The Post-Wean Panic Part 1: Oral Eating Doesn’t look like Tube Feeds

The Post-Wean Panic Part 1: Oral Eating Doesn’t look like Tube Feeds

The most common question we hear in the post-wean stage is, “but are you sure this is safe?” Most often, this question comes from parents whose children are settling into being fully oral, without tube support, in the stage where this new “eating life” looks really different than the life they were living on full tube feeds. For most parents, the unpredictability of oral eating can lead to some significant panic, and if we aren’t careful, sometimes that panic can cause parents to jump the gun to resume tube feeds unnecessarily.

Boundaries part 4: Setting Boundaries with Well-meaning Family Members

Boundaries part 4: Setting Boundaries with Well-meaning Family Members

Raising an anxious eater often invites well-meaning but unhelpful comments from others, like the suggestion that a weekend away will solve the problem. These remarks, though intended to help, can harm parents' mental and emotional well-being. Many parents feel trapped under a constant barrage of criticism, feeling unable to push back because they understand the comments come from a place of care. However, it's crucial for caregivers to set boundaries, not to change others' behavior but to protect their own well-being. After all, the only behavior you can control is your own.

Three Accidental Ways We Foster Picky Eating

Three Accidental Ways We Foster Picky Eating

There’s nothing more frustrating than doing the work to create an amazing meal, only to set it in front of your darling child and receive an immediate, “NO! I don’t want it!” And while there are lots of good reasons for kids to develop an anxious response to food (such as being a new eater, surprising textures, pressure from caregivers during meals, a history of aspiration, etc.), there are ways that loving and amazing parents accidentally foster picky eating. 

Boundaries, pt 3: But My Boundaries Aren’t Working!

Boundaries, pt 3: But My Boundaries Aren’t Working!

One of the most exhausting realities of parenthood is that the job is relatively nonstop! And while none of us wants to miss even one magical moment of childhood, the magic is always accompanied by challenges. Top of that list includes helping kids to learn how to respond to their worlds in proportional and appropriate ways – but that’s hard to do! Because kids learn how to behave, not based on what they are told to do, but based on the way that their grown-ups respond to them. 

Why Did My Weaned Kid Stop Eating?

Why Did My Weaned Kid Stop Eating?

Getting off of the tube is one thing, but staying off the tube feels like a completely different minefield. A lot of parents worry about whether they’ll have to re-tube the child they just weaned, and that fear is never more present than the times when your child stops eating the way you hope or expect for them to do after a wean. 

We believe that when a child stops eating (or begins to eat less), there is always a reason. Our job is to figure out what that is so that we can address the situation mindfully and responsively. 

October Healthy Highlights #2- Dave’s White Bean Chicken Chili

October Healthy Highlights #2- Dave’s White Bean Chicken Chili

Next-up in our October chili cookoff, registered dietitian, Kirstin, shares her husband, Dave’s, award winning chili recipe. Yep, that’s right, Dave won an actual blue ribbon for his White Bean Chicken Chili. When asked for the history behind this winning recipe, Dave was rather tight-lipped, simply stating that he took first place during a chili cookoff hosted at his work. 

October Healthy Highlights #1- The Chili that My Kids Will Grow to Love

October Healthy Highlights #1- The Chili that My Kids Will Grow to Love

One of the foundational concepts at GIE for diversifying your child’s diet is to offer your child the family foods, even if they aren’t preferred or favorite foods. Repeated exposure builds repertoire over time, and this message is commonly discussed during our GIE Q&A Facebook events. Parent coach, Elisabeth, has proclaimed many times that she makes the “world’s best” chili and even though her children are less of a fan, the warm bowl of hearty chili is routinely offered. 

Finding Your “Nonchalance” When the Wean isn’t Working

Finding Your “Nonchalance” When the Wean isn’t Working

There are some weans that just “click,” and your kiddo connects with eating and drinking as if some magic light switch flipped on all of a sudden! But that is not the reality for the vast majority of us, and even though most of us go in knowing that it’s not weaning isn’t a light-switch-flip, we all secretly (or not-so-secretly) hope for one. And then, when things just aren’t clicking in the way or at the pace we hoped for, and the fear of “what if this doesn’t work?” and “what if we have to reset?” kicks in, anxiety grows louder and desperation can really start to take over. 

So what can we, as parents, do when the wean just isn’t working the way we hoped it would? And every offer is just feeling more and more hopeless?

Saying “No” to Screens, and “Yes” to Music

Saying “No” to Screens, and “Yes” to Music

Have you ever sat down to watch a movie with a bag of chips or popcorn, but by the time you made it through the previews, your snack is suddenly gone? 

Watching a screen, whether it be tv, a movie or even scrolling online allows you to ‘check out’ of the eating process and we often do not realize we are eating. The same holds true with kids, and we do often see increased eating volumes while they are distracted in this manner. For weaning parents? The instant gratification that this brings makes distracted eating a really appealing option!

September Healthy Highlights #3: Farro with Spinach and Mushrooms

September Healthy Highlights #3: Farro with Spinach and Mushrooms

Farro is a nutrient-packed ancient grain with a nutty flavor and chewy texture. Like other whole grains, farro is a satisfying source of energy and fiber. The versatility of farro makes it an excellent addition to soups, stews, salad, pilafs, risotto, casseroles, and grain bowls or breakfast bowls. The farro recipe featured this week is a flavorful side dish your little ones are sure to enjoy.   

Why is my Older Child doing full blown messy play again?

Why is my Older Child doing full blown messy play again?

Having an older child that weans from a tube can present a whole different set of challenges, some of which are tied directly to ‘eating age’ vs chronological age. Eating age starts ticking once you are 100% orally fed: for non-tube fed children, this aligns with their chronological age (or the birth age) because we still expect eating skills to develop along their typical age progression. But when there is a big gap between a child’s “eating age” and “chronological age,” behaviors around food can revert down to match eating age more than actual age – including the reversion back to the stage of full-blown messy play with foods. 

September Healthy Highlights #1: Whole Grain: Barley

September Healthy Highlights #1: Whole Grain: Barley

September has been promoted as National Whole Grains Month since 2006. The barley recipe featured below is one of my favorites. When my kids were little, we would call these brain bowls because they are full of healthy nutrients that feed the brain. As my kids got older, we shifted to just calling them “B” bowls, which reflects the primary ingredients of beef, barley, broccoli, and Brussel sprouts. 

How to talk to my older child about weaning

How to talk to my older child about weaning

Weaning an older child (toddlers and beyond) can be a tricky game, because children with the cognitive understanding of being tube-fed need to “buy in” to the process of learning how to eat. That means that parents have the responsibility of including their older child in the weaning process so that they understand what’s happening – and why! Because weaning is a big change to their world!