Did you know that using dips can be an effective - and versatile - tool for encouraging your picky eater? It's true. Frequently used by feeding therapists, dips and dippers (both the foods used to dip and well as dipping utensils) support picky eaters who are reluctant to try new foods.

As we move headfirst into spring it seems the appropriate time to talk about one of my other long-term food goals that I have for my family: that they know where their food comes from. I don’t mean that they need to know where every cucumber and apple are grown and to have been able to shake the hand of the person that grew them, but I do want them to know that cucumbers grow on vines and apples on trees.

It's tempting to overload your littles with vegetable options. Sometimes that strategy can work: for example if your kiddos are familiar with some veggies and you pile a new one onto a platter of their favorites.

But with new fruits & vegetables, it's best to start small. REALLY SMALL. Seriously small.

There are countless examples of you absolutely crushing it at this parenting thing. You can bandage boo-boos like a boss, scare away monsters under...

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.

We've read that having an organized kitchen makes life easier. An organized kitchen is certainly more efficient when preparing meals, but it can also make cleaning up easier and more efficient too. Having an organized kitchen - and one organized around your kids' needs - can also help make it easier for kids to help with meal prep and clean-up. 

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.

Your kids are not going to like everything you make for dinner (as much as I would like to believe otherwise), but "I don't like it" doesn't have to be an acceptable reason that your little ones don't eat the meal that you've lovingly prepared.

Being selective about food choice is actually a normal part of a child's development. They are creatures of habit, have developing tastebuds - which are differentially sensitive to flavors than mature tastebuds are - and are pre-wired to avoid certain flavors, like bitter vegetables.