Toddlers at the Table: Understanding the Shift from Infant Feeding with @healthiest_baby Cathryn Tobin, MD
- What to expect at toddler mealtimes when your baby gets bigger and more selective
- How you can project “big-hearted parent” love while still maintaining toddler guardrails
- Why Dr. Cathryn originally questioned baby-led weaning and what changed her mind
LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE
Episode Description
What’s going to change at mealtimes when your baby becomes a toddler? Dr. Cathryn Tobin from @healthiest_baby is here to explain toddler behavior and the shift in eating patterns you’ll experience as your baby gets bigger.
About the Guest
- Dr. Cathryn Tobin is a pediatrician with more than 30 years experience working with families
- She is the author of Toddlers Made Easy and hosts a podcast of the same title
- Dr. Tobin runs the Instagram account @healthiest_baby and teaches about toddler life
Other Episodes Related to this Topic
- Episode 135 - Toddler Milks: Why You Don't Need to Buy These Formulas
- Episode 139 - My BLW Baby at 12 Months Old: What Comes Next?
Links from Episode
- Follow Dr. Cathryn on Instagram @healthiest_baby
- Listen to Dr. Cathryn’s podcast Toddlers Made Easy here
- Get her new book Toddlers Made Easy: Become the Parent Every Child Needs by Cathryn Tobin, MD on Amazon here
- Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program with the 100 First Foods™ Daily Meal Plan, join here: https://babyledweaning.co/program
- Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners free online workshop with 100 First Foods™ list to all attendees, register here: https://babyledweaning.co/baby-led-weaning-for-beginners
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0 (2m 6s):
you are looking for a one stop solution that literally teaches you exactly how to safely help your baby. Learn how to eat real food. I wanna invite you to join my signature online program called Baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro. This is the most comprehensive baby led weaning program out there. I give you 20 weeks of meal plans for baby led weaning to help your baby safely eat five new foods a week, which means they're going to finish their hundred FIRST FOODS Before turning one As one mom who recently joined the program said quote, our lifestyle does not give us any mental capacity to think more about what to do with this baby This program. Caters to our needs inside of the program. I have my hundred FIRST FOODS content library to show you exactly how to safely prepare all of the hundred FIRST FOODS for your baby's current age and stage My hundred FIRST FOODS daily meal plan is also included in there.
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It's all in one place. And a mom in our program. she said she joined because quote, I'm too tired of trying to figure out so many different things at once. I want someone to tell me what to do to catch up my nine month so we can stop using the same familiar foods we've been feeding her. If you are a type A organized PERS person or like let's say you wanna be that kind of person, you wanna be more organized in what you feed your baby, then I created the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro program for you. You can sign up at baby led weaning dot co slash program. I have one program with all the stuff you need inside of it to get this thing done and get on with your life. Again, that's baby led weaning dot co slash program. Check it out and I hope to see you there.
2 (3m 36s):
So initially I was really uncomfortable with baby led weaning. However, after I watched my daughter with my grandchild, I love baby led weaning and I feel very differently about it. And I'm just so impressed with watching my lovely, amazing grandchild eat.
0 (3m 54s):
Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning here on the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give you baby a safe start to Solid Foods using baby led weaning. What is going to change at mealtimes when your baby becomes a toddler? So right now you might be struggling to start Solid Foods or maybe your baby has hit their stride and they're finally starting to eat all those different foods that you've been lovingly preparing and offering.
0 (4m 35s):
And I don't wanna be a downer, but, and there are darker days ahead because feeding toddlers can't be a challenge. So your toddler's going to start to exert more independence and they're gonna have opinions and feedback about the foods that you're offering. They're also going to become more selective at the same time that their rate of growth will slow down. So intakes are gonna fluctuate. And while baby led weaning does have the potential to reduce the severity of picky eating, it is developmentally appropriate for toddlers to become more selective. IE picky at mealtimes. Dr. Katherine Tobin knows a ton about toddlers. She is a Canadian pediatrician with more than 30 years experience as a practicing doctor. Dr. Cathryn is the author of three books, including her most recent book entitled Toddlers Made Easy Becoming the Parent, every Child Needs Toddlers Made Easy is also the title of the podcast that she hosts.
0 (5m 23s):
So if you like learning invite size amounts of info, I think you will love Dr. Tobin's books, her podcast, all of her content. She's also the person behind the very popular Instagram account at Healthiest Baby. So if you're on Instagram and you can pull it up, take a look at her page, you're likely already following her, but you might not know it. Her account at Healthiest Under Baby, it's really action packed. It's like packed with infographics, all about raising babies and toddlers like you can literally spend hours on there. And I was surprised to learn in this interview that she does all of that content creation herself, which is really cool and amazing. So in this interview, Dr. Tobin will be explaining What to expect at toddler mealtimes when your baby gets bigger and more selective How you can project what she calls big hearted parent love while you're still maintaining the guardrails that toddlers need and thrive with.
0 (6m 10s):
And then lastly, we'll talk about Why Dr. Cathryn originally was suspicious about baby led weaning and then what ended up changing her mind. Be sure to check out Dr. Cathryn Tobin's new book, toddlers Made Easy, wherever you get your books. And with no further ado, I wanna introduce Dr. Cathryn who's going to be talking about Toddlers at the Table, understanding the shift from infant feeding.
2 (6m 35s):
This is a story about Luca who is a sweet little 3-year-old boy. And a few months ago his mom called me because meal times had become a huge battle and she was saying she hates every meal time that it's a war zone. And she had decided to call right then because her next child was starting to show the same resistance to eating foods. And the problem was that initially Lucas had no problems feeding. He took all of his, he adjusted to breast milk very quickly and also accepted a bottle later on and went to the cup and began solids, no problems.
2 (7m 18s):
But when it came to those toddler years, he started to get more selective in what he would eat and the mom was getting really, really nervous about vegetables and started sending him to his room when he wouldn't eat vegetables at the meal. And so it got to the point where at least one meal a day, he was getting sent for a timeout and the battles were huge. The lovely thing about this was although she had tried bribing and saying you have to eat your vegetable to get your dessert, and then that stopped working, she tried presents that he gets something out of a bowl if he ate his vegetables. Anyways, eventually after we'd spoke I was able to help her feel better that he would not become nutritionally deficient and that the best way to get him to eat more vegetables, to stop pressuring him.
2 (8m 9s):
And in fact, she started to give a little portion of his dessert with the meals and it didn't happen instantly, but gradually things got better. So that meal times became a really happy time for them.
0 (8m 22s):
Oh, it started out so sad. I mean him getting sent to the room, but I love that they continued to work through it and I think, you know, sometimes say, oh the dessert with the meals that was, remember that was so trendy, like I think about like seven, eight years ago. And if you take that recommendation out of context, it sounds ridiculous, but then for some families in some situations it works. So I think that's just a great
2 (8m 47s):
Message. Yeah, she did it a few times and it sort of broke that holding off for dessert trend that she had set up with him and it, it undid it very quickly.
0 (8m 56s):
It's a great reminder that not all children respond to the same approaches the same way. And we sometimes have to modify our behaviors as parents as well at mealtime. And I love that she reached out to you because she kind of say saw the same problems resurfacing with the second kid because I know in baby led weaning, one of the weird things about it is it's one of the few things that actually appeals to a second time parent, right? A first time parent, they're gonna buy everything the second time around. Like I, I figured this out, I don't need half this stuff. It's gimmicky. But a lot of times they're dealing with a picky eater toddler and it's making their lives hard, right? The meals times are, are battlegrounds and then they start researching, well I'd like to avoid that with the second kid.
0 (9m 39s):
And there's certainly no way to prevent picky eating. We both know that. But you can reduce the severity of picky eating by increasing the variety of foods that a child sees during that weaning period where they'll actually like and accept the food. So now I know you are a pediatrician, you've been practicing for over 30 years. Your recently published book is about the focus on toddler behavior. Your, your podcast is about toddlers and I know a lot of our audience is interested because while they're feeding babies right now they're curious about What, Comes, Next. So just wondering if kind of high level you could share what the biggest changes that parents can expect when they're transitioning from infant feeding to toddler feeding.
2 (10m 18s):
When kids become toddlers and start to eat more independently, there's a number of changes that happen with most kids, not every kid but most kids. And that is that selectivity that comes from being distracted by other things in the room, seeing sweetss that distract you. But it's also just a normal part of transitioning in the toddler years. And so one of the big changes is children become more selective. I'd like to avoid picky and I save it for those really picky eaters, but it's so normal for children to become selective that I like to normalize that in parents to expect it because if you expect it, it is so much easier to respond in a way that doesn't create power struggles or difficulties that you can avoid.
2 (11m 7s):
So one thing is the selectivity, but the other, and the really big point is the volume. Parents often think kids need to eat a lot more than they do. And so the second change with toddlers is the amount they eat, their growth slows down. And the after the first year, if you ever look at the growth chart, you can see the slope is much, much more shallow. So you're gonna have kids that are eating less, you're gonna have kids that are more selective and you're gonna have kids that are more willful about what they will or won't eat and are expressing it to you now with words and with their behavior there. You're also gonna get complaints about food and color and texture and smell in a way that you didn't before.
0 (11m 51s):
One of the things I love working with babies is that they don't talk back to you. I always tell my big kids, my kids are 10 and have a set of quadruplets who are eight and have a set of twins who are six and they're, they're in the talk back phase like, I don't like that. What's for dinner? It's like, well I'm not actually asking your opinion, but they're gonna give it to you. And then they said, I know what you like with working with babies Bob. It's 'cause they, they do whatever you, they eat whatever you put out in front of them. It's like, yeah they do because I like that era I. don, I'm curious, your Instagram is how, I know you originally is healthiest baby, but your podcast is about toddlers and your book is about toddlers. Which audience do you prefer working with I?
2 (12m 27s):
Don't think there's a preference. I love babies and that's when I started my Instagram page. I focused on babies but as the babies grew up I moved over to toddlers and I probably will continue to add other age groups as time goes by.
0 (12m 44s):
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2 (15m 1s):
Yes. Well I'd say the next biggest one is volume. If you, you know, there are children at the top of the graphs and children at the bottom of the graphs and both of them are completely normal. But if you go by the guidelines of how, if you look up how much should a child eat, it's not gonna be the same for those two different kids. And so parents, if they're sort of using a book or a set of food guidelines to tell them how much the child should eat, it can cause some confusion and difficulty. Plus I think just our own perception of how much a child needs is bigger than reality.
0 (15m 37s):
And I love that perspective from you as a pediatrician. 'cause as a dietician, people always say, well Katie and your, you know you're infant feeding, baby led weaning course. There's no portion sizes. Where's the portion size guide? I said I would never provide a portion size guide. First of all, they're incredibly arbitrary, they're fabricated out of thin air and all it does is set you up to feel like a failure because you as a mom, if you see that guide and then your child doesn't eat exactly that amount of food, you think something's wrong. You're either underfeeding or overfeeding your kid. And I just wanna remind parents that that none of that, none of that's based on science. I mean there's a, a minimum number of certain nutrients that you need and I'm not even gonna ask you about nutrients 'cause I know that you're on the same page as me that they, they don't really matter.
0 (16m 18s):
If we offer a variety of foods to our kids then they'll, they'll naturally they'll get that amount. But like let's say you have a mom who comes in six month old baby and she's been breastfeeding or bottle feeding formula, whatever it's, but she kept that baby alive for six months. But she's starting to hear, ooh, I need to start Solid Foods because my baby needs to get iron. And she's kind of, you know, perseverating on this idea of iron. Like how do you talk her down? I mean she's asking you a question about nutrients and we don't wanna stress them out about nutrients, but how would you respond to that mom who's really worried about iron?
2 (16m 48s):
I find it's actually, if you provide the sort of basic knowledge and reassurance, I don't find it it hard to talk somebody down. But again, in that situation I already have a relationship and somebody knows they can trust me. And when I say it's okay because of A, B, C, D, then we generally can work with that anxiety.
0 (17m 10s):
And do you, would you offer a test? Like do you do like an in-office maybe you know, anemia screen so she can see, listen your baby's not anemic, you're doing fine. I
2 (17m 17s):
Wouldn't personally, but we don't have that in in Canada and in office screen for it. But I don't like to poke a kid if, if you don't have to. I like to reassure parents but I wouldn't do it to the extent of poking them if, if it wasn't really needed.
0 (17m 31s):
Can we talk a little bit about behavior at mealtimes and what's typical for toddlers? You mentioned that they would be more selective but you know, what about this idea of like food jags for example, where your kid used to like these certain foods and now they won't eat 'em or they go through a phase where they only want green foods. Is that typical for toddlers? Is that that something parents should be on the lookout for?
2 (17m 51s):
I think very much so. Toddlers and don't think about it just with food. Think about it with toys. They'll love one stuffed animal for a week and then couldn't be bothered with it. And the same thing goes with food that they develop loves of a certain food that's easy, perhaps easy to eat or is comforting 'cause they know it. But then also the next day, the next week lose interested in it as well.
0 (18m 17s):
Okay. We talked a little bit about how volume is a concern that parents oftentimes expect that their child would eat more than they probably physiologically can or want to. So not having the portion size conversation. Do you offer any advice to parents to kind of check in to see if their toddler's eating enough or too much? Like how do you broach that topic? I know you were talking about the O word in the United States is kind of frowned upon at this time, but if a parent's worried like I think my child's growing too quickly, how do you have those conversations with parents if they're worried about intake?
2 (18m 46s):
I am a great believer in tuning into your, your child and I think kids make it pretty obvious when they've had enough to eat and so trusting in your child but watching their behavior as well that you know the a hangry kid has a certain behavior and so sometimes they need to eat a little earlier or need a snack earlier. But I would kids make it pretty clear when they've had enough, you know, they'll swipe the food away, they'll drop the food, they'll play with the food, they'll mush up the food.
0 (19m 17s):
So they're basically showing you their toddler fullness cues.
2 (19m 20s):
Yes, my guidance would always be to, to look at your child and and watch for their cues.
0 (19m 27s):
Let's talk about snacks for a second. 'cause in infant feeding we generally say is babies don't need snacks. The foods that you're offering at meal times plus the infant milk that they're receiving in between meals, it's sufficient to meet their needs. I know in the United States when you kid gets to preschool though, they say you have to send a snack and I'm really reticent to include a lot of snacks because I want my child to have what I call the gift of feeling some casual hunger at meal times. I'm not saying to starve the kid out, but the reality is listening to your body and then the parents setting the meal times. And if we can get those two things aligned where the kid has some hunger at the mealtime, they will be more participatory. What do you recommend to the families that maybe of letting the snacks get outta hand and not, not passing any judgment but you've got a toddler pulling on you day in, day out begging for snacks.
0 (20m 12s):
If a mom comes to you and says that's her situation, is there any advice you could provide to her?
2 (20m 16s):
I had one family that used to set up a whole island, their island filled with foods that their kid could snack on and that very much led to the O word. Okay. And so I would highly recommend not doing that. Okay. What I would recommend is just a small healthy snack, mid meals if needed. I find a lot of kids do want a snack and will eat a snack without it necessarily interfering with the mealtime. But again, you've just gotta be smart about what you're offering and when you're offering it.
0 (20m 48s):
Can I ask you about the process of writing your book? I know it's your third book but when you go to outline the layout of the book and it's called Toddlers Made Easy, which I don't know if that's tongue in cheek 'cause toddlers are quite challenging. I would say. I remember when my quadruples, they're three boys and a girl when they turn three like I don Dunno if it's like cliche but I just thought the twos were pretty bad. And then the threes for the boys, it was so hard for me and I see families with the three-year-old boy and I just like, I don't wanna tell them how bad it is 'cause I think that's not fair. But it's a really hard period of life and how do you lay out your book to, you know, make it easier for parents? So what, what were, what was the thought process and then the development process of the outline of the books?
0 (21m 31s):
'cause it is an overwhelming time. Where do you even start to help parents simplify this?
2 (21m 35s):
From my perspective, a lot of it is reframing how you look at a child's behavior. Because so much of misbehavior is really just a toddler acting their age. And when we realize it differently, we respond to it differently. And that is not to say I'm a permissive parent because I am not whatsoever. But I do think there's a lot of things that we discipline that is really not a be a behavioral problem, but just a normal expected behavior that we can teach kids how to handle things differently without punishment. So more about teaching than punishment.
0 (22m 12s):
Okay. So what were the topics that you wanted to tackle in the book?
2 (22m 15s):
Probably the biggest overriding topic is that one of the things I feel that we do with toddlers is treat them like they're many adults or big kids and they really are just big infants and that we need to see them as the little kids. They still are and they're still vulnerable and they still need us to, to protect them without punishing them. I'm, as you can tell, not very much into punishing a toddler.
0 (22m 44s):
I, I picked up on that but I also heard you say you're not a permissive parent. So what would you describe yourself as it, I know that you, you probably don't wanna put yourself in a parenting box, but if someone says, you know, describe your parenting philosophy as a pediatrician, how do you do that?
2 (22m 59s):
I use this term big hearted parenting because I like to make sure it's head and heart. And I do think it's easy to, with gentle parenting for instance, I think it's very easy to do the gentle but not very easy to do the boundaries and firmness. But there are ways of doing that that is kind and still firm. As a matter of fact, my, my episode today is about how to say no in a kind but yet still firm way.
0 (23m 27s):
I love big hearted parents. Can you please run with that? Like that is, that's what parents wanna be. You still offering the guardrails? I'm still being compassionate but also I'm the boss.
2 (23m 38s):
Exactly. The point is that I like to think in terms of misbehavior but also I've heard this term and I love it, which is mis discipline. So there's finding that dis that balance between misbehavior and mis discipline.
0 (23m 52s):
What is mis discipline? I've never heard that. And how would you describe that?
2 (23m 56s):
Let's say you want your nine month old to share a toy and I'm going in extremes because it makes more sense when you think of it that way. No matter how much you punish them or lecture them, they're not gonna share a toy 'cause they don't get it yet. Well the same thing is true of a 2-year-old. It's just they look like a little adult. You expect them to to do it. And so mis discipline to me is when we apply discipline and it's, it's just not gonna click. They're too young, they haven't reached their development wise and it doesn't matter which, whether you're gentle or firm or permissive, it's not gonna happen.
0 (24m 32s):
You're using the wrong approach. It's like when sometimes if a baby is experiencing growth faltering or falling off their growth curve and unfortunately we'll have doctors say, well they should start Solid Foods early. It's like, well that's an asinine recommendation 'cause that child cannot yet use food to help with growth because they don't know how to eat. So telling the mom to pump them full of a food, they can't physiologically eat that. That's a recipe for disaster. Like making a nine month old share a toy. Like it makes sense that an older person could share a toy, an older child can use food to promote growth. But a baby who doesn't know how to eat yet certainly cannot.
2 (25m 4s):
Yes. Well I mean we in our day would use puree foods and you could solve it that way or at least help the situation that way.
0 (25m 13s):
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It's an exclusive space accessible only to those you invite. So there's no unwanted eyes, just a secure personal haven for your family's memories. If you are looking to level up your photo sharing and organization game with a secure one stop easy to use photo organization app, head over to the app store, search family album, that's one word, family album and download the family album app for free and start creating a legacy of love. One photo at a time. I wanna ask your opinion on baby led weaning when a parent comes into your office.
0 (26m 50s):
Okay, I wanna know your opinion pre grandchild and post grandchild. Like five years ago a mom came in and would ask you about baby led weaning. What did you think about it and did your outlook change after having your own grandchild? Who did do some baby led weaning?
2 (27m 2s):
I come from this from a slightly paranoid perspective in that my brother had a very bad choking episode and involved us rushing to the hospital and me as a kid there with him. So I have this huge anxiety around choking. And so initially I was really uncomfortable with baby led weaning. I was able to be honest with my patients in the office that I just didn't know enough or have enough firsthand experience. However, after I watched my daughter with my grandchild, I love baby led weaning and I feel very differently about it and I'm just so impressed with, with watching my lovely, amazing grandchild eat.
0 (27m 44s):
Okay. Tell me about some of the foods that your granddaughter's eating these days.
2 (27m 47s):
Basically anything she'll eat meals. Well yes, what she loves, it's always pasta. Pasta. But she eats pasta with chili and she eats tacos. She eats gra dim sun, I don't even know the food. She in dim sun, she eats eggplant, she eats cauliflower, she loves her vegetables, tomatoes, she loves everything
0 (28m 13s):
That's, I mean a testament to your daughter and the other parent. If there is one for offering all those foods, I mean how did she know how to do that?
2 (28m 23s):
Well she didn't get it from me to be honest with you. But you know, having your mother as a pediatrician is a very spicy situation almost. But she learned it from you and from other websites is exactly how she learned it.
0 (28m 39s):
Well I think it's amazing. You told me she was eating dim sum and eggplant and, and not to brag but just to show that this is possible, like babies and toddlers don't just have to eat white rice cereal and pouches and all these processed puffs. Can I ask you about, you know, meal times, you mentioned that sometimes there can be a power struggle with toddlers and I was curious if you had any tips for parents to how they might approach feeding in a way that fosters a positive and stress-free environment. And I realize that those are very fraught terms 'cause like you can't have a stress-free meal with a toddler, but like to help reduce anxiety and battles around mealtimes. Is there any pieces of advice you give to parents of toddlers?
2 (29m 16s):
I think you can have a stress-free approach to feeding. Like I don't think just because you're a toddler means eating is gonna be stressful. There are different types of feeders and there are little kids who will try anything and eat anything and have a great appetite, great and have a great appetite. And then there's these little kids who have less of an appetite and are much more cautious about how they approach food but are still willing to try some. And then there are the kids that are super cautious and are very unwilling to try anything, but the vast majority of kids are gonna fall in the, I'm willing to give it a try category. And for those kids I would really recommend not just focusing on sitting down at the table and mealtime, but everything that comes beforehand.
2 (30m 3s):
Have one of the towers and let your kids help prepare the foods garden if you like to garden and grow some foods. Let the kids come with you and pick out the vegetables and fruits when you're shopping. So think of the mealtime as starting much earlier than when you're sitting in the chair at the table. But once you do get to that chair in the table, I would highly recommend you talk very little bit about food and unless you're talking about the color or the smell, but talk about the family, what you did today, when, what was fun, what was the best part of the day, and focus on a, a family experience as opposed to focusing on food. And also be prepared for that selective stage.
2 (30m 45s):
Most kids go through it and it's a normal phase just like learning to share or learning to walk. So is same thing goes with learning to eat different foods and new foods.
0 (30m 56s):
How can parents balance offering healthy choices with allowing their toddler to make their own decisions at the table? Like we obviously have moved away from an era, you know, infant, toddler feeding. We say, you know, finish your plate and you have to eat everything. We, we want children to recognize and be able to respond to their own internal hunger and fullness cues, but they wanna be independent too. So any tips there for promoting independence within reason at mealtimes with toddlers?
2 (31m 21s):
I think that if basically what you have at the table is something you're happy with them eating that all of their choices that are good choices now that might be too idealistic that there's nothing there that isn't okay. But I think if you step back and realize not each meal has to be balanced, you feel more relaxed at letting them make the choices at the mealtime.
0 (31m 45s):
So your new book highlights the challenges and the joys of raising toddlers. You include some information in there on feeding. What's one key message that you would like parents to walk away from your work knowing about toddlers?
2 (31m 57s):
I would walk away with, I'd like to share this thought that being a toddler is tough and that we need to stop being so tough on toddlers but also ourselves. And basically the, what I'm really trying to say is that we need to start looking at things from a toddler's perspective a little bit to understand their experience. And it makes it so much easier when you do that to figure out how to stop a behavior you don't like or encourage one you wanna see more of
0 (32m 23s):
Dr. Tobin, I am obsessed with your Instagram. You, you have 1.2 million followers. I think it's so amazing that you're using social media to bring your evidence and science based background to parents, but it's in such an approachable manner, like your Instagram is so fun. I I was shocked to find out that you do your own Instagram. So can you just tell me a little about the, the history? Like how'd you decide to get on Instagram? When did it start getting big? Do you make all of the graphics yourself? Do you do it in Canva? Like, I'm just dying to know all the things about your Instagram. 'cause I just think it's such a fabulous resource
2 (32m 55s):
When, funny little backstory is that on the day I got my acceptance to medical school, I also got an acceptance to my dream art school and I had to decide which direction to go, which for me was not a big decision, but eventually Instagram for me is sort of bringing them both together again. And I started Instagram when I was finding in my office. I just didn't have the time to spend on these types of, of issues that I love to talk about and I think parents need, but the sick kids off obviously take precedence over the behavioral stuff. And so I started this account to fill that gap and it did take off, it took off more than I had expected and it's grown with me from being a baby accountant into a, a toddler account and will continue to grow.
0 (33m 46s):
I love that. And do you enjoy Instagram? And you can be honest 'cause I personally, it's my favorite some days, but
2 (33m 52s):
I enjoy making the posts and thinking about creating things to help families, but I'm not sure I love the experience on it. You know, it's not my generation as much. I, I am find a lot of the oversharing, I don't get, but I like creating the page I've created and I like reading other people's accounts that I've sort of selected. So that's a way of wish washing, giving you a wishy answer of,
0 (34m 22s):
I think
2 (34m 23s):
I some sort of,
0 (34m 24s):
But I agree with you, the oversharing, I don't get either, but you're using your expertise 30 years of practicing as a pediatrician and you're communicating that on a medium where a lot of parents are. That's really cool.
2 (34m 36s):
I enjoy that.
0 (34m 37s):
Tell me about the podcast.
2 (34m 38s):
The podcast is, I keep everything bite-sized as you can probably tell from my account. And so it is a bite-sized podcast. So I, I try to do 10 minute episodes where I just cut out everything but what you need to know to solve a problem so it's filled with quick wins for different toddler problems.
0 (34m 57s):
Thank you. As a parent, I appreciate cutting out everything you don't need to know and just focusing on what you do is really, really nice in this day and age where I think there's too much info and most of it we don't need. It's like, here's what I think you should know as a parent of toddlers and and thank you for bringing all of this information to the parents. I know you spend as I do a lot of time making free content and I'm just curious what we can do to support you and your business since a lot of parents listening are huge fans of yours as well. As am I.
2 (35m 28s):
Well, thank you. That's very sweet. Please, I'd love it if people followed me at my account, which is at Healthiest Baby and I do have a, a new book out Toddlers Made Easy that's available on Amazon and ebook and all the major bookstores and it's a fa it's a beautiful book. The publisher's done a gorgeous design of it and it also is bite-size answers and quick wins. Well,
0 (35m 54s):
Thank you so much. It was such a pleasure meeting you and getting to chat with you.
2 (35m 57s):
Thank you. You as well. Very much so.
0 (36m 0s):
Well, I hope you enjoyed that interview with Dr. Cathryn Tobin. I just love her very straightforward approach. Like she doesn't like to put parents in boxes. You know, you heard her say she doesn't wanna talk about you being a gentle parent or a permissive parent. I love her big-hearted parenting messages, so be sure to check Dr. Katherine's book out called Toddlers Made Easy Becoming the Parent Every Child Needs. That's wherever you Get books. Her podcast is also called Toddlers Made Easy and on Instagram, she's at Healthiest Baby. I will put all of the resources in the show notes for this episode that's gonna be@blwpodcast.com slash 4 8 6, and a very special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science in using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave.
0 (36m 42s):
We are online@blwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.
4 (36m 56s):
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