October 6, 2024 • 9 mins
Amy & Chris discuss their picky eating children with Dr Nick Fuller.
Dr Nick has some tips and tricks to get them eating & trying healthy food options!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Dried. Your kids fussy eaters?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, my youngest one is an absolute atrocious eater.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
He's like a I don't want to call him a pig.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
He garbage cuts. Yes, that's my Oscar.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
He will eat junk food until the cows come home.
God forbid.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I put a stalk of broccoli in front of him,
or a carrot, I reckon, he would go like a
packet of chips. He would eat five packets of ships today,
eat muffins, Musley Bar's ice cream.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Is he in good shape? Surprised your kid?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He's not, Surprisingly he is. He's like my husband's build.
He's very stocky. I like to say he's a little rotund,
but he's definitely not Fat's.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
My Oscar five years old. Yeah, Like he's solid, just
his low center of gravity.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He's got no neck. He's going to play rugby league
one day.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
That's what Ryan's going to be. Kobe.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm worried about Henry though, the seven year old. He
was getting out of the bath the other night. I
could see he's like he's not far off a world
vision ad like, oh, like the ribs and stuff I need.
We need to get some good food into him.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
On the phone.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I have got a nutritionist who can help us. He
specializes in this. Doctor Nick Fuller is the author of
the book Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids, and host of the
podcast nine Minutes to Better Health.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Doctor Nick is here. Hi, Doctor Hi Nick.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Get a Chris Amy. How are you both good?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I actually had I've actually had doctor Nick on my
own little podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Beyond the likes and you were fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We got some so much fantastic feedback from Mum saying
you were so helpful.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Ah, the three kind words. Look, I've had some lovely
emails too, so it's great to chat to you in
the studio.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Doctor Nick helped me out Skinny Henry. I've got a
I've got to fatten him up, right. He will eat
sausages and chicken nuggets till the cows come home. But
we just need good nutritious food, and I need to
get some meat on his bones. I mean, obviously I
put a lot of butter on his toast and things
in the morning, but I also don't want him to
have skyrocketing cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How do I fatten up a skinny.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Look, this is one of the biggest challenges kids are
throwing at us. It's saussy eating. You're not alone. I'm
not one of those boring professors in a lab coat.
I work with parents and kids day to day. But
one minute, your little one's happy to try every new
food you give them at meal times, and then the
next they're refusing to eat anything that is in the
chicken nugget smothered in barbecue sauce. But when it comes
(02:31):
down to it, we're the parents. We've got to stop
letting them dictate the meal time and the food routine. Now,
they're always going to push back on the foods we
present them, the nutritious foods we spend time cooking in
the kitchen, and there's an evolutionary reason why. Look, we
evolved to leave all those bitter tasting vegetables in the environment.
(02:54):
They were potentially harmful and toxic to our health. So
when you put them on the plate in front of
your little one, they're always going to say no. They're
always going to seek out the foods that are naturally
high in sugar and fat, nature's treats. So we've got
to work with that. And look, the biggest and easiest
way to overcome fussy eating is actually getting them involved
in food preparation, meal time, cooking, tap into that huge
(03:17):
food curiosity and start to expose them to a wide
variety of different foods and different recipes, but simple, basic
recipes because we don't have time to be in the
kitchen all night.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Amy's face just as well, because you and I are
both anal retentive right in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
As far as like everything has to be we do.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
We do it our way, like Amy does homemade pizza
night and won't let the kids.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Touch it because they might ruin it.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And it's so funny because doctor Nick told me this
on the podcast, and I'm like, I'm listening and I'm
taking it on and I'm like, no, not going to
do that. Like my daughter came into the kitchen the
other night. I was cooking spag boles and she goes, oh,
can I help, like, and I said okay, And we
were just cooking up the mushrooms and the onion, and
she wasn't stirring it the way I like it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So I was like, all right, get out of here already.
I've already that's a strike against my name.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Is this a common thing, doctor Nick?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
So my Henry loves chicken nuggets, tells me he hates chicken,
so he wants nuggets but not chicken. Is there a
way that I can Is there anything on the market,
and this might be my billion dollar idea of a
nugget that's not the process crap, that actually has some decent.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Chicken in it.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, definitely. Look, I also have that OCD behavior talking
about where we control everything in the kitchen. We want
it to be clean, needs to needs to go to
a certain or follow a certain routine. But you've got
to get them involved and you've got to embrace that mess.
They are going to make a huge mess. It's going
to be food and every nook and cranny can possibly
think of. Now when it comes to the chicken nuggets,
(04:45):
this is a really good example. This is that white
beige food that they're going to feel very safe around.
It's familiar, it's not going to be you know we're
talking about before harmful to the health. They always want
the white beige food diet because these are foods they
feel safe around. But what we've got to start doing
is actually broadening the variety of offering of food. So, look,
(05:08):
you can still cook chicken nuggets from scratch. It's very
easy to do breading chicken and getting them involved in
that process. It's still going to taste just as good,
and they might push back on the first occasion, but
you've got to repeatedly offer these foods in a variety
of different ways and eventually they start to embrace them.
And the other thing is you need to sit at
(05:29):
the dinner table with them, so look in the time
for environment. We don't always have time to sit all
together at the family meal, but you need to focus
at least one meal of the day where the kids
are seeing you eat nutritious, healthy food in front of them,
because monkey see monkey do. If you keep giving them,
giving into their food demands and offering the processed chicken nuggets,
(05:49):
they're going to continue to get their way. They're going
to get very little nutrition low five and a very
little vitamins and minerals, and you're not going to see
them grow and develop adequately. And also they're going to
get very energy dent dense, nutrient poor food, so they
could be the on the end of the spectrum where
they start developing a weight tissue. So it really is
important to you know, start rethinking about those family favorites,
(06:11):
even the spaghetti bowl and aise. You can still serve
that up, but mix it up maybe one day, cooking
it with vegetables and lentils, because when you do mix
all of those flavors together, believe me, trust me, they
do start to love it over time.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Can I ask, And I don't know if this is
a new question, but I will often say I prepare
my kids. At one stage they all used to love
like a salmon pokey bowl. And I used to make it,
and obviously I would drench it in QP mayo cumu mayo.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That's what would get everyone over the edge.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
But still it had salmon, it had brown rice, it
had you know, all different kinds of vegetables.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
But what has happened now is my daughter will still
eat it, but my younger two will no longer touch it.
Apparently they're now allergic to salmon. That's what they shot
try and tell me they don't like it. My stance here,
and I don't know if this is a bit of
tough love from my own mom and my own upbringing,
but they will serve a meal. And my thing is,
if this is what I'm serving for dinner, I'm cooking ones.
(07:06):
I'm going to put it in front of you and
if you choose to not eat it, then you can
go to bed hungry. Is that like, would you frown
upon that or is that something that I can hold fermorn?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, absolutely not, you hold ferm on that. You are
right right on with what that the approach to take here.
We've got to start offering one family. I mean, in
the modern environment, we're cating for all these different needs.
You might have six kids and you're cooking different meals
for every one of them. I mean, this is absurd.
We don't have time. Just cook one meal. Get them involved,
(07:35):
choose the recipe together at the start of the week
when your meal preparing, and give them simple tasks. Sit
around the dinner table, off the food and allow them
to eat the amount they want to eat. They're very
good at regulating their appetite. Let them see you eating
the meal. If they want to accompany it with some sauce,
it's perfectly fine. Just keep thinking about offering you know,
(07:55):
the different all the same foods in a variety of
different ways, and we can stick to those family favorites,
but start chucking in some of those vegetables and other things.
Of course they're going to start picking them out at
the start, but over time they do embrace it and
then you start overcoming what is this biggest challenge being
fuscy eating? Trust me, all parents are dealing with it.
It's stressful, leash, you're frustrated, worry about your child's child's
(08:18):
and nutrition, development and health. But it's easy to overcome.
You just got to fist with it. Yeah, consistency and
remember you're the parent there at the moment. The dictator
should be the other way around.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
You've inspired me. I'm going to go full vladim improvements
at home. I am a dictator. We are going to
sit down tonight as a family around the table with
a KFC variety of it. But I'm going to get
but I'll get the coleslaw and potato and gravy, right,
so that's and there's vegetables in the chips.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That's potato, so excellent. But we'll be eating it together.
Dr Nick Fuller.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
You can check out his podcast Nine Minutes to Better
Health and his book Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids for more info.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Appreciate your time, doctor so much.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Doctor, Thanks to the chat guys.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Thanks making
Dried. Your kids fussy eaters?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, my youngest one is an absolute atrocious eater.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
He's like a I don't want to call him a pig.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
He garbage cuts. Yes, that's my Oscar.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
He will eat junk food until the cows come home.
God forbid.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I put a stalk of broccoli in front of him,
or a carrot, I reckon, he would go like a
packet of chips. He would eat five packets of ships today,
eat muffins, Musley Bar's ice cream.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Is he in good shape? Surprised your kid?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
He's not, Surprisingly he is. He's like my husband's build.
He's very stocky. I like to say he's a little rotund,
but he's definitely not Fat's.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
My Oscar five years old. Yeah, Like he's solid, just
his low center of gravity.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
He's got no neck. He's going to play rugby league
one day.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
That's what Ryan's going to be. Kobe.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
I'm worried about Henry though, the seven year old. He
was getting out of the bath the other night. I
could see he's like he's not far off a world
vision ad like, oh, like the ribs and stuff I need.
We need to get some good food into him.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
On the phone.
Speaker 4 (01:11):
I have got a nutritionist who can help us. He
specializes in this. Doctor Nick Fuller is the author of
the book Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids, and host of the
podcast nine Minutes to Better Health.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Doctor Nick is here. Hi, Doctor Hi Nick.
Speaker 5 (01:24):
Get a Chris Amy. How are you both good?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:27):
I actually had I've actually had doctor Nick on my
own little podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Beyond the likes and you were fantastic.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
We got some so much fantastic feedback from Mum saying
you were so helpful.
Speaker 5 (01:38):
Ah, the three kind words. Look, I've had some lovely
emails too, so it's great to chat to you in
the studio.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
Doctor Nick helped me out Skinny Henry. I've got a
I've got to fatten him up, right. He will eat
sausages and chicken nuggets till the cows come home. But
we just need good nutritious food, and I need to
get some meat on his bones. I mean, obviously I
put a lot of butter on his toast and things
in the morning, but I also don't want him to
have skyrocketing cholesterol.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
How do I fatten up a skinny.
Speaker 5 (02:07):
Look, this is one of the biggest challenges kids are
throwing at us. It's saussy eating. You're not alone. I'm
not one of those boring professors in a lab coat.
I work with parents and kids day to day. But
one minute, your little one's happy to try every new
food you give them at meal times, and then the
next they're refusing to eat anything that is in the
chicken nugget smothered in barbecue sauce. But when it comes
(02:31):
down to it, we're the parents. We've got to stop
letting them dictate the meal time and the food routine. Now,
they're always going to push back on the foods we
present them, the nutritious foods we spend time cooking in
the kitchen, and there's an evolutionary reason why. Look, we
evolved to leave all those bitter tasting vegetables in the environment.
(02:54):
They were potentially harmful and toxic to our health. So
when you put them on the plate in front of
your little one, they're always going to say no. They're
always going to seek out the foods that are naturally
high in sugar and fat, nature's treats. So we've got
to work with that. And look, the biggest and easiest
way to overcome fussy eating is actually getting them involved
in food preparation, meal time, cooking, tap into that huge
(03:17):
food curiosity and start to expose them to a wide
variety of different foods and different recipes, but simple, basic
recipes because we don't have time to be in the
kitchen all night.
Speaker 4 (03:27):
Amy's face just as well, because you and I are
both anal retentive right in the kitchen.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
As far as like everything has to be we do.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
We do it our way, like Amy does homemade pizza
night and won't let the kids.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Touch it because they might ruin it.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
And it's so funny because doctor Nick told me this
on the podcast, and I'm like, I'm listening and I'm
taking it on and I'm like, no, not going to
do that. Like my daughter came into the kitchen the
other night. I was cooking spag boles and she goes, oh,
can I help, like, and I said okay, And we
were just cooking up the mushrooms and the onion, and
she wasn't stirring it the way I like it.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
So I was like, all right, get out of here already.
I've already that's a strike against my name.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Is this a common thing, doctor Nick?
Speaker 4 (04:04):
So my Henry loves chicken nuggets, tells me he hates chicken,
so he wants nuggets but not chicken. Is there a
way that I can Is there anything on the market,
and this might be my billion dollar idea of a
nugget that's not the process crap, that actually has some decent.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Chicken in it.
Speaker 5 (04:23):
Yeah, definitely. Look, I also have that OCD behavior talking
about where we control everything in the kitchen. We want
it to be clean, needs to needs to go to
a certain or follow a certain routine. But you've got
to get them involved and you've got to embrace that mess.
They are going to make a huge mess. It's going
to be food and every nook and cranny can possibly
think of. Now when it comes to the chicken nuggets,
(04:45):
this is a really good example. This is that white
beige food that they're going to feel very safe around.
It's familiar, it's not going to be you know we're
talking about before harmful to the health. They always want
the white beige food diet because these are foods they
feel safe around. But what we've got to start doing
is actually broadening the variety of offering of food. So, look,
(05:08):
you can still cook chicken nuggets from scratch. It's very
easy to do breading chicken and getting them involved in
that process. It's still going to taste just as good,
and they might push back on the first occasion, but
you've got to repeatedly offer these foods in a variety
of different ways and eventually they start to embrace them.
And the other thing is you need to sit at
(05:29):
the dinner table with them, so look in the time
for environment. We don't always have time to sit all
together at the family meal, but you need to focus
at least one meal of the day where the kids
are seeing you eat nutritious, healthy food in front of them,
because monkey see monkey do. If you keep giving them,
giving into their food demands and offering the processed chicken nuggets,
(05:49):
they're going to continue to get their way. They're going
to get very little nutrition low five and a very
little vitamins and minerals, and you're not going to see
them grow and develop adequately. And also they're going to
get very energy dent dense, nutrient poor food, so they
could be the on the end of the spectrum where
they start developing a weight tissue. So it really is
important to you know, start rethinking about those family favorites,
(06:11):
even the spaghetti bowl and aise. You can still serve
that up, but mix it up maybe one day, cooking
it with vegetables and lentils, because when you do mix
all of those flavors together, believe me, trust me, they
do start to love it over time.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Can I ask, And I don't know if this is
a new question, but I will often say I prepare
my kids. At one stage they all used to love
like a salmon pokey bowl. And I used to make it,
and obviously I would drench it in QP mayo cumu mayo.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
That's what would get everyone over the edge.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
But still it had salmon, it had brown rice, it
had you know, all different kinds of vegetables.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
So whatever.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
But what has happened now is my daughter will still
eat it, but my younger two will no longer touch it.
Apparently they're now allergic to salmon. That's what they shot
try and tell me they don't like it. My stance here,
and I don't know if this is a bit of
tough love from my own mom and my own upbringing,
but they will serve a meal. And my thing is,
if this is what I'm serving for dinner, I'm cooking ones.
(07:06):
I'm going to put it in front of you and
if you choose to not eat it, then you can
go to bed hungry. Is that like, would you frown
upon that or is that something that I can hold fermorn?
Speaker 5 (07:15):
Yeah, absolutely not, you hold ferm on that. You are
right right on with what that the approach to take here.
We've got to start offering one family. I mean, in
the modern environment, we're cating for all these different needs.
You might have six kids and you're cooking different meals
for every one of them. I mean, this is absurd.
We don't have time. Just cook one meal. Get them involved,
(07:35):
choose the recipe together at the start of the week
when your meal preparing, and give them simple tasks. Sit
around the dinner table, off the food and allow them
to eat the amount they want to eat. They're very
good at regulating their appetite. Let them see you eating
the meal. If they want to accompany it with some sauce,
it's perfectly fine. Just keep thinking about offering you know,
(07:55):
the different all the same foods in a variety of
different ways, and we can stick to those family favorites,
but start chucking in some of those vegetables and other things.
Of course they're going to start picking them out at
the start, but over time they do embrace it and
then you start overcoming what is this biggest challenge being
fuscy eating? Trust me, all parents are dealing with it.
It's stressful, leash, you're frustrated, worry about your child's child's
(08:18):
and nutrition, development and health. But it's easy to overcome.
You just got to fist with it. Yeah, consistency and
remember you're the parent there at the moment. The dictator
should be the other way around.
Speaker 4 (08:31):
You've inspired me. I'm going to go full vladim improvements
at home. I am a dictator. We are going to
sit down tonight as a family around the table with
a KFC variety of it. But I'm going to get
but I'll get the coleslaw and potato and gravy, right,
so that's and there's vegetables in the chips.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That's potato, so excellent. But we'll be eating it together.
Dr Nick Fuller.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
You can check out his podcast Nine Minutes to Better
Health and his book Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids for more info.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Appreciate your time, doctor so much.
Speaker 5 (08:59):
Doctor, Thanks to the chat guys.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Thanks making
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com