Selective eating

Let's dive in.

What if picky eating isn't actually about a child being stubborn or difficult? What if refusing certain foods, struggling with textures, or having meltdowns at mealtime is actually telling us something deeper about what's happening in their body? Today, we're talking about what picky eating may really mean when it's simply a normal phase or when we should look deeper and how parents can take some of the pressure and frustration out of mealtime.

Hi, welcome to the Happy Healthy Her podcast.

I'm Cynthia, your host today, and joining me are my wonderful co-hosts, Lorraine and Tracy.

Thank you, Lorraine.

And I didn't even introduce myself, but I am a certified menopause coaching specialist.

So Today, we are looking at picky eating from a completely different perspective.

And I think this is going to be an especially interesting for the parents and grandparents listening.

[upbeat music] Welcome back to another episode of Holistic Health for Happy Kids.

So today, we're talking about one of my favorite subjects, picky eating, and what we can do to help our kids be more confident and curious around foods without pressure, without bribery, or without having a big drama every day.

So I'm joined by Katie Kimball, who is a mom of four, an educator, and founder of Kids Cook Real Food, and the author of The Picky Eater Playbook.

And she has spent a long, long time helping families navigate picky eating and teaching kids practical cooking skills, and that's what I just love about her approach.

It's all about helping kids be curious and confident about food.

So we're gonna be talking about what makes picky eating better, what makes it worse, all the stuff that you can start doing tonight at the dinner table.

So Katie, welcome to Holistic Health for Happy Kids.

Oh, thank you.

And for those that know me, uh, I do not edit, so it is what it is.

Uh, the voice you heard there joining me again, Lena Lubinsky, a pediatric speech language pathologist, holistic feeding specialist, and founder of Live In Sky Kids, host of the Live In Sky podcast, and when I had her on last, we talked about picky eating, and I myself learned a lot.

And, um, it's more complicated than we think, so I asked her to come back and talk more.

Lena, welcome back.

Sounds good.

So let me first say this before we dive in.

Uh, I was just at a conference, one of my tech conferences, and so of course the topic of picky eating came up.

Of course.

Because I didn't want to lose track of all the different pieces of what you were talking about.

So one of the biggest problem is picky eating.

And...

I started an organization in the mid-90s called Developmental Delay Resources.

And my co-founder was a nutritionist named Kelly Dorfman.

And Kelly is still out there doing marvelous work.

And she wrote many articles about picky eating.

And picky eating has two components to it.