Children's eating habits

This past week I had a conversation with a patient about her child and it got me thinking about ways to get kids to eat well and how important it is to get them into good habits very early, and to teach kids how to be self-sufficient so they are making good choices on their own. The patient I am referring to was just telling me a bit about her son. He is a 9 year old boy who is diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder. He is a very anxious boy, and has constipation so bad and so often that he misses school at least once every couple of weeks due to pain. His texture issues and "pickiness" are not helping his mother to get him a great diet that will help to decrease his symptoms and improve his life, but his issues with food and feelings are contributing to the problem. We discussed at length some ideas on food, but I became worried about her son, the way she described his symptoms, especially with his constipation creating toxicity problems. So I did some brainstorming and looked for something else to help this patient with her son and his diet. I found the website listed below, and spent some time browing through the info and activities. I think the activities would be fun for kids, and there are educational tools all over this website that are tailored to children. There was even a Valentine's Day smoothie recipe this week in the daily recipe section. Check it out and share with your children.
http://www.nutritionexplorations.org/kids/main.asp

Hope this helps those of you struggling to help your children make healthy choices,
Enjoy!
Dr. Behnke