Stories of Extreme Picky Eating: Children with Severe Food Aversions and the Solutions That Helped Them

by Jennifer Friedman

Discover the Strategies That Helped the Most Extreme Picky Eaters and That Can Help Your Picky Eater, Too“Is this normal picky eating stuff, or is there more going on here?” It’s a question many parents worry about, and the same question one mom asked Jennifer Friedman in a session about her son Ryder, who struggled to eat more than chicken nuggets and french fries. In Stories of Extreme Picky Eating, Jennifer invites you into her nutritional therapy office to meet real kids struggling with serious food aversions, and learn the strategies that helped them come to eat a wider variety of nutritious foods with more ease. You’ll meet Jackson, an eight-year-old whose diet used to consist entirely of packaged fruit and veggie puree pouches, milk and crackers. You’ll meet Ruby, a bright and bubbly seven-year-old, who ate little more than sugar-laden baked goods and packaged snacks, and who struggled with an extremely sensitive gag reflex. And you’ll meet five more children whose stories are as fascinating to read as they are enlightening to reveal the root causes of picky eating. Backed by cutting-edge research—and including kid-friendly activities and intervention plans—this book will help you understand the complex issues that drive children’s picky eating habits, and implement key strategies that can set them on the path to enjoying a more diverse, nutritious diet.

259 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 29, 2020

Reviews

[Ava Courtney Sylvester · Rating 2 out of 5]

What about ARFID?

While this book does a decent job of describing a series of kids who present with a variety of picky eating behavior and how the author treated them in her practice, there’s a glaring omission that does her readers a great disservice: ARFID.

Despite being formally identified seven years before this book went to print, avoidant/restrictive food and intake disorder, or ARFID, is never once mentioned by the author of this book. She actually states that “distinguishing traditional picky eating from something more severe is challenging, in part because there is no formal definition of what either one looks like” (p. 24). But that was precisely the purpose for establishing ARFID as a clinical diagnosis.

I can’t imagine why Friedman would omit this essential information, as people with extremely picky eating can be at risk for life-threatening nutritional complications and need urgent medical intervention. Her patients and readers ought to be informed about when picky eating might become dangerous and the risks of inadequate treatment.

Like this book, I’m afraid.

[Rebecca Hammerquist · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a mother of a very mild “picky eater” and an aunt to a “problem eater” I loved this book. Couldn’t recommend more!

[Arianne Askham · Rating 5 out of 5]

BUY THIS NOW

If you found this review, chances are you have a picky eater too. You don’t even need to finish reading my thoughts- BUY THE BOOK!

I have a five year old who is quite picky. It’s worsened over the years, and now little sister (three years old) is starting to follow suit. I had been following tons of Instagramers who specialize in picky eating, but their posts were never helpful to long term progress and I was hesitant to spend $150+ on their programs when I had no idea how they were supposed to actually help my child. After another rough dinner, I got to thinking “Maybe there is a book that could help me?” After a quick Amazon search, I found this book and purchased it.

Within the first day of techniques, my son was already eating things he hadn’t in years. He was sitting with us for family dinner, and sister was back to enjoying foods. We have a long way to go to effortless eating experiences, but for the first time in a long time, I have hope that we will get there. Every interaction is a success. Three cheers for Jennifer Friedman for showing me how to help my children and giving me the hope that they too can enjoy mealtimes. Just takes practice!

[Michelle Ackland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an easy to read book that includes many helpful stories about how individual kids were helped to improve their nutrition and reduce picky eating. I really liked the strategies included in each chapter. This book feels very accessible and would be a great resource for any parent looking for ideas about how to overcome picky eating. I wish I’d found this book years ago.

[Zainab Hameed · Rating 5 out of 5]

very helpful and insightful. Certainly changed my way of viewing my child's appetite and taught me how to improve it.

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

So helpful!

[Azam Heydari · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتاب فوق‌العاده برای هر کس بچه بدغذا داره و یا خودش بدغذاست. فوق‌العاده عالی.

[Eileen]

No star rating since I skimmed the stories (all basically familiar from reading the chapter headings) rather than reading them. IMO the 'Solutions' section, which I did read, was scant and basically a paraphrase of Ellyn Satter method. If ARFID is part of your situation and DOF hasn't worked I don't think you'll get many new ideas here.

[Jessica Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book discusses how the author works with children with eating difficulties in a narrative style, explaining their approach by way of several case studies. I found this very helpful. It's wonderful to read someone discuss their area of expertise with such specificity and genuine helpfulness. It gets across the information that you might find in a textbook or dietitian handout but puts it into real world situations such that you can understand how application to read world situations might work. I think it's a lovely way to approach this kind of book.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know where I heard about this book, but this was so worth the read. It was the next best thing for us to meeting with a RD—super practical, research based, actionable takeaways. For my future reference, the biggest helps were:
-incorporating “food explorers” (start with familiar/preferred foods, then ones that are more approachable/similar to preferred foods)
-Kay Toomey’s steps to eating ladder
-sensory play (especially with food) and other types of food play, outside of regular meals
-building “food bridges” from preferred food to desired new food
-minimize processed snack food and any eating or drinking besides water between meals
-having an “explorer” plate beside regular plate at meals for very picky eaters, they have to take some of everything at the table on their plate in most instances, but it can go on either plate. Food on the explorer plate needs to be explored though (can even be by describing how it looks)