Raising Adventurous Eaters: Practical Ways to Overcome Picky Eating and Food Sensory Sensitivities by Lara Dato, MS, OTR/L

This book is essentially a parental guide book into navigating the eating habits of children aged 0-7. There's also a lot of early child psychology in here. But I was still able to learn some insights into the mind of older eaters thanks to this book.

I teach high school culinary. Right now, I am trying to increase my food knowledge in various aspects to help with ideas for teaching and being able to answer questions about food that might pop up that I just don't know the answer to. I selected this book because I always seem to have a bunch of older kids wanting to learn more about different types of food and cooking. But when I provide them with something completely foreign to them, they freak out. 

Thank goodness for potato chips with unusual spices on them or I'd never be able to teach my unit on herbs, spices and seasonings. 

It takes a large portion of my lab classes getting students to agree to cook something different than what they know grandma makes and a huge chunk of the post-cooking time is spent trying to convince the kids that what I just taught them to make isn't going to kill them if they try it.

I think if anything else, I at least learned a lot of insight on what made my students become apprehensive about the foods they eat. It takes a child anywhere from 20-40 times of being introduced to a food before they may decide that the food stuff is something they want to add to their repertoire.

I like to think that I wasn't that apprehensive an eater as a kid and with a lot of food I was really venturesome, especially Asian and Italian cuisine, I was the most adventurous of eaters. Yet, I reflect on my time as a kid and I realize it took me until my teens to like Latin and Mediterranean foods. Both of which are things I love and thrive at teaching others to cook as an adult. Unfortunately, when I offer my kids a chance at learning to make anything in the world for class, overwhelmingly they've chosen Chicken Alfredo as the dish to learn. 

Author Lara Dato offers several worksheets that I think will help me understand my students and their food choices better. I hope to utilize some of them when the new school year begins. I've learned some new things to say when a student gets antsy about food. I've also learned what not to say. But I wish the author would have spent a little bit of time helping to navigate food allergies. 

Dato wants parents to not label their kids. Nor should we stigmatize them around their food choices. Cleaning the plate is a rule I wish my parents never enforced. And there's a ton of landmines to navigate with concerns of body image, especially with the fat and calorie counts of the foods we eat. Yes- body image is sometimes a factor in why some of my students will not try the foods they cook. But what about food allergies? 

Sure- you don't give a kid poison. But I would have liked some tips on how to handle it if a student asks to make something that they can't have. How do you suggest substitutions without diminishing a child's interest in food? How to prevent others from mocking the allergic student? How do you give a child confidence to say 'I can't eat this if it has peanuts. I'm allergic.' Anything would have been appreciated on this subject.

While we're at it, a tiny chapter on introducing new foods while maintaining social and religious beliefs would have been a great addition here. 

Surviving the peer pressure behind the food we eat. Maybe that's the sequel Lara Dato needs to pen for the parents and children who graduate onto solid food.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.