Cookbooks For Feeding Fussy Eaters (age 2 to 4)

Your child may prefer to live on chicken fingers and American cheese slices, but you'd feel better if she were eating a more balanced diet. Unfortunately, just because you manage to get all the food groups onto a plate at mealtime doesn't mean they're going to make it into the hungry mouth of your little one. If you've got a fussy eater, consider one of these kid-tested cookbooks below. Some even offer recipes that your youngster can help you make.

One Bite Won't Kill You
By Ann Hodgman and Roz Chast, illustrator. (1999, Houghton Mifflin Co., $15. Reading level: Adult)

The title of this book is a promise kept by the fun recipes inside. Author and mother of two fussy eaters, Ann Hodgman delivers comforting foods that will satisfy kids' finicky palates and save tired cooks by relying on ready-made ingredients like canned soup or muffin mix. Packed with recipes, anecdotes about teaching kids to broaden their culinary horizons, and hysterical cartoons and illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast, one look at this book will make it a favorite.

Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes: A Cookbook for Preschoolers & Up
By Mollie Katzen and Ann L. Henderson (1994, Tricycle Press, $17. Reading level: Ages 4 to 8)

Inviting your child into the kitchen to help prepare meals is one way to quell the demands of a finicky eater. Vegetarian foodie Mollie Katzen (author of The Moosewood Cookbook) and educator Ann Henderson have teamed up to create a kid-friendly, nutritionally mindful, and parent-perfect book. Each of the 19 recipes starts with individual instructions for both the adult and child, is illustrated with cute animals, and includes insider reviews from kids who have tried the recipes and give them a thumbs-up. Kids will love the easy-to-follow step-by-step illustrations.

Brown Bag Success: Making Healthy Lunches Your Kids Won't Trade
By Sandra K. Nissenberg and Barbara N. Pearl (1997, John Wiley & Sons, $10. Reading level: Ages 9 to 12)

There you are, carefully crafting brown bag lunches for your children, and just a few hours later, they're picking them over and discarding the contents. Written at a level kids can understand, the book offers plenty of recipes for fun, packable lunches, like cheese and flour tortilla triangles and ham and cheese pinwheels, along with nutritional tips and hints on getting out the door in the morning with minimal stress.

Healthy Snacks for Kids
By Penny Warner (1995, Nitty Gritty Cookbooks, $9. Reading level: Adult)

If your child's appetite seems to surge without warning, this book will help you produce tasty, fun, and nutritious snacks in a snap. Recipes like Corny Pudding and Monkey Bars sneak healthy ingredients into foods that will keep your kids happy, too. Warner also includes a food pyramid for each recipe with main ingredients highlighted to make nutritional choices easy.

source from http://parentcenter.babycenter.com