As babies my kids ate anything that I put in front of them and as time has passed, they eat less and less and have become picky in their food choices. For dinner my kids will eat most meats as long as they have a dip, very few veggies, noodles, rice and fruit. Creating a balanced meal that will get eaten without a huge fight has become an issue, especially for AJ. Boo still eats most things but watching his brother has created a few bad habits already.

I tried the Sneaky Chef cookbook and that seems to work most of the time but I have to be prepared with all of the ingredients and need to plan ahead with frozen veggie puree. I have yet to get that organized and find myself resorting to the food labels on the products that I buy.

I have been coached to buy organic whenever possible and try to do that with fruits and veggies. Packaged foods have been more of an issue and I have found myself spending a lot of time looking at the health food products and still feeing a bit overwhelmed with the labels.

Finally a solution appeared, "Eat This Not That for Kids" by David Zinczenko (http://www.amazon.com/Eat-This-Not-That-Kids/dp/160529943X). The book has been eye opening on health related issues. I try to think of myself as a health conscious mom and add as much nutrition to our home cooked means as I can. However, thanks to this insightful book, I now see that some of the products that I am buying could be changes to make a significant difference in the sugar intake, sodium levels and energy of my kids.

The book details the best and worst food to eat at restaurants, fast food establishments, and at the grocery store. I found that even though labels say no Trans fats, it doesn’t really mean that there are no Trans fats, confusing but related to serving size.

I had been trying to get some fiber into my sons and give them a healthy breakfast that they would eat. I gave them Strawberry NutriGrain bars thinking that they were a good breakfast alternative only to find out that they do not get sugar from fruit but high fructose corn syrup.

I now use this book when making my shopping list and buy the "eat this" foods and try to avoid the "not that" foods. Changing my buying habits and understanding the serving size info can help me feed my kids food that can fuel their activities without the sugar crash.

My kids are incredibly active and thin right now and I plan to keep it that way.

Off to make another Mommy Milestone.