Melanie Potock

🌽 Before you hand your toddler corn on the cob… try this 20-second
trick to make it safer.👇🏼

Corn on the cob can be tricky for little mouths because those firm, round
kernels can pop off whole and be a choking hazard.

Once your child has the chewing skills to manage corn on the cob,
here’s one simple way I like to modify it:

🌽 Take a small, sharp knife & carefully run it down each row, splitting
the tops of the kernels.

That’s it!

It took me less than 20 seconds for this entire ear of corn, and breaking
open those firm kernels makes them easier for little mouths to manage and may even make them easier to digest.

Of course, the knife work is an adult job. Keep sharp knives completely out
of your child’s reach & always supervise young children while eating.

And remember: teeth alone don’t determine whether a child is ready for a
food. Chewing skills, feeding development & the individual child matter too - corn kernels are the perfect size to plug a toddlers airway.

🌽 SAVE this before your next corn-on-the-cob night & SHARE it with another
parent of a toddler!

🥰 Melanie

Melanie Potock Corn on the Cob • Toddler Feeding • Choking Prevention •
Food Safety • Feeding Tips • Toddler Meals • Pediatric Feeding • Chewing
Skills

🥦 “Sneaking” veggies into your child’s food breaks trust… right? Not
necessarily. 👇🏼

Let’s talk about this, because trust absolutely matters when we’re feeding
kids. ❤️

I would never recommend lying to a child about what they’re eating,
especially if they ask what’s in a food.

BUT… we also don’t announce every.single.ingredient in every recipe we serve.

When you make boxed mac & cheese, you probably don’t say:

“Good news! Tonight’s noodles contain powdered cheese, whey, milkfat, salt
& a few other ingredients!” 😜

It’s simply mac & cheese.

And THIS mac & cheese recipe simply happens to include some very finely
chopped cauliflower.

I like cauliflower here because when it’s cooked until tender & chopped
into teeny-tiny pieces, its color, texture & mild flavor can blend beautifully with the pasta. Spiral pasta works especially well because it grabs onto the cheese sauce AND those little pieces of cauliflower.

✨ Ideally, involve your child in the cooking. Let them see the ingredients,
stir, sprinkle, chop when developmentally appropriate & get curious about how foods come together.

But if tonight you’re simply serving a mac & cheese recipe that happens to
contain cauliflower among its ingredients?

🥳You do not need to make cauliflower the headline.

Serve dinner. Enjoy your family. Let the food be food. ❤️

Because protecting trust doesn’t mean providing an ingredient-by-ingredient
announcement every time we cook.

IMPORTANT: If your child is an extremely anxious eater, has significant
food fears or becomes distressed by changes to familiar foods, please
substitute or add ingredients like this only with guidance from your child’s
feeding therapist.

🥰 Melanie

Melanie Potock Picky Eating • Feeding Therapy • Sneaking Vegetables •
Veggies • Mac and Cheese • Cauliflower • Food Exposure • Anxious Eaters

🥑 That perfectly ripe avocado has a very short window. Here’s how I make the MOST of it with kids before it’s too late.

Avocado is one of my favorite foods for feeding babies AND for helping hesitant eaters explore food.🤔Why? It’s mild, soft, easy to manipulate & incredibly versatile. One avocado can become a completely different food experience depending on how you serve it.

So before yours crosses over from perfect to what happened overnight?! try these:
🥑 CHILL IT
Once your avocado is ripe, move it to the refrigerator. The cold slows things down and gives you more time to use it.
🥑 FREEZE IT
Slice or cube it first. Brush with a little lemon or lime juice to help with browning, freeze & grab a few pieces later for smoothies, sauces or spreads.
🥑 MAKE IT SILKY
Blend it until completely smooth, then try it mixed into chocolate pudding or smoothies, spread on toast or even swapped for mayo on a sandwich.
🥑 CHANGE THE TEXTURE
Already serving guacamole? Stir in a few small chunks of fresh avocado. It’s an easy way to introduce a little texture variation within an already-familiar food.
🥑 PLAY WITH IT
For hesitant eaters, avocado is practically an edible sensory activity. Squish it. Scoop it. Spread it. Mash it. Make fork marks in it. Food exploration counts as exposure, even when no one takes a bite.
✨ BABY BONUS: Chilled avocado slices can feel wonderful on sore teething gums.
And remember, the same food served in different shapes, temperatures & textures gives kids new opportunities to learn about food. 💚

♥️After 25+ years as a pediatric feeding therapist, I’m still finding new ways to make food exploration easier, more playful & less pressured.

🥑🌴 Now I need to know: Does anyone following me actually have an avocado tree?! Because growing my own is still on my wish list.

👋🏼SAVE this for the next time your avocados all decide to ripen on the exact same day. 😂 And SEND it to your avocado-loving friend!

🥰Melanie
Melanie Potock / Picky eating • feeding therapy • starting solids • baby feeding • toddler feeding

Parents of picky eaters sometimes tell me, “We’re not making progress!”🤦🏼‍♀️

Not always, but often...
That’s not the case. ♥️ It’s that progress comes in tiny steps, and THEN, it snowballs.

Learning isn’t a straight line.
Children move forward.
Pause.
Move forward again.
That’s development.
Celebrate every small step.
🥇Because those tiny wins become big victories over time.

🤔❓What questions can I answer? Be sure you’re following me @mymunchbug_melaniepotock to see the replies and tips!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, feeding progress, picky eating, feeding therapy, toddler development, responsive feeding

👋🏼Little kiddos have little hands for snacks & school lunch which means…

😩Children can’t eat what’s trapped inside a package they can’t open.

One of the first things I discovered as a new feeding therapist over 25 years
ago was this:

Those little wrappers may seem easy to us, but for young children they can
require more hand strength, coordination, and time than we realize.

That’s why I created this simple lunchbox hack using @postit tabs!

✔️ Snip the package open at home.
✔️ Fold the opening over.
✔️ Add a Post-it® Repositionable Filing Tab.
✔️ Now your child simply grabs the tab and pulls.

♥️It only takes a few seconds during lunch prep, but it helps children become
more independent and gives them more time to eat instead of wrestling with
their food.

As feeding therapists, we often ask, “What’s getting in the child’s way?”

Sometimes the answer isn’t the food.

It’s the package.

💕 Small changes like this can make lunchtime feel much more successful.

🗣️Comment BOX and I’ll send you a link to fun tools & lunchboxes that are
easy-open!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, lunchbox tips, picky eating, feeding therapy, school lunch,
toddler independence, fine motor skills, back to school lunches, feeding
therapist, lunchbox hacks

♥️Parents often apologize when they meet me, because they are worried that their child’s picky eating is their fault.

It’s not. No need to apologize.
You love your child.
You’re doing your best with the information you have.
That’s all any of us can do.

All you want is a peaceful family mealtime.♥️

3 TIPS:
✨Feeding therapy is customized for your kid! Seek help if you’re stressed about your child’s nutritional health.
✨BOOKS are the next best thing to learn how to raise an adventurous eater.
✨Talk to your pediatrician on how to find help. Schedule a private call and come prepared with your talking points. Sounds intense, I know, but stress that you’re stressed!

🎙️Comment BOOKS if you’re ready for practical, evidence-based strategies you can start using today. Be sure you’re following @mymunchbug_melaniepotock to get the links!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock picky eater help, feeding therapy, family meals, responsive feeding, toddler meals

Maybe Your Kid Doesn’t Hate Lunch... They Might Hate Their Lunchbox.
Sometimes the biggest problem is the lunchbox itself.

A lunchbox that’s hard to open, has too many containers, or a setup that feels overwhelming can make lunchtime much harder than it needs to be.

💜 Comment BOX and I’ll send you my favorite lunchboxes, containers, and fun tools that make school lunches easier (and a little more exciting) for kids. #amazonaffiliate

🥰Melanie
Melanie Potock, school lunch, lunchbox, picky eating, back to school, feeding therapy, school cafeteria, kids lunches

Can’t get enough family, friends & 🦀🦀🦀🦀 from @thecrabplace ♥️

Have you ever had fresh steamed🦀?

Crab feasts all summer!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, Picky eaters , pediatric feeding therapy , raising adventurous eaters , Maryland Blue Crab