Melanie Potock

🚼Do some babies skip crawling and still eat just fine? SURE but the two skills DEFINITELY linked – most professionals who specializes in feeding development will back me up when I say…

💛🚼💛”Please don’t skip crawling – despite what you’ve heard, it’s a MILESTONE that is very important for baby! “

✨💛✨If you’re baby skipped the crawl or the creep (as seen in this video) and is a very adventurous eater, that’s fantastic. But if you have a young baby NOW – embrace the creeping and crawling. It may help with feeding development.

❓Tell me, what’s the BEST and the WORST part of your baby’s desire to crawl? For me, the worst part is me chasing after him on my hands and knees and wearing right through my jeans on both knees. The best part? Torn jeans are the coolest.👖😎

🥰Melanie
👉🏼Comment VIDEO for a discount code for my on-demand courses on feeding development, bottle weaning and more!
#melaniepotock #firstgrandbaby #firstbaby #responsivefeeding #crawling

And you thought those spray bottles were to mist your plants🌿… Hey, starting solids can feel scary, and a little mist of fresh water on those puffs and pieces of cereal can really ease your mind! ❤️

👉🏼💦I typically introduce puffs at about 8 months of age, and misting them will help them start to melt before baby even puts one in their mouth. Plus, it makes the cereal and puffs stick to baby’s finger easier, making those early attempts less frustrating too!

❓Want more tips like these? Comment VIDEO for my entire video course library, plus a discount code to take any of my on-demand courses!

🫶🏼By the way, did you know it’s just me here, answering your DMs & comments – no staff, just lots of coffee ☕️and chocolate 🍫 beside me to keep me going. 😉So, thanks for sharing my tips with friends and supporting my business – you’re helping my account grow! I appreciate you very much! 🥰

✨Melanie✨
#melaniepotock #originalidea #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy #startingsolids

🥦🥕Part of the reason picky eaters don’t like raw veggies is because we have to wait till closer to age 4 to offer raw carrots and other super-crunchy veggies. They can be a choking hazard unless we grate them, or cut them very finely – and that’s just not that convenient, so we don’t do if as often.

✨REMEMBER to SAVE THIS and then, keep reading. It’s a good one!

👉🏼💦For preschoolers in feeding therapy (very picky eaters or kids with medical/motor/sensory challenges) I always start with blanched veggies because raw veggies are just too much work for their jaw and little mouths to manage. All you need is boiling water (even a cup in a microwave does the trick!) and veggies that are about the same size for even blanching.

🪄Here’s the magic – the slight boil softens the veggie enough that “gives” easier and thus, it feels more comfortable to chew YET it still has a crunch. It is also moister – making it easier to chew and swallow AND less likely to create those annoying shards in the gumline. Kids hate that.

📚This is something I wrote about ten years ago in my books – and it’s one of the “training wheels” strategies that I use still, today! BTW, blanched veggies stay fresh (and moist) in the fridge for several days.

🥰Just me here, helping you raise more adventurous eaters. 💕Thanks for following me!

🙂Melanie
Hey, also - new house, blue tape marking repairs everywhere, including in this video! #rangehood
#melaniepotock #originalidea for #pickyeaters #vegetablelove #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy

🔁Picky eating starts when kids get stuck on familiar - the same foods, offered over and over.

💛Hey, I LOVE mac n cheese (yum!) and @annieshomegrown is one of my favorites, but you can offer it more often if you add any of the easy options shown in this video!

🥑🫛Keeping frozen veggies or frozen avocado on hand is a game changer for a QUICK added boost of flavor and nutrition without making a drastic change from “familiar”. 👉🏼This strategy works best with kids who are not yet in the picky eating rut, and we are trying to avoid it.

❤️❓❤️Got a kiddo who is already pretty picky? You’re not alone! I’m here to help.

❤️❓❤️Got questions about picky eating?
Drop them in the comments!

🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #notanad #pickyeaterproblems #toddlertroubles #slpfeeding #feedingtherapy

👌🏼Babies begin to develop their pincer grasp around 8 or 9 months of age, but it isn’t usually perfected till their first birthday! 🎉You can ease baby’s frustration AND boost along the skill by providing one of my training wheels!

🫶🏼Training wheels is a term I use in feeding therapy when we add one a little extra bit of security – like a thin schmear of cream cheese or no-sugar jam or nut/seed butter. NOW the small morsels of food will stick to baby’s fingers while they are practicing!

👏🏼PLUS – you are adding in more flavor AND adding some of the Top 9 allergens. 👉🏼Remember to rotate all Top 9 allergens through baby’s weekly diet to help decrease the likelihood of them developing a food allergy.

🥰SHARE this with a friend, or SAVE IT so you can reference it when you need it!

👋🏼BTW, I’m Melanie, and I’m here to help you start your baby on solids and raise adventurous little eaters! It’s just me here – so when I answer a comment or a DM, you know it’s coming straight from me to you. Let me know if I can answer any questions!

❤️Melanie

✨THIS IS JUST ONE TIP – more on pincer grasp coming soon!
#melaniepotock #originalidea #startingsolids #myfirstbaby #myfirstgrandbaby #slpfeeding #feedingtherapist

🍝Parents are often hesitant to serve large pieces of pasta to babies who are just learning about solid foods because they worry about it be a choking hazard.😳

🥰You’re going to want to share this post – and this reassuring tip!

👩🏻‍🍳Truth is, when pasta is cooked just past al dente (soft and squishy) and cut appropriately (minced, chopped finely or mixed into food for babies under age 9 months), it’s not a common choking hazard.

💦Be sure to include moisture to each bite via an oil or sauce to help baby chew and swallow comfortably. BUT – are you still nervous?😬

🦈🐠🐳🦀🐬That’s ok, try character shapes like animals, sea creatures or Disney characters! Pasta comes in all sorts of fun characters and the holes in each piece allow air to flow through, yet there’s enough pasta for baby to grab and bring to their mouth.

❓Tell me, will you try this? If you’re nervous about pasta, it’s a great way to serve it!

👋🏼Hey, thanks for following me – I appreciate it so much!

💕Melanie
#melaniepotock #pastaforbabies #startingsolids #responsivefeeding #slpfeeding

🪜When picky eaters refuse to eat a new flavor or brand of yogurt, I approach is like climbing a ladder. For extreme picky eaters, they will need more rungs on their ladder.
👉🏼Let’s break it down:

🥣Serve your kid’s favorite yogurt in a bowl and trace a thin circle with the new yogurt as close to the edge of the bowl as possible. If they can help you do this, even better!

👋🏼Hi! I’m Melanie, an SLP and pediatric feeding specialist with over 25 years of experience with even the most anxious eaters. 🪜But hey, back to climbing that ladder…

🎯Over time, add another interior ring of the new yogurt until the bowl looks like a target. This gradual progression is one rung on the ladder. The top rung, your goal, is helping them feel comfortable mixing the yogurt together and gradually shifting to a bowl-full of the new yogurt.

👉🏼For extreme picky eaters, I do it differently. Get the bowl of preferred yogurt and add a smidge of milk, just to make it drinkable. Then, offer it in a straw cup for a while. Once they are comfortable with drinking their favorite yogurt, it’s time to systematically add a ½ teaspoon of the new flavor.

👉🏼MEASURE CAREFULLY each time, and WRITE IT DOWN. Each day, add ½ teaspoon more, until they kids are hesitant about the taste. That when you PAUSE and offer that ratio for several weeks, or at least until they adjust to it. Then, you can start again, measuring each time until they can drink the 100% new flavor. Now, shift back to your bowl (and a spoon) and fade out the milk.

🥤Choose a cup with a lid so they can’t smell the difference. Smell is a BIG factor in picky eating, so when you take it out of the equation, they are more likely to adjust to the aroma each time they swallow. See, rather than smelling up the nose, they get a tiny whiff up the back of their throat with each swallow. That tiny whiff helps them adjust to more in the future.

❤️Please like this post if you found it helpful! Thank you!
🫶🏼Melanie

#melaniepotock #originalidea #slpfeedingtherapy #pickyeater #ashaigers

😳It’s dangerous to have stuffed animals of any size in baby’s sleep space, especially near their nose and mouth. PLUS, ideally we want to wean baby from the pacifier during the daytime at age 6 months. So, the animal pacifier makes no sense from a practical standpoint. BUT…here’s another point.

🐿️🦊🐻If your child is older and has not weaned from the pacifier, cut off the animal. The added weight hanging from their mouth may contribute to the intensity & duration of the sucking, which we know influences dental, facial & palate formation in conjunction with the frequency of sucking. They can still have the cute animal, just not hanging from the pacifier. Also, it’s time to wean anyway, so let go of the pacifier and hang on to the cute animal for comfort.

🤔Wondering how to wean a baby, toddler or older kiddo from the pacifier? COMMENT VIDEO for a link in your DMs for ALL my video courses, including THE PACIFIER COURSE, plus a discount code!

💕You can do it… It just takes the right guidance to wean and I’m here to help!

🔥Recently, a pilot study concluded that “When toy plush animals are attached to a pacifier, the forces transmitted to the nipple of the pacifier can exceed the 0.4 N minimum force (100 g equals 0.98 N) required to cause orthodontic tooth movement.” Tesini DA et al., Forces Generated During Plush Animal Pacifier Use: A Pilot Study. Pediatr Dent. 2023 May 15;45(3):177-180. PMID: 37381124. Thanks to @functionfocusacadamy for sharing & @oral_motor_institute for sharing that study.

Note: In earlier editions of some of my books, I recommended these to help with pacifier weaning. But due to new guidelines on the timing of weaning and more, the latest editions (printed in 2022) books will no longer include this style of animal-attached paci.
❤️Melanie
#melaniepotock
#pacifier #bestpacifier #speechtherapy #slp #feedingtherapy #feedingtherapist #myfirstbaby #babyregistry #toddler #mytoddler #toddlerlife #ashaigers #orofacial #orofacialmyology #toddlertrouble

🤍If you’ve ever thought about doing something different with your life, start today.

✨Most people don’t know this about me, but I bounced from college to college trying to find myself… and even today I’m continually changing, always learning and definitely planning the next big steps with this career.

💕Thank you for following me here to learn about feeding babies, toddlers and the pickiest of eaters!

❓Have you ever changed careers?
🤔When I think back to getting my first job as an SLP in the NICU, and I see where I am now - 6x author, international speaker and product consultant for top brands 👉🏼All I can say is…

🤍Follow your heart . Make the change as soon as you can. Don’t wait till next August, or the one after that, or the one after that.🫶🏼

DROP A ❤️ IF YOU AGREE.

😘Melanie
#melaniepotock

😳Confused about which pacifier is best for baby after seeing this doc’s reel? I’ll give you the FACTS:

👉🏼FACT: There’s a reason that most hospitals worldwide offer a cylindrical, all-one-piece silicone pacifier. Babies need a cylindrical shape to let the sides of the tongue wrap around the nipple for optimal mouth development.

👉🏼FACT: Flat or orthodontic pacis don’t develop facial muscles in the same manner. Also, there’s no such thing as an “orthodontic” pacifier – that’s marketing slang, nothing else. Some kids need this shape if they have special needs – that’s a different topic.

👉🏼FACT: No matter what, wean early, unless there is a medical reason not to do so. Limit to bedtime at 6 months. The longer we wait to wean, the harder it is on baby AND parents. Stop completely no later than 12 months. (SIDS research)

👉🏼FACT: ANY pacifier will impact baby’s palate & facial development by age 2, & more so by age 4. Research shows babies who use ANY pacifier PAST the age of 12 months are at risk for maintaining a low resting posture of the tongue, developing speech issues & maintaining an immature swallowing pattern that can lead to hesitant or picky eating.

👉🏼FACT: Low resting tongue posture contributes to creating a high narrow palate, which in turn changes baby’s facial features depending on frequency, duration & intensity of sucking.

👉🏼FACT: There are benefits for introducing pacifiers:
🤍Reduced risk of SIDS up to 12 months (primarily by 6 months)
🤍Pain relief during minor medical procedures PREEMIES/NICU use

🎥Comment VIDEO for my short course on PACIFIER WEANING

🫶🏼Thanks for sharing my reel with friends – let’s get the facts out there!
(Please let’s not bash this doc – maybe he just doesn’t know what he doesn’t know.)

☺️Melanie
#melaniepotock
Cochrane Review 2005 Pinelli et al
Sexton S, Natale R. Risks & benefits of pacifiers. Am Fam Physician. 2009
(See Dentistry journals for lots of articles of orthodontic pacifiers & changes in oral structure in OLDER toddlers and preschoolers)

🥂🍻Thinking about a Happy Hour the night before the ARFID: The Anxious Eater in Washington D.C…anybody in?

🗣️Comment DC for course info!

🤫Pssst….don’t miss the $12 course in the afternoon too! Special guest! Comment DC !

🥂Cheers!

😘Melanie
#melaniepotock #pickyeaters #slpeeps #marylandslp #virginiaslp #washingtondcslp