Guest Speaker: LIVE Q&A with a Pediatric Nutrition Expert - Hilary McMahon RDN, LDN @nutrition.mamma

I'm going to start first of all by introducing Hillary. So Hillary McMahon. Did I say that right?

Oh, McMahon. What?

Yeah, yes, that.

McMahon.

Yes, absolutely. So she is a registered dietitian and she. Well, I should probably tell you how I know her. So I met Hillary in Pennsylvania when I was a dietetic over at Penn State. And she was actually my preceptor and she definitely said many times that I was like the smartest intern she's ever, ever had. I may have made up that last part, but she was absolutely incredible. So actually, Hilary was a mentor to me and I learned a lot from her about how to counsel people and just really learned a lot about lab results and biometric screen screenings. So she was an amazing teacher to me. And then after I graduated the dietetic internship, then I became Hilary's co worker and we worked together for a little while and then we've stayed in touch since. And Hilary has now started her own platform and so she specializes in baby led weaning and toddler nutrition, which is super cool.

You.

And when her daughter was born, she became more aware of the true challenges that moms face when it comes to starting solids, navigating mealtime daily, and providing proper nutrition for their little ones. So this is how then she went on to found First Foods Academy and recently Toddler Foods Academy as a way to help families find success in this area and also to have the proper support that they need to navigate what can be a very challenging journey, I'm sure. So definitely you can follow her over on Instagram. Nutrition Mama. Is that right? Did I say that right?

Yep. Nutrition Mama with two M's. Perfect.

Yes or otherwise@nutrition mama.com. so I'm super excited to have her here. She is such an incredible resource and wealth of knowledge and I am just really thrilled to be be able to share her with you today. So Hillary, are you ready?

I am ready, yes.

Amazing. Perfect.

Thank you for having me. I love that I get to be here and share with you guys.

Yes. I am so glad that you're here and the audience is really excited that you're here. They're like, we have kids. So with that, let's go ahead and tackle the first question that we received, which was I have a five year old son who we talk about nutrition with and he does pretty well eating balanced meals. With our 3 year old daughter, it is more of a challenge to get her to eat a balanced meal. We've tried several different approaches, but are there good visual resources or fun tactics that we can incorporate to help teach about the importance of eating a variety of foods.

Whew.

What do you think?

Yeah. So first of all, I love that you're. I don't know who asked this question, but I love that you're Talking to your 5 year old about nutrition. It's definitely important to talk about it in kind of a light hearted way so you're not again putting too much pressure on the food and the nutrition aspect, but more just talk about it as like a natural part of life and the fact that we eat to nourish our bodies. Right. With a three year old it's a little harder to do that because they don't quite understand those complex concepts yet where a five year old starting to grasp those things. So three year old, you kind of have to be more creative and utilize what I call bringing creativity back to the table. So think of things like how can you make them more excited to be at the table? How can you make them more excited to try things without putting that pressure on them? Right. So it might look like, I don't know, saying something like, hey, my pepper is super crunchy. Is your pepper crunchy? Listen and like make the noise and just kind of really excite them about being there. They may engage with you, they may just look at you like, I don't care. But you have to try different tactics like that to really engage them. Because for most toddlers they'd rather be elsewhere. And I'm sure people that are here can attest to that. Like their toddler would rather be playing with their toys or running around rather than sit at the table. So it can be really hard to create that environment. As far as visual resources, I'm not, I would say like certain books could be helpful with just engaging them and learning about what it looks like to sit at the table, but more so creating the, the, the creativity while you're sitting there together. So talking about the food, playing music that isn't super distracting but kind of like lightens the environment. Creating theme meals, if you're into that sort of thing, you know, if you have time for that sort of thing. But things like that that excite them to be there I think are huge for that age especially.

Yeah, that's great. What's an example of a theme meal? What do you mean by that?

So since it's winter right now, we can go with like snowmen, right? Like maybe you're like, oh, we could have like a snowman or like a cozy dinner. And then if you are into crafts and stuff like that, you could have them make snowmen for like the centerpiece or just something that involves them and gets them excited about wanting to come to the dinner table because they helped create placemats or decorations or anything like that. It can be like a theme meal as far as like a specific cultural type food. Or it could be just. Yeah, like a snowman or Fourth of July, whatever. You know, you can have sort of just a theme around what's happening. Yeah, yeah.

Okay. That's so fun. So remind me how old your daughter is again.

She's two and a half.

Two and a half. So, okay, so now I'm totally picturing like you and the two and a half year old and the dog and everyone just having snowman dinner.

We do a lot of music at the dinner table. So there's a Spotify channel that I love for mealtime called. It's called, I think Calm Kids. And I love that because it's nice and it is calmer music. So it's not like upbeat where she's like doing a ton of dancing and going to cause herself to choke or something. But it just kind of lightens the mood. So we do that a lot. Lately we've been just doing like instrumental Christmas music because that's the season right now. But yeah, it's really helpful to just kind of keep her engaged there. Yeah. Fun.

Well, thank you for answering that. So I'm going to go ahead and just jump into our next question just so that we can cover as many as we can. So the next one is our youngest son is about to turn six months. So with our other two, we did homemade purees to introduce food. He seems more geared to do well with baby LED weaning. But I'm in the position of I don't know what, I don't know what are some things to keep in mind when starting the baby LED weaning and what are some first steps? How do we start? So this sounds like 1000% your jam, so please tell us.

Yes. So and I guess what I can do too, for those of you that are maybe past the baby LED weaning phase or if you haven't started solids yet, I'll kind of give like a brief introduction of what baby LED weaning is. But basically it's bypassing. Parents have to actually spoon feed their babies and allowing babies to self feed. So there's a couple things that have to happen for that to take place. And I should say too that it can be a combination of using purees and finger foods. But it's typically not done with all purees. It's kind of a mixture and then shifting more towards just all your table foods at an earlier age than you would if you didn't do baby led weaning, I should say. But the nice thing is it's less pressure on the parents because you're not having to do all the work so you can actually sit there and eat with your child. So they learn faster from you that way. Because they're watching you model right? At that age, at six months, they're watching literally everything we do because they can't communicate to us yet, right? So they're just watching and absorbing so many things. So they're able to watch us eat with them. They're able to explore this themselves, which is just so. It makes them feel so much more independent and like they're learning and they're capable. So it's really, really fun to be able to do. However, I will say starting or having done purees before, if it can be semi challenging to make the switch. I've worked with several families that have, um, but it can be hard because the mindset is different, right? When we spoon feed purees, a lot of times it's okay, like, let's get the last few little scoops out of here. And like, you're putting it in their mouth versus when we do baby led weaning, you have to kind of shift your mindset a little bit to think more along the lines of, I don't really care how much they eat. I'm just going to put the food here. I'm going to provide them with nourishing options and let them decide how much they eat. So. So it's founded off of the Prince, or there's a theory called the division of responsibility and feeding. And basically what that says is parents or caregivers provide the. They provide the what, the where and the when. Baby is eating and baby decides how much they're eating and if they eat at all. Right? So it can be really challenging to kind of reset our own minds that way, but it allows that division of responsibility to lighten the load on us as parents and provide that independence for little ones. So I think the biggest thing I would say to that question is you have to work on your own mindset there and make sure that you're in the right headspace. Because sometimes we fall back into old habits and we're like, okay, here, eat the little pieces of food even though they're not wanting it. And in addition to that, you want to make sure what you're serving is served safely. So yes, it's 100% safe to serve table foods to six month olds, but you want to make sure that with your. If you were to push your thumb and your index finger together and be able to go like this, you should be able to smash the food. That pressure is about the pressure that an infant's gums can, can create. So you want to be able to make sure they're able to break that food apart safely and that also that they're developmentally and physically ready to start solids too. A lot of times we don't think necessarily about the developmental readiness with purees because we're like, oh, they just can swallow it. But with finger foods, we absolutely 100% want to make sure they are on board, ready to go. Safe sitting, you know, solid sitting and trunk support, good neck and head control. Age. Age should be about six months in the right type of seat, that kind of thing. So there's lots of. I mean, I could go on and on with this question. So I'm not sure exactly if that. I don't know who that mom is, but if she needs more information, if she wants to reach out. I do have a webinar I just hosted did two weeks ago called Navigating Baby LED Weaning. And that kind of goes through some of those like early stage things. So I can always send the replay for whoever would need it.

That'd be great. I'm sure that would be super helpful just to really learn more and dive into that. I just learned a lot. I didn't know a lot of these things, which is. That's great. But I really like that you talked about kind of shifting your mindset too. Because I. In a different realm. I do talk a lot about mindset, but I definitely am familiar with many parents who kind of do the, like, you can't. You have to eat like these bites before you can get up or like. And that kind of approach. Whereas it sounds like with this approach it's completely different and kind of letting the child sort of decide what's appropriate. And I'm sure that's probably really terrifying for parents like, will my child starve? Or.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well. And as you know, Vivian, you know, in our education and you know, we went to school for nutrition, I also have a minor in human development and family science, but nowhere in that education where we taught how to feed a baby. Right.

Yeah.

And like, so even as a dietitian, when I started, like you mentioned, at the Beginning I came into this like, well, I feel like I should know what I'm doing, but I had no idea what the heck I was doing. Right. I just, I had to take a course and then I still sat there and was like, yeah, I have no idea. Like, I have to formulate my own process and what this is going to look like for us. And I was very thankful I had that nutrition background because it can be really hard to figure it out. There's so much information out there. Yeah.

And I'm so glad that you did figure it out. And I'm so glad that you do have resources for parents that are trying to figure this out that, that maybe before they were like, I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know where to go. That now we have amazing dietitians like you doing this very important work. Okay, are you ready for question number four? Is it four?

I'm ready.

Great. Wait. No, it's not. Sorry. It is. Other question. So my 3 year old eats a very limited range of foods. She loves to help me cook and I bought a toddler tower and toddler utensils to encourage this. She's really good at engaging with the different foods, but she doesn't actually eat anything we cook together. I take a very no press approach. Do I just need to give it time or are there other things I can do to encourage her to actually taste the foods we make? Oh, good question.

I love that. Okay. And I will preface this by saying extremely common. Right. The three year old range. I see the pickiness sort of things start to creep in between 12 and 18 months. That's often like one of the hardest times to feed because they can't communicate to us yet what they want and don't want. But then it does start to resurface again if it doesn't last through toddlerhood, depending on what you're doing to improve it, it typically does come back between like three and four. So it's great that this person is engaging with their child in the kitchen and getting them involved. That's huge because somewhere there's little things connecting that like I'm helping make my food. It may not be working yet. Right. But that's a great place to start engaging them in what it takes to make the meal, what's in the meal, so they can see what's going in there and they're not as afraid to eat it. Now, I'm not troubleshooting with this person live right now, obviously, but if this was a Mom I was working with, I would probably look at what else is maybe going on at the table. A lot of times, picky eating or selective choosy types of eating aren't necessarily about the food. Food. Sometimes it is about the food, but sometimes it's also about something else that's going on in the environment. So maybe they don't like their seat, they're still in a high chair, they want to be at the table, they don't like their booster seat, they want to literally face a different side of the table. Like look at the window instead of the wall. You know, something like that. There could be something distracting in the environment. And sometimes with a no pressure approach, there's also like less conversation that way. And so sometimes creating, again, that, as I mentioned with the first question, like creating more excitement and convers so that there's something else happening and the pressure is taken off the food. So it is. The hard thing about these things is it's very trial and error. And that's why I work with a lot of moms, like one on one, to really work through these, because it could be so many different variables. I would say if she's engaging in the kitchen and enjoying that process, to keep doing that for sure and just play around with some other things that might be happening at the table or in that environment that might be just causing her to not want to eat. Or maybe it's too much food. Again, I could keep giving you all kinds of different strategies because there's so many different things that it could be. Yeah. Yeah.

Amazing. So this actually just leads me to a question real quick. And I should know this about you, but with the programs that you offer, do you do individual work, like one to one, or is it more group coaching or what is it like?

Yeah, so my programs, First Foods Academy and Toddler Foods Academy are. There's a course element, but then there's also. I call it like where course meets. Where course meets coaching. So there's the course and then there is a live one on one strategy. Call with me when you enroll and then you get daily support via messaging. I do office hours once a week and there's also a Facebook group. So you get the group aspect through Facebook, kind of like the Body Fit by Amy Communities do. But in addition to that, you can meet moms through the office hours if you're. If you're there with other people, hearing their questions, that kind of thing. So it's kind of a combination, if you will. I do a lot of, you know, messaging Support because it's quick and easy to respond to people and especially with starting solids when things are a little bit more like pertinent. Like I need to know this now. Yeah, the messaging is great for that, so.

Oh, perfect. Well, thanks for sharing that. Yeah, I should know that. But we'll catch up after this. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes. All right, so what about this question? So my almost 3 year old is usually willing to try different foods at dinner time, but he will eat two to three bites of each food and say he's all done. Any tips to encourage him to eat more or this one.

Right. Like this is exactly the same as the other two. A lot of what I already mentioned would help here. Just re engaging in that, you know, curiosity and excitement for the table. Less pressure, less encouraging to eat more bites. Stop saying let's eat more bites. Talk more about the food. You know, I gave the pepper and crunchy example. I'll give another one that I always like to say. But think about like where the food's coming from. So if you're eating potatoes, you could say, say, oh, do you think potatoes grow on a tree or do you think they're on a bush or do you think they're in the ground? You know, you can ask those creative questions and obviously we know the answers most likely, but we can sort of see if our child knows and if they don't, we could say, oh well, like maybe we could look up, look it up when we're done eating and see, you know, kind of create that conversation that again just makes them think more about the food that they're not engaging with because that might naturally create that, you know, that spark of curiosity. Now in this situation too, I should say you say he's three, right?

Three.

Okay, yeah.

Almost three year old. Yes.

Okay, yeah. So another thing to keep in mind is that toddler appetites vary like rapid fire. So you may have, and I'll use my own daughter as an example this weekend on Saturday, she ate a massive, massive breakfast. Like she had as I made overnight oats because those are her favorite. She calls them cold oats. And we had the same exact amount. Like I ate the same amount as her and she also ate a hard boiled egg and then she had fruit. She was just starving. And then her dinner that night, she took two bites of chicken or whatever we were eating just two and that was it. She was done. So even within the same day. Sometimes their appetites vary greatly. Their growth is so different than it is that first year. So I think a lot of times what happens is we're like, oh, my gosh, our babies eat so much food. I don't know where they put it all. They do. So. But that first year of life, growth is so much more rapid as far as weight gain and development. Now, of course, those development things are still happening for toddlers, but it's a little slower, so the appetite changes. So there's also a very strong possibility he just might not need that much right now, and that's okay, too. So putting the food there but not requiring it to be eaten can be really hard on parents, But I think it's helpful just from the low pressure and sometimes makes them eat more. Yeah.

Yeah, that's. That's so great. Yeah, I'm definitely kind of hearing that theme, too, of like, there's food being left or eat more or try the foods. Because it is probably super terrifying to feel like, yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes, too. I don't think I mentioned this, but also, like, literally serve if. Let's just say green beans is the food and that they're not eating. Literally serve one, but one on the plate. It might look ridiculous, but A, you're not wasting food that way. And B, sometimes if they eat one, they might engage with it and be like, oh, can I have a couple more? You know, so sometimes also the volume of food can be overwhelming to them. So if we serve less on the plate, it actually ends up helping them to eat more later on because they'll ask for. For more, so.

Oh, that's a good tip.

I like that. Yeah.

All right, so you ready for the next question?

Go for it.

All right, so when should you start your baby on solids? My baby is five months. His doctor said we could start solids at four months. He tried oatmeal and peas with no problem. Hours after trying sweet potatoes, he vomited for a few hours, took him to the doctor, and they said it wasn't related. Waited three weeks and tried sweet potatoes again. And the same thing. Violently ill for hours. A week later, he had peas again and then threw up a few hours later. I'm not giving him too much, only a tablespoon. At first, he was fine after the pee. What do you think is going on? We do have doctor's appointments scheduled for a few weeks, and we are not giving any solids right now, only breast milk. So this is an interesting question because you kind of mentioned six months, but you also talked a little bit about, like, looking for other signs of readiness. So what do you make of this scenario here?

Yeah, so A couple different things here. First thing I would say is, you know, and I did see this question in the group, so I saw the mom had also asked if it was potentially an F pies reaction. Oh, yes, I can't as a dietitian, I'm like, and I'm not this person's dietitian, so I can't diagnose. I can't say, yes, it's something. No, it's not. Just, you know, ethically, and I'm not their dietitian. But for sure, I would say there's a couple different things that could be first of all, when we start solids. So American Academy of Pediatrics and World Health Organization are now both saying six months is the recommendation for when to start solids. Dietitians support that as well. But I will say that pediatricians, as amazing as of people as they are, I love, I love, love, love our pediatrician, but sometimes their information is a little outdated. So a lot of pediatricians are still utilizing the four to six months recommendation. And I get so many moms telling me, you know, on Instagram, hey, I got the great, the green light to start solid, but I don't want to. Should I do it? Because my pediatrician said so you don't have to. So there's a huge developmental difference between a four month old and a six month old, right? Six month olds are a little bit bigger. They're grasping more things. They can sit up better. Their digestive tract had two extra months of life to develop. So sometimes a small baby that's starting solids at four months, especially if they were born prematurely or anything like that, their digestive tract may not be ready, which can cause some irritation and GI upset. So vomiting would. Would be one of those things. Possibility. The possibility of F pies is also maybe. So for those of you that don't know, F pies is it's food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome. So basically what that means is it's. It's kind of like an alternative reaction like a food allergy, but it's, it's solely gastrointestinal based and it can be very severe. So it's usually vomiting, diarrhea, and sometimes it can be so rapid that it creates severe dehydration and can lead to shock. So it can be very serious. It can't be diagnosed like with a blood test. It's usually through trying the foods. So it can be hard to diagnose. But I would say for this person's safety, because the foods you're mentioning are f pies potential reactants. I would say it probably makes sense to go see an allergist or at least have an appointment scheduled with an allergist so you have someone in your corner to help set up a protocol. Because FPIs does tend to disappear as your child ages if it is that in this situation. So again, it's really hard to say. It could be like just developmentally not ready. It could be f pies. It could have been just, I don't know, something else. It's so hard to say. But six months is my recommendation for when to start solids. A lot of pediatricians will say something different, but that's. That's what I use as my recommendation. Yeah. Does that answer? I think that answers the question. Yeah.

No, I think you did amazing. Yeah, that was perfect. And I'm really glad you brought up the FPIs thing because no lie, I was like, oh, I think that's a typo. So I skipped over it when reading that question. Again, not a pediatric dietitian.

Yeah.

So I'm really glad. And that. That's amazing. I didn't even know that was a thing and that would be really terrifying. I. I'm sure.

Yeah. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for taking the time to answer that. I'm sure that person will greatly appreciate it. Definitely. And question number five. I think I'm not really keeping track of the numbers, but how much food does my one year old need? Is there like a standard? How much? How much?

How much? I know this is one of those things that when I started solids with my daughter, I was like, should I like be measuring? Right. I didn't know. Again, as a dietitian, I had no idea. So here's the thing. It doesn't matter. We don't want to be measuring unless there's a medical reason to know how much food your child's putting in their body. We don't need to worry about how much they should be getting. And again, like I mentioned, with the three year old who takes the two to three bites, a one year old's appetite will start to shift greatly. Right. So they might sometimes eat a ton of food at a meal and sometimes they want like one or two bites and that's okay. So it very much varies. It varies based on their growth spurts. It varies based on just how active they are. If they've had a really active day, they might be more hungry. It matters based on how much milk they're drinking. Sometimes that can impact how much food they get. So we have to be careful about how much milk they're consuming. Again, so many variables. So the biggest or the, you know, the overarching theme there, though, is the volume is not as important as the variety. So the more we can provide that variety. Protein, fiber, carbohydrates, fats. That's what we need to make sure we're doing to make sure that we're at least offering those foods right. And providing a variety so that if they do single out favorites, there's still other things being cycled through. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, that's great. All right. Ready for the next.

Yeah.

All right. So what's the hardest part about what you do? Working with parents is probably a challenging job since there are so many. So many opinions. I just want to say, as a dietitian, it is so hard to be a dietitian in a world where everybody likes to call themselves a nutritionist and everybody likes to just spew out nutrition advice. And I do not doubt that it is the same kind of beast in the pediatric nutrition world. And the opinions and the should dos and should you nots. So what do you have to say about that?

Yeah, no, I. And yeah, you know, just as well as me with our former last job that we both had together. It's hard when you're working with any population because, yes, there's so much information out there. You can find. You can find a resource to support your belief no matter what it is.

100%.

Yeah, you can always find it. And usually, like, I think I've talked with you about this, Vivian, but you read it and you're like, yeah, that makes sense. And then you're like, wait, no, that's. That's not. That's not correct information. Right. So like. Like, they frame it in a way that it does make sense. So that is very challenging. Yes. As far as the opinions, now, I will say, for the most part, the families I work with are pretty on board with listening to what I'm saying. And it's been refreshing compared to being in the adult world because I think, you know, having another bodies, you're in charge of someone else. Right. They're in charge of their kid, and they want what's best for their kid. So they're a little bit more likely to listen than experiment than adults are. So.

Really?

Yes, yes. But what I would actually say is probably the hardest part is also one of my favorite parts of my job, and that's the fact that no. No situation or scenario is the exact same. Like. Like, I could teach math. That's pretty straightforward. Right. But this is as you know, every person's different. So every family I work with has different situations. Mom stays home, mom works, child goes to daycare, child stays home with a babysitter. You know, they have a busy on the go lifestyle. Some people stay home, everybody's different. And not only that, but every child responds to solids and food differently, just like we do as adults. Right. So it's more about like, this is not a one size fits all model. It's not putting people in a box. It's taking these concepts and customizing them to make them fit your lifestyle. And I think not a lot of people talk about that, but it's something that I really strive to do because this can, you know, baby led weaning. And having a toddler who loves mealtime can absolutely fit any family. You don't have to be a good cook. You don't have to be, you know, the best meal planner. You can still go out to eat and make this real, really work with your family. So I think that's the hardest part about my job because I have to do a lot of problem solving and help people work through things. But it's also my favorite part because I can be creative and help people figure out what's going to work. Use that troubleshooting, like all the different scenarios that could be causing a behavior, that kind of thing. So it's hard, but it's fun. So yeah, yeah, it sounds like it.

That's amazing. I'm sure there is. And I think as dietitians we love kind of like putting a puzzle together, but not every puzzle is the same. So almost like, okay, let's gather all the pieces and see what's going on here. But definitely when you have so many factors at play, like little ones and whether the mom is working or not and all of those factors, or dad is maybe the one staying at home, whatever it is, I'm sure that really does kind of change up the landscape and then figuring out how do we make this work. So that's amazing. That's great.

Yeah.

Okay, let me see what else? Ooh, this is a really good question. So my baby is. They're all good, actually. My baby is showing signs of wanting to self feed, but I'm so paranoid about choking if the foods are safe if we're doing this right or. Yes, I'm so paranoid about choking if the foods are safe or if we're doing this right. So any tips on overcoming those fears so that I can move past this and help her succeed?

Yeah, absolutely. And I will preface this too by saying, this was me, right? Like I said before, as a dietitian, I felt like I should know how to feed a baby. Like, I'm a dietitian. People just kind of expected that I was going to know what to do. No, no. So I took a course by another dietitian. I won't use names because it wasn't my favorite, favorite course, but I took a course before I started, actually, when I was working with Vivian. I don't remember if you remember me talking about that, but I took that course. And I remember very specifically closing my laptop and looking at my husband and saying, not once did she say, like, how to calm yourself down, how to handle choking. Right? Like, those are the things that I was the most scared of. So those first few weeks of feeding my daughter and doing baby led weaning, I would literally sit on my hands because I was like, I don't want to lunge at her to make her choke if she starts to gag, because gagging is normal for baby lead weaning. And I was just really uptight all the time. I would, like, snap at my husband and he'd be like, what's wrong? I'm like, we have to feed her in two hours. Like, this is so scary. And it just, it was very uncomfortable. So that. And I know that so many people feel that. And so that's kind of, again, why I created what I have. Because so many people need that support and to know that those feelings need to be validated. Those are okay feelings to have. This is brand new for you, right? When you're starting solids, you've literally been doing breastfeeding or formula feeding since they were born. And you probably at six months, finally feel like, okay, we got this. Like, we're in a rhythm now. We have this, you know, under wraps. And now you throw a whole other milestone in there and it's like, here you go. You know, so it is nerve wracking. And that's okay. As far as tips for how to feel better about those things, I think number one is okaying those feelings. Kind of like we do with toddlers, we want to okay their feelings, right? But okay the fact that we feel that way, like, that's okay. We're allowed to feel that. How can we help ourselves to become more confident? That's the next step. And some of those confidence boosters can come from taking like an online or an in person infant CPR and choking prevention class. I recommend that to all of my starting solids clients and my toddler clients, because choking is rare, but it happens. And a lot of people think, oh, it'll never happen to me. And. But having those tools in your toolbox are just extremely, extremely valuable. And I. If anyone needs recommendations for a class, I actually have an online person that I work with. Not like I partner with them, but their class is amazing. I've taken multiples at this point because I'm always trying to like, see which one's the best one and I just am obsessed. So if anyone needs ideas for where to find that, let me know. But yeah, that's a huge way to feel more comfortable and confident just because you have those skills. And also figure out which resources are serving you correctly because again, there's so much information out there. So if you're trying to piece together like 10 different, different resources, like you have two books and like two Instagram accounts you follow and then like a blog and then a recipe book, like that can be a lot and it can be really overwhelming, especially if things are conflicting and the information doesn't match up because then you're like, well, which one's right? You know? So my recommendation is always find one or two resources to follow along with and make sure that they align with you, that they're what you want to do and that they also give you an option for support. Support. Or tell you where you can find support. So there are tons of baby led weaning courses out there, but a lot of them don't have a support element and some people don't need that. Some people don't want it. They love to do things on their own. That's why I have DIY options so you can buy my course by itself. But I think a huge element is if you're anxious, if you need that validation, find something that offers you support. So working with a coach like myself or someone else else that does it, I'm not sure who also offers the support, but that's valid, like hugely valuable to just make sure you're feeling more comfortable. Because if you're not confident, your baby is not confident, they really, truly have that intuitive energy and they feed off of that. As soon as I started getting more confident, my daughter did like eons better than where she was when we started. So it's. Yeah, amazing. Actually has an impact. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. That's. Yeah, that's really helpful and yeah. So amazing, right? How we, I think how we just radiate our energy and we just don't realize and. Which is kind of a perfect segue. Into the next question, which I do get asked about all the time, and how the behaviors that we engage in or how we refer to foods, how we see, talk about foods. Of course, our children are always watching and like you're saying, feeding off of the energies that we have. And, and so perfect to discuss this next question. I have a one year old and my question relates to him. I try to keep foods neutral, but of course it's natural to get excited about your favorites. And also when eating with others that don't live in our household, see, I like others, others comment on food and say I don't like that, et cetera. Also, although I, I'm getting a little confused with the question. Hold on, let me read it first. Oh, so really can you speak to the topic of conversations around food at the table and how to encourage or ask others to have or not have certain conversations? And on that note, I'm going to tie back to another question that we received, which was just. So I hear a lot of the parents that we have in our group in the Body Fit by Amy Community, they call foods like growing foods or like get strong foods or things like that. So what is your take on that? I guess, how do we, what are some of the things we should be mindful in terms of conversations that we have around food with kids and how do we raise kids that, that don't fall into the terrible trap of diet culture like we have, like how we were raised?

Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny that this question comes up too, because I, I just, right before Thanksgiving, I did a reel about this on Instagram because there's so many conversations like that that come up at your holiday tables. I mean, any time of the year, truthfully. But holiday tables where people are like, judging how you're feeding your child or judging your child's size or how much they ate, making comments about their own diets that you don't want your child to hear. It's a very challenging concept. Right. So, yeah, I just created a reel on that. And if you're following me, I'm doing another one soon because everybody was like, can you do that again? I loved this. Yeah, yeah, please, please give me more examples because it, yeah, it's hard. And I think one of the biggest things here is creating, at least in your own home, obviously you can't control other people's actions. But in your own home, having a discussion with your partner or anyone else in the home that helps raise your child about what you want for your child to hear growing up and see growing up and make sure you're very strongly holding those values true in your own home so that when they hear things elsewhere, you can have that conversation while so and so they think a little bit differently about food and that's just how they want to think about food. But also, I think it's huge to help keep our own child's relationship with food positive as well as their body image. And yes, this is, I'm not well versed in the whole body image part of this. That's just not my specialty. But I'm learning more and more about it every day, especially with a two and a half year old daughter. You know, I'm. Because we have these types of things in our family too and hearing different things. I want her to be aware of what she has control over with her own body and how she should be accepting of food. Right. And what we want, what my husband and I want for her. So there's some really good body image books out there. I don't have any in front of me right now, but if anyone needs recommendations, I can provide those. So again, you can reach out on Instagram or send me an email or something. But back to the question about the table and how to handle someone else's comment. It can vary. I mean, a lot of us are not confrontational, right? So it can be really hard. But I think one of the biggest things is like diffusing it a little bit. Especially if you're all sitting there at the table and someone says like, oh, you're not gonna eat grandma's mashed potatoes, but I want, I want you to eat those. You're gonna hurt my, my feelings. Like those kinds of comments and you know, just making sure your child knows, like, oh, well, if you're full, that's gonna be okay. Grandma can, she'll live, right? And if you know things are going to happen because you've heard them say them before, you can also pull an adult aside and just say, hey, like we're really working on this with her, with him. And I'd really appreciate if you don't make any comments, if you have any questions, you can ask me separate. Like, I just don't want to, I don't want him to hear these things. And that's, that's, that's my ask of you. It can be hard to do that, but that's one of the best ways to go about it because you're at least acknowledging that they have feelings and that they have opinions and you're able to Validate your own as well. Right. You can have a conversation about it. It's hard. Easier said than done, but it's. It can be done. And then the part about raising children with knowing what types of foods are, like not calling things good or bad or whatever you were saying, like growing foods.

I think, yeah, some of the parents that we have, they call them growing foods or they try to stay away from. Yeah. Like the good and bad terms, but maybe they'll use like healthy, unhealthy or growing food. So. Yeah, like, what's your take on some of those terms? What's appropriate? Not appropriate.

Yeah. So typically I, and I will say I don't have a child older than two and a half at this point. So I haven't gotten into the, like going to school, like elementary school, where there's a lot more opinions. Right. When they're like finding all these foods that maybe don't have so much nourishment, but they're more just like fun foods to eat. Right. But my best recommendations there are, instead of talking about foods, even though you're not calling them good or bad, growing still puts a stigma on foods. So you can use that term, but I would do so loosely and more so just talk about what the foods do for us. Right. So even a food like ice cream, now you and I probably know that that's not like the most nourishing option for us to eat, but you can talk about the fact that ice cream has carbs and sugar. So ice cream gives us some energy. Right. Like there's positives, some of those foods, but we have to talk more about the balance of, of, hey, like this one's good for us because it does this, but this one does this. So we kind of have to balance this out. And once they're a little older, you can also talk more about, you know, fruits and veggies and what types of things those do for our bodies. So, you know, strawberries have vitamin C, they help our immune system, or chicken has protein that helps with when we get hurt, healing injury and making us stronger. You know, those types of conversations you can start having as they grow versus calling things a certain name, it just sort of helps create food as more of a neutral concept than putting things on different pedestals because. Yeah, other words still, you know, I've heard also like the green, green light foods, but red light foods and that any of those things still create some sort of a stigma. So.

Yeah, I love that. I love everything you just said, very much. So for the people here in the BodyFit by Amy community. They know I'm huge on mindset and just food neutrality and just taking away those, those titles. Because even, even when we don't think that it affects us or impacts us, it totally. It just does.

Right.

And, and even nowadays, like just with eating disorders are so rampant everywhere and we just don't know, maybe we're not super bothered by saying, oh, I'm being bad today or having a cheat day, but we don't know how triggering that can be to other people or if we have parents who are trying to raise their children kind of out of that because they had a really difficult experience. So I'm just like all around, let's just, let's just not. We can just go ahead and put those terms from the past and yeah, move on.

Absolutely. And I was going to say something about that, but drawing a blank. That's okay. No, something in the middle of the converse or of your, of your comment there. I don't know, it might come back to me.

Yes. Feel free to interrupt anytime. Yes. And so I. So this isn't a question, it's actually a question I have and maybe you can touch on it a little bit. But how do you feel about. So the word treats? Because I think that kind of falls in that, you know, like, well, you know, if you eat your growing foods, then you can get a treat, which to me it's still sounding very much like, so if you eat your good foods, then you can have your bad food. So but what is your take on that? On that word, on that fat?

I'm glad you asked that because it helped me remember what I was going to say. What I was going to say is that in my Toddler Foods Academy program, I actually created a whole module on this because yeah, I call it, I think like an appro. Or neutral approach to indulgent foods or something along those lines. Because yes, that is huge. And again, just having that neutral, neutral approach to everything is so helpful. Of course we want to set boundaries, but not restriction is the way I approach it. And so, yes, not causing. Saying like, if you do this, then you have your treatment treat. So I really eliminate the word treat. In our house, I serve desserts with the meal. Unless of course, we're like somewhere with family and they have cake after dinner. Like, then you just say, oh, hey, like we're having cake. Do you want to have a little bit or would you rather play and give them an option? Give them an out when you offer a sweet treat. Sweet treat. Say do you want a cookie or would you rather have string cheese? Nine times out of 10, they're going to tell you they want the cookie. My daughter wants cookies for Christmas. Okay, so. But that doesn't matter. Doesn't mean that sometimes they won't want the string cheese. The same as with adults. You know, sometimes we want dessert, sometimes we want the appetizers. So it's the same thing. Kind of neutralize that food and, you know, only allow it to be served to the point where you're comfortable, but don't restrict so much that it becomes forbidden. And yes, when you tell them they have to finish a food to have another food, that almost. It creates a little bit of shame because they might not really be hungry, but they really want a taste of that sweet because it's like, ooh, it's kind of far reaching. And it's. It's so shiny and bright and pretty because it's like the extra treat. Right? So if you just kind of like neutralize it and don't put those stigmas, like you have to finish your dinner before dessert. It's hard. Again, easier said than done. But, yeah, very, very hard to do. But it's really, really helpful if you can kind of develop that foundation because it helps kind of just create that neutrality and again, create less desire for those things that might not nourish our bodies quite as well as some of some other foods. Yeah.

Amazing. That was. Thank you so much for that. And the addition to that. That was great. That was perfect.

Yeah.

So we do have about eight minutes left or so, which is perfect because I kind of have just a couple more questions here that, that we have. And this one you actually kind of hinted at a little bit. But just in case, just for folks that are watching, what services do you provide to help families navigate early childhood feeding? Or do you just share public information?

Yeah, so I talked a little bit about my programs. So when I created my business, I was really, like, heavily reliant on the support. So I have first Foods Academy and then Toddler Foods Academy. Both of those programs are lifetime access to an online course that you get lifetime upgrades to messaging support daily, office hours weekly to chat with me live, a Facebook group with the other parents in the program, and a strategy support call when you first enroll. It's kind of like a kickoff. If you're not into the support environment, then there's also. Now I recently launched a DIY option so you can just buy the courses. You get all the same content you would if you were enrolled in the full program, you just don't have these, the support element. So if that's not important to you or you'd want to pay a lower price point, that's another option. And I don't talk about this a whole lot yet because it's still pretty new. So you guys are getting one of the first to hear about this. But I do have a mini package option and that is strictly support, no course. So for someone that might need a little bit of help with something, but they're like feeling pretty comfortable, they're just kind of struggling a little bit or they're like, we just really need help getting started and then I think we'll be fine. That's another option. So what the support or the mini package looks like is like a strategy kickoff call and then 30 days of support through messaging and then a follow up call. And then, you know, if I see any need for like, like supporting documents or tools you might need, I can pull from my resources. But for the most part that one's just support, no course. So those are my paid options. Of course. I do occasionally offer webinars live every few months or so I do one of those. And I have a master class on my website right now housed on the first Foods Academy page. That's a starting solids master class. I don't have a toddler masterclass at point this. This point, but those two things. And then of course my Instagram platform. I'm hoping to move over to Pinterest a little bit here soon too to kind of share some more recipes and things like that because a lot of people are looking for those too. So lots of different options. But yeah, I love getting to work with this community. It's so fun and people are so motivated. It's. It's very exciting to see.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. And that's so nice.

Yeah.

To know like there's some paid resources and just a lot of options and then also some free resources. So kind of for wherever you are in your journey, there is an option for you. I love that.

Yeah. And I didn't mention this, but for some families, I know I'm, I'm one of these people, I like to have like a discovery call conversation first to make sure it's the right fit for me. I offer those too. So you can enroll in things right on my website, but you can also also schedule a call with me first to make sure it's the right fit for you. Because I know I want to make sure I'm covering all the Bases there. The ones that are like, yep, I want this. And the ones that are like, I don't know, but I need to talk to somebody. So. Yeah, you can do that too.

Oh, amazing. That's great. Yeah, I love that. And are you ready for the last question?

I am. All right. This one. Wow.

Yeah, I know. So I love this question. I've been asked this question quite a bit and it's about added sugars. So I have heard from some of our members, you know, talk about, like, added sugar. And it's like, I want to be neutral and I want to be positive, but it freaks me out because it seems like my kid likes it. But of course they like it. It tastes good, you know, but they're concerned that maybe the child's gonna develop a food addiction or a sugar addiction because they like sugar or they seem excited about it. And then kind of tied to that too. It was the question of, like, should my child avoid added sugars before the age of 2? What happens if they have some? Which the American Academy of Pediatrics. Right. Suggests that no added sugars before the age of two. So what do you, what's your stand on that? What do you have to say?

So I have a dietitian's answer for you. So it's kind of a Vivian answer, right? I follow you on Instagram. I know what you and I worked with you. I know what you talk about. What'd you say?

I said, oh, do you? Yes, yes.

Oh, I do.

Yeah.

Yeah, I love it. So, yes, the recommendation is no added sugar before age 2. So what I usually tell my families that I work with is be really conscious about your everyday products. So babies love plain yogurt. There's no need to buy your sweetened yogurts at this age, or really any age for that matter. But that's a different thing. But you don't need to worry. Like, pay attention to where added sugar hides. So sauces, sometimes it's also in like crackers, breads, and then sweetened things like yogurt, natural sugar, like things that have a naturally occurring sugar. Those I don't count as added sugars because they're different, as we know. But look at your everyday things. And if you want your child to have birthday cake when you go to a party or for their first birthday, for goodness sake. Right. Let them have a little bit of cake and that's okay. It's a one time thing and it's here and there. Right. It's not every day. So pay very close attention to what you're doing on an everyday basis. And save those minutes of added sugar for when there's, like, a special occasion, summer night, when you go out for ice cream with your family, like, let them have a little lick of ice cream. And that's okay. We just don't want to make it a regular occurrence because, yes, that's when that naturally occurring sweet tendency in our palate sort of starts to shift, is with frequency. So we just want to be careful about how much we're doing that.

And I'm sure then, like, for those special occasions, we want to make it seem pretty normal. Like, so we're not going to make a huge deal of, like, this one special time you get cake, even though you shouldn't, right?

Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. I have some resources on that in my toddler course as well, because it's. Yeah. It's hugely important to. Yeah. Keep it neutral and not be like, oh, my gosh, it's your birthday, you get cake, blah, blah, blah. You want to keep it pretty cool. And like, oh, yeah, at birthdays we have cake. Cool. We also have whatever else. Yeah, pretzels, you know. Yeah. Just kind of keep it neutral. It's hard to do, but, you know, the more you utilize that language, even for little ones that might not fully understand yet, it gives you all the more practice for when they're older. And you can. Or you already have that kind of built into your, you know, natural parenting. Yeah.

Amazing. Hillary. Wow. Thank you so much. This is. I learned a lot. This is amazing. Thank you so much for taking the time to be here with us and for sharing your knowledge and expertise with our wonderful Bodyfit by Amy community. So for everyone watching or if you joined late or anything like that, this is going to be available. We're going to upload it on YouTube so you can watch it anytime. Of course, it's going to be available here in the app as well, so you can access that at any time. Any final thoughts, Hillary? So follow you on Instagram. Nutrition Mama with two M's. And then soon we'll be following her on Pinterest to be determined.

Or. Yes. Coming soon. Yes.

Yes. Awesome.

Yeah. Well, and again, thank you so much for having me. I, you know, I've mentioned to you, and I don't. I, I don't think I've ever spoken with Amy, but I love using this, the. The workouts, especially pre. For my prenatal and postnatal period, and I do occasionally still use them, so I love that I get to give back a little bit and talk to this community. And, yeah, I'm just very thankful that I get to be here and hopefully can meet some of the lovely people here, too. So thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. This was so amazing, and people are really loving this conversation, so there's a very good likelihood that I may invite you back just to have fun.

I would love it. So, yes.

Perfect. All right, well, thank you, everyone, for being here, and we will see you next time. Bye.

See ya.