Melanie Potock

In 25+ years as a feeding therapist, I’ve seen how powerful food exposure can be before a child ever takes a bite.
📚 This isn’t just my observation. Research suggests that involving children in selecting and preparing fruits & vegetables may increase their interest in these foods and support more positive eating habits over time. I’ll place the citation in the comments if you’d like to take a closer look.

🛒Here are 3 reasons I encourage parents to bring young children along when shopping for produce:
🥕 1. Familiarity reduces fear
Children are more likely to try foods they’ve seen, touched, smelled, selected, and helped purchase.
🥬 2. It builds food curiosity
The produce section is full of opportunities to explore colors, shapes, textures, and names of foods without any pressure to eat them.
🍓 3. It creates ownership
When children help choose a fruit or vegetable, they’re often more interested in seeing it again at home, helping prepare it, and sometimes even tasting it.

🥦 Coach Mel Tip: Let your child choose one produce item each week.

And remember, you don’t have to buy the whole thing! Ask them to pick a single broccoli floret, one mushroom, one kiwi, or a few green beans. Most produce is sold by weight, making this an inexpensive way to build food curiosity without wasting food.
❌The goal isn’t to get them to eat it.
❤️The goal is to help them become comfortable around it.

Did this surprise you? Save this for your next grocery trip & share it with a parent who need motivation to take their child shopping.

✨ Thank you for following me for weekly feeding guidance grounded in 25+ years of feeding therapy, helping parents and therapists help kids find joy in food.
🥰Coach Mel

Melanie Potock
grocery shopping with toddlers / picky eating / adventurous eaters / toddler nutrition / fruits & vegetables / feeding development / responsive feeding / food exposure / preschoolers / healthy eating habits / grocery store learning / raising adventurous eaters

Hey Gen Z, here I am accidentally crushing it on social media by putting on shoes. 😉

❤️So follow along for 25+ years of experience in feeding therapy, pick eating tips, starting solid strategies and apparently… shoe content now.👟

🥰Melanie

melaniepotock / picky eaters / slp feeding / responsive feeding / kids eat veggies

And that’s exactly how feeding & brain development works. 💚
I see this all the time:

🥒🥕Many toddlers can sort green cucumber sticks from orange carrots long before they can actually SAY “green” or “orange.”

That’s because color learning happens in stages.

✨ First: Matching
Children learn to group identical colors together around 18 months.
✨ Next: Receptive understanding
They can point to a color when asked:
“Can you hand me the orange carrot?”
✨ Later: Expressive naming
While it varies a bit, most children consistently name colors closer to ages 3–4.

I love combining my knowledge as speech language pathologist into feeding therapy! Here are more tips for you:

🤔Toddlers often think the color word IS the object name.
So instead of saying:
❌ “The green pepper”
Try:
✅ “The pepper IS green.”
That tiny wording change helps children understand that color is simply one feature of the food.

Easy ways to build color learning during meals & snack time:
🌈 Sort veggies by color together
🌈 Make a “green foods” or “orange foods” snack plate
🌈 Try Color Days in Therapy Sessions!
Wear green, play with kiwi & cucumbers, draw with green crayons
🌈 Use simple language:
“The carrot is orange.”
“The pea is green.”
Color play with food builds more than vocabulary.
It supports categorization, visual learning, language development & ESPECIALLY comfort exploring foods in playful, pressure-free ways.

Feeding is a developmental process – and cognitive development is a BIG part of it! 💕
🥰 Melanie
Toddler feeding / picky eating / toddler development / vegetables for toddlers / food play / language development / color matching / preschool learning / feeding therapy / responsive feeding / child development / pediatric SLP / learning through play

🥕 Raw veggies can be a great way for toddlers to build chewing skills when served safely.
✨One of my favorite tricks for children between ages 2 and 4 is to cut firm raw vegetables into thin matchsticks instead of serving larger pieces.
Why?
✔️ Easier to bite off manageable pieces
✔️ Easier to chew thoroughly
✔️ Reduces choking risk
✔️ Gives toddlers practice with more advanced textures

Try matchstick-sized:
🥕 Carrots
🥒 Cucumbers (thinly sliced wheels work here too!)
🫑 Bell peppers
🥬 Jicama
🥦 Broccoli stems, outer “skin” removed

⚠️ Important: Raw vegetables are not appropriate for most babies under age 2. Always consider your child’s chewing skills, developmental readiness, and supervise closely during meals.
Feeding is a developmental process. Small changes in how we prepare foods can help children safely build the skills they need to become adventurous eaters.

🥰Melanie

✨ Thank you for following me for weekly feeding guidance grounded in 25+ years of feeding therapy, helping parents and therapists help kids find joy in food.

Starting solids / toddler feeding / chewing skills / choking prevention / toddler snacks / feeding therapy / picky eating / baby led weaning / child development / healthy eating habits / responsive feeding / family meals / pediatric feeding specialist / oral motor development / toddler nutrition

🍦 Sticky fingers don’t always need a wipe!
✨One of my favorite mealtime tricks is bringing back the finger bowl…once a symbol of elegant dining in fancy restaurants and formal dinner parties. Today, it might just be one of the smartest parenting hacks for sticky little hands! 💦

❤️A simple bowl of water at the table gives children a chance to rinse sticky fingers independently after foods like ice cream, watermelon, popsicles, yogurt, sauces, and more.

Why do I love it?
💦 Encourages independence
💦 Reduces battles over messy hands
💦 Keeps sticky fingers off chairs, clothes & furniture
💦 Makes cleanup part of the mealtime routine
💦 Adds a little fun to mealtimes

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the ones worth bringing back. And unlike a stack of wipes, a finger bowl invites children to participate in caring for themselves.
🥰 Melanie

Finger bowl / toddler tips / preschooler tips / self-feeding / mealtime independence / messy play / feeding development / responsive feeding / parenting tips / picky eating support / family meals / Montessori at home / Coach Mel

🥜🌱🍞Once baby safely tolerates an allergen, don’t stop there. There are NINE Top Allergens that need to be offered (in small amounts) each week, and once you’re baby has had several, you can start to combine them, and spread them on a strip of toast for THREE allergens per bite!

starting solids / baby led weaning / allergen introduction / food allergies in babies

🍞Schmear on a strip of wheat toast:
🥜 Peanut butter + full-fat yogurt
🥚 Scrambled egg + with a bit of tahini
🐟 Smashed salmon + scrambled egg

✨The key? Keep it simple, baby-safe & easy to repeat each week so allergens stay in rotation consistently.

🥳Research suggests that regular exposure matters, which is why I encourage families to keep allergens in rotation a few times each week in simple, baby-safe ways. 🥚🥜🐟

✨I FIND A CHART that’s EASY to follow helps the most! Comment HANDOUTS for free guides in both English & Spanish on every stage of your baby’s feeding development, plus my allergen exposure tracking chart to help you stay consistent!

🥰Melanie
✨ Thank you for following me for weekly feeding guidance grounded in 25+ years of feeding therapy, helping parents and therapists help kids find joy in food.

Allergy Awareness Month / peanut introduction / egg introduction / sesame allergy / feeding baby safely / baby nutrition / responsive feeding / pediatric feeding therapist / infant feeding / baby feeding tips / early allergen exposure / feeding development / introducing allergens weekly / picky eating prevention / baby led feeding / family meals / Coach Mel / Melanie Potock

😂 Pediatric feeding therapist humor is oddly specific…But every one of these “movies” has a little truth behind it. 👇🏼

🥪 The Silence of the Hams
I rarely meet a picky eater who happily eats wet sandwich ham. Seriously… does anyone have a picky eater who eats ham? I need to meet your kid.😉

🍿 Nightmare on Snack Street
Snacking all day long can become a nightmare for appetite development. Kids need breaks between eating opportunities to build hunger, curiosity & interest in food.

😵‍💫 The Gagging
A little gagging when babies start solids can actually be protective & helpful. But persistent or excessive gagging deserves a closer look.

🌭 Children of the Corn Dogs
Hot dogs & corn dogs are among the biggest choking risks for children under age 4.

🏎️ The Fast & the Furious: Mealtime Edition
Kids who eat SUPER fast sometimes need support with pacing, regulation & a hungry-not-hangry eating schedule.

🍟 Lord of the Fries
Ever notice that highly anxious eaters can detect the difference between one fry brand & another without ever seeing the packaging? Sensory differences & anxiety are real.

🏹 The Hunger Games: Toddler Edition
The complete opposite of “Fast & Furious.” These are the kids who seem to survive on three crackers, one berry & pure determination. sometimes they need a consistent schedule, another time a full medical workup will reveal reasons why.

Because feeding is developmental, sensory, emotional, motor-based & relational all at once… and sometimes it can be scary. But with the right support, these kids become more adventurous eaters.❤️

🥰Melanie
✨ Thank you for following me for weekly feeding guidance grounded in 25+ years of feeding therapy, helping parents and therapists help kids find joy in food.
Picky eating / ARFID / feeding therapy / responsive feeding / toddler meals / sensory eating / oral motor development / choking prevention / family meals

Picky eating & worrying about your kids nutritional health is so stressful!

Try making these with your kids - and don’t forget the dance party!👯‍♀️

Thank you for dropping a ❤️- I love knowing you’re enjoying my content!
🥰Melanie

✨ AND…Thank you for following me for weekly feeding guidance grounded in 25+ years of feeding therapy, helping parents and therapists help kids find joy in food. melaniepotock /feedingtherapy /slpfeeding / pickyeaters feedinglittles