Is dinnertime driving you to distraction?

Is dinnertime driving you to distraction? Has getting your child to eat their broccoli become a battleground? Don't panic – help is at hand.

In her first book, Berkshire hypnotherapist Elaine Hodgins of Focus Hypnotherapy brings her expertise in getting children to overcome their food phobias into a handy guide to help us parents. Get Your Child Eating: The Easy Guide To Having Happier Meals with Your Kids guides parents through recognising different types of food phobias and what might cause them, offers practical ideas for how to overcome mealtime problems and gives advice on how to get children eating again.

Elaine is an expert in Emotional Therapy and especially in Child Psychological Therapy (CPT). Trained as a general registered nurse and having worked primarily in paediatrics for many years, she taught aviation medical training to pilots and cabin crew for a major airline and has spent the past 15 years as a clinical hypnotist working primarily with children and teens.

Elaine won the Pat Lucas TV award when she was a children's nurse for "The understanding of psychological and emotional needs of children in hospital". She has helped hundreds of children with selective eating disorders and other paediatric problems. She sees 25–30 children every week at her two clinics – Harley Street in London and Woodley in Berkshire. Nearly all her work with children comes from referrals from other happy mums.

"Selective eating disorder (SED) in children has been around forever – it just didn't have a name. Now it's a known and recognised condition that affects children of all ages!” Elaine explains. There are many different triggers from an early episode of choking-reflux as a baby to children being super-sensitive to texture and taste. It’s not just the fact that some children suffer so badly with it that they only eat two or three foods, but they develop social anxiety as they are so scared to go to their friends' houses for tea in case they are offered something that they really can’t eat or are ridiculed by other children. It really is a very serious disorder and it mustn’t be underestimated!

“Parents need help with this,” continues Elaine. “And they can’t all afford hypnotherapy or don’t have the time to bring their child to my clinic, so I am hoping that the book will help a lot of parents and, of course, a lot of children."

To get hold of a copy, visit www.getyourchildeating.com

To contact Elaine, email

info@focus-hypnotherapy.co.uk

or visit www.focus-hypnotherapy.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/FocusHypnotherapyAndLifeCoaching

twitter: @elaine_focus