Better Me with BodyByBree
Better Me with BodyByBree
11 Tips to Help Parents of Picky Eaters with Jennifer Anderson
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Jennifer Anderson is a registered dietitian and has a masters of science in public health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. In 2017, she founded Kids Eat in Color®, a resource that helps children and families have better nutrition and mental health. Prior to starting Kids Eat in Color® she coordinated youth nutrition programs at a food bank, performed research in inner-city food deserts, and consulted for the USDA national office SNAP-Ed program. Her academic background is in public health nutrition, cultural anthropology, and economics.
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Are you looking for a space where you will learn to improve your mental strength, emotional health, and heal your insecurities from the inside out? Take the first step to living a more meaningful life with a better meeting with 253. I'm your host, Free. I'm a certified personal trainer, entrepreneur, and mother of three. I've helped empower thousands of women to take action through fitness, nutrition, meditation, personal development, and aligning thoughts with action. This podcast is for those who are ready to feel inspired and motivated to live a more purposeful life. Let's grow together. If you have a picky eater, you know the struggle and anxiety that goes with trying to feed your child and make sure that they're getting healthy nutrients into their body. Well, today I have Jennifer Anderson, who is a registered dietitian and has a Master's of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. In 2017, she founded Kids in Color, a resource to help children and families have better nutrition and mental health. And prior to starting Kids Eat in Color, she coordinated youth nutrition programs at a food bank and she performed research in inner city food deserts and consulted for the USDA National Office Education Program. Her academic background is in public health, nutrition, cultural anthropology, and economics. She also has 1.8 million followers on her Instagram, Kids Eat in Color. And I'm honored that she's on the podcast to help our parents of picky eaters. So let's get started. Hi, Jennifer. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited you're here. Hi, thank you so much for having me. I love what you do. I love your mission. I love that you help parents feel more confident feeding their children more nutritious foods. And I'm just so honored that you're here to help my listeners in case they haven't ever heard of you and what you do. So, can you explain what your business, Kids Eat in Color, is and kind of talk about your team of experts that you have?
SPEAKER_01Sure, I would love to. So, Kids Eat in Color is an expert-backed resource for families seeking strategies for child nutrition and feeding. If you have a picky eater, if you are wondering what to feed your child or your baby, if you are having trouble just getting meals on the table, we are here for you. And I love our team so much. Um, we have a bunch of dietitians, we have a psychologist, a pediatrician, occupational therapist, the whole thing. And so we bring that to parents um in a way that is unique and so helpful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was actually shocked when I went to your website and I saw how many experts you really have. So I'm like, when we're talking about 11 expert tips, they are really expert tips. These people are professionals, you know, like they know what they're talking about. And that really stood out to me. I really loved that about your business.
SPEAKER_01Well, thank you.
SPEAKER_00So, what would you say your mission and purpose is of Kids Eat in Color?
SPEAKER_01We really want to help parents feed their kids better, not just physically, um, but also mentally. We want to empower parents to help their children have a good relationship with food. And we want to do so in a way that protects parents' mental health.
SPEAKER_00I love that. It can definitely cause a lot of anxiety for the parents. Yeah, for sure. I literally asked my brother, what's the hardest part of being a parent? And he said, trying to feed my toddler. He's like making sure that he doesn't starve and he's getting nutrients in his body, and every time we eat is a fight, and it's so much energy and it's exhausting. And so I know a lot of people struggle with this. So you're blessing a lot of people's lives. So absolutely. They aren't he is not alone.
SPEAKER_01He is not alone.
SPEAKER_00Yes, even one of my best friends, she's like, I cannot get my kid to eat anything but Nutella and toast. That's it. That's all she eats all day, every day. And my poor child is like malnourished.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh, that's so stressful.
SPEAKER_00It really is. So, what made you want to start kids eating color? Like, what's your story and your background behind it?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Well, you know, I was a dietitian before I had kids, and um, I had my first child, and he fell off the growth chart and um pretty early on. And I was like, Don't you understand that I am a dietitian? No, kids don't care what you are or what you do. Um, but yeah, that really kind of made me re-evaluate child feeding and kind of focus my expertise in that area. And and as, you know, when he was three and off to preschool, I'm making these cute little lunches, and I just remember standing in the kitchen thinking, I I can't be the only parent struggling with this. Um, somebody put a um just put a bug in my ear, you know, you should start an Instagram page. And so I did. I did. I put these cute little lunches. I was a lunch account for a while, and next thing I knew, I was not alone. I turns out no, I'm not the only parent who has trouble beating my kids.
SPEAKER_00Well, and you're being very modest. You have 1.8 million followers on Instagram. Yeah, like like you you're very successful at what you do, and so that's really cool that it started so authentically for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much. I I really think that a lot of parents deserve the credit for kind of coming out and interacting with each other in this community. Um, it's a really positive community where parents can come and they don't feel like they're judged. And I feel like that's such a big part of it, especially in the nutrition and public health world. You know, I came out of public health, that's where my master's that's the area my master's is in. And um, there's so many recommendations, there's so many best practices. And at the end of the day, no one person can do all the best practices, unfortunately. And we end up super stressed as parents.
SPEAKER_00Right. Yeah, that's so true. Well, let's talk about the 11 expert tips you have for parents. And even if they can't do all 11, it's just giving them a little bit of an idea of how to help their kids. And I thought all of these were so good because some of them I was doing wrong and I didn't even know. And I'm like, I don't even have picky kids, but I'm doing this wrong. So it's very eye-opening once you go through this list. So let's kind of talk about the 11 tips that you have for parents of picky eaters. So, number one, you say is start no pressure meals.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So a lot of times when we're worried about our kids, and we should be worried about our kids. I mean, I feel like that's kind of like the job description that you sign up for when you have kids, although you may not realize it, is it's your job to be there and to take care of them. And if they're not eating well, you want them to eat well so bad that you push them to eat well. And what we don't realize is when a child is being pressured, they really start pulling back and they they don't want to eat that food. And if you've ever had a toddler, you know, you're saying you have to eat it, and they're saying, no, I don't. You're saying yes, you do, and they're saying, uh-uh, and I'm gonna scream louder than you've ever heard anybody scream to make it clear that no, I'm not gonna eat that pea or like whatever it is, right? So the the no pressure meal is really the idea that you can leave that up to them. If they don't want to eat the pea, that's okay. And when you say, you know, you can eat it when you're ready, which is number two, and I like to limp these together. When you say you can eat it when you're ready, you're just giving them permission to be in charge of what they choose to eat. This is not only a good thing now, but it is a good thing later. You want, and we all want to be able to be in touch with our gut, to be in touch with um whether we're hungry and full, all these things. And the more we give this to our kids when they're young, when they're one, two, three, four, five, uh, and on, the more we really empower them to be able to listen to their body.
SPEAKER_00I love that because that's really the ultimate goal. Like, how many times have we been told, finish your plate, finish your plate, and you're full? But you're your parents like you need to finish your plate. And I've even like gotten stuck in that where I've caught myself and I'm like, you need to eat all your food before you go to bed. Cause in my mind, I'm thinking, well, they're gonna go to bed hungry, or they're gonna want to snack all night, or they've just played a whole game of baseball. They need nutrients in their body. And so I've done that, but they're telling me, like, well, my stomach is full. Like, so I had to start listening to my own children. And our new thing is if they say, you know, mom, my stomach is saying it's full, then I'm really trying to honor that and say, okay, that's all right. Like, when you if you want to finish it later, you can. Yeah. Because I have definitely done that. I have put pressure on them for sure.
SPEAKER_01Right. I think we all have, even I have. I mean, there's this one time I remember I made this smoothie. And, you know, I have a child who tends to eat not that much. And I was so worried about him on this day. And I was late for work and I had this meeting, and um, you know, I remember looking at him and saying, You have to eat this. And they're like, My voice is raised. And and he's looking at me like, you've never done this. Like, what is your problem? What? And I think he thought it was a little bit entertaining. And so he sits there, he takes one more sip. He's like, It tastes like sand. And I was like, it doesn't taste like sand, you know, eventually goes out the door. So I got one more sip out of that whole charade. And the worst part is, you know, I went back and I drank his because I was like, um, you know, I'm not gonna let it go to waste. And turns out it did taste like sand. It really did. And I was like, wow, all that for one extra sip of the sand smoothie.
SPEAKER_00You're like, dang it, he was right. So I have a question. So here's my problem. So let's say you make a whole meal and you sit it, sit it down in front of them, and they're like, I don't, I'm not hungry. I don't want to eat that. Do you save it? Do you say, like, okay, well, I'll save it for you? Because what I tend to do is say, okay, well, this is dinner, so you can't have anything else. So if you are hungry, then you can eat this dinner later, but you're not gonna snack all night. Like, is that bad? Is that okay? No, that's great.
SPEAKER_01I mean, they're not in, you know, they're not the the captain of the ship here. You're right, you're the parent, you're in charge. Just because they don't have to eat it doesn't mean you're gonna get up and make them another special meal. Uh they're they are in charge of whether they're gonna eat something or not, which is great. But um, there's I mean, you can't take care of the family and yourself if you're like taking orders and you know you're this you're a short order.
SPEAKER_00I don't know how can you say no to this like nutritious meal and then go eat chips later, you know? Yeah. That's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_01And and that's fine. It's totally it's it is a best practice for you as a parent to be in charge and to say, okay, I'm gonna decide what I buy, I'm gonna decide what is available. It doesn't mean you never listen to your child, but it just means no, they're not calling the shots, especially if they're two years old, you know. Yeah, like what do they know about nutrition? They just want pasta all the time or you know, whatever their food is that they know of right now. Um so we don't have to give in to kids. We don't have to, we don't have to be involved in that way. Um, but you know, it like okay, you don't have to eat this, but sit here with the family and um, you know, let them get down when it's appropriate for them to get down. But it's perfectly fine and healthy to set those boundaries.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I love that. All right, number three, have open and closed hours for the kitchen. I've never done this, and I think I need to.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think what you're just telling me is that you are doing this. Basically, this just means no, you can't come back in 10 minutes because you didn't like the chicken and rice that I made you, and then say, oh, and I want goldfish. I mean, you can say that, but yeah, it doesn't mean you're gonna get that. So I think um, you know, there's a lot of reasons why there needs to be times when kids are not eating. Um, one of them is just so they know what it feels like to be hungry and full. That's so important. It's okay for a child to have the sensation of hunger in the context of, you know, being offered regular meals and snacks. It's okay for them to experience hunger now and then. Um, because they're not gonna go hungry. You know, if they don't want dinner, that's okay. You're gonna make them a big breakfast in the morning. Or if they don't want snack, that's fine. They have another meal right around the corner. So, um, and we also want to protect their teeth. Like, we do not want kids eating all day long. It's just not it, that is not good for their bodies.
SPEAKER_00Okay, that's good to know. My kids get in the habit of like I'm tucking them in bed and they're like, Can you go get me a snack? And they're like wanting to eat in bed. I'm like, no.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna start being like, Do you see the clock? Eight o'clock, we're done eating. So whatever you want to eat, eat before eight, we're done. Yep. I love that. Okay, number four is sit down to eat.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, it it's so easy to just kind of feed toddlers on the run or to eat in front of a TV. And I'm not saying you're a bad parent if you're doing that. Um, but if you're able to sit down and like look at your food and eat, then you get so much more from that. And of course, I say that having like walked somewhere and drunk like a smoothie on my way, which is something I would never recommend to anybody. Yeah, I'm just gonna be able to do that. Um, or like eating in front of my desk. But but the reality is the more we can help kids to sit down, pay attention to their food, am I hungry? Am I full? Do I like what I'm eating? Do I am I looking at this new food that's available on the table? These are all really good things that can help piggy eating, they can help your connection with other people, they can help your relationship to the food you're eating. There's so many benefits that come from sitting down and focusing on your food.
SPEAKER_00Well, and I even like teach my clients to do this. Like I'm like, you have to sit down and be mindful when you're eating, you know. So yeah, and it is hard though. Like my little toddler, she'd want to take a bite and then run a lap around the house and then take another bite and run a lap around. And I'm like, okay, no, we're not doing this. Yeah. So when I finally had, I'm like, okay, meal times, we are going to sit down as a family. We're gonna have a discussion, we're gonna talk, you're gonna learn how to sit here and be present. And it was complete madness for the first like probably week, but now they're used to it and they're actually pretty good at it now. So it did take practice, but I am glad that we set that boundary.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, any sort of change that you're gonna bring into the child world, uh, it's gonna take some time. It's gonna take an adjustment. And I think sometimes parents think, oh my gosh, my child's unhappy. Um, I went wrong somewhere. Give it two weeks. Um, my uh my team and I were just talking about something in relation to a new mini course that we launched, relating related actually to this, to sitting and being at the meal at the table. And uh we're like talking about like how long should we tell parents to give it uh give it a shot before they decide if it's working or not. And the time that we kind of came to in terms of our recommendation is give it two weeks. Don't just try it for one day and then say, um, it's not working. Give it give it two weeks. And if it's not, if after two weeks you're like, wow, this I hate this. This is not working for me. Then you can say, okay, maybe I'll tweak it, I'll see what I want to keep. But if if you've only given it two days, you're having given your child the amount of time they need to kind of go through all the stages that they need to to go through to realize it's for real. Because you know, they gotta make sure you're serious, they gotta test the boundary a little bit, they gotta try to do what they did before, they have to like express their feelings. All these takes days, right? So at the end of two weeks, your child should be like, Oh, okay, this again. I guess I'll go along with it. Right.
SPEAKER_00They realize it's not changing.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, well, the next one kind of goes in, is kind of what we were talking about before, but number five, grown-up set the menu.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, we all know if our toddlers set the menu, chances are it'd be less than balanced. And um, as parents, we can bring some of our nutrition knowledge to the table. Like, oh, hey, it is important to eat fruits and vegetables. Um if that's where if that's something our family can do. Um, so I'm gonna put those out on the table or I'm gonna put them on your plate.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_01And it's maybe something that a child, they wouldn't go rummaging through the refrigerator and take out a cauliflower and say, oh, this is what I want for dinner. I mean, they might now and then, but in general, that's not gonna be their thing, right? So um we have to do that because we're the parents. We know what foods are, we know what's at the grocery store.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Is it bad to say to kids like you have to take just one bite? Like you have to taste it and see if you like it or not, or should we not do that either? Well, here's the thing about one byte rules.
SPEAKER_01In some contexts, they seem to be helpful. I will also add, you know, I've had a student intern scour the research literature looking for information specific to one-byte rules. I've looked, we've talked to professors, all this stuff. Nobody can actually find any research on this concept of a one-byte rule. But it's something that's kind of developed by parents over time, and even whole cultures have this culture of trying things. For example, you know, in in my family, we've kind of, and I have a selective eater as well. In my family, we kind of come to this place where, you know, trying something isn't a thing. The kids know they don't have to. They know that I'm not gonna pressure them, they understand what's going on. And so I can say, I'd be like, hey, you gotta try this. It's so good. I can say that. I would also say that to a friend, right? Um, and they and then they might try it. It's not because I'm telling them to, it's because I've kind of set up this culture. If you have a rule, you have to try this food. It might work for your family. But I would say for most families who might be interested in this podcast episode, uh, they're gonna be like, something's not working in my house. And this one bite rule is what I think is the answer to end my stress. And I will tell you in that case, it's probably not the answer. It really truly is probably not the answer because you you think that you're trying to help your kid get used to a food, but you're also having to overcome the resistance to the food. So if you really want your kid to learn to like something, it's much better, um, especially if there's any sort of picky eating or resistance or stress at home, it's much better to be like, hey, oh, that's fine. You don't have to eat the salad. In fact, I'm not even gonna put some on your plate. I'm just gonna eat it myself. Um, in that case, I have seen more children try more foods when you don't give it to them, but you give it to everybody else because they want to be a part of it. They're like, oh my gosh, everybody else is eating it. I want to be a part of that. And then they get the win. They're like, oh my gosh, I tried it myself.
SPEAKER_00And I liked it. So there. It is funny because I still remember being like six and my mom making me eat salmon. I still hate salmon. Like I never liked it. And it's, and for some reason, she's like, you have to eat the salmon. And I'm like, that is like my food I hate is seafood. And so it's just, I think, too, like giving kids permission to have foods they just don't like because there's foods you don't like, right? Like, I do exactly I do really like that for sure. Okay, number six, um, add some fun with food activities.
SPEAKER_01We're talking about kids here, right? Kids learn best when they're playing, kids learn best when they're having fun. Stress goes down when everybody's having fun. So if we can add a little bit of fun into the day, um, into a meal, it just can change the whole tone, especially if you are having a lot of stress and if you do have a picky eater. We go into this really far in depth in our picky eating course. And what parents tell us is the activities can are the things that really change things around for them. Because um, and this can be kind of like a more advanced thing for more extreme picky eating, which is where these parents are coming from. But You know, we tend to think, oh, I'll just make them do it, or I'll make them sit at the table, or make, you know, all these things that you're putting, all these expectations on the child. And all your kid really wants to do is get down and go play. So if you bring a little bit of fun to the table and you hold up a broccoli and you sing into it like a microphone, and everybody laughs, next thing you know, you had a good experience with a food they won't eat yet. And that really can change the trajectory of eating because now they've had the positive experience, which is exactly what you want.
SPEAKER_00I love that. I would have never thought about that, but it makes so much sense to just make it a positive experience.
SPEAKER_01And I have to give my credit, my husband, credit for the broccoli microphone.
SPEAKER_00He came up with that one. And I was thinking, what would like a fun activity around food be? I'm like, okay, just being silly. Like just being silly.
SPEAKER_01Doesn't have to be fancy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I love that. Number seven is keep serving it. This one I have tried with my kids and it did work. Like I just kept giving them the green beans every single time, you know, we had green beans. I would just put it on their plate and eventually they started eating it, and now they actually love green beans. So that one actually exposure is powerful.
SPEAKER_01Um, and you know, sometimes it takes a while. I mean, my my son was exposed to tomatoes probably like 300 times, and it wasn't until he was three and a half that he picked up a tomato and ate it and was like, oh yeah, many ate the whole bowl of tomatoes. Um, you know, we never know, especially when we're dealing with picky eating, there's a lot of causes of picky eating. And so if you kind of go under the surface of picky eating, you don't know what your child is having to overcome. So the more you expose them to the food, the more they see it, the more it becomes familiar, the more they will be likely to try that food when their body is ready. Um, and you know what? It doesn't always have to go on their plate. You don't have to be wasting tons of food. Um, an exposure could be something as small as a pee, not like a cup of peas, but just like one pee that can be an exposure. Awesome.
SPEAKER_00All right, number eight is teach kids what foods do in their bodies. I'm actually very passionate about this, um, being a trainer. I love teaching my kids this. Like I love being like carrots help you. I say carrots help you see in the dark, you know, because it helps with your eyes, or like this meat is gonna help your muscles get super strong because it's protein, and then you can like wrestle with your friends and win. And, you know, and so every time my little boy eats any type of protein, he's like, Mom, I'm gonna beat dad, like I'm getting strong, you know, so it's really fun to teach them what these foods do in their bodies. I love this one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and you know, there's so many messages out there that we need to categorize foods as healthy or unhealthy. But the thing is, is like, what does that teach them? It doesn't teach them anything. It's just like you kind of, first of all, who knows what's healthy for me versus healthy for you? I'm allergic to salmon. So if you made me eat that, that would be very unhealthy. Um, but like it's touted as like one of the healthiest foods. Um and so when we teach kids that, we're giving them simplistic answers that they're gonna outgrow very quickly. But when we teach kids that different food different foods do different things in their bodies, we really change the conversation with them. And suddenly they understand, oh, different things do different things in my body. And I'm gonna build on that. And the older I get, the more um information I can lay on that foundation. And that can help kids determine their nutrition choices if they choose. Um, and certainly it can also help them be less judgmental about other people's choices as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And is it okay? Like for me, some like if Olivia wants to eat, you know, like for example, yesterday she's like had two cookies and then she wanted to eat a rice krispie treat and then asked for an ice cream cone. And so I'm like, okay, how does that make your body feel? Like, do you think you're gonna get a stomachache or a headache from all that sugar? You know, like I'm trying, I try to teach them how they'll feel if they eat, you know, all that sugar. Do you think that's okay to do?
SPEAKER_01Well, I think like every parent is gonna decide what's okay for them, first of all. I'm not, I'm definitely not the uh the final word on what's okay and what's not. Um what I love that you're kind of thinking about like their lived experience. So, like, what do they experience as too much, right? And I love to let my kids kind of figure that out on their own. So I remember the first time my son ate just like an astronomical amount of candy for Halloween. And um, he sat on the floor and he said, I ate too much candy. He came up with that. I didn't have to say it. You know what? I did not have to say it. It was so apparent to him that the candy had given him the stomachache. And because he came up with it on his own, um, it was his own truth that he had just kind of stumbled on. So I love that I love when kids can kind of experience that sort of thing. And now that he has had that experience, I might also say something like, um, yeah, well, what do you think it would happen if you just ate ice cream all day? Or, you know, I've had to set some boundaries around uh my son eating ice cream in the morning. Sometimes he'll get up really early because he's a super early riser and he'll go get something to eat because he also has to eat right away. And uh, you know, now and that's been ice cream. You know, so I get I'll get upset about that because I'm like, okay, you cannot start your day with ice cream because you know that makes you feel grumpy. And I don't want everybody else in the house to have to deal with you while you're grumpy. So um I think sometimes we can set those connections with kids and sometimes they can figure it out on their own. But as parents, we can absolutely say, no. We're the answer is just no. We don't have to explain ourselves, first of all. And second of all, um we can be as strict as we want around our boundary. And we could say, we already had ice cream, and that's and you know, that's all that's available for now. And if you're still hungry, we have more blueberries on the table. And that's that.
SPEAKER_00Love it. I love that. It's always hard to know what's like the exact best thing to say. So I like that you give more flexibility and freedom. Oh, for sure. Um okay, number nine is make desserts less exciting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so a dessert is already exciting, it tastes delicious. This is not lost on children. They know. In fact, they probably enjoy it way more than we do because they're not worrying about what happened at work or what happened uh, you know, on the news or or anything else. They can just look at their ice cream and enjoy it. So we don't need to add to that. We don't need to be like, oh my gosh, you did this good thing. Now I'm gonna give you ice cream. We don't need to hype it up. We don't need to use it as a reward. Every time we do any of those things, every time we say, if if you eat your broccoli, I'm gonna give you ice cream. Every time we do anything like that, we're saying broccoli is not good and ice cream is good. And that's really not the message we want to be sending. We also want our kids to think broccoli is good, and they already know ice cream is good. So we don't want to like mix that up even further. So I um I just like to encourage parents to just call it what it is. It's ice cream, don't use it as a reward. Just let it be what it is, enjoy it together, enjoy it as a family, and all those things together really help a child become much more balanced in the way they're eating. It doesn't mean they're gonna stop wanting ice cream. Um, I mean, maybe it will for some kids, but certainly not for mine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but what we make our mentality around the dessert kind of like then when you grow up, that's what clients struggle with. Is they're like, when I had a hard day, I want ice cream, or when I want to reward myself, I want ice cream because that's what we've been trained. So it is more than just as a child, right?
SPEAKER_01I think it's so tricky because um, you know, uh it's so interesting to me because I don't really like cake that much. Um it's just I would much rather eat ice cream any day of the week. And and I have gone to more child birthday parties where I just ate the cake because I felt like I had to, because it was like a treat, right? I don't even like it. Like I don't even like the cake, but here I am be just because of how I've been trained my whole life. So I I love to be able to give kids the opportunity to figure out what they like for themselves. Maybe they don't like cake, so maybe they don't eat it at the birthday party, or maybe they do, and they you know, go back and ask for a second piece, but at least that's their choice to decide what they like and what they don't like.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm. Definitely. Okay, number 10, model the behavior you want to see.
SPEAKER_01Modeling is easy to talk about, and it's kind of always thrown in there, and we think that it's we always forget about it. But what you do is gonna be a thousand times more effective than what you say. And so parents are like, what do I what do I say about food? What do I say to make them eat it? You know, and I think you can teach your child everything they need to know about food without saying anything, truly. Because I love that what you have in your house, what you eat in front of them, and what you put together for meals are kind of programming into them what normal is in terms of food. And so even if you don't say anything at all to them over the course of their childhood about food, you will have been putting tons and tons and tons of information into their system about what you want food to look like in their life. And when you do that, it's so powerful.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, my mom was really good at that. She just was very healthy. Like she always had like bird seed, we called it bird seed oatmeal, but it was like flaxseed oatmeal. You know, she always had her like protein shakes, she always was eating, you know, healthy vegetables. She just was a very healthy person and she bought only healthy food for us. And so now that I've I remember I went to college and I was like so excited to buy Lucky Charms because we just didn't have that stuff in my house ever. And I bought it and I ate it and I felt like crap. And I was like, oh no, I actually don't love Lucky Charms. And then it just sat there, like in my and I went back to my oatmeal because that's what I was used to growing up. And so I definitely believe in that. Like I'm hoping that my healthy habits will rub off on my children because I try to have them eat vegetables with every meal because I want to eat vegetables with every meal, you know. Like hopefully what they see, you know, it did rub off on me, and all of my siblings are very healthy, like they all eat super healthy, and I think it's all started with my mom because that's just so all we saw.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So I love that. Okay, the last one use expert tools for extremely picky eaters.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. If you have a child who is extremely picky, you probably already know it. But I a lot of parents come to us saying, like, well, is it is it picky eating or is it something more? Or, you know, there's no real definition of picky eating, actually. But there are some more extreme forms of feeding difficulties. And so if a parent is concerned about this, we actually have a free picky eating screen on our website that parents can um find via the homepage. Um, and this basically just says, okay, tell us what's going on, and then we'll tell you if this is just kind of typical of what we see of most kids, or if this is something more and if you need more help. Because if you have a child that is more extreme when it comes to picky eating, you could do all the exposure modeling, you do so many of these things that you want, and it's probably not gonna be enough because um your child has more significant challenges to overcome. And that's that's where our picky course comes in, picky eating course comes in, because um you're not just gonna get all the information that you need by like reading articles on our website or following somebody on social media, you're actually gonna need something systematic that's gonna give you the advanced techniques that you need. Um and if you are concerned that your child has that, then don't like wait, you know. Yeah, if you as long as you're like ready to take action now, if you're like, well, I don't know, like my life is too complicated and I can't add in another thing, okay, that's that's totally different. But if you're like, hey, I really want to help my child and I have some energy to put behind this, um, then go ahead, like take a screener, find a resource. Um, and in some cases, some families, instead of like home education, they decide to go and like see a specialist, but that's not always accessible for all families. So that's why we have a course on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and sometimes it's like a textural thing, or you know, maybe they have um autism, or like it could be something like you said, something way deeper. So I love that you have courses on that. I know you have a few courses that parents can purchase. So where can my followers find you and get more information? Sure.
SPEAKER_01So kiteseatingcolor.com is where we have all of our articles on picky eating, feeding kids, all the recipes, all that fun stuff. And then we also have our courses. So the picky eating courses there, as well as our new mini courses for parents, which are super fun. They're mostly designed to help you kind of get on the right track, especially if you're like, well, I don't think I'm an extreme picky eater, but mealtime is like super stressful for me. And that's what those are. You can kind of target the specific thing that you think you're having stress about, or if you're not on the same page with a partner, you can also use them to get on the same page. They're fun, they're novel, they're funny, they're quick, they're really designed with like today's parent in mind. So we're tired. We've just been through a pandemic, and uh, we want to be, you know, entertained uh by reels or TikTok. Um so that's really um what these were designed. Um what we had in mind when we designed them.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. I'm so excited. We will have links to their website, um, the kids eat in color Instagram. If you're interested, Jennifer, thank you so much for being on. I'm so grateful. I know you are helping so many moms, and it's just amazing what you're doing. So thank you.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.
SPEAKER_00All right, I'll talk to you later. Bye-bye. Thank you for joining us in today's episode. If you liked the content and want to hear more, remember to hit that subscribe button and write a review. As a small business owner, I appreciate it more than you know. If you are looking for a program to help with self-confidence, to lose weight, get in shape, and work on your mental, physical, and emotional help. Check out my training programs on www.body by Bree.com. My team and I help to hold you accountable through the Body Bible app, where you log in to see all your workouts, custom meal plan made specifically for you and your needs, and communication through the messenger. You are never alone when you're on the Body Bybree training program. Click the link in the show notes to get more information on how to transform your life from the inside out.
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