Picky Eater

Question
My son is three years old. I have a problem with his eating habits. My child does not eat a lot of junk food. My husband and I give him cookies and ice cream one a week. My child eats fish, chicken, and nuggets which is his favorite. Once in a while he eats vegetables and sometimes he doesn't. My main concern is eating cereal. He can eat cereal morning, noon, and night.  He eats plain cornflakes with no sugar but he seems to want it all the time. We do sit down as a family and eat dinner and does not want what is prepared. I need some advise about the cereal problem. I need help!!!

Answer
One thing to remember about childrens eating is that it's inclined to be very erratic and that often worries us as adults because we value consistency.  So he may go through phases that last a couple of months and just when you've stocked up on (let's say) his favourite yoghurt, he'll one day turn around and not want that anymore.  What I'd say about his cereal eating though is to make sure that it's one of the better ones -that it doesn't have too much sugar (cereal can have up to 55% sugar), too much sugar or transfats.  (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-396380/The-truth-cereal--filled-sugar-sa...)

Quite a co-incidence that you asked me this question because I'm just busy writing a book on how to fatproof your child and was just writing the section for what to watch for regarding breakfast cereals.

You may also find that even as young as 3 getting him to help you choose a color vegetable he'd like when you're shopping and giving him the perception that he's helping you prepare it will help him eat vegetables.  I'd highly recommend a fabulous book by Ellen Satter called:  Child of Min:  Feeding with Love and Good Sense and if you do a net search for any of the research by Dr. Leanne Birch from Penn University, both of them are absolute experts in the field of childhood eating problems.

Kind regards
Cari

1. Prev:Yogurt instead of vegetables on the cabbage soup diet?
2. Next:Can vitamin supplements be bad for your health?