Food Fights: Winning the Nutritional Challenges of Parenthood Armed with Insight, Humor, and a Bottle of Ketchup [Paperback]

Laura A. Jana MD FAAP (Author), Jennifer Shu MD FAAP (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 7, 2012

Bring "peas and harmony" to the family table with Food Fights, 2nd edition!

Knowing what to feed children is one thing. Getting them to eat it is quite another!
In Food Fights, 2nd edition, the authors tastefully blend the science of nutrition and pediatrics with the practical insights of parents who have been in your shoes―offering simple solutions for your daily nutritional challenges. Whether you've got an infant, toddler, or young child, Food Fights promises entertaining, reality-based advice on:

▪ How to pick your battles (and arm yourself accordingly)
▪ Whining and dining, throwing food, and other dietary distractions
▪ Heaping helpings, TV dinners, fast food, and other nutritional minefields
▪ Eating out, grocery shopping, and travel
▪ The 5-second rule
▪ Drinking and dozing, juice, soda pop, and other classic drinking problems
▪ Sick kids, vitamins, body weight, allergies, constipation, spitting up…and so much more!

This revised second edition also includes new chapters on healthy breakfasts, what's lacking in snacking, and supermarket sanity, and serves up important guidance on making sense of package labels and choosing foods wisely. Add the cornucopia of resources such as recipes for success, a nutrient primer, and phone apps that help families stay on a tech-savvy track to good nutrition and this new and improved edition of Food Fights is guaranteed to leave you satisfied.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Presents a no-fuss approach to helping young children develop the healthy eating habits that will see them through a lifetime. Its delightful tone makes it a joy to read and refer to, over and over again."  —Elizabeth M. Ward, MS, RD, author, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Feeding Your Baby and Toddler 

 "Food Fights makes it clear that raising children who are healthy eaters requires good role models for healthy eating. The tips provided throughout the book make it easy for parents to be those healthy role models." —Connie Diekman, M.Ed, RD, LD, FADA, Nutrition Consultant 

"Drs. Jana and Shu know their stuff! Their clever book and sound advice will help you and your kids eat, drink…. AND be merry!"

—Harvey Karp, MD, FAAP, author, DVD/book, The Happiest Toddler on the Block

"Another fantastic guide from Drs. Jana and Shu! Food Fights helps parents find a realistic middle ground between what their child should be eating and what their child is actually willing to consume." – Lisa Singer Moran, former executive editor, Baby Talk magazine

“Food Fights should be mandatory reading for anyone responsible for feeding an infant, toddler, or young child. In their characteristically easy-to-read, humorous fashion, these two pediatrician moms have created the perfect tool to help parents and caregivers instill healthy eating habits, avoid temper tantrums, dodge flying vegetables and, above all else, maintain a healthy attitude toward the nutritional challenges of parenthood!”—Tanya Remer Altmann, MD, editor in chief, The Wonder Years and editorial board advisor, Healthy Children Magazine

“The authors of Food Fights have done a great job! This book will go far in continuing to help parents lay the ground work for excellent nutrition.” 

—Sandra G. Hassink, MD, FAAP, editor of A Parent's Guide to Childhood Obesity, A Road Map to Health, and Director of the Weight-Management Program at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, DE

“Encouraging, compassionate, and clear for its compelling nutrition messages, this book will be a comprehensive source of information for any parent trying to guide their children to healthy eating habits and lives. I especially like how the up-to-date nutrition information is translated into real life situations.” — Connie Guttersen, RD, PhD, author, The Sonoma Diet

“Food Fights gives thorough, practical, fun-to-read advice for parents as they tackle some of parenthood’s most difficult challenges.”—Claire McCarthy, MD, pediatrician, Children’s Hospital of Boston; pediatrics instructor, Harvard Medical School; and contributing editor, Parenting Magazine

About the Author

Laura A. Jana, MD, FAAP, is a pediatrician and proud mother of 3. Having cofounded The Dr. Spock Company, Dr. Jana has since provided her reality-parenting advice to academic institutions, non-profits, major corporations, and media outlets nationwide, including CNN, The Today Show, Good Morning America, and NPR. As a parenting and children's book author, she is also founder of Practical Parenting Consulting, advisor to the Walt Disney Internet Group and American Baby magazine, media spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and owner of Primrose School of Legacy -- an educational child care center in Omaha, NE.

Jennifer Shu, MD, FAAP, is a practicing pediatrician and mother in Atlanta, GA. A frequent guest on national and local television, radio, and Web-based programs, she is medical editor in chief of HealthyChildren.org, is the Living Well health expert for CNN.com, contributes medical information to WebMD.com, and serves on the Parents magazine advisory board. She has chaired the young physicians sections for both the American Academy of Pediatrics and American Medical Association and formerly served as director of the normal newborn nursery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: American Academy Of Pediatrics; Second Edition, Second edition edition (February 7, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581105851
• ISBN-13: 978-1581105858
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,459 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #19 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Cooking
  • #97 in Books > Humor & Entertainment > Humor > Self-Help & Psychology

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Preachy and condescending December 11, 2011

By KPS

Format:Paperback

I'm afraid I didn't learn much; there are a few nuggets of wisdom but lots of filler. For example, did you know the reason your pediatrician weighs your child every visit is to chart their growth? You didn't? Well, thank goodness this book has a whole chapter telling you so. Their facts are sometimes iffy - if they don't have a citation, it's "many people" do this or "most people" believe that. The authors come across as preachy and agenda-driven. They appear to think all of us are clueless, lazy, and self-indulgent, with no idea how to eat healthfully ourselves. Worse, the book is really a parenting manual with an agenda, loosely disguised as being about getting your child to eat well. You should read your child books? Really? Thanks. Water makes them "pee"? Earth-shattering. Moreover, the writing is atrocious. You know those catchy subheadings you see in magazines? That. But so obscure as to be nonsensical. For example: "All Choking Aside" and "Gluten for Punishment." In short, this book has little to offer regarding feeding and nutrition. If you've been a parent for a couple years or so, and are sufficiently interested in this topic to be browsing these reviews, rest assured that nearly all the information in this book is already between your ears.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Food Fights - a book for mommys of picky eaters August 13, 2008

By Jennifer Truong

Format:Paperback

Great reference for all parents. Written by two pediatrician mommys and addresses many of the common questions that overtired parents are too overwhelmed to look up. Very common sense strategies for dealing with various phases of food struggles.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Food Fights is a Knockout! The perfect baby shower gift! April 28, 2008

By J. Grimes

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Food Fights is practical, funny, down to earth instruction book that all parents should read- preferably when their kids are young, so they will grow up with life-long healthy eating habits. This book reads like your best girlfriend chatting with you about shared challenges with your kids, not like some ivory-towered medical advice from doctors with no kids. What other book addresses the "5 Second Rule"? It's obvious both authors have first hand experience with real life "food fights"- and this is a fabulous way to share their combined "mommy" and "doctor" knowledge. Make this your standard baby shower gift- especially for the second kid in a family, because this gift will last far longer than a cute outfit.