How to Talk to Children About Food: A New Approach to Managing Food Feelings, Fussiness and Eating Disorders, for Ages 0-16

by Dr Anna Colton

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

· 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.

Genres: Audiobook, Parenting

324 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 13, 2025

Reviews

[Tilly Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for any parent who grew up in the 90s diet culture and wants their children to have a neutral and relaxed approach to food. What I loved is the total acknowledgement that it's not about the meal plan, recipe or being a great cook - it's all the other 'stuff'

[Megan Dowd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this book! I am a clinical psychologist myself who works with eating disorders and I still got soo much out of this book. I’ve read so many parenting books and this is by far up there with one of my favourites. It goes beyond so much more than just food into emotion regulation and managing tantrums. It uses elements of gold standard therapy such as cognitive behaviour therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy throughout which is incredible to see. It also recommends a lot of books on parenting, all of which I am now dying to read! I can’t recommend this book enough, I usually go through with a highlighter highlighting important parts of books and bookmarking with colours extra important parts, with this book I found I was just highlighting everything and had to stop because highlighting became purposeless! The whole thing is so incredibly useful, it gives great examples and specific ways to change your language, every parent should read this.

[Periplus Bookshop]

Membantu anak-anak mengembangkan hubungan yang sehat dengan makanan merupakan tantangan bagi banyak orang tua. Dr. Anna Colton, seorang psikolog klinis dan spesialis gangguan makan, menawarkan panduan komprehensif untuk mendukung orang tua dalam perjalanan ini. Pendekatan “netral terhadap makanan” dianjurkan. Artinya, makanan tidak diberi label baik atau buruk, melainkan disebut sesuai namanya tanpa muatan emosional. Orang tua juga didorong untuk mengatasi masalah pribadi mereka terkait makanan agar tidak secara tidak sadar menularkannya kepada anak-anak.Penting untuk menciptakan suasana makan yang santai dan bebas konflik, memungkinkan anak-anak belajar mengenali sinyal lapar dan kenyang mereka sendiri. Komunikasi terbuka mengenai citra tubuh, diet, dan emosi sangat penting, terutama selama masa remaja ketika anak-anak menghadapi perubahan signifikan dan tekanan sosial. Dengan pendekatan ini, diharapkan anak-anak dapat mengembangkan kebiasaan makan yang positif dan hubungan yang sehat dengan makanan sepanjang hidup mereka.​ https://blog.periplus.com/2025/04/07/...

[Sufia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Informative, insightful, enlightening and refreshing amongst the overwhelming and often dull reading list of a new parent! Dr Anna Colton offers advice question and improve your own relationship and attitudes to food as well as practical steps to improve those of your children in a user-friendly, sympathetic and non-judgemental way. As new parents, we have and are finding it so incredibly useful and recommend it highly.

[Periplus Bookshop]

Membantu anak-anak mengembangkan hubungan yang sehat dengan makanan merupakan tantangan bagi banyak orang tua. Dr. Anna Colton, seorang psikolog klinis dan spesialis gangguan makan, menawarkan panduan komprehensif untuk mendukung orang tua dalam perjalanan ini. Pendekatan “netral terhadap makanan” dianjurkan. Artinya, makanan tidak diberi label baik atau buruk, melainkan disebut sesuai namanya tanpa muatan emosional. Orang tua juga didorong untuk mengatasi masalah pribadi mereka terkait makanan agar tidak secara tidak sadar menularkannya kepada anak-anak.Penting untuk menciptakan suasana makan yang santai dan bebas konflik, memungkinkan anak-anak belajar mengenali sinyal lapar dan kenyang mereka sendiri. Komunikasi terbuka mengenai citra tubuh, diet, dan emosi sangat penting, terutama selama masa remaja ketika anak-anak menghadapi perubahan signifikan dan tekanan sosial. Dengan pendekatan ini, diharapkan anak-anak dapat mengembangkan kebiasaan makan yang positif dan hubungan yang sehat dengan makanan sepanjang hidup mereka.​ https://blog.periplus.com/2025/04/07/...