#287 Fussy Eaters, Weaning & How to Foster Healthy Eating Habits in Children with Charlotte Stirling-Reed
The Doctor's Kitchen Podcast
Dr Rupy Aujla
4.8 • 2.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2025
⏱️ 108 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Feeding children can feel like a minefield. When should you start weaning, what should you start with, how to handle fussy eaters, and whether certain foods should be avoided altogether? In this episode with Charlotte Stirling-Reed, we’re diving into the science and practicalities of feeding babies, toddlers, and beyond to help parents feel more confident and less overwhelmed .. like me!
We explore weaning from the ground up, covering key questions like:
✔ How do you know when your baby is ready for solids?
✔ Should you start with vegetables?
✔ Is baby-led weaning (BLW) the best approach?
✔ What foods should be avoided in the early years?
But we don’t stop at weaning—we tackle common struggles like:
🥦 How to encourage kids to eat more than just beige foods?
🍽️ Managing food refusal and picky eating (why toddlers reject food at home but eat it at nursery!)
🥕 The best ways to sneak more fruit and veg into your child’s diet
🥜 Navigating food allergies and safe school lunch alternatives
This episode is packed with practical tips, expert insights, and realistic strategies to help make mealtimes smoother and healthier. Charlotte Stirling-Reed, known as “The Baby & Child Nutritionist”, is a registered nutritionist, bestselling author, and founder of SR Nutrition.
She started her career in the NHS before specialising in maternal, baby, and child nutrition. Charlotte is the author of the Sunday Times bestseller How to Wean Your Baby, an incredible book. Her latest book “The Ultimate Weaning & Toddler Cookbook” will be a go to for me and my family for sure!
And here are links to some of the articles we mentioned during the podcast:
Probiotics and Children, Kids eating fish, Kids throwing food, Vegan weaning
Note: At one point, we said "normal birth" but quickly corrected it to "non-C-Section birth". Some people use "normal birth" to mean vaginal birth, but that can be a bit confusing because vaginal birth isn't always the "normal" choice for everyone.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Should I delay weaning with known allergens like eggs, nuts or dairy and wait until they're a bit older? |
| 0:06.6 | No. |
| 0:07.5 | Should I always do baby lead weaning over spoon feeding where possible? |
| 0:12.9 | No. |
| 0:13.6 | Okay. |
| 0:14.3 | Is porridge the best thing to start my child on? |
| 0:18.3 | No. |
| 0:19.4 | Okay. |
| 0:20.1 | Interesting. |
| 0:26.6 | What is the one thing that parents can do to feel confident and not overwhelmed about feeding their children? |
| 0:27.6 | No, that it's up and down and that's perfectly normal. |
| 0:31.6 | And is it true that what my child eats below the age of two impacts their preferences for food in later life. |
| 0:41.6 | Yep. |
| 0:46.6 | Hi, I'm Dr. Rupi. I'm a medical doctor and nutritionist. And when I suffered a heart condition |
| 0:52.1 | years ago, I was able to reverse it with diet and lifestyle. |
| 0:56.0 | This opened up my eyes to the world of food as medicine to improve our health. On this podcast, |
| 1:02.9 | I discuss ways in which you can use nutrition and lifestyle to improve your own wellbeing every day. |
| 1:09.0 | I speak with expert guests and we lean into the science, |
| 1:12.6 | but whilst making it as practical and as easy as possible so you can take steps to change your |
| 1:18.3 | life today. Welcome to the Doctor's Kitchen podcast. |
| 1:27.2 | Feeding children can feel like a minefield, even for someone who has studied nutrition |
| 1:32.7 | like myself. When should I start weaning? What should I start with? How should I handle the |
... |
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