From the Start Nutrition, Pediatric & Family Dietitian in New Jersey

08/15/2026

The nutrition hack I tell my clients all the time:

Buy the pre-prepped fruits and veggies.

Yes, the little bags of apple slices, individual cups of berries, baby carrots, or ready-to-eat fruits and veggies might cost you two or three dollars more.

But here’s what I hear from clients over and over again:

When they buy the fruits and veggies they plan to wash, cut, and portion themselves… a lot of it ends up sitting in the fridge until it eventually goes in the garbage.

The prepped version?

They actually grab it.
They actually pack it.
And for families, their kids actually get it in their lunchbox.

Sometimes paying a little more for convenience means wasting less food and making your life a whole lot easier.

Nutrition doesn’t always have to be from scratch.

Easy peasy. 🩵

Follow us Beth Conlon, PhD, RDN | Pediatric & Family Dietitian for more smart pediatric & family nutrition tips and tricks.

08/15/2026

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08/15/2026

08/13/2026

Pack a school lunch (that your child will actually eat!) Read more here:

Packing a healthy school lunch can feel like a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be! Learn how to make school lunches that kids will actually eat!

08/13/2026

If protein is one of the hardest foods for your selective eater, stop focusing on how much they eat. Start by helping it feel familiar.

When parents worry about protein, the natural response is often to focus on getting their child to take a bite.

But for selective eaters, eating doesn’t always need to be the first goal.

Before a child feels comfortable eating a new protein, they may need time to tolerate it nearby, touch it, smell it, or simply learn what to expect.

That’s where food bridging can help.

Start with a food your child already trusts and pair it with a protein that shares something familiar, like color, shape, texture, or size.

Try:
✓ Goldfish + roasted chickpeas: similar color, size + crunch
✓ Graham crackers + nut/seed butter: start with a small dip or thin spread
✓ Granola bar + string cheese: neutral colors + similar shapes
✓ Animal crackers + milk: familiar snack + smooth protein source
✓ Soft pretzel bites + cheddar: similar colors + bite-sized shapes

Keep foods side by side rather than mixing them together. For many selective eaters, this makes exploring a new food feel more manageable.

And remember: your child doesn’t have to eat the protein for the exposure to count.

Touching it, smelling it, dipping another food into it, licking it, or taking a tiny taste are all steps in learning.

Keep portions small. Keep pressure low. You provide the opportunity, and your child decides whether and how much to eat.

And zoom out: protein needs are met across the day, not at one snack or meal. Nutrition is a long-term game.

Save these pairings for snack time. 🩵

Want hundreds more combinations built around foods your child already enjoys?

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08/11/2026

The #1 mistake I see many parents make when they’re trying so hard to help their child with picky eating ⬇️

Stop trying to make every single meal nutritionally perfect.

I know the worry:

“They barely ate dinner.”
“They only ate the bread.”
“They haven’t had a vegetable today!”

So you try to make the next meal more nutritious… add more pressure… encourage one more bite… or worry that you have to “make up” for what they didn’t eat.

But here’s the thing:

Your child’s nutrition is a long-term game.

One meal is just one meal.

What matters much more is the overall pattern of eating over time, while continuing to create opportunities for your child to learn, explore, and build confidence with food.

Instead of asking yourself:

❌ “How do I get enough nutrition into them at THIS meal?”

Try asking:

✅ “How can I keep offering balanced opportunities without turning this meal into a battle?”

That mindset shift can take so much pressure off both of you.

And that is where we start cracking the picky-eating code. 🐣

👉🏼 Save this for the next time your child eats three crackers for dinner. 😉

👉🏼 Need more support? Schedule a 1:1 consultation with one of our dietitians. We’ll help you understand what’s really going on with your child’s eating and give you practical, personalized strategies to help you crack the code for your child. 🩵

08/11/2026

You are not failing your child. 💙

Selective eating can be stressful, confusing, and exhausting. It can leave you wondering:

Am I offering the right foods?
Should I be pushing more?
Are they getting enough nutrition?
Why does everyone else's child seem to eat so much more?

But you aren't supposed to automatically know how to navigate every feeding challenge.

You're working with information you were never given.

And the fact that you're here, learning, asking questions, and trying to support your child already matters.

You don't need to make every meal perfect. You don't need to make your child eat every food you offer. And you don't need to have all the answers today.

What matters is that you're willing to keep learning:

What does my child need?
What approaches work best for them?
What approaches work best for our family?

Because there isn't one magic strategy that works for every child or every family.

Keep learning.
Keep offering.
Keep the pressure low.
Keep going.

Your child doesn't need a perfect parent at the table. They need a parent who is willing to keep learning what they need and finding approaches that work for your family.

If you're navigating selective eating right now, save this reminder for the hard days.

we help individuals achieve good nutrition and develop a positive relationship with food. ✨

08/10/2026

One of the most powerful ways we can help our children develop a positive relationship with food is by paying attention to the way we talk about food around them.

Kids are listening when we say things like:

❌ “That’s a bad food.”
❌ “I shouldn’t be eating this.”
❌ “I was good today, so I can have dessert.”
❌ “I need to be good tomorrow after eating this.”

Even when we’re talking about our own food, our children are taking in those messages.

Instead, we can practice:

🥑 Talking about food without labeling it as good or bad.

🍕 Enjoying foods we love without guilt.

🥗 Eating balanced meals that include a variety of foods.

💬 Talking about nutrition without making food feel scary or restrictive.

❤️ Letting our children see that food can provide nourishment and pleasure.

We don’t have to model “perfect eating.” In fact, there is no such thing as perfect eating.

We can model flexibility. We can enjoy dessert. We can eat pizza. We can eat vegetables. We can have a day when our meals look different than usual.

That’s part of a positive relationship with food, too.

And perhaps one of the most important things we can model for our kids is this:

Good nutrition and enjoying food can coexist.

At From the Start Nutrition, I help individuals achieve good nutrition and develop a positive relationship with food—from the very start. 💚

What food-related message did you hear growing up that you hope to do differently with your own children?

Follow us Beth Conlon, PhD, RDN | Pediatric & Family Dietitian to join the conversation! 💙🍽️