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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Advocating for Autistics, One Story at a Time
🎙️ Welcome to The SJ Childs Show Podcast! 🎉
Join Sara Bradford—better known as SJ Childs—as she bridges understanding and advocacy for the neurodivergent community. This podcast shines a light on autism awareness, empowering stories, expert insights, and practical resources for parents, educators, and individuals alike.
Brought to you by The SJ Childs Global Network, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting autistic individuals and their families worldwide, this show is your weekly dose of inspiration and actionable ideas. Visit sjchilds.org to learn more about our mission, find resources, and connect with our growing community.
Catch us on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Goodpods—or tune in Fridays at 8:30 AM EDT on the Helium Radio Network’s Life Improvement Radio (Channel 1). Together, let’s foster a brighter, more inclusive world! 🌟
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THE SJ CHILDS SHOW-Advocating for Autistics, One Story at a Time
Episode 270-Jennifer House and Transforming Mealtimes: Strategies for Picky Eaters and Building Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits
Embark on a journey to transform mealtimes with your little ones as we host Jennifer House, a registered dietitian and mother of three who is an expert in navigating the challenges of feeding picky eaters. Discover the secret to a peaceful dinner table as we unpack Ellen Satter's division of responsibility in feeding. Jennifer brings her profound insights into why allowing kids to control their food intake is pivotal in preventing negative eating habits and fostering a healthy relationship with food. Together, we shine a light on the intricate dance between addressing underlying issues behind a child's eating behaviors and the potential harm in pressuring them to try new foods.
Snack time doesn't have to be a battleground! In our conversation, we reveal the importance of structured eating times and pairing food groups to help children recognize hunger and fullness signals. The art of moderation also comes into play as we discuss why including treats can actually prevent binging. For those struggling with sensory issues or the introduction of new foods, we offer a compassionate and patient approach. Learn how engaging family meal experiences lay the groundwork for eating competence and a lifetime of healthy eating habits—truly a balance between nutrition and enjoyment.
Wrapping up with practical takeaways, we dive into the fun of hydration, exploring creative ways to keep water consumption exciting for kids, and the significant role it plays in their health. Get tips on involving your children in meal planning and grocery shopping to cultivate their interest in nutrition and empower them to make informed choices. Plus, I share a treasure trove of resources available to all parents, including books, online courses, and tailored guidance for families looking to embrace healthy eating with confidence and joy. Join us as we equip you with strategies to ensure your family's journey towards healthy eating is as delightful as it is nutritious.
Welcome to the SJ Child Show, where a little bit of knowledge can turn fear into understanding. Enjoy the show. Hi, welcome to the SJ Child Show. Today I am meeting with Jennifer House, and she is up in Canada. I love that we can meet like this, because how else would I have been able to meet you and have this amazing conversation today, and thank you so much for your time and for coming. Tell us a little bit about yourself and what brought you here today.
Speaker 1:For sure, and thanks for having me, sarah. So I'm a registered dietitian and mom of three and I specialize in feeding picky eaters and I also train healthcare professionals and work with lots of families to try and decrease those dinnertime battles, because I know that a lot of the common feeding practices that parents use because they were raised with them and they're just kind of normal are totally counterproductive and make dinners a fight and actually don't serve their children. You know our ultimate goal is to raise kids who have a healthy relationship with food and grow up to be eating competent. So I really want to make you know, dinner a peaceful, fun place for everybody to be.
Speaker 2:I love that. I think that we, um I I've really had to learn how to make accommodations in my family, but we'll talk about that later on in the podcast and kind of dive deeper into that. But I really want to start off with just like kind of at the beginning, processes of maybe you know if you're someone who's listening, who is pregnant or just starting a family. Let's start with the basics and how do we start a good process off from the get-go?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's a great question and the feeding model that I follow, no matter the age of the child, no matter whether they're picky or not, is ellen satter's division of responsibility and feeding. So, essentially, parents have certain roles in feeding and then the child has certain roles. And if you're able to follow your roles without letting your kid take control over those which they like to do, and if you're able to trust your child to follow their roles which again can also be really challenging then you'll be far more likely to raise a child who has that healthy relationship with food and will be less likely to have a lot of those really common picky eating battles and we'll be less likely to have a lot of those really common picky eating battles.
Speaker 2:What are some just good examples of toddler foods to start with, to start out that journey?
Speaker 1:of introducing healthy foods. Yeah well, when we're thinking about starting solids, of course there are different methods purees, baby-led weaning, like finger foods and I wrote a book called the Parent's Guide to Baby-Led Weaning. So I love, you know, starting solids with finger foods, where the child has full control. You're not spoon feeding them for a variety of reasons, including, the child has a very responsive method of feeding, so they get to listen to their appetite from the beginning and then, as they, you know, grow into a toddler, we kind of let them retain that role of choosing if and how much to eat. Rather than pressuring them to eat their vegetables, grabbing them with a brownie, making them take a bite of new food, so that you know whether you're starting solids.
Speaker 1:You have a toddler, you have an older child. It's really important to let the child determine how much and if to eat, which is the child's role in that division of responsibility we were talking about. And I find parents really struggle with that because we think it's our job to get our child to eat or maybe to restrict them if we think they're eating too much. It's usually one or the other and unfortunately both that pressure and that restriction produce the opposite effect and backfire, so it's really important to trust that our children can listen to their own appetite.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because there's a lot of problems that can be created through that in eating disorders, and I'm sure there's so many across the board. What is possibly something parents might want to look out for when their children are really young, to alert them that something might not be going on correctly in the child's diet or nutrition?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a good question and one that I like to look at, and I think it's overlooked.
Speaker 1:If you do have a child that's more selective in eating or a picky eater, sometimes it's just a normal developmental stage, but sometimes there are underlying reasons why it can be tough for kids to eat. It could be low iron which leads to low appetite. It could be difficulty breathing, like if they have enlarged tonsils, for example. They could have oral motor weaknesses, they could have sensory sensitivities, so kind of the list goes on. So if your child is struggling to eat, I think it's important to see the appropriate health care provider look at the red flags, maybe start with your doctor, right, and just let them know and see if they can direct you in the right way, whether it's to a dietician, an airway-centric dentist, or orthodontist, occupational therapist. So there is lots of support out there for kids who have feeding challenges and I find parents want to go at it alone because they think they should be able to do this right. But there's no shame in, you know, getting support for that.
Speaker 2:No, and I love that. Our society, I think as a whole, is really embracing that we need to reach out for support. We need to be there for one another. We can gain so much from each other's resources and value. What are? Maybe? What's a myth that we want to debunk about? You know, maybe from past generations, for our child's eating habits?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good question. I think there are lots, and one of them is probably that kids will never try new foods if we don't make them. So we think that again we have to make our kids taste the new bite of food, or we have to grab them with candy to get them to eat it, which essentially is telling them that these vegetables are gross and that puts dessert up on a pedestal, creating a sweet tooth perhaps for life. But really, children are naturally curious. They naturally want to try new things. So if they're in a comfortable environment without that pressure, but with repeated positive exposure to all these different foods, most children eventually, on their own free will, will branch out to try those new foods on their own and learn how to enjoy them. Versus the other scenario where, if they were forced to try that food, often it creates a lifelong hatred for certain foods that they were forced to eat as a child.
Speaker 2:Isn't that the truth? And I think us as an older generation can kind of uh, relate to that because in and our childhood at least mine it was you know, eat everything on your plate, eat all the foods even if you don't like it like you're. It's not a choice kind of thing. But I I think that there's so many different types of diets people are doing today, and how do we know what's best for our family? Do we stick to something that might be culturally in our bones or whatever, or do we go outside of those? What if it isn't a healthy kind of diet to do? And then you know what does that look like?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, variety is always great, you know. Of course we can incorporate what we were raised on in our favorite foods or our cultures foods. Parents tend to get trapped by these most common, popular diets and enter that diet roller coaster.
Speaker 1:You know, mom, this week is on the keto diet or paleo diet or whatever it is at the moment and unfortunately, children watch that. They see that and you know we always want to keep in mind that they're watching us and we want to be role models for, you know, a healthy relationship with food in our body, so I like to. Well, I guess I would say don't encourage a specific diet. I would probably discourage that and we want the whole family eating the same foods.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I agree that, showing that example, I've been there in my own life where I've gone through that process and I remember one kind of just funny silly thing that I was doing and it was like a prep, like they had prepped all the food. So I was only eating the food on the program and you know, my daughter would see me like eat the little health bars and she would have them once in a while. And one day I was eating snow and she said, mom, is that on your program? Is you know? And I was just like in, just laughing, and here's my little one asking me if it's okay to eat snow.
Speaker 2:Right, probably, for the most part is probably not full of chemicals but, um, otherwise, I just thought that was so endearing but that also had a lot of health um things that came out of it. And so I, yeah not doing that, and she was really little, but I just thought that that was so endearing of her to, like you said, kids are watching, they see, and it's it's hard to take care of yourself and take care of a family, um, and be a good role model. So it's sometimes it's really hard to take those steps. What's like a good self-help nutrition step for moms and dads. Maybe grandparents that might be listening yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great question because it's hard to be able to trust our children and their appetite when we don't trust that in ourselves, relationship with food themselves. And they can work on that, Whether it's reading an intuitive eating book, something like that, you know, learning a little bit about mindful eating, going to see a dietician, for example that will benefit the entire family. And for grandparents, you know, if they're feeding kiddos and have varying different practices I would suggest them to look into Ellen Satter's work, right, Maybe read one of her books about the division of responsibility or take a look at her website.
Speaker 2:And I love that idea. I don't know the book myself or anything about it, but I like the word responsibility in there because I think that it's not that I'm not claiming to be a responsibility expert over here, but it's an important aspect of the nutrition and of parenting in general to take responsibility for so many of your, all of your actions and feeding your family. And what kind of structure as far as like timeframes do you suggest In my family? I'll just say, there I am kind of like there's not a lot of timeframe structure in my house and so we just and I'm very timeframe structured, so it's kind of funny that I'm very flexible with them. But what do you think is best to set your family up in the right way there?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so in terms of the parents' responsibilities in feeding their what, what the children are offered to eat, where and when, which is what you're getting at. So the idea of having structured meals and snack times I think can support children, especially neurodiverse children, because they really thrive on routine and they, you know, come to expect that. But having the kitchen open all day, what I found with my own kids happens is they're just constantly going to the pantry and snacking because they're bored, right, they just have nothing to do and they want something to do. So by having like snack time and then meal time, it gives them a chance to build up a bit of a hunger, you know, come to the table and be hungry for the meal, as opposed to when they kind of been nibbling all day long. So I think it can actually support children in listening to their appetite when they get a chance to have some of those no hunger and fullness signals rather than snacking throughout the day, which sort of, you know, takes a little bit of the edge off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what are some healthy snacks to maybe have available for them during those times, so that they don't I mean, I know that my kids just head straight to the potato chips. What are some other healthy snacks we can provide them? And do we put the potato chips somewhere else? Like, what do you suggest as far as, like, restricting things? I don't like that idea, but what do you think about that?
Speaker 1:Good question. So in terms of a healthy snack, I like to have two food groups. It's just as simple as that, right? So instead of just crackers, add some peanut butter, add some yogurt or add some fruit, or just ask them to choose two things for snack. Then they're getting a little more of a balance In terms of the chips or the cookies or the sweets or some of those more forbidden foods we might call them.
Speaker 1:I think it's great to include those as well. And, you know, maybe not every day for every snack, but you could choose a couple of snacks a week and put the plate of cookies or the bag of chips on the table with a piece of fruit or cheese or something like that, and they get to decide how much to choose to eat. And if you have dessert, you can put that on the plate with the dinner. And for kids, where these foods are normalized, you know they'll go back and forth between the cookie and their dinner and they won't crave them, Whereas if they're quite highly restricted or you're raising a sugar-free kid or whatever it may be, unfortunately that tends to end up in binging and then you have the kid at the birthday that eats the whole cake because it's just so special, special and coveted towards them and we really want to neutralize those foods too. Yeah.
Speaker 2:An interesting thought popped into my mind and I let's talk about so listeners across the board can understand. What is the why behind all of this? Why do we need to be worried about this, like, what's our why?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think our why is? I mean, first of all, to decrease a lot of the struggles and battles around food and long-term, our goal is to raise children who are eating competence. So they, they love food, they, you know, take time to feed themselves, they don't have any of those disordered eating patterns that are so common in our society. So I think that is our ultimate goal. And then our short term goal would just be to again like, still enjoy food but create some of those positive memories around the table, rather than some more of the negative or, you know, stressful times.
Speaker 2:And let's talk about some stressful times, some challenges. What are some challenges that you find families face when it comes to dinner time?
Speaker 1:Well, one of the common challenges is parents fairly easily fall into the trap of being a shorter to cook. So ideally, this is part of the what children are offered in the division of responsibility. Ideally, again, everybody's eating family foods, the same food, rather than the child saying I don't want this, can I have a bowl of cereal, or make me chicken fingers and fries, and then all of a sudden you're making like four different dinners every night. You know, for some children, um, if they are extremely picky eaters and they only eat three foods or only eat purees, of course you do have to cater to that, because growth is always our number one goal. Yeah, but for most children, they will be able to eat most of the family meals and as long as there's one food on the table that they can comfortably eat, even if that's just buns or sliced cucumbers or rice, part of the meal that everyone's offered, then they're not going to go hungry, so you don't have to make them a backup meal and they'll have another chance to eat another snack.
Speaker 2:So what about and this will, I guess, be more personal to my case what if you have a child who has visual sensitivity and physical, since you know sensory issues with food? How do you?
Speaker 2:I know how I have to do it but how do you suggest is the best way to keep them healthy? Keep them eating their three foods, or you know, and and I love that in time, my son's 14. So we've had a long time and there has been a lot of new foods over the years that he has tried. He doesn't eat them regularly, but he still is willing to sometimes try new things. But what do you think is with a visual sensory like that, how do we help those children?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. And sensory wise, there are eight senses that we have and eating is the most difficult sensory task we do because it involves all of those senses. A visual is definitely one. So for a child or person with visual over sensitivity, essentially they won't. They'll notice a difference in packaging, right. Or maybe they have a goldfish cracker and they won't eat it because it has its tail gone and they consider that a whole new food. Or an apple. They'll only eat it whole If it's sliced. It looks totally different. So to them that's a whole new food.
Speaker 1:So it is difficult in terms of bringing them to the table where they can be slightly more calm and maybe in more of a place where they'll be open to try new foods, we can decrease some of the visual stimulus around them. So maybe, you know, instead of a placemat with all these different colors and activities on it, we have a plain placemat. Everybody sits in their same place, try and reduce clutter, maybe dim the lights, things like that, so they're not kind of, you know, over-stimulated when they come to the table. And in terms of the food, yeah, it can be difficult. There are a few, I would say, feeding therapy type methods you could choose from food chaining, which is taking their favorite food and making slightly small changes in that, working towards a goal food. And with a 14 year old they're old enough to pick the goal food themselves and if they're motivated to try new foods it's great to include them and they might, you know, make their own food chain.
Speaker 1:You can also do food play. So play with the purpose is Dr K Toomey's sequential oral sensory or SOS program and it's kind of a similar idea in that we take foods that they like and then we try some more challenging foods and we just play with them and there's 32 steps to eating. So at first we work on tolerating those foods at the table and then we work on interacting with them, which might be like passing it to your parent or feeding it to your stuffed animal, and then maybe we smell it right and then maybe we touch it or walk it up our body like a car or just kind of some fun play activities. And none of this is forced. It all has to be the child's decision to do this, but just to get them used to the different colors of food or different textures or smells or tastes. So some of those strategies can help them gradually be willing to try new foods.
Speaker 2:I love that though. That's just brilliant, and I think that it is such a good start for parents and even when they're at 14, some good ideas that I might be able to talk to my son about. And we can, you know, and, like you said, I think it really is so important to be on their terms and that can be so hard for parents because some parents are going from you know work to another job or in there in between, or they're taking other kids to soccer or whatever it can. You know it can be hectic, but I think really being careful and maintaining that respect and dignity for each child is so very important.
Speaker 2:Our kids eat on completely different, in different ways, with different accommodations. Our daughter loves to try new things and she has a new program. She's been able to go with um big brothers, big sisters program and go out to different foods that we would not be able to take her to go to, and you know well, you know what I mean and actually, and so it's so exciting that um to see them uh, want to try and like, have that curiosity, like you said, about those types of foods, and for our son we'll. We have to start simpler and has to be like you said. There's all of these effects with colors and burnt ends or you know things that are very visually and can be very sensitive.
Speaker 2:So, and it's so interesting, I think that I didn't even recognize that I really needed to give the accommodations that I do until I realized that I'd been doing it for my husband for many years before and that one thing that I knew about him right off the bat was that he did not like to see or hear other people eat, and so restaurants were really really hard for him and I had grown up going to restaurants, so for me it was like no big loss I've been to plenty of them, you know kind of thing, and but I set this accommodation up and then it was easy when it came to our son, to be able to say, okay, I see this correlation between food sensitivities and I can be just as accommodating for my child as I am to this other person that I love and, again, just giving dignity to where they're at in their process.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, and it's great that you saw that and realize that you know your child needed these accommodations, because for a lot of parents they don't realize that maybe their child has no sensory sensitivity and they just get really stressed that their child's not eating as much as they think they should or the variety they think they should, and you know they try and force them, coming from a place of love, right, like wanting their child to be nourished.
Speaker 2:But ultimately I think how we feed our kids is more important than what we feed them which might sound funny coming from a dietician, but yeah, that's just so much easier to try to get on board with because what you feed them can be so hard and so individual and different across all spans of life around the world, right? So it would be hard to say, oh, these are the exact things you need to have and you need, but I like it that you just make it open for really a relationship with your child that is healthy around food. What is is healthy around food? What is what about water? Like? What do you think about? Like how much water us and our kids should be drinking? And we go to a water wellness center and get our water from a water distillery which we have loved for almost 10 years now, and so what do you think about that? What's your take on water and the water that kind of were offered?
Speaker 1:I mean I think it's great that water is your beverage of choice. Often for kids, they'll default to juice if they can or pop if they can. And one struggle I find is common with kids is, especially if they're picky eaters, they get constipated. And I found that encouraging drinking more water is actually one of the things that is most helpful. And for kids, if it's tough for them to drink water, if they don't like it, we can do things like you know add frozen fruit into it to add a little bit of color, a little bit of flavor. Fun cups, fun straws. Put stickers on their cups just to kind of make it more motivating, and always have it there with them so that they don't end up in a little bit dehydrated, which is easy to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, it's really easy for people to do that, I agree, and we are really lucky that this the water has been the the, probably the most, um, yeah, the most drink liquid. I'm not even sure how to say that, but yeah it's. It has been a really um, really positive, I think, and my husband and I were just discussing like, knock on wood, please don't make this change how many health emergencies have we had in our you know, four family of four over the past five to 10 years? And really there has been zero. We haven't had health.
Speaker 2:We've had some broken bones and things that have had to go, but for overall, I think that the choices that we've made and you kind of go up and down Sometimes, it's not just a straight through You're going to, you eat right one day and you're great for the rest of your life. You know it's a discipline, like you said, it's responsibility and it does take work, but we're really thankful. When he said that this morning, I was like wow, I'm really. I really don't look at that. I haven't, you know, looked at that as a, as a thing, but it's true and thank goodness that you know we've been there because of these choices that we've been trying to make for our kids, for ourselves, and but yeah, you as a parent really have to take the responsibility, take accountability for what your kids are seeing and, yeah, that's a that's a big step for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's hard to control everything they see outside the house. You know, once they get to the point of they're on social media and always consuming, you know what may be coming home from the teacher may not always be the best nutrition education either, but at home, I mean, we can't control that a little more, right, like the words that come out of our body and the variety of foods that we have around for them to try? So of course we can't control our kids, but we can control, you know, for the most part, our home environment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a good place to start to set them up for um, for healthy choices, for healthy choices and yeah, what? What a great, great conversation. I really appreciate that. What are some tips for for parents to, once we've helped a child maybe maintain this healthy thing, how do we send them on their own, Like what? Is there a way we can say, okay, now you make dinners for the family? What are some ideas for having the kids kind of take control and be more responsible for the foods?
Speaker 1:I love that idea and as much as you can get your child involved, it's going to benefit them.
Speaker 1:They'll be more willing to try those foods, they'll take some pride and ownership in that and then, of course, you're giving them valuable lifelong skills that they'll need one day, although lots of people are definitely missing. So I think it can be great to let maybe each child choose a dinner for the night, add it to the family menu plan, help to create that menu plan and maybe, once they're old enough, to help you cook that or to cook it themselves. I don't do this as much as I should, but occasionally you know I have a 16 year old son will be like Kate you get to make dinner tonight and you know he has the ability to do it and I know those are, those are good skills for him to have. So it's great for kids to be involved and, you know, even if they choose not to eat that food, if they're younger and picky, at least it's another exposure to it. So it all counts. It's another experience of touching, smelling, looking at the foods.
Speaker 2:How much time in a day should we spend working on those skills with our kids?
Speaker 1:Well, I think it depends. You know, if you're homeschooling, you have more opportunities to do that, and then in the kitchen you can bring in other you know math, it can be part of math, it can be. You can do science, experiments with food. You can do so many kind of food play ideas. But at home, if you have, you know, kids that are busy with activities going to school, I know you don't have a lot of that time available to dedicate to teaching your child to cook. Now, actually, the schools up here have great options. They all have food classes, so I'd encourage my kids to take those classes and the kids love it because they get to cook and then they get to eat that food that they made. But even you know, if you could try for once a week for getting the kids involved, I think that would be awesome.
Speaker 2:And how do we? What do we do with our kids, like at their grocery store? That's probably a great way to involve them to to choose the foods that we're going to be cooking. Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love letting kids say pick out a new vegetable to try this week, because there's so many different things in the store that we probably haven't tried and are new. Once they're a little bit older, you know they can help you by filling things in the cart. Say, okay, go grab, like, an orange fruit for this week, or go grab, you know, the yogurt you want, and then they get a little more autonomy in that too. So once they can become great helpers, life becomes a little bit easier compared to I remember the two-year-old screaming in the car, not always pleasant.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Any of us who have been there know that that is the truth. That's so fantastic. So what are some beverages that you find that are healthy for families? We talked about water. That's great, but what are some other things that maybe families can or, let's say, do or don't? What are some things that they should not be drinking?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, there are so many drinks out there right now. It seems like the beverage market is just exploding, so I have no problems with like flavored soda water. We drink a lot of that. My kids drink milk with supper. I know milk is kind of a controversial topic right now, but I like to see some kind of milk or milk alternative that has calcium in it, because kids do have high calcium needs and it is more challenging to meet that through just food. And something I've been buying a little more for my kids rather than pop is you can find like prebiotic drinks, so they have very little sugar in there, but they have prebiotics or probiotics which can actually I wouldn't displace water with this, but occasionally it could be beneficial for their gut health and I think we're still learning a lot about that. But our gut health is very important. And now it seems crazy, but some maybe you can drink a beverage in a can that might have some good bacteria in it, for example.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's great these days, right. Yeah, it's great these days, right. We have come up with so many different ways to do things and some our kids different ideas that not just juice, like you said, not just the soda at home, like there's different varieties. We can try to make things fun and still be healthy. Those are good things to do, for sure. So what about dessert time? Let's talk about healthy sweets. What are good sweets that we can give ourselves if we like breads and things like that? Like we shouldn't, but what are some good ideas to help with that?
Speaker 1:Well, I love dark chocolate myself, so you know I have a little bit of dark chocolate every day. For the dessert, of course, fruit is nature's candy my kids love like cotton candy grapes. They taste like cotton candy and if you freeze grapes, I don't know, they almost become like sweeter tasting. So those are delicious. Or even like chocolate fondue. Or coating banana slices in chocolate and freezing them. So those are kind of some fun desserts where you're getting some nutrition as well. But like we talked about earlier, it's okay to have the regular cake or whatnot instead of totally limiting those things. But yeah, it is possible that desserts and sweets have some nutritional value too.
Speaker 2:No, and I love those are wonderful ideas. I love those ideas are wonderful ideas. I love those ideas to give families. We just got a dehydrator so we're looking forward to seeing kind of what we can create in doing those types of things. Give me some ideas for that. What are some good dehydrated foods?
Speaker 1:All you can do homemade fruit roll-ups in your dehydrator.
Speaker 1:And once I had a huge batch of pears so I just sliced up the pears and dehydrated them and you know if your kid is picky or sensory sensitive, often they don't eat fresh fruit or vegetables because with every bite it changes. Like a blueberry, you think, it kind of has a crunchy coating and it's mushy on the inside, so it's actually quite hard to handle sensory wise, whereas opposed to like a dried or frozen or even freeze dried produce, the texture is the same with every bite, so it can be easier for them to eat. And then a lot of kids like that chewy, chewy foods. So I think the dehydrated would be great for apples, pears, fruit roll-ups, things like that chewy, chewy foods. So I think the dehydrated would be great for apples, pears, fruit roll-ups, things like that.
Speaker 2:Good, good, I love those ideas. I'm excited to try some new things and see what kind of new snacks we can get. Definitely, what is like an idea of let's do three good like meals that we can make for our family that cover all of the things that we should be eating for proper nutrition?
Speaker 1:Yeah, good question, making me think off the top of my head, I know right.
Speaker 2:And you don't have to do three, you can do one.
Speaker 1:Well, I always like to think of having, you know, look at the food plate. We want to have, of course, a fruit and vegetable, some protein, some grain, and protein of course doesn't always have to be meat. Some families are vegetarian. Meat's very expensive now. So you can try things like, you know, tofu, even if it's on a stir fry. Beans, like a bean chili, something like that. And even if you have a really young one, a baby like, think of a chili as something they can eat. You can just put the little pieces on their tray and they can self-feed. Be that baby lead wiener.
Speaker 1:But I love using my crock pot instant pot for those one pot dishes, whether it's like chili or soup, because it's so easy and I know veggies are often something that kids avoid, right? So, in terms of serving vegetables with the meal that children like I'm not opposed to dips at all Like. If they want to have veggies with dips, great Um, roasting can bring out a little bit of sweetness. So my kids will eat like Brussels sprouts roasted with maple syrup and butter on top of them, and they're actually delicious. Wow, they don't taste bitter anymore, right, incredible. With maple syrup and butter on top of them, and they're actually delicious. Wow, maple syrup, they don't taste bitter anymore, right, incredible. So trying new methods of cooking, like even using a mandolin to make potato chips or beet chips or cutting the vegetables in fry shape with ketchup, is fine. So trying some of those new things with the veggies as part of your meal might help.
Speaker 2:I love that. Those are wonderful ideas. And what you have the one book do you have others that you've written? Tell us a little bit about that journey as an author and what you've been doing.
Speaker 1:Sure, yeah, I have. So the Parent's Guide to Baby-Led Weaning and another book, baby Food in an Instant Pot, which I collaborated with the chef, so the Parent's Guide to Baby-Led Weaning, and another book, baby Food in an Instant Pot, which I collaborated with the chef, so she created all the recipes. I love that. And then I created the kind of how-to. Starting solids is the first half and then in terms of picky eaters. So I haven't written any books in that regard, but I do have an online course and a group coaching program, kind of for different ages, because whether the child is younger than six or older than six, at that age their, their brain changes and they're able to learn in different ways. So I have different, I guess, resources for for picky eaters, parents of picky eaters, at different stages too.
Speaker 2:I love that. Where can we find that? Give us your website so we can know where to go and to find out all this wonderful information and help support you and you support all these families.
Speaker 1:Sure. So my website is firststepnutritioncom and there is a freebies tab there so you can choose whether you're interested in my freebie for starting solids or younger picky eater, older picky eater, so you can go grab that info for free. And I also have a blog there where I probably have most of your questions about nutrition and feeding feeding kids answered.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. Thank you so much for the work you're doing. It's such an important thing that I think is rare. Is that weird? I mean like it's so important but there's not, as I know, a handful. You know less than a handful of dietitians and nutritionists than I do so many other things. So it is something that is really special that you, you know, give this service to people and help them. And what are some positive things you've heard from parents and families on this journey?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, that's one reason why I love working with families is just because I can see them going from this place of you know real frustration and worry to making some changes, and sometimes it's just implementing that division of responsibility where the parents start to add a little bit of structure. They stop being a shorter cook, they start eating meals together and then trusting their child rather than trying to pressure them. For a lot of kids, even just those changes will, totally, you know, the families will flip a 180 and all of a sudden the child's eating more food, more variety, they're coming to the table happy and everybody's just a lot less stressed and frustrated. So that's one you know journey that I love taking families through.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Oh, I can imagine that's great feedback to be able to get from, from people and hopefully you know the kids stay on these, um, you know journeys for themselves and see the benefits that that come from it. Um, and maybe teach your children the risks that can come from making the other choices and some of the health risks and you know, for your organs and your skin and all of the things that children worry about in their age groups. So something probably wise to teach them when it comes to why foods are important, why we're taking the time to make it an important decision.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know teenagers will go through a period of rebellion, as they always do, but I think you know they'll come back to the cooking at home and eating the variety that they're raised with eventually.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I see that. I see how that has happened. Oh my gosh, it's been so lovely to have you here today and it's been a wonderful conversation, really informative and so helpful. Thank you so, so much. I'd love to stay in touch and have you back on if you have exciting new things in the future or just to kind of catch up on things we should be doing.
Speaker 1:Awesome, that would be great. Yeah, thanks for having me, and I'd be happy to come on again and love chatting.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much and we'll definitely be in touch. Sounds good. Bye, Sarah.
