested by an Occupational Therapist. Danny had Sensory Processing Disorder, SPD, a neurological problem. It’s believed approximately 5 percent of children are found to have some level of SPD. The therapy is to integrate sensory-rich activities in a positive environment.

Children with SPD may have difficulty with motor coordination (either gross or fine). Perhaps they’ll refuse to walk barefoot in the sand or on the grass.

There can be huge issues surrounding teeth brushing, getting hands dirty, and they may dislike having their head touched when brushing, washing and drying their hair. Sometimes the texture of some clothing and labels overly irritate the child with SPD.

If you see a link between other tactile issues and avoidance of foods with a certain texture, a child may be exhibiting sensitivity defensiveness. It’s wise to ask your pediatrician about having an evaluation for SPD by an occupational therapist.

Not all picky eaters have SPD, but most children with SPD are picky eaters, because of their over-responsiveness to tactile sensations. They many times will eat a limited number of foods, and may completely avoid certain textures and food groups. Of course this may impact their overall health.

The Baby Bite Steps uses positive reinforcement, while engaging a picky eater in directed-play. This conditions a positive response to various food textures. Adjust your timetable for kids with SPD. Consistency and praising your child for small steps are even more vital for the “out-of-sync” child.

Although not an official diagnosis, some like Dr. Jacquelyn McCandless, place SPD as a part of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This is a broad category, including diagnosis from Sensory Processing Disorder to Attention Deficit Disorder to Autism to Aspergers Disorder. One constant is that these children are usually picky eaters, preferring the very foods that make their problems worse.

Parents of children with SPD have seen remarkable improvement using the Baby Bite Steps, especially when combined with improving “gut dysfunction.” Jaquelyn McCandless, M.D. says that Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex biomedical illness resulting in “significant brain malnutrition.”

There’s emerging evidence that, once nutritional concerns have been addressed, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder improve at some level. While the nutritional treatment will vary, there seems to be agreement that all children with Autism Spectrum Disorder improve with diets free from refined sugar, white flour, and food additives. In addition, they usually benefit from probiotics and cod liver oil. Once Danny began taking both cod liver oil and a probiotic formulated for children, he experienced another giant step toward health.

Click Here for a synopsis of Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.
Buy the Book at the Baby Bites Store Now! Click Here

Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater is full of real-life testimonials of what parents do influence their children’s eating patterns for life. When I was writing my parenting book, I interviewed many people. Most had a food-related horror story to tell. Many times a child’s eating difficulties persisted into adulthood, because of the actions taken by adults.

You can’t force a child to eat anything. You can’t humiliate her into compliance. You can’t send a stubborn eater off to bed without dinner and think he’ll eat it for breakfast. You can’t trick food into the mouth of a baby who is refusing to eat. You can’t bribe a child into liking a refused food. In the first chapters of Baby Bites, I explain why this is the case.

I wrote Baby Bites, not to train children, but to train parents. It takes only a short time before parents have run the gamut of trendy methods attempting to get their kids to eat whole foods. Bad habits are first formed, not by the child, but by the parents. Not only do parents end up frustrated, but they have unknowingly made the problem worse.

Does your child refuse to eat whole foods,
but will eat junk food like Chase?
Photo with permission from ZIMage Photography

Baby Bites explains an easy step-by-step approach to teach your child how to enjoy whole foods. The steps work because eating is not the first objective. Multi-sensory learning and positive reinforcement is. Obviously, the environment must be controlled to accomplish the steps. I explain how to set the stage for healthy eating in great detail in Baby Bites.

Once, you begin the Baby Bites steps it’s all about having fun while learning. People learn with all their senses. Parents think taste should be enough to convince a child to eat a refused food. Taste is the last sense to incorporate. Texture is usually the issue with a refused food. Sometimes it’s the color or smell.

Hopefully, your pediatrician will make the recommendation for a physical therapist (PT) if you have an orally sensitive baby. Many adult picky eaters had oral issues as infants. It doesn’t usually go away on it’s own. The PT will direct exercises to desensitize the lips and mouth. One method is to lightly rub a washcloth on the lips for a few minutes. Parents, slowly increase the number of times this is done a day. Then the mouth is lightly touched, etc.

Parents know if they have an extreme picky eater. What they don’t know is how to overcome the obstacles. Obviously, the younger the child, when you begin the Baby Bites steps, the greater the success. First, because fewer mistakes have been made by the adults in the child’s life. Secondly, bad habits surrounding eating haven’t been ingrained. Lastly, it’s easiest to control a preschoolers environment.

After a child enters school, there are many other factors to consider. In Baby Bites the steps are adapted for toddlers, pre-schoolers and grade school kids. The game changes during puberty. Controlling external circumstances isn’t enough. The desire for change must exist within the child. As is evident with adult picky eaters, the perceived discomfort becomes a huge obstacle.

I’m an eternal optimist. I believe it’s never too late to become a healthy eater…that’s why I wrote Baby Bites: Transforming a Picky Eater into a Healthy Eater.

Read more about adult picky eating, Click Here.

CLICK HERE for the Baby Bites Store.
For info about the free Baby Bites Ezine,  CLICK HERE