Melanie Potock

Parents hoping to prevent picky eating before it hits hard in the toddler years can use this easy strategy: Stir in some texture!

Sure, no strategy is full proof but doesn’t this make sense? 🤔 Is it the ONLY strategy? NO BUT, an extensive review of the literature indicated that “The texture of food plays a key role in food acceptance” is a “profound driver for food aversion.”* So, offering safe textures early and often is an easy, proactive habit that may pay off when toddlers enter that picky eater phase!

👋🏼Hi, I’m Melanie, author of six books on helping you raise an adventurous eater! One of my favorite and easy ways to offer mixed textures is to offer @mush oats with chopped fruit - super nutritious and delicious!

More👇🏼
“Texture of food plays a profound role in children’s food preferences and acquiring healthy eating habits. Food texture acceptance is learned from an early age…For young children, timely exposures to foods with varying textures (e.g., hard, lumpy, and gritty) facilitate the acceptance/preference development of those textures”.

👉🏼Tell me, what foods do you mix together for your kiddo? Anybody use chia, or chopped veggies in eggs? A little bit of texture helps kids be flexible with food preferences.🤍

🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #notanad #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #feedinglittles #ashaigers #responsivefeeding #startingsolids

📕*Chow, C. Y., Skouw, S., Bech, A. C., Olsen, A., & Bredie, W. L. P. (2022). A review on children’s oral texture perception and preferences in foods. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 64(12), 3861–3879. https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2022.2136619

“Having kids — the responsibility of rearing good, kind, ethical,
responsible human beings - is the biggest job anyone
can embark on.” ✨Love that wisdom from @mariashriver ✨Gosh, no wonder we worry that we’re are not enough…this is a huge responsibility and…the best thing that ever happened to me.🤍

👉🏼🩷I’m here to tell you that you are MORE than enough…and you’ve got this.🤍💕🤍💕🤍💕🤍💕🤍💕🤍

✨Happy Mom’s Day✨

🥰Melanie

#melaniepotock

#slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #feedinglittles #pickyeaters #arfidawareness #startingsolids

And just like that, it’s Mai Tai time.🌺

Have you ever been to Hawaii? I’m at the @ritzcarltonkapalua and it’s breathtaking!

👉🏼Also, don’t let this video fool you. It took me 3 hours to pack.😉

Hope your weekend is spectacular.🥰

🤍Melanie
#melaniepotock

#slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #pickyeaters

But ✨Mom✨and ✨GiGi✨ are my favorites (no offense Babe🤍)

Such a fun trend! Do you have a nickname?

#melaniepotock #nicknametrend #nicknames #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #responsivefeeding

Spouted Sippy Cups! The no-spill feature is so tempting for parents! The sucking (like on a bottle or a thumb) is so hard to resist for kids!💕 Try your best to skip the spouted sippy cups (or limit them to RARELY using them). Here’s why:

😛Babies gradually learn to lift up their tongue tip to swallow by about the first birthday. But if spouts hold down the tongue, they don’t get the practice I think they need. It’s also just one of the reasons we start bottle weaning when baby starts solids so they are off the bottle right after their first birthday. 🍼

🥤What to use instead? Comment #bestcups for a link to my Amazon shop (#affiliatelink) to see my tested and best options. BTW, If were a businesswoman who didn’t care about your child’s mouth development, I’d LOAD that Amazon store with spouted sippy cups because they’re so darn convenient & marketed by baby companies as the next step in learning to use a cup (um, no!) but I can’t sell what I don’t believe in…even if we promise to use them only occasionally.

👉🏼When it comes to how your child’s palate and face forms in the early years, there are many factors to consider – but they always come down to 1) frequency of use 2) duration or how long it’s used and 3) intensity or pressure on the structures. Can we measure that with every influential factor? It’s unlikely – but we can consider the advice of top professionals who SPECIALIZE in mouth development:

✨”Sucking on a rigid piece of plastic … can actually misshape the oral cavity and result in problems later in life like speech, airway, sleep quality, and facial form and aesthetics.” - Mark Burhenne, DDS

✨”Many if not most of these “no-spill” cups are just bottles in disguise” American Dental Association

✨”Many experts suggest that orofacial myofunctional disorders may develop as a result from…extended use of a pacifier and/or long-term use of sippy cups” -International Association of Orofacial Myology

❓❓Questions? Ask away!
❤️Melanie

*note - kids with medical issues related to aspiration may need spouted sippy cups #melaniepotock

#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #feedinglittles #ashaigers #pickyeaters #originalidea

Crushing it. #feedingtoddlers #melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #feedinglittles #reallife

🤦🏼‍♀️Got a picky eater who always wants the same thing for dinner?

🩷Sometimes, some kids need a little bit of their preferred food on their plate, as it’s truly the only thing they can eat.

👉🏼But for many kids, especially if you’re trying to avoid more extreme picky eating, it’s ideal to teach about WAITING.

✨You’re in charge of what gets served at mealtimes, but of course you can get your kiddo’s input. In our family, each child got to pick their favorite for everyone to enjoy one time per week.

💕You do you – because you know you kids best. I hope these scripts are helpful.

❓Want to learn more about how to avoid the mac n cheese rut? COMMENT COURSES for a discount code to my entire course library – sent straight to you DMs!

And, as always, thank you for following me, and trusting me to help you raise healthy, happy eaters.
🥰Melanie

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

Having a picky eater can feel overwhelming .

Take care of ✨you✨

You’re a wonderful parent and they are going to get better, because of you.🤍

💕Melanie
#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #ashaigers #feedinglittles #pickyeaters #responsivefeeding #startingsolids

Without even realizing it, are you raising your kiddo to be a picky eater?

Here are 3 mistakes I still make, and I’ve written 6 books on raising healthy happy eaters.😳🤦🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

🤍It’s just so easy to do, but the key is give yourself grace, and try not to do these too often. So, in the interest of reminding myself to STOP IT😉, I am confessing that I sometimes (not "all the time" like I said in the video - I`m being way to hard on myself today)...

1.✨Have trouble sticking to a mealtime/snacktime schedule. So, I have a copy of my OWN Hungry Not Hangry Schedule printed and posted where I can see it as a reminder that kids are often bored, tired, or just “in the kitchen” and all of those may prompt requests to eat.

👉🏼(COMMENT SCHEDULE to download your free copy).

2.✨They may actually be thirsty, and toddlers tend to request snacks even if they are feeling thirst. It’s a reminder for me to keep their water bottles within reach and offer water frequently.

3.✨I admit it – it’s so easy for me to reach for something I’m sure they will eat, because honestly, it’s easier on me too. And occasionally, that’ totally fine! But if I reach for favorites too frequently, and I don’t focus on exposures to all kinds of foods – I’m going to regret it.
✨❤️✨Exposure is everything when it comes to raising a healthy, happy eater.

✨Rather than trying to follow all the rules you find in books (including mine!) – just know that following those suggestions most of the time is good enough.

🥰Melanie

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

My kid likes to look at a book while they’re eating…
🤔Is that ok?

✨COMMENT TABLE✨ for 3 links to the best mealtime books, but first, 👉🏼let’s breakdown the YES and NO:

👉🏼Here are 3 reasons I’d say YES and 3 reasons I’d say NO:
1)✨YES, because it’s “while they’re eating.” If they are enjoying a book and enjoying their meal at the same time, that’s wonderful!
❌AND NO, if it’s interfering with them eating. If it’s too distracting and gets in the way of focusing on the food, then no, it’s not ok.

2)✨YES, it it helps them pace themselves. Toddlers are especially notorious for grabbing large handfuls of food and overstuffing, rather than picking up one piece at a time and chewing, then swallowing and taking another piece. A book is often a wonderful solution for this!
❌AND NO, if it appears that they are not eating mindfully. In other words, the book is the main focus, and the food is somehow just finding their way to their mouth. Like eating in front of a screen, occasionally a book can make kids zone out, especially if it’s an interactive book with buttons and sound effects.

3)✨Yes, if it’s only on occasion, and they aren’t dependent on it. Mealtimes are an important time for connection and to build cognitive and language skills.
❌AND NO, if they cannot be flexible and come to the table without a book. That dependency on an object at the table signals to me that they need something to keep their mind off their anxiety at the table, or around some foods.

🤍TIP: The more you can sit with your child, engaged and connecting, the better! Reading a book to them while they eat, pausing several times on each page to comment, point out the pictures and pause, waiting for their response, is a lovely way to get that mealtime conversation going!

🥰Tell me, do you have favorite books to bring to the table? I have an entire list of favorite books about food on my Amazon Shop. ✨COMMENT TABLE✨for 3 links to the best books to bring to the table and more!
🩷Melanie

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

Solving picky eating starts with fun! Think about it…

🤔 The best teachers make the lesson fun! Go from fun to YUM with 100 activities and recipes in Adventures in Veggieland!

✨And don’t forget…

✨Smile✨Research shows that when YOU smile when presenting a new food, kids are more likely to try it. 🙂

👉🏼🔗COMMENT VEGGIES for 3 links that will help you with the tools to raise more adventurous eaters.

🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #ashaigers #feedinglittles #pickyeaters #responsivefeeding #adventuresinveggieland