Annabel Karmel, the leading expert and best-selling author on baby and children food nutrition is releasing three new books that are the perfect resource for parents of young children:
First Meals & More: Your Questions Answered
I Can Eat a Rainbow
Cook It Together
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To celebrate the release of these books, Gather is hosting a live chat on Thursday, April 23rd @ 3PM ET for parents on Gather to discuss food nutrition with for their children with one another. Topics of discussion will include:
- What are your favorite meals to make for your children?
- How do you deal with finicky eaters?
- How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods?
- How do you teach your children healthy eating habits?
- What meals and snacks do you make with your children?
Five chat participants will be drawn to receive a free copy of Annabel Karmel's new book, First Meals & More and 100 Gather Points™ each. The chat will take place in the comment field at the end of this post from 3-4PM ET on Thursday, 4/23. REFRESH your internet browser to see new comments appear.
About the book:
First Meals & More: Your Questions Answered gives parents all the tools they need to get their babies and toddlers started on healthy eating habits that will last a lifetime. A great collection of quick, easy, and delicious recipes is partnered with a Q&A and loads of handy hints and tips on what younger kids will and won’t eat, what’s good for them and what isn’t, some surprising exotic foods that are actually highly beneficial, and plenty of advice on how to awaken your child's interest in a variety of foods. Expert advice helps parents address the key issues likely to affect each of the five age groups in the book, with more than 400 helpful Questions and Answers from bestselling author Annabel Karmel, a leader in the field of children's food and nutrition today. Fifty tempting, nutritious ‘recipes-to-the-rescue’ will appeal to the fussiest eaters that children will love and want to eat over and over again.
Learn more about the author at http://www.annabelkarmel.com.
Visit Parenting.gather.com for more helpful hints on baby and children food nutrition.




Comments: 190
We make "Breakfast for Dinner" -- scrambled eggs and toast. The kids know how to make their own toast, and they help crack the eggs into the pan and occasionally help me flip them around as they cook. Great fun and great life skills!
How do you deal with finicky eaters?
I cook one dinner. If I go to the trouble of cooking, the kids need to eat what the family is eating. We do some "free for all" nights, where I keep a few soups or chicken nuggets handy so the kids can pick what they want. It makes them feel like they have a choice. It also helps if you take the kids shopping with you. A veggie goes down a lot easier if the child had a choice from the shelf of either say, corn or green beans!
How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods?
We shop sales. If it's a good buy, we'll often try something new. My kids have been taught from a young age to at least try something once, and then if they don't like it, it's ok. It's smart to have a back up plan when trying a new food or a new recipe, in case something doesn't cook correctly or just doesn't taste right.
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits?
We drink a lot of water, and I always keep real fruit juice on hand. I also keep a bagged mixed salad in the fridge along with apples, grapes and other fruit. We snack on popcorn, which has less fat than most bagged chips. I also try to include them in the cooking process, so they learn about how to prepare food, and things like washing with soap and water after touching raw eggs or raw meat.
What meals and snacks do you make with your children?
Whatever I make, I try to include the kids. If I make pasta, the kids can help stir. And they can pour on their own amount of sauce, and choose toppers like grated Parmesan and oregano if they like. If I make chicken parmesan, someone always wants to lay the cheese slices over the chicken before I bake it. I don't get as much time to bake as I would like though.
How do you deal with finicky eaters? We always eat together, and the same food that we eat also goes on our sons plate. It is his choice to eat or not. I try to make at least one item he likes, so if he doesn't want the veggie, at least he will eat the meat and starch. I am very thankful that so far our son hasn't been very picky - I ate healthy while pregnant and then his first foods were always natural and healthy - I think it has helped him to choose healthier foods and like them.
How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods? We make a big deal of it - say how great the new food tastes and show him that we like it - it almost always works as he will at least take one bite of the food. We don't force him to eat more than one bite. If he likes the food, he will usually finish it and ask for more - like he did with broccoli the other day (he used to eat it for a time, then stopped).
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits? By modeling good habits to begin with. We eat foods without artificial additives and preservatives. It is important to our family to not eat foods that are full of chemicals and highly processed.
What meals and snacks do you make with your children? My son likes to help with baking right now - he is only 2 and so he seems to have a short attention span for cooking. Sometimes he will help me with setting the table and setting out the condiments.
My family loves making homemade pizza together.
With my kids, I tell them they have to try one bite of something they don't like whenever we have it. They don't have to swallow it but they have to chew it for 10 seconds. With my partner's 12 year old (we get her a few times a month), we have a hard time trying to get her to try anything she "doesn't like," which is most things.
• How do you deal with finicky eaters? For the most part we let him choose between two things that were both healthy. Because he chose, he couldn’t feel forced. Young minds are so easily persuaded. If he got stubborn, we waited him out.
• How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods? The first time had something we wanted him to eat, we didn’t put any on his plate. We just oohed and aahed. Usually curiosity won out, but if it didn’t, the next time we ate it, we put one bite of the new item on his plate.
• How do you teach your children healthy eating habits? Well, we weren’t perfect, but…only having good food in the house made it hard for him to get hooked on bad stuff. He rarely eats sweets now.
• What meals and snacks do you make with your children? We started with no-cook foods like sandwiches, then later, things like popping corn and baking things and then when he was tall enough to see over the stove, stovetop foods like helping by stirring pasta then sautéing foods and finally meals that he could do cutting/chopping.
By telling them that they don't have to eat it but they do need to try new things and follow our 10 second rule (chew for 10 seconds, spit in your napkin if you don't like it)
We want kid shows that talk about eating healthy, we even have a coloring book that promotes healthy eating but the best way for the kids to eat healthy is to watch us eat healthy foods.
We make fruit shakes, decorate the tops of our homemade pizza in faces, etc
How do you deal with finicky eaters? I figure out a way that they will eat the foods that they need. for example, my oldest son won't eat fruits, but will drink a fruit frappe each day.
How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods? I offer it to them when i have it. who would have thought that their summer favorite is steamed clams and lobsters?
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits?
What meals and snacks do you make with your children? My children are older and make their own snacks, but i will leave fruit out, like cut oranges or peeled apple slices.
I'm a grandmother but my 2 1/2 year old grandson always is with me in the kitchen and helps me in some simple way
I love making my 9 year old daughter, Nicole, grilled shrimp with steamed mixed veggies. She loves shrimp, and I love that I can get her to eat veggies when paired with her favorite food.
*)How do you deal with finicky eaters?
Mu daughter does have her moments when she doesn't want to eat what I serve for dinner. To remedy this, I do not let her have any other food for her meal, and if it's dinner, she doesn't get to enjoy dessert. This tends to get her to eat what I've prepared.
How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods?
I try to tell my daughter what the new food tastes like, usually comparing it to a food she already likes. I also like making a pretty presentation with her food. that helps a lot as well.
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits?
My daughter mirrors a lot of what I do, so I eat healthy myself to teach her. I also don't bring a lot of sweets and junk food into the home, forcing her to choose a healthy snack.
What meals and snacks do you make with your children?
We enjoy making lots of different things together, including chocolate chip pancakes, pasta salad, and even noodles. My daughter has learned how to make eggs, so we've been working on other breakfast foods as well.
I do not have any kids personally, but I some times babysit friends kids, and my favorite thing to make them is actually two things, one is a meal techinically. I make home made chicken nuggets. What I do is I take small little cookie cutters (*the metal type) and with fresh chicken breast that I have to slice in the middle from side to side becuase they can be too think otherwise. Than I do a oatmeal batter for the crunchy effect.
The other is Jello Wigglers with Sugar Free Jello, store brand works perfectly fine as well. The kids love making these, or we will make lil jello cups. Depending on the age of them they might get a wholop of light cool whip on top of their cup of jello.
I don't. From the time my kids were very little, they ate about the same meals we ate. If they didn't want to eat it, then they just didn't eat it. I didn't cater to them. They won't starve if they missed a meal...and when they get hungry, they will eat. Now my kids eat almost anything. They like all different kinds of food, so I don't have picky eaters.
Since he's an only child, he always has a say in every meal I prepare for him. I narrow stuff down for him. Like if we were trying a new veggie, I might ask him if he wanted mashed potatoes or baked potatoes to go with it, or if he wanted chicken or steak, etc. As long as he gets to pick at least one part of the meal, he's usually a happy guy and will try almost anything we put in front of him.
If he doesn't want to try it, we offer some kind of dip (ketchup, bbq, and ranch are favorites for most things). :)
Everyone at our house has to at least have one bite of everything. For the most part, my kids like trying new types of food. My son found out that he loves sushi...(bad for the wallet though...LOL)
How do you deal with finicky eaters? when my kids were little I hide most meat, like fine hambuger in mac and cheese or speggiti
How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods? we have a rule we try something once and give it a chance if we dont like it then we dont eat it, yet we must try it
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits? setting examples, eat healthly yourself
What meals and snacks do you make with your children? again alot of chicken, and some time mac and cheese with mini hot dogs,, pig in the blankets are fun,,, alot of raw veggie I let gson help clean them up he loves that job
so what up folks
My kids like most meals, but we do have a few favorites. My daughter loves meatloaf, and will help me make it. My son likes anything Mexican or Chinese.
How do you teach your children healthy eating habits?
By example....and by making healthy foods for them to eat.
When given the option of whatever he wants for a midafternoon snack, he will choose a piece of cheese and some grapes or strawberries over half the time.
Depending on the kid I am watching sometimes deals are made. I will ask them what they want instead if reasonable we will swap out. Like I have two twins I babysit for occassionally One loves carrots and peas mixed veggies. The other hates it. But he loves salads. So we compromise I make enough of the carrots and peas for one, and make a small salad, normally a cup maybe cup and a half. It works itself in that case...
I have one girl who I watch who hates bologona sandwiches, but her siblings like them. So her mom sometimes forget to make her something different and will make all 3 the same sandwich. So she will start to cry if she sees her mom made her one to. So with her, she loved protein bars, and protein shakes. So sometimes she opts more for the latter. This way she will have her protein, her carbs/fruits, depending if we make it with milk she gets a serving of fat. Than she will have 8 to 10 baby carrots. So she is getting all of her food groups.
My kids help me prepare most meals, and a lot of the snacks they can now prepare themselves. Angela and I like to make the chocolate covered strawberries...both my kids like all types of fruit, so we usually have a lot of it in the house.
* How do you deal with finicky eaters? She isn't finicky, but has so many allergies that its challenging to serve different meals.
* How do you encourage your children to try new types of foods? I don't because of allergies.
* How do you teach your children healthy eating habits? I show by example, as I eat fruit and vegetables every day.
* What meals and snacks do you make with your children? We enjoy making rice and fruit smoothies together.
Well actually with the kids I babysit for the ones who are roughly 4 and older I will do this with them, especially if its a Friday night and the parents dont do grocery shopping til Saturday or Sunday, and they have given me money for takeout. I have a list of all different types of restuarants that are locally around their house and I have marks on them if I have ordered from there and how many times. and what was ordered.
So depending on some of the kids (some have food allergies), we will order from somewhere their parents do not take them often or ever. We we look over the menu and each person gets to choose 1 new item that they want to try as well as the rest (me and their siblings). It has worked great.
A few weeks ago one of the little boys while we were choosing items shocked me, I didnt say a word of this is better than that or anything, he choose it all on his own. He wanted to try emandaue (soy beans), and his brother wanted to try a eel sushi (cant remember the name right now, sorry spelling bites today).
Now I go into the eel one knowing I dont like or at least thinking I dont like it. (Really I do not like it) But I did not say anything to the kids. The food came and the boys loved both the soy beans, and the eel sushi. I was told they two days ago, when their mom called asking if I can babysit soon that the boys want to try other types of sushi.
I was impressed with them, especially since children have more senstive palets than adults, our taste buds pretty much die over the years.
I'm highly allergic to certain foods...
We are definately meat eaters, because we can't eat the meat substitutes
Well I am a type 1 diabetic and all the kids who I babysit know that I am. They have seen my recipe book of recipes off of Onetouchgold.com, they know I take Human Nutrition so the ones who are older will ask the questions which helps me study but they are proud when they find out knew things they didnt know.
A few of them already know the effects of not eating right from what their parents look like and their eating styles, to also I guess the school are doing an alright job teaching them also.
Homemade Pizza
I think you are talking about food deficentives, or something but its techinically not allergies. There is a difference between the not being able to process it and allergic, which normally gives the reaction of vomiting or diaherria (since your body is doing its first thing it knows to get rid of it or out of your body). We went over that earlier in the semester... brain fart.
my son in law is a diabetic
daughter has celiac disease
and gfaughter is CF and Gson is healthy yet dont eat properly due to all thier problems, that is why I make things easy when they get here
raw veggie, and no bread or wheat things,,