Intuitive Feeding

With Halloween just around the corner, here are a few tips to handle candy in a connected way. Happy Trick or Treating! 🎃👻

Find the full article in the bio and if you want calmer connected meals times, subscribe to Substack to receive latest to your inbox 🧡

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Holiday meals with a “picky” eater can feel overwhelming and even dreadful for many families.

This season, we want to encourage you to make a few shifts and see what happens for you and your child.

What if the focus isn’t on what your child eats rather on how you connect this holiday season. 💞

Remember: familiar foods, low pressure, and lots of love go a long way to reduce the stress on you and your child during these events.

✨ Connection. Curiosity. Calm. That’s the real recipe for a joyful holiday meal.

Save this for your next family gathering 🦃❤️

So many families are told their child must eat a certain amount or meet a number on the scale… the pressure can feel overwhelming💔

But here’s the shift: when we move from consumption → connection, mealtimes become calmer, safer, and more positive for neurodiverse kids and their parents.

This is just one of the mindset shifts I share in my complimentary on-demand webinar, now available to watch until October 31, 2025. 🎥

✨ Don’t forget on October 23rd at 7 PM MST, I’ll be live for a 45-minute Q&A where you can bring your questions and get support in real time.

📺 Watch the webinar today.
🎤 Register for the Q&A through the link in my bio.

Let’s keep the conversation going and move towards making mealtimes less stressful, together. 💛

So many families are told their child must eat a certain amount or meet a number on the scale… the pressure can feel overwhelming💔 But here’s the shift: when we move from consumption → connection, mealtimes become calmer, safer, and more positive for neurodiverse kids and their parents. This is just one of the mindset shifts I share in my complimentary on-demand webinar, now available to watch until October 31, 2025. 🎥 ✨ Don’t forget on October 23rd at 7 PM MST, I’ll be live for a 45-minute Q&A where you can bring your questions and get support in real time. 📺 Watch the webinar today. 🎤 Register for the Q&A through the link in my bio. Let’s keep the conversation going and move towards making mealtimes less stressful, together. 💛 #neurodiverseparenting #feedingtherapy #feedingkids #connectionmatters

The language we use with our kids is powerful!💪🏼

We all want our kids to eat and behave well at mealtimes. The last thing we want is to engage in a power struggle and make the mealtime stressful…. Cause that’s no fun for anyone AND also reduces our child’s appetite.

So what do we do you ask? We use “DO” language with our kids ! 🗣️ Reminder to watch your tone and facial expressions too.

This teaches are kids WHAT TO DO, avoids power struggles, sets them up for success, reduces the activation of their stress response and makes them feel like we are on the SAME TEAM!

What push back do you get from your kids at mealtimes?

Parents and caregivers, here is a fantastic opportunity to attend an informative day all about Pediatric Feeding for FREE!

To register please connect with:

Pediatric Feeding Community
[email protected]
PedFeed.org
801-599-5869

Tuesday Reminder - YOU are doing a GREAT job. Be sure to carve out some time for yourself this week 💞

This nice whether has us dreaming about Summer days and lakeside lunches.

We love the warmer weather when you can dine Al fresco on your home patio, visit a food truck or enjoy a picnic by the water. 😎🧺☀️

These new environments can be a fantastic opportunities to expose kids to new foods and often engage whether it be look at, touch, smell or even lick a new food! 👀👅🖐️

What environments have you noticed your kiddos are more open to exploring new foods in? 😋🥒🫶🏻🥭

Making your family mealtimes happier and more nourishing with these tips 🍴🍎🫶🏻

1) The most effective way to get our kiddos to “try” and eventually like a variety foods is through modeling. Sitting together at a meal, simply modelling the eating you want to see. 👀

Focus the conversation outside of food (e.g. - think evening plans, sharing stories, etc) and if we must talk about food at meals discuss the CHARACTERISTICS of food … what does it look like, smell like, feel like, etc.

So often we assume our child “doesn’t” like something if they don’t try if on the first few offerings. The reality is, it can take a MINIMUM of 15 exposures for kids to even think about “tasting” a food. Keep offering, keep responses neutral! 😋

2)As parents we can feel desperate to get our children to “eat” especially for kiddos who are “lower weight” or have medical complexities. It is so important we offer not just the foods we think they will eat RATHER, focus on meal times as exposures for new and less familiar foods alongside ONE preferred food. This helps continue expanding food variety and creating an adventurous eater! 👨‍🍳

3) For our children to develop a healthy relationship with food, the language we use is VERY important. Focus on the conversation of Food is Food, it is FUEL to our body. Then teach for the basics, Protein gives us long last energy and builds muscle, fruits and vegetables provide our body with vitamins, etc. 💪🏼

The key is not putting foods on a hierarchy or pedestal, which can make the desire for them to be even greater.

What currently is your family’s biggest mealtime struggle?