Disease-Proof Your Child: Feeding Kids Right by Fuhrman M.D. Joel

Author:Fuhrman M.D., Joel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780312338084
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2010-07-20T00:00:00+00:00

REFORMING THE PICKY EATER

Children are not responsible for their poor food choices—their parents are. Excluding those children with chronic illnesses or severe emotional disorders, a nutritionally poor diet is predominantly the result of misinformed parents and incorrect dietary choices. Before you become disheartened, it is important to understand that most children in today’s food environment of processed foods, especially from ages two to seven, are picky eaters.

It is not uncommon or abnormal for a child to prefer a narrow range of foods at this age. It is also not unusual for parents to be in an ongoing battle to coax their child to eat in a manner they feel is appropriate. Fortunately, it is possible to put an end to the food wars and solve the problem of how to get your child to eat a healthful diet.

In my practice, it is common for me to see a parent whose child only eats macaroni and cheese, french fries, chicken nuggets, pizza, and cold cereal with milk. Parents routinely tell me, “Johnny won’t eat any fruits or vegetables!” Incredible as it seems, high-calorie, trans-fat-filled french fries are the most common vegetable eaten by young children today. Twenty-five percent of children eat fast food french fries daily.

The Petersons brought their three-year-old son, Joshua, to see me because his prior physician had prescribed twelve separate antibiotic prescriptions for recurrent ear infections in less than nine months. Most often, within a few weeks of stopping the antibiotic, he was sick again with another illnesses. The latest advice from their pediatrician was to put Joshua on a low dose of antibiotics continuously to help reduce the incidence of these infections. I explained to them that for Joshua to stay well and not require antibiotics, he had to adopt a dietary program of superior nutrition. They laughed.

The Petersons didn’t need me to tell them that Joshua’s diet was inadequate. They clearly knew it. They did not think it was possible to get Joshua to eat healthy food. They were wrong. They followed my advice for reforming the picky eater and when they returned to my office one month later, they proudly reported to me that he was eating a diet of all healthy food. Importantly, they accomplished this without difficulty. We stopped his antibiotics, and he proceeded through that winter without any further ear infections.

When a family first brings their chronically ill child in to see me, I insist that the entire family come—both parents and all siblings—so that we can devise a new eating plan for the entire family. The focus is never solely on the ill child. For the ill child to recover, the crucial first step is for the entire family to make a recovery from their less than optimal diet style.

When the Petersons insisted, “Josh won’t eat fruits or vegetables,” I explained to them that all children would eat healthfully if ship-wrecked. True hunger is difficult to deny. If faced with limited options, they will gleefully eat whatever food is available, without intellectual gymnastics to get them to.

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