Melanie Potock

👉🏼There are lots of ways to feed baby, especially when starting solids, but there seems to be misunderstandings about finger feeding – from the parent’s finger, that is. (or grandparent, or feeding therapist, etc.)

👉🏼The fact is, a “loaded” finger presented to baby’s mouth can be incredibly beneficial if done correctly, and here’s why:

✨1✨I can direct the morsal of food onto the sides of the gums, and help baby activate the chewing response.

✨2✨I can direct to EITHER side of the mouth, ensuring that baby learns to detect food (mapping) on both the left and the right. This is important for safety. BE CAREFUL if you’re right-handed not to always present to baby’s left cheek, and vice versa.

✨3✨I can help stimulate lip closure by gently centering my finger and pausing – baby will begin to suck by closing the lips.

✨4✨I can teach baby where the food goes for chewing…which is what you saw this little munch bug doing in the video!

❤️These are just some of the techniques (not all) that I use in feeding therapy when babies have trouble developing their feeding skills for solid foods. Of course, in that case, I used a gloved finger/hand.

🤍But for those at home just wanting to help boost along baby’s feeding development like in this video, offer a clean finger with morsels of safe food. Here I’m offering o-shaped cereal slightly moistened with puree. ✨Notice how baby reaches for my finger the same way they might reach for a spoon?✨They are controlling how I guide my finger too – and I’m responding to their grasp and interest, never going into baby’s mouth without their eager participation!

🥰BTW, I’m Melanie, author of 6 books on feeding kids and a pediatric feeding specialist. Thanks for following me @mymunchbug_melaniepotock and SAVE this post so you’ll have it when you need it!

🫶🏼Happy Finger Feeding!!!
🤍Melanie
#melaniepotock #feedingbaby #startingsolids #feedingtherapy

🫧Why do I use bubbles to help babies, toddlers & even picky eaters learn to try new foods?

🎙️COMMENT BUBBLES for some of the best non-toxic, long-lasting bubbles and I’ll send you a direct link! (Please be following me to get affiliate links, thanks!)

🫧First, who doesn’t love bubbles? But when playing with BABIES just starting solids, bubbles are a wonderful way to engage and entertain a baby who is just getting used to sitting in a highchair. I often use them in the first minutes to establish a fun routine before we engage with food. Direct the bubbles beside the baby’s highchair, rather than forward.

🫧TODDLERS! Not only do they help keep rambunctious toddlers from wanting to get down right away at mealtimes, they are ideal for practicing lip rounding away from the mealtime table. During playtime, help toddlers blow on bubble horns and imitate your lip rounding during bubble playtime too. (See my favorite bubble horn when you comment BUBBLES!)

🫧PICKY or ANXIOUS EATERS: Teaching kids to belly breathe has been shown to help calm the nervous system. That deep breath* in through the nose, and that steady breath out through pursed lips – it’s calming!When I’m working with anxious eaters, we often start our sessions with some gentle, calming bubble blowing.

🥰Need more tips like these? Follow me @mymunchbug_melaniepotock and thank you!

🫧🤍Melanie

*Sarman A, Tuncay S. , J Child Adolesc Psychiatr Nurs. 2024 Aug
#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #ashaigers #pickyeaters #feedinglittles #responsivefeeding #arfidawareness

❤️New baby or grandbaby? Here are surprising things you can do to help baby’s brain development!

🥰Hi, I’m Melanie, a speech language pathologist, feeding specialist, mom and a GiGi too!

👉🏼1.✨Use headphones in loud environments, like weddings, concerts (even outdoors) and crowded malls during the holidays. See more info below** on this one – and ...

✨COMMENT #NOISE for my list of approved headphones!

👉🏼2.✨Take baby outside and they might sleep better at night. In the Journal of Sleep Research***, it was noted that young babies exposed to light outside (not direct sunlight – be careful of sensitive skin!) slept better at night.

👉🏼3.✨Include baby in family mealtimes & keep it up – it will help them learn to read. It’s true! Kindergartners who scored highest in story telling skills (early reading skills) did so thanks to consistent family mealtimes – and guess what? They continued to score high in the 5th grade for reading comprehension. ****

❓Did any of these surprise you? Tell me in the comments!!!

🥰GiGi (I mean Melanie!)

**More Headphone Info from the American Academy of Pediatrics:
✨Children have smaller ear canals than adults, which intensifies higher frequency sounds. And the concern is not only with volume, but how long and how often children are exposed to noise. Common everyday noises, like road traffic or a television playing in the background, can also disrupt sleep, learning and quality of life. It`s very important to prevent harmful noise exposures starting early in a child`s life."

***Sleep: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2004.00435.x

****Reading https://doi.org/10.1002/cd.155

#MelaniePotock #newgrandbaby #newbaby #firstimeparent #firsttimegrandma #ashaigers #feedingtherapy #slpfeeding

#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #ashaigers #feedinglittles #responsivefeeding #grandbaby

🤔Waiting to get help for your picky eater is understandable when you keep hearing “All kids are picky, they’ll grow out of it!”

✨But the truth is✨…even if you have a “typical” picky eater, why risk it?

📚Research shows that 1 out of 4 typically developing kids will develop a pediatric feeding disorder requiring feeding therapy.

😳I’m not trying to scare you, I’m trying to give you free or inexpensive, EASY ways to avoid the chicken nugget rut. And if you already have a child in therapy, I applaud you for parenting proactively!

🎙️COMMENT WEBSITE for a link to Free downloads, books & more.

❓Wondering what tool on my website is best for you? Just DM me after you comment WEBSITE. Happy to help!

🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #pickyeaters #ashaigers #feedinglittles #arfidawareness

Whether very picky or having more extreme picky eating challenges, kids have poor appetites for new foods because A) new foods are truly not pleasurable and B) new foods may elicit an intense feeling of DISGUST. 🤢

✨Sometimes, kids just have poor appetites in general – more on that below.

🤔That got me thinking about remembering to be compassionate toward our extreme picky eaters.

❤️This isn’t easy for them. I’m an adult, and I know I NEED to eat to get well. I can make myself do it if I have to…but we never want to force a child to eat. We have to help them find the intrinsic motivation to try new foods, even if the first few bites aren’t pleasurable.

👉🏼Quick tips:
👉🏼Offer small (teaspoon) portions of new foods
👉🏼Let them explore it with their hands, let them smell it, take it slowwww.
👉🏼Frequent gentle exposures get you there faster, I promise!

✨Remember, there are 2 types of appetite:
👉🏼Hedonic (food is pleasurable)
👉🏼Homeostatic (driven by sensory cues & hunger pangs)

😋Appetite stimulants may help homeostatic appetite, but consistent feeding therapy is the answer for helping kids find joy in food, or developing hedonic appetite.

🤍Hope this was helpful!

🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #extremepickyeating #arfid #arfidawareness

🤔Do you know how much food to offer your picky eater? I think it might surprise you…

🥄For new foods , keep it underwhelming! A tablespoon at most… and no discussion about eating it.

🤍For favorite foods , start with just a half a cup for school-age kids, and a quarter cup for Littles/Toddlers.

✨Remember, they can have more if more is readily available . And having more is never contingent upon eating another food on the plate. This is about making friends with new foods. If that little tablespoon of a new food just hangs out on the plate, that’s great! Eventually, we’ll get to eating🤍

I’d love to answer your questions in the comments! Ask away!
🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #pickyeaters #ashaigers #feedinglittles #responsivefeeding

#Sponsored 💙 As a #CompleatPartner and a pediatric feeding therapist, I help families take the stress out of family mealtimes. Whether your little one is eating by mouth or via a tube feeding (or both!), remember that the most important part of family mealtimes is FAMILY. 🥰 It’s our time to nurture each other, connect and share stories about our day. ❤️Talk to your healthcare professional to find out if Compleat® is right for your child, and for real-life stories of how families enjoy Compleat® formulas at family mealtimes, visit www.compleat.com/stories.

#MelaniePotock #Compleat #CompleatCrew #TubeFeeding

Got a picky eater? Here’s your first step to more adventurous eating.

👉🏼Follow my "3 S" Strategy: Safe, Sometimes and Someday!

👉🏼Each meal (and ideally snacks too) always includes a highly preferred food (“safe”) plus a “sometimes they eat it” food plus a food that you’re hoping they’ll try “someday”. BUT – here’s the key:

✨Portions are small for safe and sometimes foods Why? If you pile up their plate with a safe food, they will ignore the sometimes foods. Yes, they can have more of anything later, if it’s readily available and convenient to serve more (and that’s not contingent on eating a specific food.)

✨Portions are EXTRA small for “someday” foods. Keep it underwhelming. This increased the likelihood they will explore it, and you’re less likely to waste food. If you can pop it back in the refrigerator like the rainbow cauliflower pictured here, offer it again a few times that week.

✨👉🏼✨CONSISTENCY is the key to this method. It takes time, but exposure to new foods means it needs to be on their plate. I’ll post more soon on when kids refuse to have it on their plate, when they throw it at you (been there) and more, but if you keep “someday” foods underwhelming, they are much more likely to tolerate the food on their plate.

🤍Hey, and truly, thanks for following me. When you SAVE or SHARE, you help my little one-woman small business grow, and I appreciate that so much!

Melanie
BONUS TIP! That @ithacahummus is soooo good! 😋

#melaniepotock #feedingtherapy #slpfeeding #pickyeaters #ashaigers #feedinglittles #responsivefeeding