No thoughts on feeding your family today. Just a hope that your day is peaceful and loving. I’m taking a bit of time this week while my (grown up) kiddos are home to spoil them. When they’re here my house is noisier and messier, but I absolutely love it. I’ll be back at it next […]

Wishing you and your family a day of peace

Last week I shared some of my favorite resources for cooking with kids. This week I have more books about food for you. If you missed my blog last week, you can find it here. Cooking together is a way to expose your child to new ingredients and to build cooking skills like stirring, measuring, […]

More Books about Food for Kids

It is my favorite time of year! The smells associated with the winter holidays–balsam fir trees, spicey gingerbread, the buttery smell of cookies, hot cocoa…….I love it all! You know I’m nuts for a home baked cookie and the more involved the better. There is no recipe too complicated to deter me. Maybe you’re a […]

My favorite smells of the holiday season

A parent asked me this question this week and it got me thinking that maybe other parents wondered this as well. So here goes… When I do a Nutrition Assessment, I gather lots of information about your kiddo: medical & growth history, prescription medications, supplements, family culture, sleep patterns, water intake, body movement, screen time, […]

Q: Karen, why do you include a calorie count on your Nutrition Assessment if you don’t want us to count calories? 

With the upcoming Holidays I thought it was a good time to remind you that the food we share with those we love is about connection.  It matters more that we share enjoyable foods with our family than if the kiddo eats something green.   When I think about people that are important to me and […]

Holiday Connection

I’m a huge fan of check lists and visual schedules for kids. I think it’s the former teacher in me. I’m such a check list dork that I when I make a list I even make that little box before each item just so that I can tick it off! Here are a couple of […]

Visual Helpers

One of the frustrating comments that parents tell me that they hear about their picky eater is “maybe she’ll outgrow it”.  Or worse “her growth is fine, don’t worry so much”.  These comments, although said to reassure a parent, dismiss the reality that selective eating affects more than just the kiddo.  Sometimes parents share with […]

Picky Eating Ripple Effect….

I had a boss who liked to say “Plan Your Work and Work Your Plan“. He’d remind us that we’d likely be more successful if we took the time to figure out what we needed to do rather than winging it. Sometimes I think about this when I make a meal plan for the week. […]

Ideas for Meal Planning with Kids

If you have kids of any age, you know that the most exciting holiday (Halloween) is this week. My kids are grown and gone, but they absolutely loved Halloween. Planning costumes sometimes started well before the weather turned chilly or sometimes were a last minute scramble. Once or twice costumes planned early were scrapped—I hated […]

My kids’ favorite holiday is coming up!

Food Chaining is a strategy for introducing food variety. Kiddos with selective eating are often “stuck” on a particular food and won’t entertain any variation. Your kiddo might like Ritz crackers and reject graham crackers (same crunch, but different shape, different color, different smell, different taste). So how do we gently shift a picky eater […]

When Food Chaining, Go Slow