Are Stealth Tactics Best Strategy When Waging Food Battles?

Newswise — Getting kids to eat healthy is a challenge when at times parents can barely get their kids to eat at all. So is hiding healthy foods the best solution for parents of picky eaters as recent news stories have addressed?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) just published a book aimed at helping parents in this situation, as well as other food-related battles, called "Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed With Insight, Humor, and a Bottle of Ketchup."

Written by two pediatricians who are also parents of young children, the mom authors do offer a few tips on "going stealth." But the overall goal of the book is to first help parents understand the behavioral and developmental issues that come into play when feeding " or at least attempting to feed " children, and then to provide practical, reality-based strategies for getting kids try new foods and develop life-long healthy eating habits.

"It really doesn't matter if you have a medical degree, a PhD in nutrition or the best parental intentions in the world if you can't get your child to agree to the rules of engagement—get him to consider giving up his bedtime bottle, eat his peas, sit for a meal or open his mouth and try new foods," say authors Laura Jana, MD, FAAP, and Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP.

Committed to waging war on the obesity epidemic, "Food Fights" starts by dishing out 10 simple strategies for successfully feeding children, and uses a 4-fork rating system that gives parents concrete advice on how to pick their battles and their food.

In addition to advice on feeding in sickness and in health, the book also addresses how to get kids to brush their teeth, how to eat out without reservations, coping with food allergies and heading off grocery store tantrums.

Food Fights is available in bookstores nationwide and online at http://www.aap.org/bookstorepubs.html