A bespoke service because every family is unique…
blog.jpg

Blog

“History will judge us by the difference we make in the everyday lives of children" – Nelson Mandela

 

Categories

ALL | Babies | Behaviour | Bereavement | Co-Parenting | Food and weaning | Getting to know | Grandparents | Health | Lockdown | Nursery | Other | Play | Routines | School | Separation anxiety | Siblings | Sleep | Teething | Toilet Training | Transitions | Travel | Tweens and Teens | Twins

You can also check out all of our practical videos on our YouTube Channel here - these include nappy changing, making up a bottle, topping and tailing and so much more!

 
 
Posts in Food and weaning
Fussy Eating… A stress of the past!

Written by Holly Howard, Founder of Nanny Cooks. Having nannied across the world, I have supported young ones from babies who are weaning all the way up to 12 year old children. I have come across a fair few fussy eaters along the way. This has allowed me to create a bank of resources to help deal with the challenges of fussy eaters and test tricks to help prevent it.

Read More
Screentime and mealtimes…is it ok?

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. There are always a lot of opinions when it comes to the use of screens with children and this could be a whole blog in itself, but for this blog I want to specifically focus on the use of screens (ipads, phones, TV’s) when a child is eating. 

We live in a world where we have portable devices which allow us to access games, videos and TV wherever we might be.  Whilst there are benefits of this, there are also times when it can cause some issues.  We might remember the time when there was a lot of talk about ‘TV dinners’ and what impact these might be having on the family mealtime but also on our children…fast forward and we are now looking at the impact of screentime (specifically portable devices) on our children’s eating and mealtime experience.

Read More
Cow’s milk allergies and the milk ladder

Written by Emma Shafqat, Dietitian with a Difference. I have experience with cow’s milk allergies and dairy ladder (it is offically called the milk ladder) both professionally and personally. When my little girl was 12 months old, we made our first attempt at the milk ladder.

We made it past step one and two and then couldn’t get any further. Let’s just say there was a lot of crying and vomiting, so we took a break. After two more attempts and feeling like we would never enjoy birthday parties as a family, we finally made it to the top of the ladder when my daughter was three and a half… although - between you and me - she still flatly refuses cow’s milk, claiming she can’t have it, despite happily eating ice cream and chocolate milkshakes!

Suffice to say that I’ve been there. So here, I’ll take you through the types of cow’s milk allergies, signs and symptoms, and what to do if you think your child has a cow’s milk allergy.

Read More
Is your child sitting comfortably at mealtimes?

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. When it comes to mealtimes can you be sure that your little one is sitting comfortably? We can often find that babies, toddlers and older children can fidget at mealtimes, want to climb out of a highchair or refuse to use the chair that you are suggesting.

For our children to eat well they also need to be sitting comfortably, but what do I mean by this?

Read More
My 11 top tips for helping with fussy, picky, choosy eaters!

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. At one time or another most parents and child carers find themselves in the position of trying to persuade a little one to eat something and quite often it is something they have previously loved and are now refusing!

We all go through phases and stages of enjoying certain foods but then sometimes just not wanting to eat it. Lots of things can impact on this, from the amount of fresh air that we have had that day, exercise or lack of exercise, number of snacks or size of the previous meal, peer pressure or generally just how you might be feeling! Our children are no different and often they aren’t involved in the process of preparing food, so plates of food are just be put in front of them and sometimes they just don’t feel like eating it!

Read More
Eating as a family

Written by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. In recent weeks there are has certainly been much more opportunity for us all to have family mealtimes.  For many families this has been a really positive thing to have come out of this difficult situation, having more time to cook, but also being able to sit at the table all together. 

As it is National Weaning week this week, we have decided to have a look at the things that you can do with each age group to enhance the family mealtime experience.

Read More
'Fussy', 'picky', 'choosy' eater!

Written for Doddl.com by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. The term fussy eating (or sometimes picky eating) is commonly used to describe when children start to refuse food, but I would prefer to use a more positive reference, and this would be ‘choosy’ eating.  So, do you have a choosy eater?  Have you suddenly noticed that your child, who has eaten pretty much everything up until now is now refusing food that they have always eaten?  Or have they narrowed down their choices to only eating certain foods, perhaps just beige food such as pasta, potatoes etc (which is very common), or only eating certain vegetables (if any) or things such as cucumber/tomatoes etc.  If so, it might help to reassure you if I say that it is completely (and developmentally) normal for children to go through this stage.

Read more here…

Read More
The next stage - Real food! Tastes, textures and flavours!

Written for Doddl.com by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Very often when we start to introduce our babies to food we think that it must be bland, basic and not very much fun!  That is absolutely not the case as we want to show our babies the wonderful world of food and how they can take time to explore, taste, touch and smell all of the amazing foods we have!

Read more here…

Read More
The importance of eating out with your children!

Written for Doddl.com by Claire Burgess, Family Consultant. Pre-children, you and your partner may have enjoyed eating out in various restaurants, trying out different foods and experiences. I’m sure that you viewed these outings as fun and social experiences – we tend to be brought together with our friends and family by food and the occasion of it. Post-children it is very common that eating out in different restaurants (other than those which have the ‘child friendly’ signs) are a thing of the past and where you think you will go once the children are ‘much older’!!

Read More