At the Table Intro

Two pediatric registered dietitians and wine enthusiasts have created a podcast called "At The Table". They cover various food-related topics such as pediatric nutrition, selective eaters, oral development, genetic disorders, pregnancy, motherhood, mental health, sustainability, eating out, and more. The goal is to provide evidence-based insights and educational resources to support families' health. The hosts discuss their journey as friends and dietitians and how their perspectives on food have changed since becoming parents. They also talk about the challenges of feeding children, especially when they are sick, and the pressure of mom guilt. They hope to inspire and educate their audience and provide a realistic approach to healthy eating. Welcome to At The Table Podcast, created by us, two moms who happen to be Pediatric Registered Dietitians and Wine Enthusiasts. We invite you to join us for an insightful conversation about all things food-related, from navigating pediatric nutrition and managing selective eaters, to exploring oral development, understanding genetic disorders, pregnancy, motherhood, and mental health, to promoting sustainability, eating out at restaurants, talking to chefs, and organizations that support feeding kids. We cover a wide range of topics. Our goal is to provide you with evidence-based insights and educational resources to support you and your family's health. But don't worry. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. We're here to help. This is so exciting. Cheers. Cheers. Welcome. Welcome. It's so great to be at the table with you. Okay. This is our first podcast. First one. On our own. Bear with us. Where do I start? Do you want to talk about how we met? Yeah. Yeah. That's perfect. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. I think it's even more. Maybe seven. Seven years. Yeah. Yeah. Seven years, probably. Yeah. Met at Children's, and I think we both just really bonded over our love of food and nutrition, and I think immediately, we were like, okay, we're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. We're going to do this. All of it culminating. I really admired you for the various hats that you had and still do have. Then I think it has just continued to come full circle as we have families of our own and have realized how that changes things in terms of feeding our families and ourselves and our kids. I remember when we used to just go out and have our date nights, essentially, just you and I. I know how much has changed since we've had kids. Yes. Even our conversations. Every time, I'm like, what did we used to talk about? I don't even remember because now it really does consume, in the best ways, but it does consume our conversations and has really changed what we talk about and how we think about things. Yes. It's true. It's true. It's been a while. It's been one. It's awesome. I'm so happy to be on this ride with you, Julie. I am, too. It's very exciting. We'll see. Hopefully, we'll get an audience. I don't know how many listeners we'll have, but we'll inspire someone along the way. Exactly. Hopefully, moms out there and families and dads and anybody else that is going through what we're going through are going to get inspired and maybe ask some questions. Actually, on Instagram, there was already a couple of questions. They want to know about school lunch. I think we'll have some exciting topics coming. Yes. I think one of our first guests will have a good perspective on some of the school lunch and school education. Kelly, I think, will be able to speak to some of that, which I think is really neat because even with our kids, they're just entering the school world. I feel like that is still a bit of a new realm for us. How are kids talking about food at school? What are they learning? How should we be educating our kids on healthy foods? There is so much, I think, there. The way we talk about food has changed over the course of a decade. I think that is something that we really need to learn from some of our guests. Yes. There's so much to navigate. I know we go with our moms and we're both dieticians, but there's so much that we're still learning every day. To be able to have some of the guests that we're going to have, it's going to be very enlightening. It's going to be nice and educational for us and for everybody else. Especially, I feel like when we talk about a struggle and I'm going through something with one of my kids, it's nice to bounce ideas from each other. It'll be really cool to hear perspectives from other people and see. Absolutely. That's the thing about nutrition is that there really is no one-size-fits-all approach. There's a lot of gray areas in nutrition still. I feel like even what works for one child does not work for the second. Both you and I have had that experience. We've talked about it at length that we had it all figured out with our firstborn. Then the second one comes in and it's not the same. The things you think you know with that first one doesn't necessarily work with the next and so on. Anyways, I think learning from our experts and being able to take pieces of advice from various experts and adapt them into our lives and what works for us and our families will be really helpful. I agree. Let's see. Why don't we catch up a bit on what's going on. How was your week? Oh, man. Week was good. Week was good. I think we both had a pretty crazy one coming off of being on call. We both wear multiple hats and then the parent on top of it. We always talk, it's like one illness after another these days. You cannot keep your head above water. Overall, a solid week. How was yours? My week was a little bit crazy too. A couple of challenges with technology and getting over sickness. I felt like this winter was cold and flu and everything in between. Yes. Let me ask you something. I can talk about my situation here, but how do you handle when one of your kids is sick or you're on call? How do you handle meal times? Do you think that's more stressful? Yes, absolutely. I would say just in general, this season of life when you have young kids or even not. It depends on what is going on in your life and what other variables you have. When there's a lot going on, it's really challenging to feed kids. Speaking of sicknesses in particular, they're not feeling well. They may not be up for eating the things that they normally would be. You have a million other things going on on top of getting meals ready. I think focusing on, I think we do rely a bit more on quick and simple and deconstructed foods. I think it's a bad thing. At first, there was some mom guilt too. I feel like that's something you and I have talked about as well. I think now in the world of social media and all of it, you can sometimes feel like you should be doing all these things. You should be having home-cooked meals. You should be doing all this. I hope that we can speak to an audience of you're doing the best you can and feeding your children and seeking out resources to help you find healthier alternatives. That is like going above and beyond. I think that you should be proud of those achievements and not feel bad about where you're at currently. I'm hoping that that is something that we'll communicate as well because I know personally I struggle with a little bit of mom guilt of feeling like I should be doing certain things, especially as a dietician, doing certain things. That hasn't been productive. I agree. I feel like I go through the same thing, especially when they're sick. It's like you want to make sure you're doing the best. When you're busy, you want to be able to gift them and do your best. There's moments, there's been weekends that I'm just so busy and I'm working and I can see the pressure just built in. Kids get hungry so quickly. They can go from zero to 100, from being like okay, happy, to like hangry. In those moments, I'm like, okay, what do I try to fight you for? What's the word? Or do I just pick your battles? Yeah, exactly. It's tough. That mom guilt is true. I think I used to struggle with that from the beginning. Even when my daughter was born, it started with breastfeeding, the right ways to do it. As a dietician, I think I overthought that for so long. I was measuring how much she should get as breast milk. I'm sure that's a conversation I would like to have with other dieticians, other moms, just really what is that first-time mom expectation. Plus then you have the expert knowledge and you're like, okay, well I should be measured. Somebody telling you, you know what, just do what you can do and do what's best for everyone, do what's best for you too as a mom and keep yourself healthy. I think you can get kind of like tunnel vision. Yeah, and that's not good for anyone. I feel like that is so easy to do in the nutrition world. I think social media is so beneficial in many ways and there can be a lot of useful resources and tips and tricks and fun, positive. I think there's a lot to be said for having social media, but it can also have the negative effect of having that sense of self-doubt, I think. Yeah, I agree. There's so much to navigate. Each stage is so different and we go through every day. I know that, for example, this past weekend I was just like, if I can get them to eat, I'm happy. You do learn to pick your battles. I think at the end of the day that has been one thing through the course of this year is choosing wins and really trying to keep it positive. We've talked at length about this, but my second daughter is very much not as excited about food, and that's okay. I'm learning to navigate that. But my number one goal with her right now is just trying to keep everything super positive because I don't want her to have these associations with mealtime as being unpleasant or having this secondary thought that eating is a negative experience. Even though my ultimate goal is for her to eat healthy foods and grow and thrive and all of those things that we as parents expect and hope for, my more immediate goal is just keeping things as positive as possible so that she's more incentivized to do that on her own. That's been something that's been a struggle for me personally, getting to that point because it is just so innate. It's so innate. As parents, you want your kids to eat. That is just you want them to eat. You want them to eat healthy. You want them to grow. It's such a linear expectation. When that isn't happening in that stepwise approach, it's very difficult, I think, to overcome. Yeah, it has been difficult to see the other side of that, but I think as I've been able to see the side from her perspective, like, okay, let's make it a more positive experience, that has actually helped things and made her feel more in control, I think. That's very interesting. I can't imagine how hard that's been because it's not ever easy to see your child struggle with food, and especially when they're so little. You don't know how to communicate. You don't know what's really bothering them. Is it something that they don't like about the food? Is it something physical? Yeah. I can imagine just being able to take it step by step and let her essentially take the steps instead of you doing them, which I can totally relate. It's not easy. It's not easy. We definitely want to be in control. Yes, it's hard to take that back seat, but I think ultimately as many things in parenting are, the more your child can take the lead in those things, generally that leads to more positive outcomes, but it is really hard as parents to take that step back. Yeah, I totally agree. So, yeah, I think this is going to be really nice to be able to talk about all these topics and to be able to just kind of go more in depth on what not just our kids are doing, but let's get some questions from other people. What is a pressing topic right now? I feel there's so many things in nutrition, and also we're talking about culinary and food, and I think we'll have some interesting guests that will talk about just some things about, like, sustainability, some people about, like, mental health, and I think that's a big one, too. Yeah, absolutely. Because, you know, as parents, if we're not taking care of ourselves, then we're projecting that into our kids, and how does that affect them? Yeah. So, yeah, that's some stuff that I'm excited to bring to the table. Absolutely. There's a lot to bring to the table, for sure, and we'll be really excited to unpack it all. And I'm just excited to learn from others, too. And, yeah, I do think it will be a really cathartic experience. So I'm very much looking forward to it. Awesome. Yeah. Well, we'll take another cheers, and until the next one. Until the next time. Thank you. Thank you. ♪♪♪