When we want to find new ways for our children to appreciate food, we often turn to cookbooks for guidance or look for the latest food trend on the internet. But nowadays, we can also turn to the podcast app on our smartphones for advice from parents and professionals to help us get kids out of that culinary rut and make mealtimes less stressful for everyone.
We recently found five shows that helped inspire us to find new ways for our kids to develop a positive relationship with what’s on their plate. If there are others you enjoy that aren’t listed here, please share them in the comments.
Kiddos in the Kitchen
Like any parent, Stephanie Conner wants her son to develop a healthy connection with food. But when he was diagnosed with multiple food allergies, including to dairy, peanuts, and soy, she felt “stuck” on how to help him build that relationship.
She created the Kiddos Cook blog and its audio offshoot, Kiddos in the Kitchen, to help develop her son’s love of all things culinary. In each monthly episode, Conner shows that cooking with kids can be messy (literally and figuratively), but it doesn’t have to be complex.
Her questions for doctors, feeding specialists, chefs, and restaurateurs reveal a genuine curiosity that is inspiring and comforting. And it can be a relief to any stressed-out parent to hear cookbook author Chef Del Sroufe say that, like most parents, he also cycles through the same recipes week after week when he isn’t entertaining guests.
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Healthy Family Project
Simple things like growing your food in a garden or meal planning can seem intimidating or like a drain on your valuable time. Amanda Keefer, mother of two girls and the host of the Healthy Family Project podcast, is aware of how overwhelmed parents can feel when they hear buzzwords around food trends, and she takes that into consideration when speaking with her guests.
We especially love that she’s not shy about discussing what she feels are her own shortcomings, and the bloggers, doctors, and dietitians she talks to offer her valuable advice in an engaging way; this isn’t a boring lecture series about all the things they think you should be doing. The tone will make the listener feel less alone in their struggles to feed their children.
The Messy Intersection
Like any good podcast, Diana K. Rice’s The Messy Intersection draws you in with engaging stories. Her guests certainly have compelling stories to tell. They range from getting shamed by a pediatrician for feeding their kids Lucky Charms, to the challenges of breastfeeding, to bonding over episodes of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood.
Rice encourages listeners to “embrace the mess” and creates a safe space for her interviewees—usually the registered dietician’s peers—to share the evidence-based insights that stem from their stories about “raising kids resilient to diet culture.” And she isn’t afraid to play devil’s advocate when their opinions get a little passionate.
Tube to Table
With all the messiness and social anxiety that comes with ensuring their children receive proper nutrition, it can be stressful being the parent of a tube-fed child. But weaning them toward a more traditional mealtime experience comes with its own set of challenges.
Hosts and feeding specialists Jennifer Berry and Heidi Liefer Moreland invite their guests to share practical guidance that cuts through the conflicting information parents often receive and helps shine a light on a condition many parents and doctors are still discovering how to treat. One Apple Podcast commenter even wrote that Tube to Table “normalized all the feelings I’ve ever felt” raising a tube-dependent child.
Food Crimes
Podcasts aren’t just for parents. Food Crimes is a parody of courtroom procedurals where actual kids argue real cuisine cases in front of a judge to discover who should get their just desserts for not sharing a milkshake or forgetting to put the yogurt back in the fridge (guilty!).
Episodes are about the length of a car ride home from school, so your littles will be entertained while you get your true crime fix. There’s a catch: The podcast is on the Pinna platform, which requires a subscription—but you can avail yourself of a four-week free trial to see if the service is right for your family.
