Breaking Free of Picky Eating

This excellent book will prove invaluable to many. Based on extensive clinical experience and solid research, infused with compassion and a deep understanding of children, it sets out simple-to-follow, practical steps toward improved eating. Beautifully constructed and written, it radiates hope and embraces parents’ ability to achieve positive change. * Rachel Bryant-Waugh, PhD, Maudsley Centre for Eating Disorders, London, UK *
Breaking Free of Picky Eating is an excellent guide to treating kids who have restrictive eating problems, including those diagnosed with ARFID, by working with their parents. Eli Lebowitz and Yaara Shimshoni are enormously empathetic both to kids trapped by their anxious food inflexibility (only one brand of mac and cheese and only mom can make it!) and parents who are trapped with them, pained and frustrated by their inability to get these kids to loosen up. Applying their groundbreaking SPACE techniques for treating anxiety to eating problems, they give parents instructions for reducing stress around eating. The authors are great allies for any parent who wants to improve the lives of their picky eater, and everyone else in the family, too. * Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, Founding President and Medical Director, Child Mind Institute *
SPACE-ARFID empowers parents by presenting them with an accessible toolbox to meet their selective eater wherever the child is at. Without relying on child motivation, this novel parent-focused approach works by changing the caregiver’s behavior and the environment around eating, which reduces family stress and promotes child flexibility. For parents of selective eaters of all ages, this must-read book is full of practical inventories to understand, map, and target parent behaviors in order to reduce restrictive eating patterns in kids. * Kamryn T. Eddy, PhD, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Brigham; Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital; Cable-Rubenstein Professor of Psychology in the Field of Eating Disorders, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School *
This book is a godsend for parents of picky eaters. Using principles and practices from the brilliant SPACE program for reducing children’s anxiety, Breaking Free of Picky Eating empowers parents to help their child become a more flexible eater without trying to change the child, and without requiring the child’s motivation to change. It does so by showing parents how to reduce food-related stress in the home, how to express empathy and confidence in their child’s ability to tolerate temporary discomfort, and how to give up ways of trying to help that don’t help. An added bonus: The whole family will enjoy mealtimes much more when parents use this book! * William R. Stixrud, PhD, Clinical Neuropsychologist and coauthor of The Self-Driven Child, What Do You Say?, and The Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child: A Workbook *

Yaara Shimshoni, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and clinical assistant professor at the Yale School of Medicine (community faculty). She is an active researcher and clinician specializing in the treatment of childhood restrictive eating, anxiety, and related challenges. Together with Dr. Eli Lebowitz, she has worked to develop and study SPACE-ARFID, the adaptation of SPACE for children with clinical picky eating.

Eli R. Lebowitz, PhD, is co-director of the Yale Child Study Center Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program and associate professor in the Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine. His research focuses on the development, neurobiology, and treatment of anxiety and related disorders, with special emphasis on family dynamics and the role of parents in these problems. He is the author of more than 100 research papers, books, and chapters on childhood and adolescent anxiety, including the bestselling Breaking Free of Child Anxiety and OCD: A Scientifically Proven Program for Parents.

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