Note from Sarah: I’m thrilled to welcome Melanie Potock as a guest writer to the MTSKids blog! Melanie, aka Coach Mel, holds rock-star status in the world of speech language pathologists. The author and international speaker is an expert on picky eating. Her YouTube channel is full of amazing videos on all kinds of topics.

Thank you, Melanie, for sharing your wisdom with us for the MTSKids blog!

By Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP

Take a deep breath … the holidays are approaching!  If you’ve got a picky or hesitant eater at home, holidays can be especially stressful.  Whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving, the December celebrations or the New Year, here are tips to help everyone gather together and enjoy family time!  Plus, these tips will also help your “learning eaters” become more adventurous over time.

Halloween

Halloween is tricky time for kids with food allergies.  This article was written for the American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) and offers practical tips so that all kids can participate in the fun!

You might be surprised to learn about these choking hazards so often provided to Trick or Treaters.  Watch this short video to keep your kids safe.

Thanksgiving

Let’s start with a little humor!  If You Give My Picky Eater Some Turkey, also written for ASHA, gets real about what one little kid will and will not eat.

Thanksgiving can be overwhelming for all of us, especially our hesitant eaters.  Watch these 5 tips to make the holiday go smoothly with a hesitant eater.

Holiday parenting strategies

Whether it’s Halloween, Thanksgiving or December celebrations, these parenting strategies offered in the 6-hour course titled Parenting in the Kitchen by Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP make every holiday enjoyable for the entire family. Watch here.

During the fall holidays, why not celebrate by making a vegetable gingerbread house with your kids?  It’s a fun twist on a sweet favorite, and a healthy snack for school and neighborhood parties, too! Watch here.

New Year

According to a Nielsen’s report on the top five new year’s resolutions, the priorities for the new year were as follows: #1 Stay Fit and Healthy #2 Lose Weight; #3 Enjoy Life to the Fullest; #4 Spend Less, Save More; and #5 Spend More Time with Family and Friends.  There is one single thing that supports all of these resolutions and helps kids become more adventurous, healthy eaters.  Read this article about the one thing you can do to raise healthier, happier eaters in the new year!

Here’s more on how to get the family in the kitchen and practicing some great parenting along the way: Expose, explore, expand your child’s love for vegetables with these fun activities and recipes!

Is it Valentine’s Day already?

Once the kids are back in school in the new year, the Valentine party planning begins. Why not keep that resolution by creating a Valentine Veggie Party?  Read this article, also written for ASHA, for fun ideas in February!

Happy Holidays everyone!

Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is an international speaker on the topic of feeding babies, toddlers and school age kids. She is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating (2015) and Baby Self-Feeding: Solutions for Introducing Purees and Solids to Create Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits (2016). The tips in her latest book, Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes (2018) are based on the latest research and Melanie’s 20 years of success as a pediatric feeding therapist. Melanie’s advice has been shared in a variety of television and print media, including The New York Times, CNN.com, Huffington Post and Parents Magazine.  Visit her at www.MelaniePotock.com for more articles, professional tips, and helpful videos to raise your adventurous eater!