A useless book about how to get your child to eat.

I'm skimming Just two more bites! : helping picky eaters say yes to food by Linda D. Piette and have quickly determined that the book is useless for us.

First, it's written by a pediatric nutritionist. Right there is a warning flag. Nutritionists don't know how to get kids to do things. Behaviourists do.

Second, the book is filled with tons of dull common sense advice - the kind of advice the community medical people told us. "Try a new sippy cup." "Keep meals short." "Don't get into a battle over food."

Third, on page 81 she says, "Don't use food to bribe or reward or punish." While technically correct, we were told that Jake needs his positive behaviour reinforced.

At the beginning she writes, "The trick is to act like you don't care if your kid eats or not."

For Jake, that didn't work either. He started eating when we applauded him and acted like we cared.

The rest of the book goes into boring boring detail about recipes and multi-vitamins and different types of personalities. Very little practical information here.

Unfortunately, there are lots of books like this out there. Jake needs to be pushed, encouraged and basically forced to eat. Books by medical professionals that basically tell you not to push your kid are simply not effective for us.