America's Children are Overweight and Undernourished!

Increasing numbers of children in the United States are obese. On the other hand, childrens diets are often lacking in important nutrients. Why is this? Simply put, children are eating too much of the wrong foods and too little of the healthy ones!

Press Release:            

Americas children are overweight and undernourished!

Increasing numbers of children in the United States are obese. On the other hand, childrens diets are often lacking in important nutrients. Why is this? Simply put, children are eating too much of the wrong foods and too little of the healthy ones! For example, a survey of the diets of more than 3,000 children found that only 1 percent met all of the national recommendations for daily food group intake.

Good eating habits need to begin early in life but preschool children, on average, do not eat enough vegetables and fruits. Their diets are low in fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C but too high in fat. The vegetable most eaten by U.S. children is you guessed it french fries!

Part of the problem is that preschoolers are notoriously picky eaters." They like routine and predictability and usually dont take easily to new foods. In order to develop a taste for a new food a child has to taste the food. It may take 8, 10 or more exposures to a new food before a young child is ready to try it. So what happens? Too often parents give up and stick with kid foods" such as macaroni and cheese, hotdogs, fast foods, etc. These are high fat, low nutrition foods. Sadly, a pattern of lifelong poor eating can be established at a tender age. What can parents do to change this trend?

Having a battle at the dinner table is not the answer. Fortunately, there is a better way. According to Janice Woolley, M.D. and Jennifer Pugmire, B.S., authors of Food for Tots, there are some basic rules for helping children develop good eating habits. One of their Seven Rules for Encouraging Healthy Eating is to resist power struggles. They say, Dont try to force a child to eat. That is a battle you cant win. Children who are pressured to eat actually end up eating less than those who are allowed to decide how much they want."

This mother and daughter coauthor team speaks from experience. Dr. Woolley is a pediatrician with more than 25 years of medical practice. Over the years she has helped parents with their concerns about providing healthy food for their preschool children. She is also a mother and grandmother.

Jennifer Pugmire is a stay-at-home mom with three young children. She has taught in a coop preschool, provided home daycare, and been leader of a church-operated program for toddlers. She knows from experience how challenging it can be to get toddlers to eat nutritious foods.

Food for Tots is written for parents, teachers, grandparents, and other caregivers of those children who will put anything but food into their mouths." The book also addresses how to recognize food allergy, how to ensure that food is safe, and what to feed children when they are sick.

Food for Tots is available for $16.95 on the internet at foodfortots.com, by phone at 1-866-foodfortots, and by mail from Food for Tots Publishing, P.O. Box 241, Mercer Island, WA, 98040-0241.