November 2018 – Page 3 – Melanie Potock

Seminars & Events

February 6, 2019 – Anchorage, Alaska – Parenting in the Kitchen: Home Strategies for Families in Feeding Therapy (PRIVATE COURSE)

** For Parents & Health Professionals Coach Mel’s NEW 6 hour course! This seminar is jam-packed with the tools that professionals need to help parents. So often, kids learn to...

Seminars & Events

January 28, 2019 – Hattiesburg, MS – Picky Eating: How it Happens & What to Do about It (PRIVATE COURSE)

This course is for parents and professionals....

Speech Development

How to Help a Kid With a Childhood Speech Impediment

Difficulties in speech that many call “speech impediments” are common as language develops. Just don’t wait too long to seek help. By Matthew Utley Kids understand language long before they...

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Apr 19

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❓Wait - Babies can have raw celery and raw carrots even before starting solids? BE SURE TO KEEP READING so you know how to do this safely.

🥕Teethers for 5-month-old babies can include hard, resistive food such as a fat carrot stick, or a wide stalk of celery. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Always supervise baby with food teethers.
2. Make sure their back/trunk is well supported so that their little hands can easily bring the food teether to their mouth ( just like a non-food teether).
3. Wash food teethers thoroughly before offering to baby.
4. Safety Test: Can you snap it in half with your thumb and forefinger on the same hand? Yes – don’t offer it. No – offer with supervision!

🥰Benefits?
Even before baby is ready for solids (closer to 6 months of age) they can get small tastes as they mouth these resistive foods, just like you can taste carrot if you lick a carrot! Babies are open to trying new tastes and programmed to explore with their littles hands to mouth, so this is the perfect time to introduce veggies in this manner.
👉🏼Like any teether, the munching (up and down repeated chomps) will strengthen their jaw and facial muscles. It will also offer sensory input in terms of different textures, cooler temperatures and because it’s food – flavor!
👉🏼All teethers help babies learn to manage their gag reflex, but in my professional experience, I notice that babies like to suck on food teethers as well as try to chew them. 👉🏼Both are great experiences for the mouth, and both “work” areas of the tongue that play a part in developing tongue lateralization skills, tongue protrusion skills (for spitting out food) and learning to manage the sensation of a gentle gag with no other food in the mouth.

🪥Think of it this way – if you experience a gagging sensation, do you find it easier to manage if you accidently did that with you toothbrush or if you accidently start gagging while eating? The toothbrush of course! Neither is comfortable at first, but the toothbrush is quickly removed and we can swallow to relieve the sensation.

❓Questions? Drop them in the comments!
❤️Melanie
#melaniepotock #foodteethers #ashaigers #babyfood #feedingtherapy ...

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Apr 12

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🥰ARFID:The Anxious Eater is my most popular Masterclass and I rarely offer a discount code for it! I don’t have any seats available for my virtual courses (they are booked solid) and it’s so fun to see all of you in-person!

✨Join me for this 4-hour intensive training on how to help kids with Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). Come to Atlanta to learn how to help them find joy in food!
❤️Melanie

👉🏼DM if you prefer a direct link for more info.

✨👉🏼✨ discount codes are not retroactive and must be entered at time of registration.
#melaniepotock #arfidawareness #arfidlife #extremepickyeater ...

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Apr 10

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👶🏼Although babies can begin to have teethers as they begin to bring their hands to their mouth, a 5-month-old needs specific features to help with oral development:

🤍Very young babies need “nubby projections” but at 5-month-old can typically manage a bit more of a protrusion, ideally made of soft silicone, to gnaw on. I still shy away from a very long protrusion till closer to 5 ½ months, when baby has good trunk stability for controlling hand movement near the face. Those longer protrusions are excellent for helping baby get ready for solid foods and learning to tolerate a bit of gentle gagging, but they need that fine motor control to make it the most comfortable exploration experience possible.

❤️Varied texture on the silicone projection will help their tongue move to the left and right, an important skill for starting solids at 6 months of age!

✨Sensory experiences like squeaking (soft, smooth silicone parts are the squeakiest on gums!) and light-up rattles are always fun too! It’s a also a great time to introduce teethers that gently vibrate just for another fun tactile experience.

🛍️You’ll find my best teethers with these qualities and more (and for various ages) on my Amazon Shop: Amazon.com/shop/mymunchbug with notes on which are best for each age.

❤️DM me if you have questions!
🥰Melanie
#melaniepotock #5montholdbaby #babyteethers #slpfeeding #ashaigers ...

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Monthly Archives: November 2018

February 6, 2019 – Anchorage, Alaska – Parenting in the Kitchen: Home Strategies for Families in Feeding Therapy (PRIVATE COURSE)

January 28, 2019 – Hattiesburg, MS – Picky Eating: How it Happens & What to Do about It (PRIVATE COURSE)

How to Help a Kid With a Childhood Speech Impediment