Preventing Food Fights

November 4, 2011 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

November is American Thanksgiving. We really do have so much to be thankful for! What a good time to practice thankfulness ourselves and to teach our children the attitude of gratitude. Let ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ be common words in your home.

With Thanksgiving this month and Christmas and New Years soon, food is on our minds. There will be all kinds of foods around that only seem to appear once a year. So with all these strange foods and many more sweets around than usual, mealtime can become a battleground. Rather than try to make your toddler face new foods at every turn, why not try to keep it simple. Stick to the basics for your toddler as much as possible, even while you enjoy the treats of the season. There will be plenty more years ahead to encourage your child to be a gourmand. [Read more…]

Making Purees for Deceptively Delicious Recipes

February 25, 2011 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

You begin by making purees, a few at a time. Divide each into potions and freeze them for use in the recipes.

For apples, berries, cantaloupe, cherries and pineapple, just wash, cut the fruit and puree in a food processor or blender for about 2 minutes. (Instead of fresh berries, cherries, or pineapple, you can use frozen or canned without syrup.) [Read more…]

Deliciously Deceptive

February 2, 2011 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

While I was on home leave in December, I found a book full of great ideas for getting children to eat their veggies. Yes, there is help for those of you with children who would love the t-shirt our son got for Christmas one year. It said, “Vegetables are UGLY!” Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld, Dr. Seuss books, and stuffed toys were on sale for $5.00 each. I couldn’t resist! I could get $5.00 worth of good ideas out of any cookbook. But this one is worth a lot more to me and moms who can’t get their kids to eat their vegetables.

Jessica starts her book with, “I had tried everything, and yet all my efforts to feed my family were being undermined by a powerful force: vegetables. Mealtimes were reduced to a constant pushing and pulling, with me forever begging my kids to eat their vegetables, and them protesting unhappily. Instead of laughing and having fun with my family, I was irritated and stressed as I labored to coerce them to eat food they found ‘disgusting.’ I couldn’t take it any more. I just wanted a little peace around the dinner table.”
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Sibling Rivalry

July 30, 2010 By Diane Constantine Leave a Comment

Quarreling and fighting among siblings is a perennial problem. Every mom of two or more kids faces it. Remember Joseph and his brothers in Genesis? Even Fairy Tales like Cinderella talk about sibling rivalry. We hope to make this an on-going discussion. Why not share your examples, strategies, and resources for other moms facing the dreaded Sibling Rivalry?

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New Kid by Friday – part 6

July 28, 2010 By Diane Constantine

Over the last few months I’ve been sharing some insights from Dr. Kevin Leman’s book, Have a New Kid by Friday.

These are the last two strategies from Dr. Leman that we will cover in these letters. Strategy one, “Let reality be the teacher.” And the second strategy is, “B doesn’t happen until A is completed.”

He stresses that as much as possible allow natural consequences to teach lessons to your child. Don’t be constantly reminding them of the consequences, just let them feel them. Don’t micromanage your child’s experiences. [Read more…]