Tricel Nava-De Guzman - Yummy, Mommy!: Healthy Cooking for Your Picky Eater

Tricel Nava-De Guzman

Photographs by Jed Uy

Y u m m y , M o m m y !

Healthy Cooking for your Picky Eater

Copyright 2014

Tricel Nava-De Guzman and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without the written permission of the copyright owners.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

7th Floor Quad Alpha Centrum Building

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Trunk Lines: (+632) 477-4752, 477-4755 to 57

Sales & Marketing:

Fax: (+632) 747-1622

www.anvilpublishing.com

Food styling by Tricel De Guzman and Angelo Comsti

Book design by R. Jordan P. Santos (cover) and Joshene Bersales (interior)

Photographs by Jed Uy

Doodles by R. Jordan P. Santos

ISBN 978-971-27-3058-0 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

To my one and only picky eater,

Lara Olivia N. De Guzman

Thank you for being an inspiration and for giving me the best job in the world.
I love you very much.

This handy cookbook perfectly marries the dual roles of many womenthat of a caring mother and of a provider not just of food but of good health. Kudos to Tricel for helping as well as empowering moms who want nothing less for their kids.

Angelo Comsti
cookbook author, food writer and food stylist

If you are reading this book, you may be one of four things:

1. You are a parent with a picky eater.
2. You know of another parent with a picky eater and is thinking of giving this book to that person.
3. You dont have picky eaters (at least not right now) but thinks this book is interesting enough to try the recipes for your kids or family; or
4. You are a dear, supportive friend of mine.

This book came about because I am no stranger to picky eating. This was inspired by my very own picky and difficult to feed daughter.

From day one of weaning from breastmilk, my daughter (now 3 years old) had never liked food. Not the first solid food she ate (which was avocado), and not most of the food that I introduced after that. In fact, she didnt enjoy eating at all. I honestly thought that there must be a part of her brain that didnt recognize eating as pleasurable. It seemed like torture for her to eat (no exaggeration). Thus, I cut back on her feeding to once a day until she was about 10 months old. From 10 months old to 1 year, she was only eating twice a day. Most of it ended up in the trash. I can definitely say that this was the most frustrating experience in my life as a parent.

During her early toddler years, my child had learned the art of avoiding food:

• She would whine endlessly and cry intermittently before accepting food in her mouthlike she was being punished.
• When I try to combine food she already liked with new ones, she would sort it in her mouth and spit what she didnt like.
• Every time I tried to land a spoon in her mouth, she would automatically push my hand away like we were doing karate moves.

Friends and Internet resources all advised me not to worry, that children will eat when they get hungry; Or that kids know their bodies and will tell you when theyre hungry. Still, I would worry because my daughter didnt seem to sense hunger cues. She could skip meals and go on for hours without asking for food. She was getting stick thin and was consistently losing weight for consecutive months. I was deeply worried she was probably not getting the proper nutrition her body needed. To make things worse, she was not a big milk drinker as well. Her milk intake fell short the ideal ounce needed per day.

To make the story short, this book came about because I got challenged. More importantly, because I realized that picky eating is a common problem. Yes, it is very commonjust google picky eating and youll find a wealth of blogs, resource articles, recipe ideas for picky eaters. Consider yourself very lucky if you dont have a picky eater. At least not just yet. But tables might turn later on. And yes, I consider it a problem when the child is not gaining weight or getting the proper nutrition as he or she should at a critical age when his or her body should be growing exponentially.

I love to cook so I made it a mission to be creative in my recipes and experiment on food combinations that my child might accept. Luckily, my daughter already likes most fruits and oatmeal. So I had something to start with. That is why a lot of the recipes in this book have fruits in them. Now, I am sharing these recipes with moms like me who have picky eaters of their own. These are recipes that even the whole family can enjoy.

Now, I am happy to say that my daughter, now at 3 years old, has become quite a good eater (Wohoo!) Translation: She eats well-balanced meals, prefers home cooked meals and has widened her food preferences. I think that by not compromising, not giving in to what is convenient, and continuing to offer healthy, varied choices, I have succeeded in making her more receptive to a wider variety of food. Kids are fickle about food. One day, they love something; the next day, they hate it. It is typical. But I know I have to have a head start in instilling healthy eating habits for my child.

I am not a nutritionist so this book does not focus on nutrition facts. The dishes here, however, are made with healthy ingredients. To make the book more engaging, I added nutritional info tidbits and other fun trivia facts from various sources.

The recipes here are meant as a guide. Not all kids have the same preferences and tastes. But I encourage you to try the recipes and see how you can tweak a recipe based on what your child already likes. Also, keep in mind that any picky eater (or child) will likely refuse the taste of new food initially. Be patient and just continue to offer it. Research says that the more a kid is exposed to a certain food or taste, the more he or she will be receptive to it later on.

To quote one cookbook author: Dont compromise, get creative.

Lastly, I encourage you to choose organic when you can. Learn to read labels. Be more conscious of what we make our children eat. Just by simply cooking at home is already making a better choice for our kids. In other words, lets invest in our childrens health.

Tricel Nava-De Guzman

As a pediatrician, I have encountered a lot of distraught and frantic parents who seek advice regarding children who are picky eaters. They come to me, frustrated that all their efforts to provide nutritious meals to their children have failed. They fret about their kids eating only hotdogs and chicken nuggets, day in and day out. They express their anxiety that their children will not grow and develop normally because of this picky-eating habit.