cover image Parents' Guide to Feeding Your Kids Right: Birth Through Teen Years

Parents' Guide to Feeding Your Kids Right: Birth Through Teen Years

Jane E. Brody, Kathleen Moloney. Prentice Hall, $9.95 (211pp) ISBN 978-0-13-649914-5

This second volume in the Children's Television Workshop's Family Living series presents sensible, easily implemented ideas on meeting children's nutritional needs without undue aggravation and stress. Much of the information is self-evident (``Lean meats are far preferable to fatty meats''; ``Children often swap parts of their lunches at school or eat only the parts that appeal to them'') but should prove beneficial to the nutritional novice or the anxious parent. The editors write about real families--kids who love bologna or chocolate, teens who scarf down vast quantities of soda and corn chips, girls whose preoccupation with weight leads to eating disorders. And creative suggestions for coping with impediments to ideal dietary regimes acknowledge that food satisfies social, emotional and psychological needs as well as physical ones. While the editors recognize that good nutrition is a serious matter, their sane advice is to lighten up: ``No matter what the issue is, a sense of humor is one of a parent's most valuable assets.'' Literary Guild selection. (June)