Eating Guide for Fussy Kids: Advice and Recipes by Experts

How can I make sure that my child is well nourished? How can I restore good relations between parents and children in our family?”

Only people with a first-hand experience with fussy and picky children can fully grasp the challenge for the family. In this guide, three renowned professionals join forces to help families deal effectively with the issue:

Pavlos Sakkas, a professor of psychiatry, analyses step by step how the family meal may well turn into a conflict between child and parents, emphasises the danger of the ever-lurking anorexia nervosa and shows how to eliminate these issues.

George Moustakas, a paediatrician, offers helpful information and tips for children's nourishment and redeems the reputation of tasty foods such as butter, chocolate, salt, etc.

Eirini Togia, the internationally famous and global award-winning chef better known as "Rena tis Ftelias", shares Mediterranean-style recipes that appeal even to the fussiest children.

The guide is also a source of practical, hands-on tips and insights described through real-life personal stories of adults who had been fussy themselves or who had picky children. The experts’ comments on the stories shed more light and reveal hidden aspects.

Finally, the book provides useful advice gleaned from recent academic studies, surveys, and researches, a world bibliography, and guidelines from the National Health System in the UK (NHS Choices).

Editor's preface

It is not by coincidence that the authors and the editor of this book are all of the Mediterranean origins. In this part of the world, food is a severe issue! The same applies to the family. And they are best expressed together on the occasion of a joyful family feast.

So, in the Mediterranean culture, a picky or fuzzy eater is a matter of concern that is worthy of attention.  A holistic approach was the concept of the first edition, published earlier this year in Greece. It aimed to help expand a child’s appetite as well as to highlight the family dynamics that may trigger this kind of behaviour.

The success of the first Greek edition as well as substantial research evidence suggesting that these issues are, after all, common around the world, led us to this enhanced international publication in the English language.

Introduction

If you are reading this book, there is a good chance you may feel challenged by a child’s eating behaviour.

What is a fussy or a picky eater? Is there a difference with neophobia? Yes, there is.

What is the primary root of the problem? Parents' behaviour and their relationship with their children.

Do you know that if you change the colours and taste, with appropriate preparation, of the main foods that are usually rejected by picky children, the same children will eat them up?

These are only some of the topics covered in the following chapters of this guide: Fundamental rules for parents to obtain and increase skills in building consistent and straightforward behaviours in their children with delicacies and children-friendly decorated dishes.

Parents' anxiety control and their knowledge about the phenomenon and its types and what is normal or not remain a key. Because the solution requires knowledge of the problem for the parent to ask for help promptly from a doctor who is the only person and professional that can help solve this issue.

This is the goal of this guide which covers eating difficulties from toddler age through to adolescence in five sections.

Eirini Togia, well-known as "Rena tis Ftelias", was born in Corfu and lives in Athens. She started her first restaurant in Mykonos at the Ftelia beach in 1979, and soon, the restaurant became a must-visit place for Greek and international celebrities and those appreciative of good-quality food. Six years later, she opened a boutique restaurant in Athens. For several years, both restaurants operated simultaneously. Rena has been a true representative of the Greek Mediterranean cuisine for over 39 years now and is very well-known for her hospitality and her respect and love for pure, fresh ingredients (virgin olive oil, vegetables and herbs). Her recipes are simple and authentic, and they reflect the Greek tradition and culture. For several consecutive years, Rena's restaurant has been distinguished and shortlisted amongst the top restaurants in Athens with individual and corporate customers from Greece and abroad. Rena has published several cookbooks in Greek and other languages that have received numerous European and international distinctions. Two of her books, namely Greek Mediterranean Cuisine and Rena's Desserts, received a distinction in the International Gourmand Cookbook Contest in 2004 in Barcelona, and Rena was awarded the "2nd Best Woman Chef in the World". In 2008, Rena represented Greece in the "Greek Gastronomy Week" held by the Greek National Tourism Organization in China and participated in the "International Tourism Exhibition", organised again by the Greek National Tourism Organization. In 2015, she gained two Gourmand World Awards -"Best Woman Chef Book - Best in the World" and "Best Translation Book in Greece"- for the English and French editions of her book A Taste of Greece (original Greek title Ρένα της Φτελιάς: Συνταγές που Αγαπήσαμε), respectively (published by Stergiou Limited). In 2016, these titles were finalists in China's event for the "Wine and Drinks books" and "Cookbooks and Food Culture" categories.

Pavlos Sakkas grew up in the milieu of psychiatry as his father was also a psychiatrist. Pavlos has practised psychiatry on the front lines for the last thirty years and is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Medical School of the University of Athens. He has also been a Visiting Professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He has obtained prestigious scholarships and has accomplished substantial works in research, with hundreds of publications in international scientific journals. However, despite these great professional achievements, his greatest fondness is for teaching. He has spent his long academic career initiating thousands of medical students and hundreds of specialised psychiatrists into the world of psychiatry. Furthermore, featured in the media on numerous occasions, he tries to familiarise the general public with the messages of modern psychiatry and the significant developments achieved in recent decades. Pavlos Sakkas' inquisitive spirit has formulated fresh and enterprising points of view concerning certain aspects - that are still obscure - of psychiatry. In his clinical work, which has been met with high esteem, he has, meanwhile, applied special personal techniques of approach to a patient. It is these views and employed techniques that are set out in his present book, which represents the distillation of his knowledge and experience.

The paediatrician George Moustakas studied at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. He received a speciality in paediatrics title at the tier 1 University Paediatric Clinic of Children's Hospital in Greece, "Aglaia Kyriakou". He was a volunteer at the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and the Special Olympics in 2011. George took active voluntary actions on paediatric prophylactic control in various humanitarian childhood institutions such as "Children's Smile" and many more. During his many years as a paediatrician, George has been involved in various humanitarian missions during wars and natural disasters in different places of the world (Yugoslavia, Kosovo, etc.). He has participated in various medical publications with paediatric issues such as diet, vaccination, accidents, and tips on them as well as in international specialised paediatric congresses such as those in the USA (Chicago, San Francisco, Texas), in Europe (UK, France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Portugal etc.), China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Beijing, and hundreds of paediatric congresses in Greece. He has been practising paediatrics at the Athens Paediatric Centre since 1992 and in the paediatric department of the Journalists' Fund (EDOEAP) the past 20 years until today. He is a member of the Athens Medical Association and the Greek Paediatric Society.