Lift the Shame: The Podcast - Mothering Free From Diet Culture, Food Guilt, and Body Shame · Crystal Karges, MS, RDN, IBCLC

Debunking Myths and Managing Guilt Around Your Child's Picky Eating [Part 1]

·27 min·1 clip

Crystal says she counted more than 100 veggie exposures before stopping the experiment.

1. Lift the Shame: The Podcast focuses this time on “Debunking Myths and Managing Guilt Around Your Child's Picky Eating [Part 1].” 2. Crystal is the host, a “mama of five” and “your family's intuitive eating dietitian,” and she says both roles shape her view of selective eating. 3. The episode asks what picky eating actually means for families living with food guilt, body shame, and diet-culture pressure. 4. Crystal says she is starting a mini series about picky eating because she has “a lot of experience with eating” as a parent and as a professional. 5. She names sensory sensitivities and neurodivergence as part of her family’s eating picture, including “ADHD kiddos” and two selective eaters. 6. Crystal says some family members, practitioners, and providers have labeled her children “picky eaters,” and she thinks that wording carries negative connotation. 7. She tells listeners that she prefers “selective eating” because it feels less derogatory than “picky eating.” 8. Crystal says she recently took her son to a well check and felt “a lot of shame and negativity” from the pediatrician about his growth chart. 9. She says her son has “always been on the lower end of the growth chart for weight,” but she views him as growing on his individual curve. 10. Crystal says the first myth is that baby led weaning prevents picky eating, and she describes it as a method that uses family foods and finger foods instead of purees. 11. She says there is “no research” showing that baby led weaning prevents selectiveness, even though the method is often marketed that way. 12. Crystal says she used baby led weaning with all five of her children and still ended up with two selective eaters. 13. She says the second myth is that picky eating is a “problem that needs to be fixed,” and she links that message to much of mainstream picky-eating advice. 14. Crystal says one of her daughters was an adventurous eater early on, while another child rejected many foods, and that difference made her question what she had done wrong. 15. She says a book or advice source told her that kids need “anywhere from eight to 15 exposures” before liking a new food. 16. Crystal says she kept a tally of vegetable offers, reached more than 100 tries, and eventually stopped tying exposure to an outcome. 17. Crystal’s tone is personal and corrective, with stories about her children, her pediatrician visit, and the pressure she has felt as a parent. 18. The format is a solo teaching episode with no guest, built around myth-busting and direct listener reassurance. 19. Parents stressed by selective eating and growth-chart worries. 20. Listeners wanting a food-focused parenting episode should skip it.

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