How the new science of "metabolic programming" can help you: Maximize your baby's IQ and development Prevent allergies and obesity Prevent or cure picky eating Teach your child to enjoy healthy foods Protect against family health problems AND make mealtimes a pleasure for you and your child! In this groundbreaking book, two leading pediatric nutritionists--and experienced parents!--introduce exciting new research into "metabolic programming" and make it accessible and practical for every busy parent. They explain: How the foods you choose can optimize your baby's future development, IQ bone strength, and immunity The eight key nutrients to focus on Scientifically based "smart strategies" for working with your child's inborn instincts to build healthy eating habits Food solutions for common problems--including colic, constipation, poor sleep, and hyperactivity How to prevent or deal with food allergies or obesity Easy ways to adapt family meals for kids--with menus and portion sizes for every stage from birth through age six, plus essential tips for food safety What's more, you can teach your child to enjoy these healthy foods and banish food battles and picky eating forever. This book tastes great and it's good for you, too. Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health: Birth Through Age Six is based on the principle of "metabolic programming," the scientifically rooted idea that foods eaten in early childhood directly affect the function of individual cells that control strength, intelligence, the immune system, and other vital functions. Think of it as a convoluted molecular take on the old maxim "You are what you eat." Genetics and other external factors also play a role, of course, but those factors are beyond our control. What goes on the dinner table, however, is not. The point of this book is to help parents teach their kids to like healthful foods, thus getting them into a lifelong habit of eating well and staying healthy. There is a fair amount of science in this book, but the clear writing and good organization make it go down easy. Particularly helpful are the numerous graphs and boxes that highlight such topics as the best sources of calcium and iron (and why too much iron is dangerous), the differences between breast milk and formula, the eight key nutrients for different ages, and how to identify and even prevent allergies and intolerance to certain foods. The recipes, sample meals, healthy snacks, and tips for dealing with finicky eaters are alone worth the price of the book. Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health is an invaluable guide to ensuring that not only will your kids eat their vegetables, they'll even ask for seconds. --Shawn Carkonen A clear, up-to-date, practical guide to nutritional needs and issues from birth to age six; this is refreshingly free of hackneyed medical advice and conventional wisdom. Roberts brings to bear the fields of nutrition and psychiatry (which he teaches at Tufts); Heyman is a pediatric gastroenterologist. It's well worth the effort to start children off on the right nutritional foot, they say, according to the theory of ``metabolic programming,'' i.e., foods eaten in childhood can have lasting effects on the way your child's body grows and functions.'' Roberts and Heyman interweave their explanations of nutrient requirements for physical growth with what we know about the psychological and evolutionary basis of why children eat the way they dothus providing a framework for creating realistic solutions when eating problems arise. The authors organize their material by age and development level, and then look at food solutions to common problems (how and when to increase the variety of foods, how to balance the nutritional needs of a family with parents in their 30s who have a 10-year-old, a 6-year-old, and a 2-month-old). A wealth of up-to-date information, coupled with innovative solutions to common problems. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. "Considering all the pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo that passes for nutritional advice these days, I can't help being enthusiastic when a really good guide based on solid research shows up in bookstores...you can bet I'm going to recommend it to every parent I know. I'm talking about Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health ...should be required reading for anyone with children under the age of six." --Christine Gorman, Time magazine "A very intelligent approach to the feeding of young children." --T. Berry Brazelton, M.D., author of Touchpoints "At last a book that not only tells parents what their children need to eat but provides a realistic and reassuring approach to how to feed them. This is a book every parent will want to have on their bedside--or kitchen--table." --Annie Pleschette Murphy, Editor-at-Large, Parents magazine "I have not seen another publication anywhere in the world that addresses this field in such a way. This book is truly