Full Transcript

Recorded September 2, 2021

Hello,

I wanted to start by introducing myself, because I think maybe some of you are regular, like parent playbook members. And some of you may be people who aren’t, who are joining. So I really did want to say welcome. So this is a regular thing for us at the parent playbook. We usually do these lives once a month, although generally, they’re on Facebook instead.

So I’m a pediatric dietician. So what I can say is I’ve been working as a dietician since 2009 and I specialize in pediatrics. So I work in Toronto and I work at St. Michael’s hospital. So I work in our pediatric department, which is both the neonatal. Oh, someone’s saying they can’t hear me Daniella. Can’t hear me. How about anyone else?

Is it, where is the volume working for other people? I know for Stella. Angela. Okay, good. Sorry, Daniela. I wonder maybe if it’s just something with your computer because it hopefully is working for everyone else. The other thing that I can also say too, is that if you miss anything, if your volume isn’t working, or if you have to step out,

don’t worry about it. Cause everything is going to be loaded to the parent playbook website later. So you’ll be able to watch the individual clips. So even if you write your question in, don’t worry, I’ll get to it and I’ll make sure to say the name of it. So you’re able to find it easier. Oh, Toba is here. Hi Tovah.

Thank you for joining. There are a few familiar people here who I’m seeing. So just getting back to a bit about me. So I’ve been working as a dietician since 2009. I work at St. Michael’s hospital. So I work in pediatrics. So we have an outpatient pediatric department. And then I also work in their neonatal intensive care unit. And then I also work at sick kids,

affiliated clinic called boomerang health, which is involved. So it’s all different types of pediatric care. That’s more geared to people in north of Toronto. And then I also have my own private practice. If you don’t follow me on Instagram, I’m at kids.digestive.health, just because it’s something I really like to focus in on. So you can always find me there and ask me questions too.

So in terms of the timing, I think it would be great to get started. If people had any questions, I’m more than happy to answer them. So if you do have questions, just write them in the chat box and then I can get through the questions that are there. And if no one has questions right now, I do have some that people left in my DMS after it didn’t after we had the tech challenges last week.

So I can also answer some of those. So those people who sent in questions are able to have their questions answered as well. So if anyone has questions, I’m just going to have a sip of water. I’ll give you a chance to type them in. And then I can get started with answering all of, all of the questions that you have about nutrition.

Okay. And I’m curious too, if you do have questions, you could also say, you know, like how old your child is. I may ask for some extra information. The question is it’s a challenge. Okay. So I’m going to start with the first question for this. So this question is from chattier and she says, my eight month old daughter seems to have some kind of reaction and I’m unable to trace it source.

Okay. So to start with this, we know that babies can have different types of reactions to different types of foods, but then there’s also other things that they can have reactions to as well. Sometimes pinpointing it can be a challenge. I always think it’s nice to do this collaboratively with your doctor and with your dietician, because I think the most important thing first is ruling out that there’s nothing of concern,

right? Whether it’s like a skin condition and your baby needs to see a dermatologist, whether it’s something that you need to see an allergist or a gastroenterologist, I would say, make sure you’re checking with your doctor first and just ruling out all of the bigger sort of scarier stuff I would say. And then if there’s nothing that’s of concern and they think maybe it’s more so a sensitivity to a food,

that’s absolutely something you can do. So I always like to pinpoint first the foods that are considered the top allergens to make sure it couldn’t be something like that. So that could be things like milk, soy, wheat, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree, nuts, and peanuts. So what you can always do for that is something where you are offering the food,

you watch the symptoms and then you remove it from their food for a week, and then you can watch their symptoms at that time. And then you reintroduce the food. So what that does is it’s called like a B AB testing. So it’s a way to remove it, reintroduce it, and then see how your baby responds. And if you feel like they do have a sensitivity to that food,

you’d be able to see the improvement in the removal process. And then those symptoms coming back once you re-introduced. So that’s going to be my advice for you, but please just check in with your doctor first and that’s going to be the most important part of it. Okay. Thank you. So let’s get to another question. So that’s okay. Sorry.

I’m just scrolling back. Now. I have a question from Daniella. So Danielle is asking my eight month. Oh, sorry. Let me re-say that Danielle is asking is two meals a day. Good for a six month old getting two meals and about 22 ounces of milk. Okay. So Daniella, I think you’re like totally above the curve right here.

So when baby starts solids, we expect them to start solids between six oh, sorry. Four to six months or when they’re developmentally ready. Right. So at four months, some babies are showing they’re developmentally ready by looking like they’re very interested in food. They’re sitting up in the high chair, they have good head support when you start to move the spoon towards their mouth,

they’re interested. So those are all great, but that only happens for some babies at six months. So if you’re looking at a baby at six months, some of them will just be starting some foods and some of them may have been already eating foods for the past two months. So if your baby is doing well at six months, enjoying foods and having two meals a day,

I think that that’s fantastic. So I think that’s suitable. And if all goes well with us at six months over the next month to two, I would think about going up to three meals a day if they’re really enjoying their solids. Okay. That’s a good question. Thank you. Okay. Anna has a question. How dangerous is processed foods like sausages and cheese for two and a half year old?

Okay. This is actually a really fantastic question because it’s such a challenge and we know that, you know, on one hand it’s like impossible to make everything for your baby, right? Especially if you’re working, it’s just hard to find the time to cook. So convenience is an important thing. And I wouldn’t want you to go crazy in the midst of trying to give your child something where everything is homemade.

But on the other hand, we do know that there are health implications for things like what we call ultra processed foods. And we know that there is a balance. So if you actually look at this sort of magic ratio, what it is is as long as you’re getting less than a third of your calories a day from ultra processed foods and two thirds from fresh or minimally processed foods,

that’s actually a really great balance for health. So what I would say is I wouldn’t consider cheese and ultra processed food. I actually think there’s a lot of health benefits to cheese for toddlers, whether it’s going to be things like the calcium, the vitamin D the B12, and then if you’re having cheese, you’re more likely, that’s a healthier snack than if you’re having something like goldfish,

for example. So I wouldn’t stress out about the cheese, but in terms of the sausage, I would say it’s something to have maybe not every day, but just to have on occasion. Right? So whether you want it to have that as part of like a Saturday morning breakfast, that’s great. Or you can try to mix it up with maybe the other days of the week,

more fresh chicken that you’ve cooked and then save the sausage for another opportunity. I think that that’s a really good balance. Okay. Thank you. That’s a good question, Anna. Okay. Danielle is asking, is cheese and yogurt okay. For a seven month old? Absolutely. So in the past, there was always this progression that was first, you start with cereal and then you start with vegetables and then you start with fruit and then you go to meats.

And actually that was all made up. So historically all the formula and baby food companies would go into the hospitals and they would do education with the doctors, the nurses, the dieticians. And it really was on these protocols that were again made up and there was no rhyme or reason to them. So we do know that cheese and yogurt are completely okay,

except for babies who do have dairy sensitivities or dairy allergies. But separate to that, I would feel very comfortable with that for the yogurt, try to do a plain yogurt instead of a sweetened yogurt. But apart from that, I feel comfortable with a seven month old eating cheese and yogurt. Okay. So I’m going to go next to a question from Angela.

So Angela says my nine month old seems to have a slight allergy to shrimp. Should we avoid it completely or try again? So my advice would be, don’t give it for now go to your pediatrician or your family doctor, because you may need referral to an allergist. I think it’s better to be on the safe side. And then based on their advice,

they can give you like specific advice based on your baby, what you should do with that, but better to be safe. Yeah. So that’s, that’s my opinion. Am I speaking? Okay. If I’m speaking like too fast, too slow, let me know. I do tend to talk really fast or if I’m too quiet, then I can definitely adjust.

So I’ll keep my eye on that as well. Okay. I’m just trying to scroll back up to where I was last. Okay. Oh, a lot of people are in here with babies, which is great. Cause actually babies are my favorite type of clients to have. So I actually really love all the intro to solids questions. Don’t get me wrong.

I’ll take any age range up to 17 for your 17 years for your questions. But babies definitely are my favorite age range. Okay. So I Ana’s saying my eight and a half month old vomits, every time she eats solid she’s okay with pureed, even baby first food crackers that melt in the mouth. Okay. This actually brings up an interesting point because there is a bit of a difference between like gagging and between vomiting.

So oftentimes when we think of gagging, babies do have sensitive gag reflexes, and this often comes out when they’re starting to eat more texture foods. So it is a challenge because babies need to get that gag reflex desensitized. And actually the best thing to do in terms of that would be, and I learned this from my occupational therapy colleagues who are really great at this is that again,

keep working on some of those crackers that melt in the mouth. So these are considered like dissolvable solids. So that would be things like your baby mum, mums, or really anything that’s Matchstic shaped. So essentially would be sort of like half an inch by half an inch by about two inches. So that could be something like a sweet potato fry as well,

because as your baby starts to work on eating those foods, what the teaches them is it teaches them to move their tongue sideways, which is an essential skill for being able to move foods around in the mouth. So that’s, I would say to keep working on it, of course, a supportive environment is going to be really important. So you want to make sure is that you’re not pressuring her,

that she’s doing it on her own accord and that she’s comfortable. And then I think with time and practice, it should hopefully get better if you find that it’s not getting better over the next month or so, I would consider seeing an occupational therapist because that way they can give you some more specific strategies about things that you could do, but on the whole,

it usually is practice comfort and then time for them to get over that gag reflex. So, and then if it’s sorry, what I did want to say too, if that’s all for gagging, if it is truly for vomiting, especially if she’s vomiting every time she’s exposed to a specific food, definitely check in with your pediatrician because sometimes allergies can also show up in babies as vomiting.

So think about those two things. Okay. That, that’s the question though. I Ana, okay. I’m going to go next to a question from one face. So one face saying, hi, question about baby led weaning. Is there any baby led weaning principles you don’t agree with? So for example, baby led weaning to breastfeed on demand and babies will wean themselves when they are ready,

babies would eat the amount and type of food they need, et cetera. What’s your position. Okay. This is a very controversial question. So I do love that you asked us, so baby led weaning just in case you’re not familiar with the concept, what it is, is it babies, eating foods that are all solid foods are I guess, more textured foods that they feed themselves and it’s not food,

that’s on a spoon. So essentially a puree. So it’s become really popular. And there are principles of it that I really like, but there are principles of it that I don’t necessarily think is great for all babies. So the first thing is thinking that like we don’t eat or babies don’t need food on a spoon, but as adults, like, we eat so many foods on a spoon.

We yogurt, we have soup. So it’s not like we don’t need to learn this skill. We do need to learn the skill. So I think that sometimes it can be taken to a bit of a hardcore level where babies have nothing on a spoon. And I find that there is a way that you could balance both the babies who baby led weaning is not suitable for our,

in my opinion, working with premature babies, I don’t feel it suitable for premature babies just because they have such high calorie needs. They have higher nutrient needs compared to babies who are born at term so often they’re sort of deprived of that time to get some good nutrition in that they could get by spoon. So that’s one category. I’m not a huge fan of fur baby led weaning.

And then the other category are babies who have growth, faltering or failure to thrive, just because oftentimes for them to eat enough calories from their foods, it can be a challenge during baby led weaning just because it may take them to the time they’re like seven or eight months to get a bit more nutrition from food. So I’m not a huge fan of it for babies with failure to thrive,

but separate to that, if you have a baby who’s developing beautifully growing well, really loves self feeding is not interested in the spoon. Feel totally comfortable with baby led weaning, right. Go for it and watch for the signs of choking. But if you have a baby who likes both, they like being spoonfed, but they also like exploring and feeding themselves,

then find the hybrid. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I think, you know, your baby best. So do whatever approach works for you and always feel comfortable in that gray area without feeling like you have to go to one extreme or the other. Okay. So I have a question from Daniella. So Daniella says, sorry for the information, but is it okay if my baby’s poo has pieces of solid food?

Like anti-gay vested food. Yeah. That’s totally not too much information at all. I feel like I talk about babies and stools all the time. And if you saw of the diaper photos that come in my inbox, you would get a laugh at it. Totally normal, nothing wrong. If you’re seeing pieces of corn, if you’re seeing pieces of an on digested food,

a lot of people worry that it’s a sign that your baby is their digestive tract. Isn’t working, not true at all. Very normal for babies and obviously normal for some adults too, especially for some foods. So nothing to be concerned about there for stools. The only things that really worry me are if the stools are black, if they’re red like bloody,

or if they’re white. And then of course, if there’s copious diarrhea or if there’s constipation, but separate to that and digested food is not an issue. Okay. My next question is from Ella. So Ella says, my son is 14 months old. It’s been, oh, sorry. I just lost track of that. And thank you so much for all the questions I love.

Just seeing all these questions popping up. This is really great to see. And I actually do love being put on the spot without being asked all these. So I hope you’re enjoying it cause I really am enjoying the process. Okay. So Ellis says, my son is 14 months old. It’s been two months now. He’s not drinking milk at all.

Is this normal? Yes. Not all babies love milk, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong if they don’t love milk. If anything, I get worried when babies love too much milk, just because they’re at higher risk of becoming iron deficient. So what I would say is anything between zero to 500 milliliters of milk per day for a 14 month old is okay if they’re on the low end of the range and they don’t like to have milk as long as they’re having other calcium fortified products and that they eat on a daily basis,

yogurt, cheese kefir, or if they, if you’re choosing non dairy things, if you did like a fortified, soy yogurt, coconut yogurt, and then also things like tofu, Tempe, et cetera. And you don’t have to worry. I would suggest a vitamin D supplement for babies who aren’t drinking milk at all at 14 months, but it’s very normal.

They may change with time, but don’t feel that you have to pressure your son to drink milk. Yeah. Okay. So Ashley is saying, oh my two month old, won’t try any new foods. He stuck to what he likes and knows, and won’t even try anything new put on his plate. He’s also started to make a gag sound when he sees unappealing food on our plates,

such as salad. How can we encourage him to try help? Okay. Very common question. I, I honestly thought that the picky eating or the fussy eating would be the first question I would get today. So I think before we get to some of the later goals, I just want to talk about the most important things which are hunger and enjoyment.

So if we look at toddlers about like over 90% of toddlers are fussy eaters, and again, have eating behaviors very similar to your son. But if you look at adults, only 2% of adults are picky. So it’s developmentally normal for him to be doing the things that he’s doing. And then with time it will get better. But what I like to talk about is what we can do in this time period,

to help make that process a little bit easier for you and easier for him as well. So this is where I get into the hunger and enjoyment. And these are the things I really focus in as a dietician. So we’ll talk about enjoyment first, cause it sounds like he may not be enjoying his meals if he’s starting to gag when he sees unappealing foods.

So for us to eat, it has to be an enjoyable process. And sometimes the environment at meal times can make it unenjoyable. So the analogy I always like to use is think of the worst dinner party you ever went to. And when you think about that, some of the common traits that I always think of for bad experiences are that the meal was too long.

There was food that I just didn’t like, I felt really obliged to eat the food. So those are the things to, as an adult, if those happen, you’re like, I’m never going back to that house for dinner again. But if you’re a kid, you have to keep coming back to the table over and over and over. So the first thing I really like to focus in on is enjoyment.

And I wonder that maybe if he’s doing things like gagging, if maybe that there’s a bit of even unanticipated unintended pressure or coercion at meal times, that makes him feel that way. Because oftentimes I would see that gag as a red flag, that he’s feeling uncomfortable at meals and not enjoying it. So the first thing I talk about is to try to minimize any pressure,

try not to have expectations that anyone has to eat and then keeping the meal times light and enjoyable. If they’re taking like 60 minutes, I would set the timer for 20 or 30 minutes. So those are again a brief summary of sort of the enjoyment phase. The other phase that I like to talk about is hunger. So similar to you, like if you had lunch two hours earlier,

you probably wouldn’t really want to eat. Or likewise, if you had lunch to average later, you’d probably sort of like, feel that slump you’d be tired. You would, you know, you just don’t feel great and you may not even even want to eat at that point. You know, sometimes if you get over hungry, you just don’t even feel like eating.

So a lot of times it’s getting children to the table when they’re hungry, can make a really big difference. So because of that, the first thing I would say is try to minimize any grazing. So if you have like a snack cupboard that he really loves to go to and get like granola bars goldfish through the day, trying to put limits on when this kitchen is open and when the kitchen is closed for a two-year-old,

I would say meals and snacks should be spaced every two to three hours apart for school aged kids, I say closer to three to four hours apart. So I would think about the schedule that works for you guys and have those set times for meals and snacks and try to minimize snacking or drinking fluids that have calories in between. So things like milk or juice.

And I think those are the absolute, you know, basic places that we start in terms of getting him to try food. That’s a later goal. And I think you may have to work through a few things to get to that point first, but I would start with some smaller goals first. So the smaller goals could be something like how long he’s sitting at the table for another goal could be,

if you Google something called the 32 steps to eating. So eating is like the number 32 at a 32 steps that maybe you could focus on other things first. Right? So maybe focusing on one of the earlier steps, which is like being in the same room as a food and feeling comfortable and then starting to touch it with the fork and then starting to put it to your mouth.

So anyway, I highly encouraged looking up 32 steps to eating. If you do have questions about this process, cause again, it does take time and support. You could just send me a message because I do work a lot. I have like a five appointment package that I do with some patients for this. So anyway, that’s just my basic place to start,

but I would focus on hunger and enjoyment. Okay. That was a long-winded answer. So let me just have a sip of water first before I answer the next question. Sure. Okay. So Tova has a question. My four year old eats, lots of highly processed foods, any suggestions on weaning, he tends to prefer foods that have consistent textures and is focused on one type of cracker chip,

et cetera. I offer lots of fresh unprocessed choices, but never a bite. Okay. Yeah. Another really common struggle. So Toby, thank you for this question. And my perspective is start off really small, right? Like start with one thing. And even for this, we could use a process called food chaining. If it’s one that you’re familiar with.

So food chaining is a way to help work on introducing new foods that are similar to foods, your child likes, but may have one small difference to them. And every child responds differently to them. It works better for some kids than the other, but one example would be, you know, you think of something like, I’ll take an example that you’re saying that he likes,

let me reword it, crackers and chips. So maybe chips can be a good place to start because when you think of chips, oftentimes maybe your child likes something salty. Maybe they like something crunchy. Maybe they liked that it melts in your mouth. So you think of all these texture components of it and think, is there something that I could offer similar,

but just slightly different. So one example could be starting with potato chips and then starting to work on something like, like the root vegetable chips instead, because again, it’s still a chip and it has a lot of those sensory properties, but the color is different and it’s okay to start off with really small, small, small pieces, right? Like you get your little bowl of chips and then you put in one piece and it can be a microscopic crumb of that other type of chip.

And then you slowly start to increase it with time. And then maybe as they start getting more into root vegetable chips, maybe you can start to replace it with something that’s like a different color and still crunchy. So maybe going from like a beet chip to something like a freeze dried strawberry. So it’s making those gradual transitions. It does take time. But I think,

you know, if for some kids it really does work. So one example, I’m trying to think of an example that I’ve used that have been successful for food chaining. One example is like Mac and cheese. So you start with Mac and cheese and then my client went to Mac and cheese, but without the sauce on it, and then they went from Mac and cheese.

Oh, what was it? Oh, I’m thinking of a bad example. Right? I’m not thinking of the right example. Anyway, you can understand sort of the direction that I’m going in, that you start to work towards that. Oh, I know after they went, so they did the Mac and cheese without the sauce, with the sauce, Mac and cheese,

without the sauce. And then they went to orzo orzo pasta and then they went to white rice and then they went to cauliflower rice, and then they went to pieces of steamed cauliflower. So again, this takes time, but it’s one way that you can try to work on that. So hopefully he’s an amenable to food chaining, but it can be a really good strategy to help for children who again are very similar to your son,

which is really common. Okay. I’m just gonna take it. Okay. Okay. So my next question is from Angela. So Angela says that her nine month old, doesn’t like to drink water at all. Often spits it out when it’s given to her, how should we deal with that? And you know, again, this is a common thing for babies,

especially if they’re used to the taste of formula or if they’re used to the taste of breast milk, it’s a big change to get used to water. One of the things too can be what you’re serving it in. So say for example, if you’re serving the water in a bottle and she sees ticketing like formula in a bottle, then it can be a bit frustrating for her.

If she’s like, this is not what I want. So I would work on serving water in a cup. So I would say, especially at nine months, she may really like a straw cup, especially when she figures it out, she may really enjoy it. So especially when that’s fun. So straw cup, sippy cup 360 cup. But out of all of those,

the straw cup is my favorite and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just like the munchkin straw weighted straw cup is a really good option. But a lot of people, when their babies won’t drink water, they’ll jump to being like, maybe I’ll do juice or diluted juice, or maybe I’ll sweeten it. I would try to avoid that because it does make your life a little bit more challenging in the future.

So instead I would just bear with it, give her time, let her have practice and opportunity to work on it, try it in a different cup. And with time she will figure it out and I think learn how to enjoy it. Yeah. Okay. Dela Reid said, I’m so sorry. Stella said my three-year-old is an extremely picky eater and is refusing to eat a lot of foods.

He now doesn’t eat many of the foods, fruit, vegetables, and meat we put in front of him and he’s not putting on a lot of weight. So Stella, I think this is, I’m glad you brought it up because it brings up an interesting point or a point that’s worth talking about. And it’s like, when does picky eating sort of verge into like extremely picky eating?

And I think some of the things that you pick up that you bring up are a few things that just has me more concerned about your son. So in terms of some of the signs where it starts to get too into extremely picky eating, it’s when you said you start to drop percentiles on the growth chart, and then it’s when you start to eliminate whole food groups.

So say for example, if you’re missing vegetables, fruit, and meat, then your son would be at risk of things like not getting enough, vitamin a, not getting enough vitamin C and then from the meat not getting enough iron or B12. So for those reasons, I really would say, please follow up with your pediatrician because the first thing is maybe they need to consider labs.

First. The other thing is that probably your child does need like a multivitamin or a supplement. So you could talk to your family doctor or your pediatrician about that. And then what I had mentioned before about some of the approaches for hunger and enjoyment can also be something that I think with time you’ll have to work towards. But I think you may need a bit of extra help just because he’s an extremely picky eater.

So please go take up the mat, take care of the medical stuff first, and then you may need the help from like an occupational therapist or a combo occupational therapist and dietician to start to work on introducing some of these foods. But I’m glad that you’re catching an hour. And if you start doing something about it now, it definitely will get better with time.

Yeah. Okay. And then Kathy had a question and I think it was a bit similar to about the picky eating that I had said previously. He’s the first to try new foods. So Kathy, I hope that you heard what I had mentioned earlier about the hunger and enjoyment. And then if that, if it didn’t answer your question in enough detail,

please just get in touch with me on Instagram. I’m at kids dot digestive dot dietician. And you can give me a bit more details than I can give you a bit more of a fleshed out answer if I missed anything. Okay. So now we have a question from Abby on how many meals should a two year old be eating and what would be a typical meal plan.

Okay. So in terms of that, a two year old should be eating three meals a day and then one to three snacks depending on their schedule. And again, for a two year old, I would like those meals to be spaced two to three hours apart, or again, if they’re a preschool or preschool or school aged child, it would be every three to four hours apart.

So an example could be like breakfast at seven snack at 10, okay. Lunch at like 1230 afternoon snack around three 30 and then dinner at six. And then depending on maybe a bedtime snack, maybe not, it really depends on the child, whether they need a bedtime snack, but I do think consistency is really good. And then just trying to limit what they’re eating in between meals as well.

And that’s a good suitable meal plan for a two year old. Okay. So Anna has a question and her questions related to Avedon’s that I had just answered. So I’ll just speak to what Anna had to say. So Anna says that she has a two and a half year old, fantastic eater at the daycare, but eats nothing at family dinner time,

she snacks something from their plates, fruit milk, but no full dinner. How bad is it Anna? Not bad at all? This is, this is a really common question. And I think it’s probably because your child is getting so much at daycare. So if you think of the average child in daycare, they get about two thirds of their calories per day at daycare.

So a lot of times, if you’re like having breakfast at home, then they go to daycare. They eat really well. It’s like, there’s no better way to get a child to eat than to be in daycare. And then by the, by the time that they’ve had their like meal and then two snacks at daycare and they get home, they’re full,

they have everything that they need. They have no appetite for dinner. They’re exhausted. So in my opinion, I would say, consider dinner a bonus. Still let your child sit at the meal time and participate in the meal, offer your child the same foods that you’re having. And then of course, a few other foods that they like, you can still do the fruit.

You can still do the milk, but have zero expectations for how much they eat. So keep it light at meal times, no pressure to eat because especially if they’ve eaten while at daycare, they don’t necessarily need to eat dinner. If it’s a day where they didn’t eat as well at daycare, or they’re a little bit hungrier than of course they have that option to eat.

But it’s not something that I would stress about because they’re doing so well at daycare. Yeah. That’s like a, a good problem to have, I would say, okay. So I’m going to answer a question from Danielle. So Danielle says my husband and I are both vegan and gluten-free and she’s celiac as well. So it, Danielle is celiac and she wants to raise their baby.

Who’s a nine month old as close to being in as possible while making sure he’s healthy and thriving. Any thoughts and tips? Absolutely. You can do this. It just means you have to be a little bit more careful with the types of things that you’re serving and with meal planning, but you very much can do this. So I’ll give you the sort of quick rundown on some of the things that we need to focus in for vegan babies,

as well as gluten-free babies. So for babies who are in a vegan diet, we have to be concerned about iron. We have to be concerned about B12. We have to be concerned about zinc and then protein and fat. So what I would say is over the course of the day, you want to make sure that at at least two or the three meals a day,

your child is getting some source of plant-based protein. So whether that’s going to be, I think you’re going to rely a lot on soy, which is great. And I’m more than happy for you to do tofu at a mommy 10, pay all of the options and then also beans lentils, and then especially nut butters and seed butters are going to be another great opportunity.

So if you’re doing those at at least two meals a day, then at least they’re definitely going to get the protein that they need, which is a positive thing. What I’d also encourage you to do is make sure there’s a fat source at every meal. So again, the nut butters and the seed butters are going to be a perfect thing to do of a Cahtos another great thing that you could do.

Or you could add a splash of olive oil, avocado oil, grape seed oil, whatever type of oil works best for you. And that’s going to be another really good way to get the fat in. I would continue a vitamin D supplement. Sorry, I should have mentioned that vitamin D is also going to be important. And then as they get a bit older,

you could also do something like a bit of nutritional yeast on their food as well, just to get that extra B12. And then as time goes on, you know, iron can pose more of an issue with time. So if you’re using any iron fortified cereals right now, you could even consider using them into toddler years as well, or do other iron fortified cereals like cream of wheat or some of the breakfast cereals that are iron fortified with time.

And then I would recommend yearly blood work. I’d also recommend a multivitamin or the time they’re over the age of one, but you’ll just have to talk to your doctor or your dietician for dosing for that just because most of them are dosed for like three plus. So you can get individual recommendations for that. And then in terms of the gluten-free. So with gluten-free,

one of the things that I always think of is when we think of gluten-free commercial products. So say, for example, if you’re going to the grocery store, you’re buying gluten-free bread. A lot of times it will have like double the fat in it compared to standard, you know, breads, for example, that have gluten in them. So a lot of times following a gluten-free diet can be not as great for things like your cholesterol with time.

So what I would say is, I mean, I’m sure you must spend a lot of time cooking by the time you’re having a vegan and gluten-free household, but whatever you could try to do at home, even if it’s easier, that’s going to be a better option than buying something commercially. Or if you’re looking at those gluten-free alternatives in the store, trying to read the label to choose one that has less of the modified oils added to it.

That could be another positive thing. Baking with like almond flour can be another benefit. That’s going to be good for both the beacon and the gluten-free side. And then I feel like there was something else I wanted to say. I wanted to say fortification of flowers, because full light is another really important one. A lot of us get our full eight from four to five flowers,

et cetera. And your child would be getting that on a gluten-free diet. So I would just make sure that you are trying to do fruits and vegetables because they’re a really great source of full, late. And again, with yearly blood work, you may just want to check full late levels as well as things like the B12 iron, et cetera. Anyway,

that was a really long-winded answer. I hope that answered your question though. I hope that that was helpful. Okay. I’m just going to have another sip of water and the questions keep coming, which is great. Thank you. I’ll keep answering them for as long as you’re here. I’m more than happy to, so let me go back to where I,

where I stopped. Okay. Okay. So I haven’t had the question from IANA two and a half year old. Doesn’t like to eat much in general. Some days we get by with just snacks, fruits, cookies, et cetera, other days, he’s a good eater. He’s pretty slim overall, any tips or is this just the way he is?

So when I think about eating habits for two and a half year olds, there’s a few things that I always think of. One of the things that I think of is these variations in appetite, you know, one day they’re a great either the next day, they don’t want to eat anything totally normal. The other thing is, you know, their appetite can slow down a bit too.

Like, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this with your child, but sometimes you’ll have babies between nine to 12 months who like have such a big appetite. They’re eating really big portions. And then just after they turn a year, their appetite drops and they’re only eating a fraction of what they used to have. So these are variations in appetite based on how your child is growing at that time is really normal.

The other thing I always like to bring up too is constipation, because we know that children who are constipated have lower appetites and like constipation is so common up to a third of toddlers are constipated. So sometimes it’s also looking at those other factors that influence their appetite as well. So in terms of what I would think of is sometimes we sort of get into what’s called the worry cycle,

right? Like there’s those days that your child’s eating less. So then you worry, you try to push them a bit more. They don’t like that. So they resist. So I would say trying to get out of that worry cycle, I know that’s hard to do. It’s easy for me to be like, just get out of it, but I would remind yourself a few things to get out of that cycle.

So the most common worries that parents will have in this for recycle is the first one is calories. So as a dietician, I never look at calories for kids for just one day. Instead, I like to look at it over a week. So a lot of times, if you work with a dietician, they’ll say, can you please fill out everything your child ate for five days or seven days,

you know, some school days or like, you know, daycare days, some weekend days and averaging it all out because that average is really important. And for the majority of kids, they will average out enough calories, enough protein. You know, some of the things are a little bit trickier. Like iron is one that can be hard to get enough of depending on their eating,

but on the whole, they generally tend to get enough if you look at the average. So what I would think is on the hard days, just think of, okay, you know, maybe he ate better yesterday. Maybe there’s something else. Like, you know, he ate a really big dinner yesterday and he doesn’t want breakfast today. So think of the averages in terms of slim,

just check in about the growth chart, because it’s really common for their two year olds to look really slim. We’re supposed to have the most fat on us or like the highest percent body fat when we’re actually between four to six months and then children get leaner and leaner and leaner after that. Right? So you often are like, oh my gosh, they’re waist sizes,

the exact same, but they’re getting taller. And you’re supposed to be at your leanest around six years for girls, seven years for boys. So as long as he’s still growing nicely on the growth chart, it’s okay. If he looks slim again, as long as he’s tracking along those same percentiles. So rest assured he’s probably okay if he’s doing well on those good days.

On the days that are a challenge, I would still use the meal schedule that I spoke about before. So aiming for two to three hours between meals for two year olds, and then the school aged children closer to three to four hours trying to limit grazing. And those are some of the things that you can do on the days where his appetite is a bit lower and then try not to pressure him to eat on the days.

His appetite is lower too. Okay. I hope I answered that. Okay. Sorry. My dog is making so much noise. She’s trying to find somewhere to sleep and I hope it’s not too loud for you. Okay. So Angela has a question. Is it normal for a nine month old to poop after every meal? Two to three times a day?

Yes. Every baby has like a huge range in terms of their bowel bowel movements. And as long as you know, it’s not like copious watery diarrhea, then that would be a concern, but it is very normal. Actually there, we do have a reflex in our body called the gastrocolic reflex that after we eat, it can stimulate us to have a bowel movement.

So really normal for her to do that two to three times a day is going to be okay. And then on the flip side, some babies don’t stool every day, especially for breastfed babies when they’re a bit younger and haven’t started solids. Some of them may not stool for like 14 days, which I know is a really scary thing, but it does happen.

So I would say not to be concerned. Again, the things that worry me about stooling are copious, watery, diarrhea, or constipation or stools that are red, so bloody or black or white. So those are the things that worry me about stools, but I think, and you can always of course talk to your doctor too, but I do feel that that’s a normal thing for a nine month old to do.

Thanks to everyone. Who’s still on the call. This is great. I’m so happy that you’re here and that you’re listening. Okay. So I have Natasha’s question. So Natasha says, I think my almost four year old twins might be lactose intolerant. I’m going to see a doctor to confirm they like milk and yogurt, but don’t like cheese and they’re picky eaters.

They don’t really like meats too much. Will it be okay, substituting dairy milk with almond milk to compensate for calcium and other nutrients or are there better options? Okay, great question. And I’m glad you’re going to your doctor to get the diagnosis confirmed of lactose intolerance. So in terms of lactose intolerance, what it is is our digestive tract naturally releases an enzyme called lactase,

which breaks down the sugar that’s naturally found in dairy products. And some people don’t make that enzyme, which is obviously a problem because then that way all of that lactose gets undigested. It ends up in our small intestine. And what it does is it brings water into the small intestine and that causes diarrhea. And then it also gives the bacteria in our colon,

love to feed on that lactose. So they feed on it and they produce gas. And that can cause a lot of bloating. So a lot of discomfort. So the positive thing that most people do with lactose intolerance is that they use a lactose free milk instead. So it’s like regular cows milk. You can buy the homogenized milk and then all it’s done,

it’s been treated. So that lactose sugar naturally in the present in the milk is broken down. So you don’t have to worry about all those side effects. So for a child with lactose intolerance, as long as they’re comfortable drinking the lactose-free milk, and again, it still tastes great. Then that would be my number one choice. Almond milk is not top of my list just because it’s very low in calories.

It’s very low in fat. And then it is calcium fortified and fortified with vitamin D. But we know that children who drink almond milk don’t grow as well as children who drink cow’s milk. And I know a lot of people say, oh, what’s the hormones in the milk. I don’t think it’s that because it’s Canadian milk just treated differently than American milk.

American milk is more likely to have those hormones in it. But I would say on the whole cows milk, dairy or soy milk would be better options. So my number one choice would be lactose-free milk. And then also you could buy lactose-free yogurt and then some cheeses are naturally very low in lactose. Like a lot of the hard cheeses, like cheddar Parmesan,

et cetera. And then my second choice would be soy milk. And then my third choice would be a calcium fortified almond milk. So those are some of, some of the options that you could try. Okay. So, oh, Ella, Ella said she enjoyed the info. I’m so glad. And then Kathy’s asking for me to type my Instagram.

Okay. So I’m just going to type it now, kids dot digestive dot dietitian. So I’ve just added that to the, To the chat box now. Okay. Let me go back. So I think my next question is for Stella, but I’m just going to take a sip of water first because I’m talking so much. Okay. So Stella Stella says further to my earlier question.

My pediatrician is not worried about my son’s extremely picky eating doc’s advice is not to pressure him to eat and to stop any grazing which I’ve been doing for weeks and weeks, but it’s not working very stubborn kid. I do give my son a multivitamin. Okay. So I guess it’s more common. So, you know, Stella, there is a book that I really like that I would really recommend that you read and it is called,

of course I’m blanking it though. The author, her name is Irene check tour. I’m just going to type this in the comment Irene chat tour. And then the book is called. I think it’s called when you’re a child It’s too much or not enough, it’s a Bizarre title, something like that or not enough. So that’s one book and it’s really designed for kids who are extremely picky eaters,

but it gives some good advice. Although it is, it does gear to the more extreme ends of things. If you have a child who’s a picky eater, but is not as extreme. Then the book that I really like is by a feeding therapist called Dina rose. And I’m talking this in the comments too, And it’s called, it’s not about broccoli.

So I think that those are things that you could book, serve resources, that you can try Stella. Okay. And sell it. If you need more advice, like you could always just send me a message on Instagram too. And I could try to connect you with some other people who could be helpful. There is like a subset of really extremely picky eating.

And I’ve been lately sending some of the kids that I see to a clinic in Toronto to help with that. So I could always pass that info onto you if you need to. Okay. So a question from on, so for a two year old who doesn’t eat much, what vitamins would you recommend? Which multivitamin would be a good option. Okay.

This is, this is a good question because there are so many options and the multivitamin aisle is just so confusing. So, so confusing. So this is where I like to think about what food groups, the child eats or doesn’t eat. Because if you have a child who eats like no fruits or vegetables, these are the nutrients that I’m thinking of,

that they’re going to be at risk of vitamin a and vitamin C and then some B vitamins like full light, for example. So for that reason, you could get a multivitamin that had those two year-olds, it’s a bit tricky because most multivitamins are dosed for age three plus. So you just would want to speak to your doctor or your dietician for specialized dosing for a two year old,

but overall, you know, based on their recommended dosing, something like a gummy multivitamin that you’ve cut up into small pieces because those have vitamin a, the B vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin D in them. You could choose an option like that. If you have a child who is, doesn’t like to eat any meats, for example, like is pretty much like vegetarian style,

then it’s other things like iron and B12 that you’re really thinking of. And the hard thing is those generally don’t come in gummies. They generally come in tablets, right? So the tablets can be crushed and mix into something. Again, just check in with the dosing. If you have a child who’s under three years, but you’d want to be getting,

it’s like a, considered a complete multivitamin mineral supplement just for that extra boost of iron and then that extra B12 and some zinc as well. So think about what your child does or doesn’t eat. And that’s going to dictate whether they need things like the vitamin, a C and B, or whether they need an extra boost of the iron, the B12 zinc.

So hopefully that helps. Okay. So when Fay has a question, so when pace has 22 months old, she’s having a lot of discomfort from teething, not eating well and drinks, a lot of milk. Are there any strategies? Yeah. I mean the teething it’s like, it feels like it never ends. It just keeps going on and it disrupts eating so much.

I would say just rolling with the punches is going to be the best thing. My only disk, my only concern with a lots of milk is it can be really common. Oh, my streaming connection is lost. Can you hear me or see me? I think I’m back. I don’t know what happens there. Good. Okay. Thankfully, I don’t know.

Yeah. I’m not sure what happened. I hope it’s not my wifi. I’m just going to start from the beginning for answering that question just so we can record it. So it’s not going to be an issue. So when Fe has a 22 month old, she’s having a lot of discomfort from teething and is not eating well and drinks a lot of milk and stead.

Are there any strategies? Okay. So what I would say about the teething is it can really disrupt eating, especially if it’s like prolonged. It goes on for a while. So the thing I would try to get out of is not giving too much milk, cause it can be really common for toddlers to teeth. Just want to drink milk. And then as soon as the teething is over,

they’re like, oh, I love milk. I’m not going back to eating food. So after the regular amount of milk, and then otherwise you could offer water as well and then offer foods that are softer or maybe a bit cooler or cold that they’ll feel more comfortable eating. It is okay if they eat less during this time, as long as you have a healthy child,

right? Obviously this wouldn’t apply for children who have like specialized medical issues. Like if they have diabetes, for example, but for just your average healthy child, I would try to serve soft foods that are cold. Right? So even you could do things like colds or apple sauce, which is going to be okay and don’t be too worried if she doesn’t eat as much during the teething time.

Cause it’s like us. When we get sick, we don’t have an appetite. And then as soon as your sickness has resolved, you have like mega appetite and you want to eat double what you usually do. So it’s totally normal to go through these appetite, peaks and valleys. And if she has a low appetite now with teething, not to worry,

just do what you can to support her during this time. And then she should pick up once the teething has resolved. Okay. Oh, so Danielle said, thank you. I’m so happy. I could answer your questions, Danielle. Okay. So Anna has a question, a two and a half year old, extremely attached to her milk bottle. Every time she’s stressed,

excited or relaxed, she’s asking for milk. I know in daycare, they don’t give her milk in the bottle anymore, but at home I don’t have heart to take it away. Will she refuse it naturally? Does it affect teeth bite? So I know it’s so hard. They love the bottle so much. Although I would say the earlier you could try to get rid of it the better it is because no she’ll continue to drink from the bottle.

The oldest child I’ve ever seen drinking from a bottle was a 12 year old, which he came into clinic and all three of the boys were drinking milk from the bottle, including the 12 year old, but he was quite embarrassed about it. You could tell, but anyway, that’s a side note. So what I will say, maybe I’m going to start this question again cause it’s being recorded and I wouldn’t want anyone to be embarrassed if that was online.

So let me just restart that from the beginning. Okay. So Anna has a two and a half year old. Who’s extremely attached to her milk bottle. Every time she’s stressed over excited or just relaxed, she’s asking for milk. I know in daycare, they don’t give her milk in the bottle anymore, but at home I don’t have the heart to take it away.

Well, she refuse and naturally, and does it affect teeth bite? So drinking milk from the bottle at two and a half, it’s not great for children. I know your dentist will definitely say, get rid of it. It’s not great for cavities and it’s not great for teeth. It sounds like she’s soothing with the milk and the bottle, which can be really challenging.

So my advice really would be though for overall health, I would try to get rid of it at home as well, because clearly she has no problems drinking from an open cup at daycare. And I would try to work on that. So you have a few strategies that you can do. So one strategy could be to sort of have a goodbye party for the bottle,

right? Cause now that she’s a big girl and you can throw it out or you would have the bottle fairy, take it away, whatever strategy works for you, you could do that again. We know that when this happens, children go through what we call an extinction burst. So a lot of times the behavior is worse for a few days and then it resolves.

So it is going to be a few really challenging days. But after that, she should forget about it. And then I would rather just throw it out. So it’s not even like she has the opportunity to restart it after you’ve put that work into trying to get rid of it. So I definitely, for her dental health would try to get rid of the bottle and just try to get her to work on drinking from an open cup,

straw cup, whatever works best for her. Yeah. Okay. So Ayana is asking what is the right portion for two and a half year old? So for example, how big should the plate be? And this is such a hard question because it depends on the food. It depends on your child appetite. It depends what meal it’s at. So I know you’re probably not going to love that.

My answer is a bit fluffy here, but the right portion is the portion that they eat as long as they’re growing. Well, I would say, you know, a lot of times we have expectations that children need to eat lot more than they actually do. So I would. So, you know, yeah. Sometimes checking our own expectations for things can be something that can help.

So I would get the small divided plates. I would start off with serving very small portions in each section and then let your child have as many servings as they want. So an example of a suitable portion that you could start to put on the plate is just one tablespoon of each item. And then if they want to have more, they can continue to refill the plate as much as they want.

But I always hesitate from giving specific examples because the portion size is going to be very different depending on your child’s size or how hungry they are. And I don’t want to give a specific portion size. And then it means that either you’re forcing them to finish it or they’re so hungry and they want more. So I would say, let their appetite dictated.

And especially if they’re coming to the table hungry, then they’ll be able to choose the right portions. Oh, Ashley. He says, how can we break the cycle of TV during meal times? Yes, it is a challenge, but it’s so worth it because when we have screens on during meals, it conditions our child to only eat when the screen is on.

And then it makes it hard because when the screen is off it’s they don’t have that, that conditioning to eat. So whatever you can do to stop, it is really a positive thing. So different people approach it different ways. Some people will approach it by saying, you start off with just one meal a week and you start at that point. And then,

you know, you just say, we’re going to be talking or telling stories or do something to make the meal a bit more fun that day, right? Just because the TV is going to be off. And again, I know they’re going to fight it, but start with one meal a day and then increase it. The other option you can do is you can set a timer,

right? So you can just set your timer and be like, we’re going to eat for five minutes and after five minutes, then we can watch TV and then you increase it to 10. And then by the time you increase it to 20 meals and the meal times not lasting beyond that, then you could do that. But of course, yeah, no one everyone’s gonna fight it,

but it’s for a very positive reason. So I would really encourage you to push through the frustration of it because we know that screen time is not great for kids when they’re eating. We want them to be mindful of what they’re eating instead of being pay attention to the screen. Okay. Danielle is saying, do you recommend that babies eat organic or does it not really matter?

So this is a contentious issue. And I think it’s really, depending on your own values and preferences, what I can say about organic versus non-organic or conventional foods is that if you look at the nutrient content, from what we know, the nutrient content is the same. So like the vitamin a content of a regular mango should be the same vitamin a content as a standard or as an organic mango.

So I would say, you know, if it’s nutrition, you’re worried about not to be concerned, but if it’s more, so the focus on like environmental health, farmers’ health, and then also your own available money, you have to spend on food, let that your decision, but not so much About from a nutrition point of view. And then Natasha saying,

oh, it’s an amazing session. I’m really happy. Natasha. Thank you. I’m glad that you’re enjoying it. Oh, Ashley has said the same thing. Thank you so much. I’m honestly really, really grateful that you guys are here and that you’re enjoying it. So that’s great. Okay. So Penelope is asking a question. Hi, what is the right portion for a one and a half year old?

And what is the right portion for three and a half year old? I have two boys and sometimes I wonder if they’re eating enough or not. We are Greek. So portion size can be deceiving. Thank you. So I will probably won’t go into too much detail answering it because I had answered the question previously about portion size, but I would say as long as they’re growing nicely and their growth is stable on their growth chart,

then you’re giving them the right portion size. So let them decide. But again, have low expectations for what the portion size is because kids, especially at one and a half year olds, three and a half year olds, they don’t need a ton of calories every day. So let them decide. And as long as they’re growing wild and that’s the right answer.

Okay. So, oh, Angela said, thank you. Thank you so much, Angela. I think I only, oh, I do have some more, only a couple more questions and then I’ll probably get out. Cause it has been an hour. So maybe if you do have a question, just throw it in the chat and I’ll get to it,

but I’ll just stop accepting them in a bit. And then again, if you want to talk to me, you always can get in touch with me on Instagram too. Okay. So Stephanie, my two year old eats fairly well drinks, lots of water and is active yet cannot CU once she does Pooh it’s about every four days and it’s painful for her and huge help.

The doctor has prescribed laxatives, but the last time we tried that it gave her diarrhea. So we stopped using it. Okay. Constipation is so normal for toddlers. So again about a third of constant toddlers are constipated and part of it can do with the food that they eat, but then there’s a lot of other factors that influence it as well. So the first,

so doctors will generally recommend, like you said, laxative. So most children with constipation will be on restore lax, but again, the dosing can be hard because you have to really figure out the right dose for your child. You give too little restore lax and the problem is it doesn’t resolve the constipation. You give too much and then they get diarrhea.

The other thing that’s important to talk about with constipation and diarrhea is something called overflow diarrhea. So I don’t know if you’re familiar with this concept, but what it is is if you have a child who’s really constipated and they have like a colon, that’s got a lot of built-up stool in it. Then what they can sometimes have as overflow diarrhea, because essentially they have more stool that’s coming through the digestive tract.

But because it’s essentially blocked up with, with constipated stool, it has nowhere to go. So it overflows around that mass and it comes out as diarrhea. So it’s just getting to the bottom and you can do this with your doctor of whether it’s diarrhea from overflow or whether it’s diarrhea from too large of a dose of a laxative. So I believe you to solve that side of things with your doctor,

but from nutrition’s side of you, I actually really love talking about this because there’s a lot that you can do with stool. So step one, get your child cleared out. And once they’re cleared out, I’m going to really encourage you to work on a few things with diet, especially if they eat well. Number one, I know you mentioned she drinks a lot of water,

but that’s really important for any constipated children. Fluid is going to help keep the stool soft. The second thing that we think about is fiber. So fiber is really important because it has a few actions in the body and it depends on the type of fiber. So there’s soluble fiber and then there’s insoluble fiber. So soluble fiber, what it does is it’s so fiber essentially is not broken down in your digestive track.

So whatever fiber you eat, you end up excluding in your stool. So we can take advantage of that soluble fiber. It acts like a gel, right? So it holds onto water in your digestive tract and it helps make your stool softer. So that’s going to be things like oatmeal. So say for example, using like steel cut oats can be a really great strategy.

Barley is another really good one. So sometimes instead of doing like rice as a side dish, you could do things like barley. So for barley, you just cook it like pasta, you boil it for like half an hour. So I mean longer than pasta, but it’s just a matter of boiling it. Or if you’re making soups, adding barley to the soup can be another good strategy and then fruits and vegetables.

So those are all good approaches to get the soluble fiber and insoluble fiber. What it does is it moves food through the digestive tract more quickly. So that can be things like nut butters, seed, betters, ground almonds, whole wheat. So whole wheat products are going to be really important for that insoluble fiber. I also really like things like almond flour for say,

for example, muffins or pancakes, et cetera, because it’s a good way to get that insoluble fiber in. And then the other component too, is going to be things like, what was I going to say, prunes? So anything was something called sorbitol in it. So sorbitol, it’s another way to help the bowels move more regularly. So that’s from things like prunes or apples or pears.

So also trying to add those things in as well. So essentially fluid fiber, and then also make sure you’re treating the constipation and that can be a really good way to help a child who’s constipated. Okay. I’m just going to have another sip of water and then I’m almost done. So when Faye has a question, I understand that iron is very important to babies and kids.

Is there any easy rules to follow in serving meals to ensure they’re getting enough? Iron thanks. Yes. So what I would say is making sure that you serve meats is going to be an important way. And when I say meats, like obviously red meat is going to be king when it comes to iron, but don’t discredit the amount of iron that also is in poultry.

So if you’re doing chicken, try to do dark meat because it’s richer and iron than whitening, but even things like Turkey, for example, are also going to going to have iron in them. So I would say as long as you’re having one meal a day that has like an iron rich meat in it for your, that your child likes to eat,

then that’s really great. If your child does not like to eat meat, that’s okay. You can still get iron. You just have to pay a little bit more attention to things. So one number one is try to avoid too much milk. So anything over 16 ounces or 500 milliliters per day of milk can be a challenge. So that, so try to do that because that is going to decrease or make them more at risk for iron deficiency.

The other thing is aimed for vegetarian proteins that have iron in them. So that would be things like beans, lentils. They can be really good examples, cook and cast iron or a lucky iron fish. I’m just going to pop lucky iron fish in the comments because it’s like a piece of iron that you can add to your pot when you’re cooking. And then some of the iron transfers into the suit that you’re having.

And then you can also think of some non-traditional forms of iron too. So even putting like a bit of molasses, adding like the iron fortified baby cereal, to some of the foods that you have, you could do those kinds of things also to increase the iron content. So hopefully that’s helpful when Fe okay. I think that that’s everything. Okay. Okay.

Pearl has a question. This is going to be my last question that I answer. So Pearl, you’re going to end things off for tonight. So we’ll answer Paul’s question. Pearl says my four and a half year old poops pretty consistently every other day. It never looks the same about twice a week. There’s often blood on the toilet paper when we wipe his butt.

Even when the stool is soft, no blood is visible in the actual poop. Should we be concerned? I would definitely follow up with a pediatrician or family doctor about that. I think that he probably needs to get examined and that they could just rule out anything that could be worrisome. So I would say definitely do that. And then if it is a matter of diet things,

just, you can message me on Instagram and answer, ask a question. I’ll just take my, I’ll just take my, why can I not think of the word Handle in the comments you can tell, have been talking for an hour? Cause now my blood sugars are starting to crash. I’m to have to have a snack kids digest the dietician. Okay.

Hey, sorry for the non-specific answer. But for something like that, it definitely Is worth checking in with the pediatrician about, Okay. I think that that’s everything. Everyone who is still on here. Thank you so much. It’s been really great to talk to you today. Thank you again for your patience with my tech issues last week. So I’m hoping that this made up for it.

I hope you all had a great day and it’s a long weekend, so I hope you enjoy the long weekend. And then if are a parent playbook member, I think the next time that I’m going to be on a live is I can tell you what day it is. So September 29th, I have a Facebook live with parent playbook members. And my topic is actually ultra processed foods that day.

So feel free to join us. Oh Irene. Thank you so much. You’re awesome for staying and listening to me, talk for an hour. So I think I’ll probably shut this down now, but again, thank you so much. And then I will maybe see you either in parent playbook on Instagram or anywhere else. Okay. Take care. Have a good night.

Bye everyone.