7: Feeding Picky Toddlers: Tips for Less Stress and More Success with Ali Ellis, MS, RD

Ali Ellis is a registered dietitian and the founder of The Toddler Kitchen. She helps parents raise curious, adventurous eaters, while fostering a positive relationship with food. Ali holds a Master of Science in Health Promotion and has an extensive background in health psychology research, working with families with young children in changing their nutrition habits. She is also a passionate recipe developer, dedicated to creating easy, nourishing recipes for toddlers and young children.

If you're struggling with feeding your toddlers or kids, this episode will be your saving grace! Here we discuss:

• How to handle feeding challenges away from and at the table
• Tips to get kids to sit at the table longer
• How to transition away from meal threats to a pleasant eating experience
• What the division of responsibility framework is and how to apply it to feeding your kids
• The importance of having a safe food at every meal
• Best foods/additions for boosting nutrition for toddlers
• Things to think about BEFORE you sit down at the dinner table to help kids eat better
• Fun kitchen gadgets - Handheld spiralizer, sandwich shapes, Bentgo Box, crinkle cutters

Transcript

Sarah Schlichter (00:25.432)
Today we have Allison Ellis on the podcast and Allison, thanks for being here. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Ali (00:33.314)
Yeah, absolutely. And thank you so much, Sarah, for having me today. I'm super excited to chat about this topic. Yeah, so my name's Allison. I'm a registered dietitian and founder of The Toddler Kitchen. And I'm also a mom to two little girls. So I've got a three-year-old and a nine-month-old baby. So I am absolutely in this mix right now of feeding and navigating meal times. And yeah, it's just an area I'm really passionate and so excited to chat about it today.

Sarah Schlichter (01:02.56)
Yeah, you kind of are in the thick of it. You got a baby and a toddler who's starting probably to voice her own opinion, so you've got both sides of the equation here.

Ali (01:11.102)
Yes, absolutely. We've got the baby led weaning going on and then the very defiant toddler. And so it's a lot of fun at mealtimes.

Sarah Schlichter (01:18.826)
Yeah, yeah, right off the bat. mean, have you noticed any major innate differences between your girls and starting baby-led weaning with your second daughter?

Ali (01:28.364)
Yeah, it's a great question. And so yes, absolutely. And I'll say both of my girls actually were really slow to take to foods. And with my first, this is one of the reasons that actually really led me into starting the toddler kitchen because it was a huge struggle. It was very stressful. She, although she was showing signs of readiness to start solids, it was the interest piece that just wasn't really there. She wasn't really interested. She didn't want to kind of

grab the food right away and play with it. She just kind of looked at it. And I just remember thinking like, what is going on? Why don't you want to try some of this and explore it? And of course the dietitian in me knows, okay, just let her come at it at her own time and explore it. But I found it really stressful. And I was looking for a lot of support then that I just couldn't really find at that time, even though being a dietitian and in this area, but I just...

wanted a little bit of support with it and so this really did lead me to being my motivation for starting the toddler kitchen. So yeah, I had a lot of struggles with my first with starting foods and then with my second, similar in that she also was a little bit slow and I was like, my gosh, we're going through this again. I'm seeing all these babies on Instagram like holding their broccoli and eating it and this is not, this isn't the reality for us.

But she did start to come around to food a little bit faster than my first, even though my first absolutely loves food now, but it did take a while. she, my first was a bit more excited to kind of, or gravitated a bit more to the softer foods, the pureed foods for a little bit longer, where my second, she wants foods to hold. Like she really wants to kind of, even if it's on a spoon, she would rather have whole pieces of food to...

hold and get into. So there's absolutely been quite a few differences, but yeah, both of them were a little bit slow to start.

Sarah Schlichter (03:22.934)
And I'm sure you're not alone there with having that challenge. And it is interesting to see, like, once you do let baby take the way, baby led weaning, you know, what they're gravitating towards and kind of letting them explore food in their own way.

Ali (03:36.076)
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, I was nervous and I think this is normal for a lot of parents to go through with offering some of these foods and especially with baby lead weaning, it can be a little nerve wracking at first. And so with my second, was thinking, okay, we're really gonna like, yeah, just embrace some of these softer period foods. But then it actually ended up being the other ones that she really wanted to explore and to start to try. just, it was a good reminder, even to me as a dietitian that it's,

Following babies lead is such an important piece of that.

Sarah Schlichter (04:08.622)
Mm-hmm, totally. And as they get older, know, things are still always changing. So I'm curious from your point of view, what are some of the most common struggles that parents face when feeding? Let's focus on toddlers because it might different. It might be different when feeding babies, but toddler age, what do you find are some of the most common challenges?

Ali (04:22.477)
here.

Ali (04:28.578)
Yeah, yeah, so there's a lot of different challenges that come up, both that I've experienced and with the families and the parents that I work with. And so I find there's challenges both at the table and away from the table that I hear. So for example, getting our child to want to come to the mealtime table is a struggle for lot of parents, a lot of meltdowns around mealtimes and just those transitions.

And then also, of course, at the table, it can be challenging to then keep our toddlers there. You know, they're busy, they're independent, they've got things they want to be doing. And so that can be a challenge for parents saying, how do get my child to even stay at the table longer than, say, 30 seconds? But certainly the most common struggle that I hear from parents is around when their child starts to become a little bit more of a selective eater, a bit of a picky...

Pick your eater. This can be really, really hard for parents. And it's coming from that really good place of we want the best for our children and we want them to be nourishing their little bodies. And then all of a sudden when they like a food one day and don't like it the next, or only eating a certain color of food, or everything is now you, this can be a huge challenge for parents to navigate. And so those are definitely some of the most sort

common ones that I hear is just that area around how do I get my child to try different foods and increase that variety and concerns around are they getting the nutrition they need? Well, also still just making sure that we're supporting our children to have that, positive relationship with food and be growing up as these curious eaters.

Sarah Schlichter (06:02.68)
I think you hit the nail on the head when you said these phases can be hard as a parent. Part of it can be normal and we do want the best for them. So, you know, our intentions are good, but maybe you and I were talking, you know, before we hit record, maybe we grew up in a family where we had to clean our plate or there was a little bit more pressure around food and we're trying to do things a little different. Do you think that plays into some of this?

Ali (06:28.066)
Yeah, absolutely. You we kind of know what we've grown up with. And yeah, we were just chatting about that, about some of the food rules that we maybe experienced. I mean, I remember absolutely having to finish my plate before doing anything else or that classic, you know, eat your vegetables to get your dessert. And we are seeing this shift that can really support that long-term positive relationship with food, but it can be challenging to know what is the best approach and what works for a unique

person and family. I think it's really important to highlight for parents that we all do have unique situations and different dynamics that are coming into play. so knowing that we're going to need a unique approach, but looking at what is going to be most supportive and most helpful for our family and for our child.

Sarah Schlichter (07:17.582)
Yeah, and maybe we can break that down a little more. So speaking to the parents and just want everyone to know you're not alone, but speaking to the parents who are frustrated with their meal time, it's not a positive experience. Maybe they feel like they have to pressure their kids to eat because again, we as parents want our kids to get the nutrition through food. Plus we've spent a lot of time and energy cooking. So we've made this meal and maybe they're used to saying, okay, you can't have XYZ, no TV, no.

going outside, no dessert until you eat your plate. Where do we start? How do we start to transition to changing that language or making meal time look different with the long-term goal of making it more positive? Because short-term and long-term can feel a little bit different when you're in the parenting world. And will these small things eventually even make a difference?

Ali (08:08.586)
Yeah, absolutely. This is such a great question. And I love what you said there about that kind of short term and long term, because I do think it is important to think long term, even though when we're in the mix, I get it that it's so challenging. But I think a great place to start for parents is looking at this concept. And that some people may have heard of it called the division of responsibility with feeding. And so this is concept coined by a feeding expert, Ellen Satter, and she's a dietician. And what this

what this sort of framework means is that parents are in charge of the what, the when, and the where for meals. And a child's actually in charge of if they that food and how much. And when we actually really look at this concept, I think it helps relieve a lot of the pressure off parents. So it's like, okay, we can provide a variety of foods for our child, but we're not,

We're of bribing them. We're letting our child be in charge of if they are going to eat that food and how much. And I think this really helps support, and we've seen this in the research, that this really helps support children to learn to trust their bodies and trust their hunger cues. And then this is what really helps with that long-term relationship with food and supporting kids to be curious eaters and want to try different foods because now there isn't this sort of...

pressure on food. So I think that's a great place to start with at meals is sort of looking at that. And then also those other pieces around the what and the where I think are also really, really important. or sorry, the where and the the when of meal times. So that's sort of speaking to that meal time environment and having some boundaries. So if our child's sort of grazing and snacks all day, this can be really tricky then and when it gets time to dinner, they may not be hungry, they've been having snacks for a while.

But when we, as parents, are in charge of that, when that meal time is, we can reliably feed our children at a supportive schedule and having some structure. Of course, there's going to be flexibility needed, but having some of that structure with meal times really supports kids to know, okay, there's another meal time coming and they can really start to listen to those hunger signals. And then also that meal time environment in terms of how is it sort of set up? Are we coming together at a table?

Ali (10:20.81)
As a family, is there a supportive chair for a child? Even looking at something like that can make a huge difference. Just making sure that they're comfortable in the seat that they're at at the table and then making the dinner table or breakfast table, just making mealtimes a place that kids want to come to. So if they're always feeling pressure around the food and there's such a heightened focus on the food, that's going to feel really stressful for them.

Whereas if we can actually make Meal Times a place where they want to come to the table because it's fun and it's connecting with family and talking and shifting some of that focus even away from food can be so supportive for kids for helping them to want to really be at the table and connect with family members.

Sarah Schlichter (11:06.382)
That's great. That was a great rundown of the division of responsibility too. And I think one thing I want to highlight too. So it sounds like, you know, parents who maybe used to, okay, kids are hungry. They want a snack. Let's give them a snack. Doing that throughout the day. Maybe that's working against us here. So it sounds like, like you said, you decide when they eat, you decide what is served, but you can't make them eat all of it. You can't make them eat however much, you know, we want them to learn to be intuitive. So

For parents who are maybe offering snacks all day long or kids are kind of saying, I'm hungry, can I eat? It sounds like maybe if we have some boundaries around the food times, kids get used to a little bit of that boundaries. Cause we do have to set boundaries, right? Does that sound like it would be, make the environment a little more comfortable when they come to expect, okay, it's time to sit at the table and eat dinner versus take my snack and run around.

Ali (12:02.667)
Yeah, absolutely. Routines and boundaries are so supportive for toddlers. mean, they're at such an age where they want to explore and they want to push boundaries. But if there aren't even any boundaries for them to sort of test, then it's challenging for them to sort of figure out and regulate a lot of these pieces. So mealtime boundaries can definitely be a huge game changer. I know we found that that's something that I'd even let.

slipped. was just easy to, okay, here, know, have a snack, avoid the meltdown. Yeah, so I totally get it. But it really can be supportive when we do have some boundaries and okay, so, you know, the kitchen's closed right now, but we're going to have, you know, snack time. It will be in, you know, after the next three books or something like that. But just having some boundaries throughout the day absolutely can be so supportive for toddlers when they're really trying to exert a lot of that independence at this age.

Sarah Schlichter (12:31.98)
Avoid the meltdown exactly.

Sarah Schlichter (12:58.318)
Do you have any tips for when you are at the table with your toddlers and trying to make mealtime fun? Do you suggest music? Do you suggest having them color? Is that too distracting? What do you suggest while sitting at the table together?

Ali (13:13.91)
So, you I really think it depends on each family. And I think, you know, it's okay to figure out what works best for your family. So I know we, for our family, colouring would probably get to be a little bit too distracting for us, but that might, you know, if that is supportive for somebody else, I think really honouring that as a parent that, you know, it's okay to trust if something is working and feeling supportive for you. I know that one thing that really supports...

our mealtimes and also with a lot of families I work with is having some mealtime visuals around like a transition to the table and our mealtime family guidelines. So what I mean by that is we've got a little visual card that shows, okay, we do a 10 minute, kind of like a 10 minute alert before dinner time, which means we start to clean up our toys.

Then we're going to wash our hands. And it's just this routine that helps with that transition to the meal table, which I find actually then really supports when we're at the table. And then giving a little task to a child to say maybe it's setting the napkins, bringing the napkins to the table. They don't have to set the full table, but just letting them have something that they can be involved with for that transition to meal time. And then once at the table,

Sometimes background music is really supportive for families. Sometimes we have it on, sometimes we don't. But I find those mealtime guidelines where, and this is another visual we actually have in our house and toddlers do really well with some of these visuals. And so we have one that sort of our family guidelines are that we come together as a family. And again, this doesn't mean we have to have every member of the family, but there's always either a caregiver at some point.

and a child at the table together. And then so we have at least a few family members together eating for the meal. We do a little cheers just because my toddler loves to cheers her water bottle. So we have that. And then just that we do sit down together and then that there's also always going to be a food that everybody enjoys.

Ali (15:20.76)
So, and we'll probably talk about this, how we don't want to be catering, you know, making all of these extra meals for our toddler, but just being considerate and making sure that there's a food that everybody does enjoy that's at the table can be really supportive for, again, reducing kind of that stress. And then sometimes playing games or having different conversation starters. So just shifting the focus away from the food at the table, we might say, well, you know, what do...

What do you think dinosaurs used to eat for dinner at the dinner table? Or do those broccolis kind of look like trees? And then on the whole dinosaur theme, is those the trees that dinosaurs used to roam around? Just having some fun kind of conversation starters that just shift the focus away from having to eat foods can really support that positive meal time environment.

Sarah Schlichter (16:09.868)
I couldn't agree more. find that the imaginary play works very well. When I'm sitting down with my husband and my three kids, funny you bring up the broccoli, we were eating broccoli the other night and of course they look like trees, but we were like, what grows on your broccoli tree? Is it fruit, vegetables? Like I think I have some apples growing on my broccoli tree. And then, you know, we play along and even just talking about it sometimes peaks their curiosity.

Ali (16:37.238)
I love that. Exactly. It's just so fun to explore that food in that sort of imaginative way. And then it supports kids' curiosity. Another one is like, we brought, you know, stuffy. The stuffy came to the dinner table the other night. And so maybe there was a food that my daughter didn't...

doesn't necessarily eat on a regular basis, but she offered it to her stuffy to eat. And it was just a great way to still support exposure to the food. You she still didn't eat it that night, but she held the food, she was touching it, she saw, you know, stuffy enjoyed the food. And this is what really will support her in trying that food at another time. So it was a great opportunity for exposure without pressure.

Sarah Schlichter (17:19.49)
One thing we did and we'll still do it occasionally. And if you have girls or kids that like to dress up, this works really well, was we were throwing a ball and they had to dress as princesses to come down to the table. And even just mixing things up like that. Sometimes I'll pretend I'm the waitress and I have a piece of paper. I'm like, these are our specials tonight. What would you like? Giving them some agency, but also kind of to your point, keeping that environment a little lighthearted.

Ali (17:48.066)
Yeah, I love that so much. And it just made me think of another example too, that still fits within that division of responsibility of feeding, but gives toddlers a little bit of choice is, you we like to do theme meal nights. And so letting my toddler, you know, have some input, but it's kind of still within what I would be offering. okay, so do we want, you know, for Wednesday, should we do pasta night or should we do taco night this week? And so it's something small, but it still gives her the opportunity for some

choice and input on that meal and this can also just really help increase the chances of our children eating those foods and trying them.

Sarah Schlichter (18:26.274)
Mm-hmm, and you did mention kind of having that food that everyone enjoys. Some people may also call that like a safe food. Can you talk about that a little bit more and why that is something we do recommend having, especially if you're serving something new to kids?

Ali (18:41.902)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's so helpful for a few different reasons for toddlers, but imagine for us if we're being given all these new foods that we've never tried before and we're being told we have to eat all them, like it would be so, so overwhelming. And children are learning to eat. They're learning to try different foods and like different foods. Like it's such a learning process. And I think it's easy for us to forget that. So by having a food that we know that they do enjoy, it actually can help just relieve some of that.

stress and that pressure that the child might be feeling and saying, okay, you you can just help calm them a little bit at meal times knowing that there is that food. So it's being considered for the child without sort of catering to making a second meal. And with that food, I'd still encourage mixing it up. So for example, a food that my daughter really enjoys is like cinnamon apples.

So it's important to me to still have a food like this available for her so that she's still getting some food even if she doesn't try the other nude food. But I wouldn't want to give this every single night of the week as that kind of safe food or preferred food. So one item might be cinnamon apples, I might be avocado, or she really likes cheese bread. These are just some of the examples of some of those kind of.

safer preferred foods. then so it helps, like I said, reduce some of that stress that a child's feeling when they see all these foods that maybe they haven't tried before that are new. And then it also allows them a food that, you again, following that division of responsibility, they can choose how much of that food to have.

it's still kind of aligning with that, it's still having those boundaries, but they can have more of that if they need so that they're just still getting some nutrition and some food even if they're not necessarily eating all of the different things that are being offered.

Sarah Schlichter (20:26.824)
Right, and ideally that preferred food that we have on the table is more of a, and I'm using air quotes here, healthy-ish food. So again, if they're not eating something else, we know they're getting some fulfillment. And I do like to tell parents it doesn't have to go with the meal. Like if you're serving sauteed apples with a bowl of chili, great. At least there is something that they're comfortable with on the table. So you don't have to think too far into that.

Ali (20:51.518)
Exactly, yeah. it's something that I'll talk about when I'm talking about kind of meal prepping, and I know we're not going into that topic today, but that can be something I find really helpful is just having a few, either, whether they're ideas or just meal prepping a few of those sort of, say, foods to have on hand. I find this is really helpful then when you're trying to whip up a dinner and then if you're thinking, gosh, I need to have a, know, preferred food for my child as well. But if you, so I love having some of those cinnamon apples.

already prepared ahead of time or like I said, you know, some avocados and hemp hearts, which first I'm really fortunate that that's one of her foods that she really likes as her sort of safe food. But having those kind of on hand can really help with busy meal times during the week.

Sarah Schlichter (21:33.75)
yeah, hempards are one of our favorites for boosting nutrition. Do you have any other foods that you might recommend to parents who are trying to increase the nutrition in foods? Maybe they are going through selective eating phases, children are eating the same foods over and over, but are there other ways we can be adding nutrition to those meals?

Ali (21:54.306)
Yeah, and I absolutely love, I love finding ways to boost the nutrition in foods. Yes, that's probably the, the dietitian in me. But one thing I'll just say, and then I'll give a few examples is I really encourage you when we are boosting the nutrition in foods is to take a transparent approach with them. So what I mean by this is rather than kind of trying to intentionally sneak things in, just being really open about some of these foods that we're adding in to boost the nutrition. So I'll give some examples, like one that we love.

doing here is having some of these, what we call like little add-ins or mix-ins available. And so you mentioned like the hemp part. So things like hemp parts, chia seeds, ground flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, of course modifying them in any way that you need for your child. We're to be at different feeding abilities. So some people may have to grind up those pumpkin seeds, but having things like these and then having them visible and present. So we have them at the front of the fridge. And then if we're having breakfast, we can easily set up like a little oatmeal bar.

and it's just having the options for my child to scoop out, know, if she wants to add some hemp parts or add some flax seeds to her oatmeal, she can take a scoop and add those in. So that's one that I love, having those kinds of easy mix-ins, like present and visible, not tucked away at the back of the cupboard where we never see them. And then they can be added into oatmeal, mixed into yogurt, added into smoothies.

I mean, we sprinkle them on so many things throughout the day. It's almost just like second nature. They're out, they're at the meals and we can kind of sprinkle them on top. So that's one of our favorites. I think another great one is things like lentils and beans. I know I found these actually a bit tricky at times for, and you everyone's going to be different. These are really easy foods for some people to cook with. And I know for us, just...

Yeah, it was a bit challenging at times, but these are really great ones that actually can be pretty versatile and really boost the nutrition, you the great for the fiber and protein and iron. So mixing some lentils into like pasta sauces is a great option. Adding, you know, adding beans to a stir fry or like doing like a chili and mixing kind of half meat and half beans. I think those are some really great and easy ideas to add in lentils and beans.

Ali (24:09.294)
Another example, of course, we always love adding veggies. So this can be, we really like making like spinach savory waffles is one of our favorite or adding a handful of spinach to a smoothie. And this is what I mentioned about why we want to be really transparent. So rather than trying to sneak in spinach or veggies or the lentils into a pasta sauce, letting our child openly see us doing that, letting them know, hey, we're having a lentil tomato pasta sauce for dinner tonight.

or where, you want to come help me add some spinach to your smoothie this morning? And just being totally neutral about it, but it's still just being really open and transparent rather than trying to be sneaky about it. And this can also be just a fun way to refer to the food. Like, do you want to add the green spinach and make the super hulk smoothie today?

which of course, know, kids always love when we sort of make fun names with things. So those are some of our favorites that we love adding in those mix-ins, those little lentils and beans, and then adding veggies into, yeah, like I said, smoothies, waffles. There's lots of different opportunities for just blending some of those different vegetables into foods.

Sarah Schlichter (25:16.482)
Yes, and the whole hiding things in food. And again, I think this goes back to as parents, we're trying, we want the best for our kids. We just want them to get all the nutrition they need. So the intention is there. But I like to tell parents too, if we go back to like the short term and the long term, in the short term, your kids don't know there's beans in it and they love it and you feel good about yourself. But in the long term, when they figure out, there's beans in there and mom didn't tell me, is that...

bad? Why is she sneaking them in? I feel like it raises more questions and if our goal is to raise eaters who enjoy food and have a positive relationship with it, again that's kind of another thing I like to tell parents. I mean if you're scared they're not going to try it because you're adding it, try to involve them in the process and make it fun or do a taste comparison. You know there's a lot we can do with it.

But I agree, think being upfront and trying to involve them and making it fun is paramount when you're putting those nutrient boosters in.

Ali (26:15.294)
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. And again, it's one of those things as a parent, like I get it. So it's so nuanced and it's tricky at times. thinking with that long term goal in mind, you know, you're absolutely right. Just then our child, when they do kind of catch on and they likely will, they're just going to be wondering, why did they need to be snuck in? Is there something wrong with this food? Should I not like it? So we just want to support that long term goal in mind.

Sarah Schlichter (26:42.88)
Mm-hmm. So we've talked a little bit about making the experience more positive, making the meal time, sitting down together. We've talked about setting some boundaries and you deciding what's served, but also making sure there is a safe or preferred food on the table. Let's play it out and say, parents say, I've tried all that. My kids still didn't eat anything.

How do we avoid being a second order cook to all of these situations? Maybe again, we're worried you're gonna be hungry later. How do you handle those situations? Or do you have advice for parents keeping that long-term goal in mind, but challenge through the night of kids not eating dinner again?

Ali (27:27.374)
Yeah, I think there's a few different kind of considerations with that and certainly if you know if it gets to a point where you're really concerned and your child's intake is getting really limited then certainly you know do speak to your child's health care provider and it can be helpful to get some additional just another person's you know view on your individual situation. We're of course talking generally about it but you know if there is concern definitely speak to a health care provider.

But in terms of, yeah, generally speaking, when it's like another meal time and dinner is still, you know, not not eaten and we're just starting to kind of have some some stress and anxiety with that. So I would still still absolutely do highlight that division of responsibility and then starting to look at ways of how can we encourage our kids to try foods like away from the table and just support that exposure to foods away from the table. So often kind of we'll start

with that as another kind of option to look at. And then I'll give a few examples of that. But one other thing too is also just looking at, know, so say our child has dinner and then it's like 15 minutes afterwards and they're saying they're hungry already. And I think we've all gone through this one. I think it's important to look at our child's situation. Like what if they actually did have like a really, really active day to day? What if they, you know, are playing

of sports or whatever it might be and maybe like they're just their needs have gone up that particular day so and we we've offered a variety of foods and maybe they did have quite a few foods and they're still hungry. I think it's always important to still you know yes we have these guidelines and these boundaries but we still want to you know look at our our child and the

individual kind of unique situation that's going on and see, yeah, maybe a snack is supportive, maybe a bedtime snack is going to be really helpful for our child. So I just like to kind of always have that little input in there that I think it's important to also trust our parental gut and instinct sometimes with that. And then just the piece about supporting kids with food away from the table, I think can also be really helpful.

Ali (29:39.306)
If meal times are really stressful, what can we do in terms of supporting or helping get our kid involved in the kitchen, joining us at the grocery store with some of that input around what we're having that week, just getting that exposure to foods that isn't always at the dinner table. And then one thing I don't think I mentioned earlier, but I've found just so, so helpful with a lot of families I work with and I know for us here too, is serving meals family style.

So rather than like pre-plating a meal for a child, having the food, so family style in different bowls on the table, visible for everybody, the bowls get kind of passed around. And this can be so helpful for toddlers to increase their exposure to the food. They're seeing them on the table, even if they don't eat all the foods or try anything from all of the bowls, just seeing that and passing it around is still supporting with that exposure. And they're seeing other people at the table role modeling eating that food.

And it also can help reduce food waste and it gives the option for a child to say, you know, do you want the big scoop or the little scoop of that food? And then they can, you know, have some input there. So I find family style can be a really helpful strategy as well for helping kids with those meal times at the table.

Sarah Schlichter (30:54.766)
Right, right. And as they get older, you're building fine motor skills, right? And teaching them, okay, this is the big spoon to serve on my little plate. And I do think involving them anyway is always a good thing. It sounds like a lot of what you're saying. I like differentiating it at the table, away from the table. It sounds like a lot can be thought of ahead of time. you know, putting all of this pressure on yourself just at the dinner time.

Okay, my kids have to eat, but rather thinking of it, okay, maybe I'll take them to the grocery store and have them pick out things for the week. One thing we started doing last week was, you know, they get home from school, they're hungry, they want a snack. It was turning out to be a little stressful for me as a mom. I want a snack. What am I going to have today? So at the beginning of the week, I asked them, all right, let's list three snacks that we can rotate this week after school. You write them down and when you get home,

we'll have one of those offerings. So again, involving them, but thinking of it before we get to that situation and having them think of it ahead of time can be helpful too.

Ali (32:00.908)
Yeah, absolutely. I love that we do something with breakfast because breakfast we're becoming really challenging here. And so we kind of came up with some ideas within about five that, you know, were reasonable for making during busy mornings during the week and then had my toddler have some input and we have a little breakfast visual that we have go up. And so we know, you okay, Monday, you you said that you were going to have oatmeal. So we'll have oatmeal for breakfast on Monday. And she had some input on it and can see it visually for the week. So yeah, I love

you're saying about just having wrote coming up with the ideas for three snacks that can be rotated providing that opportunity for kids to have some input.

Sarah Schlichter (32:40.13)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, when you really think about it, kids are very nuanced and parenting is very hard and every day is different, but they like predictability, right? They need those boundaries. It's our responsibility to provide them, give them some ideas of what to expect. And then if you're going through the routine, it seems like their behavior is a little easier at times when they, when it's not, you know, a curve ball that we're throwing at them.

Ali (33:07.746)
Yeah, absolutely. That routine is so, supportive, yeah, for kids and having those boundaries. Yeah, I agree.

Sarah Schlichter (33:13.436)
Yeah, do you have any favorite kitchen tools or gadgets that you use for making mealtimes easier or cutting things or anything like that?

Ali (33:21.646)
Yeah, such a great question. So I'm not a huge like kitchen gadget person. I feel like I need to find, you know, a few more that probably would be really helpful. But a few that we do use and have that I found really helpful one is a spiralizer. So just it can make veggies so fun. So we can spiralize the zucchini and it just puts you know, in fun shape. So that's been one that's

been a hit here and makes meals a bit more exciting. And then one that I never in a million years thought I would like, but I really do, is something as simple as sandwich cutters. And I was like, I'm not going to be that person to do all the sandwich cutters. And you know, here I am. We love them. They're fun. They're easy to use. And they just make

lunches so for some reason so much more fun for my child. So we've got a dinosaur shape cutter for sandwiches and we've got a little Mickey Mouse. So those are ones that just they're yeah they've been easy to use but they've been a lot of fun for for helping with meals. And then one more that's not necessarily like a gadget but I just find really helpful is having like a really good like lunch box like having a good bento box.

something to send those school lunches with some of the different compartments. I found this has been such a game changer for my child's meals. So not necessarily a gadget, but certainly something that has been really helpful for school lunches. and kitchen shears. Having some food grade kitchen shears for cutting up pasta noodles and things like that is another one I love.

Sarah Schlichter (34:58.308)
Have you ever used like the crinkle cutters? You can make like sweet potato fries or you know make them like a little fun shit. You can do it with apples really any fruit too.

Ali (35:08.568)
Yeah, I love that and I've seen them but we don't have one. No. Do you use one of those?

Sarah Schlichter (35:13.878)
I do, but you know what, it's not something I use often, but it's in the drawer. It's one of the, if I need to bring out some secret weapons, let's let them cut the shades. Yeah. It's funny that you, it's funny that you mentioned the lunchbox and the bento boxes because you're right. Those have totally taken off and I do feel like they're super kid friendly. There's so many options out there.

Ali (35:17.878)
Yeah.

Totally, yeah. Yeah, I definitely heard it.

Sarah Schlichter (35:36.642)
And then I think back to when I was a kid and when I was in high school and I just had a brown paper bag lunch every day and it was so different.

Ali (35:42.35)
I know, so different. Things have certainly changed. Yes, it is like a whole whole industry now with all of the different bento boxes. I even just did like a bento box workshop for kids a few weeks ago. Yeah, building out a little balanced lunch with a bento box. So they're just they're so popular right now, but they're really fun. And I think they're really supportive for for

Sarah Schlichter (35:47.139)
Times have changed.

Sarah Schlichter (35:58.404)
Ali (36:08.462)
kids with the different compartments and how to kind of build it out. my toddler loves contributing to figure out, what's going to go in the bento box in this compartment today? So yeah, they're a lot of fun.

Sarah Schlichter (36:18.038)
It is, you know, imagine being three, four, five and opening your surprise every day to see like what colors and what foods are in there. So yeah, genius invention.

Ali (36:25.966)
Yeah, exactly. Yep, it is.

Sarah Schlichter (36:31.308)
Okay, I'm just looking over the questions. Is there anything else that we haven't touched on that you want to talk more about or share before we kind of close out?

Ali (36:41.366)
No, I think, yeah, we covered so many different things. Maybe I'll just highlight that, again, we're all on our unique feeding journeys with our kids. And as parents, there's a lot of pressure, I feel like, coming at us from so many different areas. So just having grace with ourselves and patience and knowing your child's learning, but we're learning too along with them. And so we're making our way through it. And then know that there is support out there for you too if you do need. But parents, you're doing a great job.

Sarah Schlichter (36:44.162)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Schlichter (37:11.2)
Yeah, you don't have to be perfect. That doesn't exist. We're all learning every day, myself included, and my oldest is almost seven, and we're still, we're learning every day. Well, Ali, thank you so much for your time. Can you tell everyone how they can find you, follow you, and work with you if they're interested in learning more?

Ali (37:21.132)
Yeah, exactly.

Ali (37:32.372)
Absolutely. So you can check me out my website. So that's at www.thetoddlerkitchen.com. And you can also follow along on Instagram and that's at the.toddler.kitchen and also on Pinterest at The Toddler Kitchen. So yes, feel free to check me out there, say hello. I've got lots of recipes and positive feeding support tips and tricks and lots of fun things.

Sarah Schlichter (37:57.698)
That sounds great and all of that will be in the show notes for all the followers. So we'll have to get you on soon. Thank you so much for your time.

Ali (38:05.57)
Great, thank you so much, Sarah.