How To Get Your Kid To Eat...But Not Too Much - Ellyn Satter

A friendly, calm approach to dealing with mealtimes from a registered dietician and clinical social worker. I picked this book up off a friend's shelf because my one-year-old stopped drinking milk when I stopped giving her bottles, and I was stressed out about it. I came away realizing that I had to chill out. I can't make her drink milk, so the best thing for me to do is get out of the way.

Ellyn Satter is most famous for the idea that the parent is in charge of deciding what, when and how your child eats, but your child is in charge of whether and how much. This division of labor sounds reasonable and natural, but I'm discovering how far I'd gotten away from that, and how much fretting (and short-order cooking) I was doing in order to make sure my children ate enough (however much that is).

I'm a big advocate of eating what you want and trusting your body to know what the right thing is. So I was cautious about working from a book that might advocate imposing external controls on your own or your children's diets. I thought Satter stayed far away from standard diet advice and did a nice job discussing what you can control as far as weight is concerned and what you can't. Her views felt sensible and centered, not rigid.

I strongly recommend this book if you're having food battles with your child or if you're stressed out about their eating.

How To Get Your Kid To Eat...But Not Too Much
Ellyn Satter
1987
Available from Amazon