gift for kid

One of our basic duties as parents is to make sure our children are fed.  One would think this particular duty was pretty straightforward.  Feed.   Water.  Repeat. Not so much.  It is so incredibly important to feed our children nutritious food and with so much information out there on top of the ease of often unhealthy convenience food at our fingertips it is hard to know what is the right choice to make.  When I was offered the chance to read and review Nutrition:  What Every Parent Needs to Know from the American Academy of Pediatrics I was excited to check it out.  As of mom to three growing children knowing what is healthy is of the utmost importance to me.  Here is the scoop...

From the moment a baby is born and for the ensuing 18 or so years, parents strive to ensure that their child is well-fed. The questions and struggles over food and proper nutrition seem never ending: My baby doesn't seem to nurse very long. Is he getting enough to eat? My toddler refuses to eat anything except macaroni and cheese. What can I do? The media report that school lunches aren't nutritious. Should I be packing her lunch instead? Our life is so hectic we rely on fast-food several times a week. Is this a problem? My child seems to be taller...shorter...heavier...slimmer than other children in her class. Is that OK?

Now there is a single resource parents can turn to for answers to all these questions and so much more. Nutrition: What Every Parent Needs to Know, 2nd Edition by the American Academy of Pediatrics, William H. Dietz, MD, PhD, FAAP and Loraine Stern, MD, FAAP, Editors (©10/2011), is a complete guide for maintaining children's nutritional health from birth through adolescence. The information and strategies needed to meet kids' dietary needs at all ages and stages are examined in detail. Standards of weight and height, eating disorders, alternative diets and supplements, allergies, cholesterol-lowering medications, and concerns regarding food safety are covered. Growth charts are highlighted, and several topic boxes are scattered throughout the book. Each chapter ends with a Q&A section on issues parents often raise about the topic addressed in that chapter, making it easy to refer back to again and again as children move from one stage to another.

Drs. Dietz and Stern stress throughout the book that parents and care providers' primary responsibility is to offer a healthful variety of foods. "Your children," they state, "are responsible for deciding what and how much they want to eat from what they are offered." Developing healthy eating habits, parents are reminded, is an ongoing activity; one day or week does not make or break good health. Rather, parents are urged to learn how to feed their children a wholesome diet and maintain a healthful lifestyle, how to allow for individual styles and preferences, and how to make shared mealtimes enjoyable as well as stress- and guilt-free.

This book is just plain fantastic. It covers everything you need to know about feeding your children starting right at birth. The information is presented in a easy to follow, straightforward manner.  With all the information out there from news reports, websites and well meaning strangers, having all the information you need from the ultimate in trusted source (you don't get better than the American Academy of Pediatrics!) is such a gift.  This book is a must for all parents and it will help you to not only raise healthy children but it will help you to instill healthy eating habits they will carry with them for life.  This book is a gem and it should be on the bookshelf of every parent.  Pick one up today on Amazon...

I am so pleased to tell you that one lucky RBM reader will win a copy of Nutrition: What Every Parent Needs to Know! Thanks so much to the sponsor and here is how to enter...