How to Talk to Children About Food

A New Approach to Managing Food Feelings, Fussiness and Eating Disorders, for Ages 0-16

Dr Anna Colton

• Publisher: Leap
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Psychology
• eBook ISBN:
  9781785120565
• Subtopic: Abnormal Psychology
• Index: Psychology

'A book every parent should read - an eye-opening and shame-free guide on how we improve our children's relationship with food.' Zoe Blaskey, author of Motherkind

'Full of invaluable advice, it gets to the heart of why kids struggle with food and how you can foster healthy habits to prevent future problems with eating and body image.' Dr Kirren Schnack, Psychologist and author of Ten Times Calmer

Were you ever told 'you can't have dessert until you eat all your vegetables?' Or to 'be grateful for your meal'? Or perhaps you yourself have said 'Mummy's on a diet so she can't eat that' or 'Daddy is fat, you don't want to be like me'. We may not realise, but we are constantly communicating our thoughts on food to our children.

As we navigate picky eating and high emotions at mealtimes as well as puberty, diet culture, body image and eating disorders - now more than ever, we need to change the way we communicate about food to our children and ourselves. So how do we help children develop and nurture a healthy relationship with food?

Clinical psychologist and eating disorder specialist Dr Anna Colton guides you through a judgement- and shame-free journey from pregnancy to a child's adolescence with accessible scientific and psychological understandings.

How to Talk to Children About Food will help you to:

· Learn the developmental stages of eating and gain the tools to support children through the ages
· Navigate and manage complex food feelings without anxiety, anger or distress
· Identify eating disorder behaviours and know when to intervene
· Break negative eating cycles and patterns
· Build a positive relationship between food and your child/teen's body
· Have calm, happy and fuss-free mealtimes for everyone.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Dear Reader
• Chapter 1: What Is Food?
• Chapter 2: Your Family Food Legacy
• Chapter 3: Feelings
• Chapter 4: Communication Through Food
• Chapter 5: Developmental Stages with Eating
• Chapter 6: Childhood
• Chapter 7: Adolescence
• Chapter 8: Diet Culture
• Chapter 9: Disordered Eating and Eating Disorders
• Chapter 10: Putting It All Together
• Resources and Further Reading
• Appendix: The Minnesota Starvation Experiment
• References
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author