NOW, MORE THAN EVER, it is important for your sick child to eat balanced, healthful, and energy-packed meals. Yet the reality is that the eating habits of children with leukemia often go haywire. Although your child’s body needs added energy to metabolize medications and repair the damage to healthy cells caused by treatment, those same treatments can wreak havoc on your child’s appetite and taste sensations.

This chapter discusses eating problems, explains good nutrition, suggests ways to pack extra calories into small servings, and offers tips about how to make food more appealing to children with leukemia. In addition, parents share what their children really ate while being treated for leukemia.