The.Baby.Dietitian

The.Baby.Dietitian Registered Dietitian + International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

Our Expectation vs. Our Child’s Needs 👌🏻 I know this is a hard concept as parents to accept but when you really think ab...
01/14/2026

Our Expectation vs. Our Child’s Needs 👌🏻

I know this is a hard concept as parents to accept but when you really think about it, no one knows how hungry or full you are except for you. This is true for your child as well.

A lot of times caregivers (including me) highly overestimate how much their child needs to consume to get optimal nutrition and to meet their energy needs.

We have to remember that our little ones have small bellies and smaller, more frequent meals are more appropriate for the first few years of life.

Some Tips:
✨Offering small portions and adding more if the child requests it!
✨Try to lower your expectation of how much you think your child needs and let them decide!

If you are concerned your child is not consuming adequate nutrition, make an appointment with your pediatrician to monitor weights and for extra assistance. Bonus if you can meet with a pediatric dietitian for a full nutrition assessment.

Fostering intuitive eating from the start means trusting your little one to know when they are hungry or full. ✅

Comment “mini” for our free mini starting solids course if you are just starting out with introducing food

01/13/2026

Comment and I’ll send all the recipes I’m using for postpartum meals. ⭐️

01/12/2026

Unpacking some of these below:

All top health organizations recommend against giving your child raw or unpastuerized milk due to the potential for serious health concerns. Raw milk and raw milk products from cows, goats, and sheep can carry harmful bacteria and other germs that can make your child very sick and can be life-threatening. Raw milk can also be called unpasteurized milk. We HIGHLY advise against providing to your children and there are no evidence-based benefits of unpasteurized milk vs pasteurized milk.

Protein is usually not a nutrient your child is not consuming enough of! Protein can be found in many foods including nut and seed butters, flax and chia seeds, animal products, hummus, dairy products, and more! If you are offering a food that contains protein at each meal, your kiddo is probably doing great with meeting their daily protein needs!

Currently, the guidelines recommend less than 4 ounces of juice/day be consumed between 1-3 years of age. There is no benefit in juice over whole foods but it can be a great way to meet fruit goals for the day if your child is not receptive to consuming other whole food fruit sources or if it is a more affordable option for your family. We encourage you to be mindful of dental hygiene if providing juice to your child!

Honey is no longer considered a risk for botulism once your child reaches the age of 12 months due to a more mature digestive tract. Infant botulism is a rare bacterial infection that occurs in babies (

Realistic day of eating for my 3 (almost 4) year old.The way you serve and prepare foods should be based on your child’s...
01/10/2026

Realistic day of eating for my 3 (almost 4) year old.

The way you serve and prepare foods should be based on your child’s age and feeding skills. We teach you how to serve a variety of nutrient dense foods to your baby 6 months +

As a pediatric dietitian, I provide realistic and easy to implement ways to feed your baby (six months+) in a way that is non-shaming as well as nutrient dense. All foods can fit in a balanced diet and moderation is key when feeding your littles.

Things I focus on:
- more whole foods than packaged foods when possible
- adequate intake of omega3, fiber, calcium, vitamin D, and fat.
- balanced meals and snacks whenever possible
- low or minimal added sugar
- no artificial sweeteners or colors
- lots of priority on colorful foods and a variety of food groups (aka fruits and veggies with most meals)

If you want me to share more of these, let me know.

Comment “grocery” if you want my full guide on favorite products for babies 6 months +

01/09/2026

Ingredients

1 cup dry tri-color quinoa, rinsed

1 large sweet potato, washed, peeled, and diced into 1/2” cubes

1 15oz can of no-salt-added black beans, drained and rinsed

2 1/2 cups of low sodium stock or water

(optional on the side: ripe mashed avocado)


Instructions

Add the uncooked & rinsed quinoa, peeled and diced sweet potato and drained and rinsed black beans to a large saucepan, bring to a boil, and then cover and simmer for 15 minutes or until all liquid has absorbed. Make sure potatoes and beans are soft before serving.


How to serve

For 6-9 months: Smash cooked mixture so that the potatoes are no longer in cubes and the beans are no longer round. The mixture should hold well on a preloaded spoon. Quinoa is messy, but by smashing it with the beans and potato, the grains will stick together.

Optional: If you have extra avocado for the week, feel free to smash some into this mixture as well. Avocados are a wonderful source of fat that should not be limited in the first two years of life!

Want more balanced meal ideas? Comment “101” for our baby-led feeding cookbook

My favorite pouch options! These pouch options contain beneficial nutrients that research shows our kids need - iron, zi...
01/09/2026

My favorite pouch options!

These pouch options contain beneficial nutrients that research shows our kids need - iron, zinc, DHA, and more!

https://liketk.it/5GKCH

01/07/2026

If you are a pediatrician who would like more resources to provide to parents on how to safely introduce solids, we have have FREE healthcare resources at

For infants who had ever choked, infants following a traditional weaning approach experience significantly more choking episodes for finger foods (F2,147 = 4.417, P = 0.014) and lumpy purees (F2,131 = 6.46, P = 0.002) than infants following a strict or loose baby-led approach.Baby-led weaning was not associated with increased risk of choking and the highest frequency of choking on finger foods occurred in those who were given finger foods the least often.

PMID: 29205569

Infants following a baby-led approach to feeding that includes advice on minimizing choking risk do not appear more likely to choke than infants following more traditional feeding practices. However, the large number of children in both groups offered foods that pose a choking risk is concerning.

Louise J. Fangupo, Anne-Louise M. Heath, Sheila M. Williams, Liz W. Erickson Williams, Brittany J. Morison, Elizabeth A. Fleming, Barry J. Taylor, Benjamin J. Wheeler, Rachael W. Taylor; A Baby-Led Approach to Eating Solids and Risk of Choking. Pediatrics October 2016; 138 (4): e20160772. 10.1542/peds.2016-0772

PMID: 29205569

The risk of choking does not seem to be associated with the CF approach. Instead, it may be related to the familiarity of the baby with each texture and the parent’s understanding of the information about how to minimize the risk of choking. Recall bias may be present in all included studies. Advice on how to modify foods to make them safer needs to be clearer and reinforced to all parents.

PMID: 27647715

If you are nervous to start solids, comment “MINI” and we will send you our free introduction to solids course.

01/07/2026

EDIT: I did misspeak in the voiceover, breast milk does not specifically increase in calories continuously as they age but the overall composition changes to meet your child’s need. Volume intake will remain relatively consistent due to other nutrition (solids) being introduced at six months as well as growth rate slowing towards the end of the first year of life. It is sometimes hard to wrap complex subjects into a 60 second reel! And even if there are slight variations in your milk, your child will still get a great source nutrition from frozen milk or donor
milk! Monitor their hunger cues to determine if more or less is needed.

👉🏻Breast milk composition fluctuates throughout the course of lactation to meet your babies specific needs. You may not notice an increase in volume of milk intake at all from 4-12 months. This is just an average guide and some babies never need 4 ounces per feeding, some are content with 2-3 ounces per feeding and eat more frequently. Some babies may take more, the main point is we let them guide the milk intake and we don’t need to be worried if they are not taking a consistently larger amount as they age!

👉🏻My little man never took more than 3 1/2 - 4 ounces per feeding from the bottle!

A dynamic, bioactive fluid, human milk changes in composition from colostrum to late lactation, and varies within feeds, diurnally, and between mothers. Human milk changes over the course of lactation in order to perfectly suit the infant’s nutritional and immunological needs. Breastmilk intake It averages at about 800 ml/day during the first 6 months and continues to be an important source of nourishment for healthy growth and development during the second half of infancy and beyond.18-31 ounces of breastmilk/day is the average volume of intake from 6-12 months but is dependent on many factors and varies widely from child to child.

So this to say, no stress❌ if you aren’t making more milk you used to because that’s normal!

If you want more information on the benefits breastfeeding past 12 months, comment “weaning” and I’ll send you my full blogpost on this topic.

01/06/2026

Reasons why letting your little one make a mess is so important: ✨

👉🏻Babies learn through touch.
👉🏻Babies naturally crave autonomy.
👉🏻Grasping and coordination skills developed.

Decreasing sensitivities to tastes and textures start with the hands. ✅

✨Studies have shown that babies who are able to explore the food with their hands without limitation are more receptive to consuming that food later on.
✨Babies who are allowed to play with their food will be less likely to develop texture aversions.
✨Allowing them to have autonomy by self-feeding with their hands helps them learn self-control and trust their body.
✨When babies are allowed to learn how to feed themselves they are able to control how much they are going to put in their mouth without pressure from caregiver.
✨Self-feeding helps the child be confident in their unique abilities and trust their hunger cues.

Grasping and picking up foods help develop fine motor skills. ✅

✨Allowing them to play with food helps them learn how to use their fingers and hands for complex movements.
✨By scooping food with their whole hand, by developing the pincer grasp, and by practicing using utensils, babies are training their muscles and learning valuable coordination skills.

Did you know the benefits of self-feeding and allowing your child to make a mess? 👇🏻

Research posted in comments.

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Healthy Living

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” -Virginia Woolf

I am Dietitian who believes in not following a diet, I believe that moderation and portion control are key and that having a diet full of variety is the best way to nourish your body. I believe in only providing my readers with credible and researched based information. In a society where the main topic of conversation is “what is the easiest way to lose weight?”, I believe dietitians are needed more than ever to dispel food myths and promote healthy eating and healthy self image.

Together we can begin making a healthy, individualized, and specific nutrition plan for you! Contact me today