How to Get Your Kid to Eat: But Not Too Much probably could have been shortened to a brochure in order to get the main point across, but I’m still very thankful that we have the book in our home library. Hayden is not much of an eater, unless you count bread, fruit, pizza, chicken nuggets and boogers as a well rounded diet. This book has tried to tell me that it will be okay, though. My job is to provide him with food. His job is to decided what and how much to eat. We’re getting there. At least he isn’t throwing temper tantrums when solid vegetables are on his plate any more.

While the book doesn’t have all the questions and answers I would like it to have (such as, how do I get my child to eat a vegetable that doesn’t come from a baby jar and what about when the kid asks for seconds of bread at the dinner table but has touched nothing else?) it’s a start at least. I can admit that I don’t look forward to the first time another mother sees that Hayden may have a portion of dessert with his dinner, watches him scarf it down and then ask to be excused. But at least my three-year-old says, after he’s finished eating his carbs, “May I be excused now?”