Can Gina Ford tame my Fussy Eater?

I can’t complain too much. Since DD finally got over the bronchitis and started her iron supplement last week her appetite has improved leaps and bounds. She’s eating watermelon again, and has tried apple too. But she still won’t eat meat or vegetables. Fruit, bread and yoghurt do not a healthy diet make. And I’m still determined to get her to at least taste the food we’re having for dinner each night. And so I turned to Gina Ford’s ‘Top Tips For Fussy Eaters’ to see what the original Supernanny had to say about the subject.

Now I should point out here that I am not a ‘Gina Ford Mummy’. I did not follow her routines when DD was born, in fact I didn’t get past the first few pages in ‘The Contented Little Baby Book’ when I was pregnant before throwing it across the room. Back then I didn’t appreciate someone breaking my life into half hour slots, I was all about Baby Whispering, sensing what DD needed rather than putting her on a routine and meeting her needs before my own. Well that all changed after about six months but by then I was too sleep deprived to read anything other than the instructions on a pack of paracetamol. Now older and perhaps a smidge wiser I see that Gina Ford does have some useful ideas. And I like someone telling me what to do now. Hell, there’s too much guesswork in parenting as it is!

I’m already working my way though her ‘Potty Training In One Week’ in preparation for DD’s potty training (we’re starting the preparation stage with the My Carry Potty I yesterday) and this little book makes it all sound so easy that I’m expecting a lot from Top Tips For Fussy Eaters. I’ve only read up to the first case study so far but already I’m feeling more confident about getting a little tougher again with mealtimes. As I’ve said DD is not a Gina baby so she doesn’t do 7-7 but she does do 8-8 and I’ve realised that I am following the mealtime routine pretty much, just one hour later. So she’s up at 8am, breakfast is done by 9am, lunch is done by 1 and dinner is at 6pm or 6.30pm (perhaps a bit late but I’d rather she ate with us together as a family). That’s just what worked for us. It’s happenstance that it seems to fit Ms. Ford’s plan too.

One thing I have been doing is giving DD chocolate milk and a biscuit at her afternoon snack. Today I’m going to offer cut up fruit, cheese and fruit juice or water instead and see if she has more appetite for her dinner. And if she refuses? No alternatives. (What really? Yes, really.) At breakfast she has a cup of fruit smoothie which I make for all of us with milk, yoghurt, banana and frozen berries. Lots of fruit, but very filling for a little one apparently, so I’m not going to offer this everyday now so that she has an appetite for other breakfast foods too like porridge and toast. Keeping a food diary has showed me that DD’s main meal, the one where she is most hungry and most likely to try things, is lunch not dinner. So lunch is where I should try to get her to eat protein first. This is a baby that hasn’t eaten any meat or fish since October. (Yes, October, hence iron supplement.) Fish fingers are on the menu today…wish me luck Gina and let’s see what happens.

Do you have a fussy eater? Pop over to the and link up your woes or just read other’s experiences for some reassurance.

Oh and I just want to point out that this is not a review. All the Gina Ford books are my own, I just wanted to blog about them. You can buy all the books I’ve mentioned including at Amazon, though.

Photo credit: Orange Pieces by Keattikorn at freedigitalphotos.net