I don't love referring to kids as "picky eaters" because it can often be used as an excuse or internalized (by our kids) as a permanent state of being. Which, I can assure you, it is not! "Picky eating" is a behavior - and like any other it CAN be changed. It can be addressed and tweaked. Especially if you understand why your little one has such strict standards for what they will and won't eat. 

But knowing that picky eating can be changed, doesn't necessarily make having a picky eater at home any easier. Here are 5 tips you can use to tackle picky eating at home.

Slow-to-wake kids, the desire to hit snooze at least once (maybe, ehem, twice), and the myriad tasks required to be ready for school and work can often mean breakfast is rushed, relegated to pop tarts or grab-n-go bars. (Not that there is anything wrong with those once in a while.) But it doesn't have to be. Here are a few time-saving tips we use to ensure that breakfast isn't just an after thought, but also fits into our hurried mornings.

When stuck at home, day in and day out, it can seem like the any time is the right time for food. Boredom, indecision, and actual hunger combined with being in close proximity to the kitchen at all times drives kids (and adults) toward constant grazing turning breakfast, lunch, and dinner into a 24-hour buffet. 

Not only can this be stressful for parents - who feel like their spend all their time preparing food and then cleaning up from it - but free-range grazing is often associated with overeating. 

Setting limits on meal and snack time while stuck at home can help. Here are some ideas for how.

By following this simple plan, you too can avoid doubt and disappointment at dinner and give yourself and your family happier, healthier mealtimes. It may sound simple, and we think it is. 

Family mealtime is important for many reasons, not the least of which is because it gives you a chance to model healthy eating habits. Like it or not, and especially when your kids are young, you remain the strongest influence on their mealtime behaviors and their relationship with food. So anything YOU do to modeling healthy eating is sure to have an impact on them too.  

But being a good role model does not mean being a perfect role model. Here are 5 concrete actions you can take to help be a good (not perfect) role model for healthy family mealtimes.

It's happened again. Did you see it? Another study (actually, this time there were five) was published that is being reported on with wildly exciting headlines has sparked controversy in the field of nutrition research over what we should and should not be eating. The target this time: red meat.

It is well established in the field of nutrition research that parent’s mealtime(feeding) behaviors influence their children’s eating behaviors; parenting style, modeling of eating behavior, meal frequency, and food exposure (trying new foods) are all associated with child’s mealtime behaviors including fruit and vegetable intake. 

But a recent study wanted to examine the role that parent’s mealtime goals (their desired mealtime outcomes) might play in influencing their feeding behaviors. Why ask this question? Because parents’ mealtime goals – and any potential confli

Inevitably, when I head into the kitchen to start dinner my kids are immediately starving. We could have just finished putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher from their after school snack and they would still be staaaaaaaarving at the sound of banging pots and chopping vegetables.

I get this question a lot. And by 'a lot' I mean A.LOT. I sometimes think that my kids are hummingbirds, interested in subsisting on nothing but sugar. One Saturday morning my husband and I made the mistake of sleeping in, giving the kids permission to watch Finding Dory on Netflix. We came downstairs to find them eating chocolate chips for breakfast. Lesson learned. 

Just last week, after a beautifully prepared, home-cooked warm chicken salad and freshly baked bread the first thing I was asked when everyone sat down at the table was "What's for dessert?"

My own weekly menus (as is true of my grocery lists) have evolved considerably since kids came on the scene and my planning is often done in the minutes between breaking up fights over who was using the brown lego tree trunks or getting someone (who was not myself) something to eat. Also, I found that my weekly meal plan – which lived a double-life as our grocery list – was messy and disorganized, which left me wandering through the store trying to remember what I came in for in the first place. Something had to give ...

When babies are born they are extremely attuned to their internal signals of hunger and fullness. When they are hungry they know, and they will let you know too! They also know when they are full, and they stop eating. But when we take over doing this for our kids, there are negative unintended consequences. Here we describe 4 strategies to help you support your little ones to continue listening to their internal hunger and fullness cues.

Teach.Work.Love's {unsolicited} review of our products is glowing. "KIZINGO products are designed to promote successful self-feeding, giving confidence to parents and children. Little ones learning to feed themselves can get frustrated and most utensils are not well designed for how toddlers want to hold and use them."