Roasted Butternut Squash with Mixed Salad Greens and Homemade Dressing Recipe

Feeding Therapy, Feeding Toddlers to School Age

Roasted Butternut Squash with Mixed Salad Greens and Homemade Dressing Recipe

The first time you introduce your child to salad, offer the greens and other mix-ins separately for the child to try.

By Melanie Potock

Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables―with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes (The Experiment, 2018), by Melanie Potock, is a wonderful guide to get kids involved in the kitchen. Potock provides many useful ways to get kids prepping and playing with the veggies they prepare. By exploring the veggies before they eat, kids may be less apt to turn their noses at what they prepared.

Get the recipe on Mother Earth Living >>

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🍋Picky eating runs the spectrum of yuck! Let me explain…

✨Point #1: My husband is only picky about certain foods. If he knows lemon is in there, he’ll just skip that dish. So frankly, I don’t tell him there’s lemon… but I typically honor his preferences by putting in less lemon and adding more of his favorite tastes.

✨Point #2: If your kiddo is just a bit picky, you don’t need to announce every ingredient. It’s not like when we make soup, you announce to your family “ Oh, I added a pinch of salt at the end!” 😉 If we announce it, it can become a bigger deal than it really is and then the soup is declared “TOO SALTY!”😖 🤦🏼‍♀️

✨Point #3: There there are many intensities of picky eaters, and if you’re certain there’s an ingredient that will create stress for your child, find a way to introduce that ingredient without putting it in the dish. If my husband were a more intense picky eater, I’d separate half of the soup (before adding lemon) just for him, and offer a lemon wedge on the side.

🤍Bonus tip: We don’t want to break down trust with our most hesitant eaters by sneaking other foods that they despise into foods that feel safe. So if you have a very extreme picky eater that you love, follow your heart on what’s best for you. In feeding therapy, I approach this on an individual basis, with gradual exposures, so that eventually adding new ingredients to a recipe is not a big deal. Remember picky eating is on a spectrum, and the majority of kids who are in feeding therapy, they are not “just picky”🤍

Questions❓ Drop them in the comments! I am here to help.❤️

🥰Melanie
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✨🛒✨Once baby’s sitting upright and able to ride buckled into a grocery cart, try my hack to provide more trunk stability to reduce the risk of choking on snacks & samples. (Hello Costco!)

👋🏼Hi, I’m Melanie, a pediatric feeding specialist here to help you raise healthy, happy eaters! Follow me for daily tips!

🛒Grocery cart seats offer no trunk support for kids, even if you use a cloth “cart cover” to protect from germs. Trunk stability is essential to reduce the risk of choking. Even adults are more likely to choke when seated in slumped position, when looking upward while eating or while stopping and going…and that’s exactly what your kiddo is experiencing riding the cart while you’re shopping.

✨🛒✨TRY MY HACK: If you’re no longer using your infant head support in your car seat, you can remove it to use as a back rest in the grocery cart. First, wipe down that cart! Second, use the Velcro straps to attach the padded support to the wired back, in between the safety buckles. This puts your child’s hips in correct alignment so that the back is upright, creating a safer path for food to be swallowed, rather than inhaled. ALWAYS use the safety belt.

✅Check your car seat manufacturer’s recommendations on how long you need to use the infant head support. In my experience, it’s “optional” and not typically recommended past the age of 4 to 6 months, unless there are medical reasons to do so.

✨🛒✨BONUS TIP: YOUR KID HAS TO LOOK UP AT YOU from a grocery cart seat. When kids tilt their head back, they increase the risk of choking. SO, If you’re baby needs a snack while you shop, offer meltable foods like O-shaped cereal, pieces of freeze-dried strawberries or crackers that melt very easily in the mouth. ALWAYS offer the food LOW & SLOW, so that your hand places the piece in their hand (close to the handle of the cart).
I’ll say it again - NEVER hold the food above them, always offer low and slow and one piece at a time please.

🥰I hope you found this helpful! Happy shopping!

😘Melanie
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Just don’t forget the ketchup… or the wine. 🍷

Thanksgiving and picky eaters … it’s always a good time!🎶🎶 😉

❤️ Please share this with someone who needs a little encouragement to get through the upcoming holiday.

🥰 Many thanks to the inspiration for this post, the wonderful Laura Joffe Numeroff, author of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie 🍪 ❤️

😘Melanie
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