Jill Castle - Try New Food: How to Help Picky Eaters Taste, Eat & Like New Foods

Table Of Contents

PRAISE FOR
TRY NEW FOOD

Parents who are frustrated about their childs eating, who feel at a loss about what to do, and who are worried their child isnt eating the right foods will find relief in this book. Jill not only walks parents through the process of helping their child taste and discover new foods, but she also arms them with the knowledge and encouragement they truly need to be better feeders. This is an outstanding resource!

Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD, author of The 101 Healthiest Foods For Kids and founder of RealMomNutrition.com

The beauty of Jill Castles workbook edition of Try New Food is that it feels as though Jill is sitting with you at the family table. Picky eating doesnt just impact the child, it changes the whole family dynamic. Jills strategies address the big picture by supporting parents in the process of helping kids taste and learn to love a variety of foods. Yes, your child will become more adventurous, but just as important, the process will bring joy back to your family table once again.

Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, pediatric feeding specialist and author of Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes

All parents want their children to willingly try new food but some kids need more support. Try New Food provides the steps, framework, and strategy parents need to help their children get there. Its a must read for any parent of a cautious eater!

Maryann Jacobsen, MS, RD, author of From Picky to Powerful

This is the book I wish Id had when I started on my own journey as a parent. Written by one of the countrys foremost authorities on feeding kids (who is a mother of four herself), Try New Food is packed with practical advice, doable tips, and a user-friendly workbook. Perhaps best of all, the stories and anecdotes will make you feel like you arent the only one with a picky kid and assure you that it wont be like this forever.

Katie Sullivan Morford, MS, RD, author of Rise & Shine and Best Lunch Box Ever

Try New Food: How to Help Picky Eaters Taste, Eat & Like New Foods is the essential workbook for parents who want their children to have a positive relationship with a wide range of food. This book is packed with tools and practical strategies to reduce mealtime stress and picky eating tendencies. Parents learn simple tips to introduce new food to their child with confidence and fun! As a Registered Dietitian and mother of two children, I find this workbook to be very helpful with my own family. It is a must-have resource for every parent as well as any health care professional who works with children.

Clancy Harrison, TEDx Speaker, Food Justice Advocate, Registered Dietitian

Jill hits the mark with the workbook edition of Try New Food! It is a practical, accurate and timely resource for both parents and professionals. The workbook actively engages the reader with sound feeding advice along with space devoted for reflections to promote a positive feeding relationship. As a pediatric dietitian, I am thrilled to have this resource to recommend to families!

Karen McGrail, MEd, RDN, Director of the John Stalker Institute of Food and Nutrition

Jill Castles Try New Food Workbook is the exact resource parents need to take the stress out of family mealtimes. She demystifies what picky eating really is and helps parents take responsibility for their role in their childrens eating (or lack thereof). I particularly love her practical, eye-opening exercises and her actionable tips for ensuring children get the balance they need in their diets while making mealtimes something everyone in the family can look forward to. I highly recommend the workbook for parents who want to bring more calm into their feeding style and model healthy behaviors with food for their children.

Alexia Vernon, Keynote Speaker, Author, Speaking Coach & Trainer

Try New
Food

How to Help Picky Eaters Taste, Eat & Like New Foods

The Workbook Edition

By Jill Castle, MS, RDN

This is a work of nonfiction. Nonetheless, some of the names and personal characteristics of the individuals involved here have been changed in order to disguise their identities. Any resulting resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and unintentional.

The information provided in this book is for general informational purposes only. No representations or warranties are expressed or implied about the information, products, services, or related graphics contained in this book for any purpose. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted.

Copyright 2019 by Jill Castle, MS, RDN

All Rights Reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-7325918-2-0

Library of Congress Number: 2019900296

Editing by Arnetta Jackson

Cover and book design by Streetlight Graphics

Published in the United States by Nourished Child Press

www.JillCastle.com

To Grace, Madeline, Caroline and Ben,

Im forever grateful for the opportunity to nourish and nurture you. Youve taught me more than you will ever know.

Love, Mom

Prologue

A few years ago, I decided to create a resource that would highlight and showcase the way I work with kids in my practice who are unwilling to try new food. I wrote Try New Food: Help New Eaters, Picky Eaters and Extreme Picky Eaters Taste, Eat and Like New Foods . You can imagine after 25+ years of working with families, Ive seen a lot, and figured out some strategies that are positive and productive in this area of parenting and feedingstrategies that honor Ellyn Satters Division of Responsibility with Feeding, while also preserving and giving attention to food, nutrients, and your childs personality.

Try New Food has been a welcome resource for many of you. It has helped you with practical steps, new foods to offer your child, and perhaps even given you the opportunity to pause and reflect on your role in your childs eating. Youve told me its given you fresh ideas; its calmed you down; its given you goals and a pathway to gently forge a plan.

However, since the book released, I wanted to make it even more useful and helpful. So thats what Ive done. Ive added reflections and exercises, so that you can take time to sort out your childs reactions, his or her food preferences, how things are progressing (or not), and your own feelings about feeding your child. I provide you more background on the why behind fussy eating; an opportunity to look at your childs experience with food, and embellish the steps and strategies to help your child try new food. In essence, Ive created a workbook to transform the way you think about your child, the way you interact and handle food with your child, and help you work through the tricky, joy-robbing experience of raising a child who wont try new food.

Try New Food: How to Help Picky Eaters Taste, Eat & Like New Foods is my attempt to walk with you as you embark on this journey. I hope it transforms your thoughts, ideas, and actions!

~Jill

Introduction

W hen I had my first daughter, I naively thought she would be a food-loving experimentalist, excited to try all kinds of new and exotic food. She was never that until she was much older.

In fact, she was my little birdie. She sat in her high chair and picked a bit of this and a bit of that to eat, then said she was all done and wanted to get down. My biggest mistake was allowing her to toddle around with a sippy cup of whole milk all day. Whole milk was my crutchand hers. She didnt eat much at meals, so I made sure she had access to milk whenever she wanted it. Why was this a mistake, you wonder? By twelve months, she was barely meeting her expected weight gain, and by eighteen months, she was anemic.