Melanie Potock

One of the easiest ways to help a hesitant eater become more comfortable around food is to take the pressure off eating altogether.

🛒Pretend grocery store is one of my favorite activities because children can interact with food in a completely different way.
✨They’re learning that food is interesting...not stressful.
✨They’re hearing food names over and over while sorting, comparing, counting, pretending, and making choices.
✨Every playful interaction builds familiarity, and familiarity often comes before willingness.

As a pediatric feeding specialist, I also love grocery play from a speech and language perspective because children are practicing so many important communication skills:
🥕 Expanding vocabulary (foods, colors, categories)
🛒 Following and giving directions
🍎 Asking and answering questions
💬 Using conversational turn-taking
🧺 Sequencing (“First we shop, then we pay, then we bring the groceries home.”)
🍌 Pretend play and symbolic thinking
🔢 Early math concepts like counting, matching, and sorting

For children with feeding challenges, pretend grocery store can become a safe place to explore foods before they’re ever expected to taste them. The conversations we have about food matter just as much as the bites we hope children will eventually take.

💕 Want to set up a tiny pretend grocery store in your playroom? Comment GROCERY and I’ll send you the link to all my top QUALITY picks, including the cutest little cart you’ve ever seen!

♥️Melanie

Melanie Potock, picky eating, pretend grocery store, feeding therapy, food exposure, toddler activities, speech language development, pretend play, food play, pediatric feeding specialist, vocabulary development, early language, child development

One of the simplest ways to reduce toddler power struggles around food (and throughout the day) is to replace constant commands with modeling.

Instead of asking:
❌ “What do you say?”
❌ “Say please.”
❌ “Tell Grandma thank you.”
Try saying the words yourself.

👉🏻For example:
Toddler: “I need more ketchup.”
You: “Oh, you’d like more ketchup, please? Absolutely! Here you go.”
You’re not ignoring manners.
You’re teaching them.
Toddlers learn through repetition, connection, and hearing language used naturally. When every interaction becomes a quiz (“What do you say?”), children can become more focused on avoiding correction than on learning the skill.

And here’s the fun part...
When they eventually say “please” all on their own, celebrate it!
💕 “Oh, I love hearing ‘please!’”
💕 “That was such a nice ‘please.’ Yes, I’d be happy to get that for you.”
💕 “Thanks for asking so politely!”
That positive feedback is often much more powerful than reminding them to say it in the first place.

👉🏻Of course, there are moments when we do prompt children to use polite words. I simply try to reserve those moments instead of making every interaction a command.
Model first.
Redirect gently.
Celebrate their independent efforts.

❤️ Manners are caught just as often as they’re taught.

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, toddler manners, positive parenting, toddler communication, language development, speech therapy, parenting toddlers, responsive parenting, gentle parenting, modeling language, reducing power struggles

I tell all my audiences…One of the biggest mindset shifts in feeding therapy is learning to ask:

❤️ “What’s making this hard?”

instead of

❤️ “Why won’t they just eat?”

Maybe they’re overwhelmed.

Maybe they’re unsure.

Maybe they’re still learning.

Maybe the fear is real, but the danger is not.

❤️When we respond with curiosity instead of frustration, children feel safer exploring food.

❌That doesn’t mean lowering expectations.

❤️It means supporting them while they build the skills to meet them.

📚Comment BOOKS if you’d like to learn more about raising confident, adventurous eaters – I wrote 6 books on the topic, and I’ll send you the latest links!

Thanks for following me @mymunchbug_melaniepotock for daily tips!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, picky eating, feeding therapy, responsive feeding, toddler eating, sensory feeding, family meals

3 things I Appreciate on a Monday:
♥️You
♥️Chocolate dipped in Peanut Butter
♥️all the ☕️☕️☕️☕️

Thanks for following me!

🥰Melanie

Sometimes I share feeding tips.
Sometimes I share playful ways to help kids build developmental skills.
Because the truth is... they’re all connected. 💛

🍽️Yes, this account is mostly about feeding kids, but I loved this game and couldn’t resist sharing it!

Sometimes the simplest ideas become the biggest hits.🧩This little puzzle tunnel turns an ordinary puzzle into a game full of movement, anticipation, teamwork, and laughter.

Kids practice:
✨ Fine motor skills
✨ Visual scanning
✨ Turn-taking
✨ Hand-eye coordination
✨ Problem-solving
✨ And best of all... they’re having so much fun they don’t even realize they’re learning.

Don’t have a puzzle? Try sending:
• lightweight toy golf balls
• Toy cars
• Plastic animals
• Large craft sticks with letters or numbers

Sometimes all it takes is a cardboard tube to create a memory they’ll ask to do again tomorrow.

❤️ Save this for a rainy day or share it with someone who loves easy play ideas.

Safety Tip: Position the end of the tunnel below your child’s eye level so puzzle pieces land on the floor or can be caught around waist height instead of flying toward their face. Always have children sit while playing on stairs, and supervise closely.

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, toddler activities, cardboard tube activities, puzzle activity, fine motor skills, visual motor skills, indoor activities, rainy day activities, preschool activities, family games, child development, play-based learning, speech therapy, occupational therapy

Some of our strongest childhood memories aren’t about the food itself.
They’re about what the food represented.♥️

For me, it was summer evenings on the Chesapeake Bay, gathered around newspaper-covered tables, cracking fresh Maryland blue crabs with my family.🦀

When I moved away, I wasn’t ready to let that tradition go. So every summer, I have crabs shipped overnight so we can continue what my parents started decades ago.

This year, something felt especially meaningful.

Although he’s been “present” for the past two years at the table, this year my grandbaby was old enough to crack open the crabs and pick out the crab meat. He sat at the table for the longest time, having the BEST time with the entire family.♥️

📚Research on family rituals tells us they’re different from everyday routines. Rituals create a sense of identity, belonging, and connection that children often carry into adulthood. In fact, many adults recreate the same family meal traditions they experienced as children when they begin raising families of their own. This is a topic I explore more in Raising a Healthy Happy Eater – 🎙️just comment BOOKS to peek inside!

As a pediatric feeding therapist, I spend a lot of time helping families reduce stress around food. But I also know this:

The goal isn’t just raising children who eat a variety of foods.
It’s raising children who feel loved, connected, and welcome around the table.♥️

Maybe one day, my grandbaby will gather his own family around a crab feast and tell them, “This is what our family has always done.” ♥️That would mean more to me than he could ever know.

🥰I’d love to hear about your family.
What’s one meal tradition you’ve carried from one generation to the next—or one you’d love to begin?

✨Melanie✨

Melanie Potock, family traditions, family meals, family rituals, mealtime connection, responsive feeding, family dinner, raising healthy eaters, feeding therapy, childhood memories, family connection

🤔What if the behavior you’re seeing at mealtime isn’t the problem...
...it’s the clue?

One of my favorite moments from this conversation with Dr. Minkin
(@alisaminkin ) - talking about behavior at mealtimes.

Food refusal, leaving the table, gagging, crying, shutting down... those are the behaviors we notice first.

But underneath that “hat” may be anxiety, sensory processing differences, oral motor challenges, physiology, appetite challenges, medical concerns, or a combination of factors.

After helping more than 10,000 children over the past 25+ years in feeding therapy, I’ve learned that lasting progress begins when we stop asking, “How do I stop this behavior?” and start asking, “What’s making eating so hard for this child?” and “What is this child trying to tell me?” That’s the conversation every parent and feeding professional needs to hear.

💕 Comment POTOCK and I’ll send you:
• the direct link to this podcast episode
• a discount code for my popular course, ARFID, ASD & Anxiety

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, ARFID, anxious eating, feeding therapy, pediatric feeding specialist, sensory processing, food refusal, pediatric anxiety, oral motor, picky eating, autism, responsive feeding

Toddlers are wired to say,
“I do it!”
Let’s use that.

Invite them into the kitchen.
Even tiny jobs help build confidence.
✔️ Washing produce
✔️ Stirring yogurt
✔️ Spreading cream cheese
✔️ Cutting bananas with a kid-safe knife

💦Messes can be cleaned.
♥️Confidence lasts much longer.

🎙️🔪Comment KNIFE if you’d like my favorite kid-friendly kitchen tools and kid-safe knives that frankly, I cannot do without! They are the best!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, toddler meals, picky eating, feeding therapy, cooking with kids, food exposure

After helping more than 10,000 children over the past 25+ years as a pediatric feeding therapist, one thing matters more to me than anything else:
Your trust.

❌💰That’s why you’ll never see me recommend a product simply because someone offered to pay me. In fact, I rarely participate in “affiliate” partnerships, although I get offered at least 10 per week.

♥️If I share something, it’s because I’ve used it in my own life, with families, or in feeding therapy, and I truly believe it helps make mealtimes easier, safer, or more enjoyable.

⭐️In fact, I turn down far more partnerships than I accept, and although I have specific rates for brand partnerships, if I don’t trust the product, then you won’t trust me, so the 💵 just is NOT worth it.

So when you see me working with a brand, you can be confident it earned its place here first. 👉🏻Your trust is NOT something I’m willing to trade.

💛 I’d love to hear your thoughts on the latest chatter on Reddit/Facebook about SLP and OT “grifters” (their terminology, not mine) – Do you think that’s a thing? Or do you understand why they sell so many products on their social media? Ready – GO! I truly want to know your thoughts in the comments…

🕵️‍♀️BTW, in full transparency…Here are a few of the brands that I have worked with over the past few years, and I am honored to have had brand partnerships with @onceuponafarm , @lovechildorganics , @drinkorgain , @gobekids , @nestleusa , @innobabyllc , @ellaolaofficial and @veza_innovations ♥️

Melanie🥰
Melanie Potock, feeding therapy, pediatric feeding therapist, picky eating, toddler nutrition, evidence-based parenting, trusted recommendations

If you’ve ever wondered where picky eating ends and ARFID begins, this podcast is for you.

@mymunchbug_melaniepotock joined pediatrician @alisaminkin to unpack why ARFID is so much more than “being picky,” why anxiety often plays a major role, and how autism can add another layer of complexity.

♥️Whether you’re a parent, therapist, physician, or educator, I hope this conversation helps you better understand the children who need our support the most. 💜

✨ Comment POTOCK and I’ll send you:

✔️ the direct link to the podcast
✔️ a discount code for my popular ARFID, Autism & Anxiety on-demand course

🥰Melanie
Melanie Potock, ARFID, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, pediatric feeding therapy, picky eating, autism, ASD, anxiety, feeding therapist, pediatrician, child feeding, feeding disorders