Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense

My Dr. recommended this book to me when my daughter was seven months old, and it saved me from going down some very dangerous roads! My young daughter was not a big eater, and rather than accepting that, I was trying to wiggle the bottle back in her mouth to try to get her to eat more, and trying to coax a spoon through closed lips. I tell my friends that sometimes you can lose all common sense as a parent, and I definitely did when it came to wanting to get all of the proper nutrition into my child. Many books tell you about WHAT to feed your children, but not much about the actual feeding relationship. If it weren't for this book I would have gone crazy with my light and picky eater. While my now six year old is still not as great of an eater as I'd like, she's tried salmon, grapefruit, and even requested that I make my homemade vegetarian lasanga. I'm absolutely convinced had I not gotten this book at the early age I did, I would have mistakenly made food a battle ground, and that my daughter wouldn't be trying many of the foods she is today. If you think your child is eating too much, not enough, or the wrong foods, you must buy this book! I think most parents would identify with one of the above! This book, along with "1,2,3 Magic" (about discipline,) are the two books I buy for shower gifts for new parents!

So there you all are, the five of you, finally sitting down at the dinner table. You, the mother, have managed to deliver a hot (or at least warm), nutritionally balanced (there is something green on the table), and home cooked (or close to) meal. Carefully, and with a sense of well-being, you dish it out and cut it up and place tidy plates of food in front of your first-grader, your pre-schooler and your toddler. Your husband helps himself. And as you, yourself, raise that first forkful to your lips, your first grader begins to push his food aimlessly around the plate, your pre-schooler shovels huge bites of pasta into his mouth, then pushes his plate away and announces he is waiting for desert (without having touched his broccoli), and your toddler throws all her food on the ground and screams delightedly, "uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh." Your sense of well-being vanishes, and you wonder, with your head in your hands, what, on earth, you've done wrong.If this scenario recurs almost daily at your house (as it does at mine), then you should BUY THIS BOOK. It is one of those rare parenting books that actually gives you answers. It delivers them up in a friendly, no-nonsense style, based on the author's experience as a mother of three and as registered dietician/clinical social worker. Ellyn Satter has seen it all, and we can all benefit from the wealth of her experience. After reading this updated and expanded edition, I have learned to let my children serve themselves from the serving dishes on the table, and then to sit back and not worry about what else happens. Satter's philosophy regarding feeding is that it is the parent's job to determine the what and when of feeding: what food gets offered and when. And it is the child's job to determine if he will eat the food and how much. Elegantly simple; eminently powerful. The book offers straight-forward advice on feeding your child, from pregnancy through childhood. The sections on infant feeding are informative, educational and, (imagine!) non-judgmental. Satter's advice on the debate between breast feeding and bottle-feeding is comforting and credible. The book also covers introducing solid foods, building positive eating relationships, and avoiding feeding disorders. If you've read and benefited from earlier editions of "Child of Mine", you'll love this new edition, which includes the anecdotes and lessons of Ellyn Satter's many years of experience dealing with families and food.

I have found this book quite helpful. Five years ago I bought an earlier edition, used it then with my first child, gave it to a friend and gave several copies as baby shower gifts. The book contains excellent sections on how to read a growth chart from your pediatrician (percentiles) and breastfeeding how-to (I still use the table on the mother's contribution and baby's contribution to successful breastfeeding). Now I am re-reading the sections on introducing solids (new baby). Her recommendations are straightforward, easy to read, don't produce parental guilt, and are interesting. I like her credentials, they enhance the material. As a nurse myself I found her comments credible and based on fact. Very practical - enjoy the book!

This is the only child rearing book I keep having to re-order because I've given my copy to so many people. Our family has been clueless in many of those hot button childhood issues (sleep and sibling fighting are at the top of the list). The one place where we feel like we have really succeeded is in the food area -- and it's because we read this book when our twins were babies. Satter's take on food is pretty simple -- the parents' job is to present healthy food to the children and the children's job is to eat it (or not eat it if they so desire). There's nothing very complicated about this and that's probably why it worked for us. The book is good about organizing information around age groups and I found it particularly helpful in addressing how to introduce solids and how to handle behavioral issues at the table. Now I wish we could find an equally helpful book about sleep and sibling squabbling!

This book is the best I've ever read on the subject of infant and toddler feeding. The advice on breastfeeding, starting solids and feeding finicky toddlers is practical and down-to-earth--unlike some books which insist on rigid meal plans and servings-per-day which are just not realistic when feeding toddlers. The author emphasizes the loving relationship between parent and child, and discourages letting food become a battleground. She stresses a healthy attitude toward eating such as allowing kids to listen to their bodies in order to regulate intake, rather than forcing them to "clean their plate" or making them feel bad about eating when they tend toward overweight. All in all, its a very readable book with lots of usable information.