Melanie Potock

How often do you get a registered dietician sitting next to you in your kitchen? Melanie flew Sarah Moran, RDN to her kitchen in Colorado so that they could film this course just for you! Join Mel and Sarah as they share everything you need to know to ensure that your child is getting good, sound nutrition. This course is ideal for parents or professionals, such as speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, and early childhood teachers.

Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is an international speaker on the topic of feeding babies, toddlers and school age kids. She is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating (2015) and Baby Self-Feeding: Solutions for Introducing Purees and Solids to Create Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits (2016). The tips in cookbook for parents & kids, Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes (2018) are based on the latest research and Melanie’s 20 years of success as a pediatric feeding therapist. Melanie’s children’s book You are Not an Otter takes preschoolers on a food adventure, exploring all the ways that various animals eat! Melanie’s advice has been shared in a variety of television and print media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal CNN.com and Parents Magazine. 

Sarah is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and life-long vegetable lover. She completed her Bachelors of Science in Dietetics at James Madison University and went on to complete her Dietetic Internship at Virginia Tech.  Like Melanie, Sarah is a member of the Doctor Yum Project which focuses on helping to change the lives of families and communities by overcoming the barriers to eating well.

Module One: Babies
– 60 minutes

Before you consider skipping this module because your child is older than one, please don’t!  This module contains important, comprehensive information on nutrition that every parent needs to know.  We’ll be referring to this information in the later modules, so please don’t skip this important hour, where we cover the following:

• What and what NOT to serve to babies
• The dangers of serving the wrong foods
• The easy guidelines to keep you on track
• When to begin offering water, and how much
• Why these nutrients are so important
• Understand the importance of certain foods in baby’s diet
• Where to serve meals and snacks
• The basics of proper positioning
• Choking risks and how to avoid them
• When to serve solid foods
• How to know when baby is ready for solids
• The pitfalls of starting too early or waiting too long
• How to create a feeding schedule
• How much solid food a baby really needs
• Learn an easy method for serving sizes
• Baby Self-feeding
• Safe finger foods
• Purees or no purees?
• How to keep baby safe
• Balancing bottle and breast feeding with solids
• Early signs of food allergies in babies
• Guidelines to introduce foods that may be allergenic

Module Two: Toddlers, Preschoolers & Young Children
– 60 minutes

Toddlers are tricky! Parents worry about their nutritional health because toddlers never seem to sit still to eat and are always on the move! We’ll cover the top concerns that we encounter as professionals and share simple, easy-to-follow guidelines to help you rest assured that your child is getting the important nutrients he needs to fuel that growing (and active) body and brain!

• What and what not to serve
• New guidelines now that baby has passed the “one year” milestone
• How to cut hot dogs or similar shaped foods – the #1 hazard for choking
• Why these nutrients are important for a toddlers’ brain, body and bones.
• Fiber, vitamins, and minerals
• Where and when to serve food to a toddler
• The importance of a hunger schedule and how to create it for your toddler
• How much is enough?
• Cow’s milk and dairy alternatives
• Portion sizes
• Snacks vs mealtime portions
• The easy guidelines to keep you on track
• Encouraging water
• Why it’s vital to our health
• Tips to help create this life-long habit
• Toddlers with Food Allergies
• The surprising signs that you may not be aware of!
• The nutritional risks to a child with food allergies
• Food intolerance vs. food allergies
• Nutritional risks when a child has food allergies

Preschoolers and Young Children (up to 6 years)

Preschoolers and children entering elementary school have specific guidelines unique to the change in growth they experience by age three. We’ll show you a relaxed approach to ensuring that your child continues to get optimal nutrition with strategies that will carry you through age six.

• What and what not to serve
• Fats – Understand the change in requirements for this age
• Alternatives to cow’s milk and dairy
• Where to serve meals and how much?
• Understanding that growth slows at this age
• Why nutrition is more important than calories
• Easy guidelines to keep you on track
• Food allergies
• Will my kid outgrow his allergy?
• Non-celiac wheat sensitivity
• Possible signs of gluten sensitivity
• The Three E’s: Expose, Explore, Expand
• Tips to help kids learn to love vegetable