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Hi, I’m Jo Lenz and I’m a pediatric or children’s dietician, and I’m going to be sharing my top tips to help with any issues you may be facing with your baby or your child’s eating. So probably the number one question I get asked by parents or friends even is my little one is such a fussy eater and how can you help?

I think the first thing is that not to panic, you know, it’s very much dependent on what your own perception of fussy is. So as a dietician, I would in a one-to-one consultation. I would go through a thorough assessment and I would try to figure out, you know, is your child growing okay?

Are they eating from each of the different food groups? Are they particular about different textures? Because sometimes often it is just about reassuring parents that, you know, they are eating from all the food groups.  And even though you seem to think they’re not eating as well as their friends or as well as you’d like them to, it’s just knowing that sometimes these are phases that all children go through and it’s completely normal.

So around the age of two, children go through a phase called Neophobia where they become actually scared of  foods and they associate it with different things or unpleasant things that they don’t like, and it’s all very normal and just remaining calm and just sort of riding through that at that stage. They generally come out the other side. 

So as a dietician, a lot of what I do is around reassurance and making sure that your child is growing well. They might be having some vitamins just to give you a bit of extra reassurance that they’re covered with some of those nutrients. And there are lots of, you know, simple tips as a dietician. I provide families with. Sometimes you don’t need a one-to-one consultation. Sometimes you can get the information really nicely from a webinar as we cover all the general sort of information around fussy eating and what can help. You know, length of meal times, how you’re talking around food at home. We just looked at the whole sort of  situation, and hopefully give some practical tips that can really help families.Â