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In this episode, Melanie explains normal feeding milestones, how they are developmental tasks, how some children need more support reaching these milestones, and how to help your child become a great eater!
Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is a pediatric feeding therapist, international speaker, and certified speech-language pathologist with over two decades of experience helping children and families establish healthy relationships with food. Known as “Coach Mel” on Instagram (@mymunchbug_melaniepotock), she is the author of six books, including the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater and Responsive Feeding. A sought-after expert in both typical and complex feeding development, Melanie combines evidence-based strategies with real-life parenting insight. Her guidance has been featured in over 50 media outlets, including CNN and The New York Times. Certified by ASHA and the recipient of ASHA’s 2024 State Clinical Achievement Award, Melanie has also received eight ACE awards for excellence in continuing education and provides training for healthcare professionals 

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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, therapist Robin Isman talks about how to help children with anxiety using SPACE therapy, which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. She discusses the role of avoidance in making anxiety worse.
Robyn Isman, LICSW, is a licensed therapist, parent coach, and leading expert in childhood anxiety. With over a decade of clinical experience, Robyn is the founder of Parenting the Anxious Child, where she specializes in helping families move from overprotection to empowerment.
She is a certified provider of SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions), an evidence-based treatment developed at Yale that focuses on changing parental response to effectively treat anxiety and OCD in children. Through her coaching programs and online community, Robyn teaches parents how to break the cycle of over-accommodation and build lasting resilience in their children.
A mother of three based in the Greater Boston area, Robyn blends her professional expertise with personal insight to provide practical, compassionate strategies for the modern parent. You can find her resources at TheAnxiousChild.com or join her community on Instagram @parentingtheanxiouschild.
https://www.theanxiouschild.com/
https://www.theanxiouschild.com/podcast


Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.
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In this episode, Dr. Innessa Donskoy, a pediatric sleep specialist, discussed sleep problems and how to help kids sleep better.
Dr. Innessa Donskoy is a Pediatric Sleep Medicine attending physician at Advocate Children’s Hospital, specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disorders in infants, children, and adolescents. She completed her residency training in General Pediatrics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, followed by a fellowship in Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. After completing her fellowship, she joined Advocate Children’s Hospital as a Pediatric Sleep Medicine Physician and has advanced  into the position of Director of Sleep Education. She has played a key role in expanding the program into a comprehensive clinical, educational, and research-focused service for families and trainees, while also helping develop it as a training site for medical students, Pediatric residents, and Sleep Medicine fellows. Her academic contributions include multiple review articles, conference presentations at national sleep, pulmonary, and telemedicine meetings, as well as authorship of several textbook chapters in major sleep medicine references. She is actively involved in public education and advocacy, with contributions to community talks, news publications, and media appearances on outlets such as CBC, NBC, WGN, and FOX, focusing on pediatric sleep health in relation to time changes, school transitions, and emerging research in the field. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erSUcm4C4aY

Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.
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In this episode, neuropsychologist Peryl Agishtein explains when neuropsychological testing IS and IS NOT needed, as well as an overview of these tests, including how they help us understand why a child may be struggling academically, socially or behaviorally.
Dr. Peryl Agishtein completed her Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology at the Graduate Center of CUNY. After training in a number of inpatient and outpatient settings and completing postdoctoral work at Columbia University Medical Center/ NYP, she was the founding director of a neuropsychological testing department at Achieve in upstate NY. She’s continued to practice neuropsychology in hospitals and in private practice, as well as several therapy specialties. She currently supervises testing divisions in several clinics and private practices. She also gives seminars educating clinicians in the best practices for psychodiagnosis. Dr. Agishtein divides her time between Israel and the US, focusing on couples and CBT therapy in Israel and managing a neuropsychology testing practice in the US. She is also the co-founder of a mental health AI startup that aims to improve access to quality neuropsych assessments.

Website: www.LifespanNeuropsych.com
Contact info: [email protected]

Office of Dr. Peryl Agishtein, Ph.D.
Lifespan Neuropsychology
www.LifespanNeuropsych.com
720-727-7924 (US)

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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, Dr. Wendy Ross, a developmental pediatrician and "inclusion hero" discusses helping ALL of our children belong in our communities. 
Wendy Ross, MD, FAAP is a clinical professor, developmental pediatrician, and the inaugural director of Jefferson Health’s Center for Autism and Neurodiversity, (JeffCAN).  She graduated from Mt Sinai School of Medicine and completed Pediatrics residency at Yale and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics fellowship at Harvard. In her clinical practice, she works with children to clarify and support their development, integrating medical, educational, and therapeutic plans into a cohesive approach. 
In her broader program, her work focuses on improving community belonging by advancing neurodivergent-friendly healthcare, design, and everyday experiences.

Dr. Ross has pioneered programs with museums,  inclusive game day programs Philadelphia’s major sports teams, along with initiatives that make air travel more accessible for neurodivergent individuals. She was recognized as  a Top 10 CNN Hero for her groundbreaking Phillies program, her efforts to make air travel inclusive, and her leadership in research on individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities during the COVID-19 crisis. This work influenced CDC policy.
She has created spaces that are welcoming to neurodivergent individuals, including contributing to an award-winning line of furniture for medical waiting rooms, now in production with Miller Knoll. She also played a central role in the collaborative design of a medical building at Jefferson and has been invited to contribute concepts to the design of a sports arena.  More recently, she consulted on the show The Pitt, advising them on the development of autistic characters and stories. 


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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, Dr. Elise Fallucco, child psychiatrist, discusses childhood anxiety- how much is normal, when it is a problem and how to treat it.
Elise M. Fallucco, MD is a child and adolescent psychiatrist whose career has been focused on
empowering pediatric clinicians to provide high quality mental health care.  Dr. Fallucco is the creator
and host of the podcast, Child Mental Health for Pediatric Clinicians.  She is nationally recognized for
excellent in training clinicians to identify and treat children and teens with mental health problems.  Her
educational programs and research have been published by many esteemed medical journals including
The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Adolescent Health, and Pediatrics.  

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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, Dr. Esther Rollhaus discusses the exciting but challenging stage of becoming a mother(matrescence) and the psychiatrist lens on perinatal mental health challenges.
Dr. Esther Rollhaus is a medical doctor with specialties in
Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry. In addition to her
private practice, she serves as a Consultant on Reproductive
Psychiatry at Achieve Behavioral Health, a mental health clinic
for the Orthodox Jewish community.
A graduate of Stern College for Women with degrees in
psychology and English, Dr. Rollhaus was accepted into the
prestigious Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, one of
only a handful of medical students selected specifically for
their liberal arts background. There she received an award for
Distinction in Medical Education, the first of many awards
throughout her distinguished career.
Dr. Rollhaus has held consulting positions at Montefiore
Einstein Psychiatry Associates, Under Five Trauma Services,
Jack D. Weiler Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, and has
taught in multiple adjunct professorships.

Her original research includes investigations into culturally competent care for Orthodox Jewish
patients and the benefits of teaching medical students skills for trauma-informed care.
Among her many areas of expertise, Dr. Rollhaus particularly enjoys speaking on women’s mental
health throughout the lifespan as well as more specific topics related to psychiatric conditions. She
has presented on the impact of a mother’s postpartum depression on young children, suicide risk
assessment, ADHD, bipolar disorder, infertility, and the impact of medications during pregnancy.
With a special gift for making complex topics digestible, Dr. Esther Rollhaus is an enthusiastic
addition to professional conferences, community workshops, panel presentations and guest lectures.
Whether your group is made up of healthcare providers, community members or students, Dr.
Rollhaus uses compassion, humor and relatable examples to teach audiences of all sizes why we need
to understand and prioritize women’s mental health.
Just as every woman has unique healthcare needs, every event has a different agenda. Dr. Rollhaus
customizes all her talks. She welcomes questions and wants to hear your needs to ensure she hits the
right note for your group. With Dr. Rollhaus at your next event, you’ll deliver a transformative
experience that sparks conversation long after the session ends. For more information, visit
ChildandFamilyPsychiatry.com/Speaking.

Her continuing education course, "Hormones Are the Headline,"is now available on her website https://www.childandfamilypsychiatry.com/online-courses

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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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Helping Our Autistic Kids Thrive with Temple Grandin, PhD
In this episode, Dr. Temple Grandin talks about the importance of ALL kinds of minds, including autistic ones. She talks about how we are "screening out" our valuable visual thinkers. We discuss many ways to help kids on the autism spectrum truly succeed.
Dr. Grandin did not talk until she was three and a half years old.  She was fortunate to get early speech therapy.  Her teachers also taught her how to wait and take turns when playing board games.  She was mainstreamed into a normal kindergarten at age five.  Oliver Sacks wrote in the forward of Thinking in Pictures that her first book Emergence: Labeled Autistic was “unprecedented because there had never before been an inside narrative of autism.”  Dr. Sacks profiled Dr. Grandin in his best selling book Anthropologist on Mars.
Dr. Grandin became a prominent author and speaker on both autism and animal behavior.  Today she is a professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University.  She also has a successful career consulting on both livestock handling equipment design and animal welfare.  She has been featured on NPR (National Public Radio) and a BBC Special – "The Woman Who Thinks Like a Cow". She has also appeared on National TV shows such as Larry King Live, 20/20, Sixty Minutes, Fox and Friends, and she has a 2010 TED talk.  Articles about Dr. Grandin have appeared in Time Magazine, New York Times, Discover Magazine, Forbes and USA Today. HBO made an Emmy Award winning movie about her life and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016.
https://templegrandin.com/templehome.html
https://www.templegrandindocumentary.com/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1278469/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YMTV3fVHkg
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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, Dr. Nimali Fernando, pediatrician and creator of the Dr Yum Project, discussed how to raise a healthy eater despite the many obstacles. Feeding is a developmental task which does not necessarily come naturally. We CAN teach kids to love healthy food! 

Dr. Nimali Fernando is a board-certified pediatrician and the founder of the nonprofit, The Dr. Yum Project. She is also co-author of the award-winning book ”Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater.” She is the co-creator of the “Dr. Yum Adventure,” a research-backed nutrition curriculum that teaches young children to enjoy fruits and vegetables, and of “Touchpoints,” a family-centered intensive health behavior and lifestyle program for children. Her food-as-medicine approach has been featured nationally in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News, and Voice of America.

https://www.doctoryum.org/

https://www.ahealthieramerica.org/articles/free-resources-for-clinicians-and-champions-of-first-foods-981

https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Healthy-Happy-Stage-Stage/dp/1615192689

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Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

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In this episode, we discuss "posttraumatic parenting"- how to be a great parent to your child while, at the same time, addressing your own history of trauma. 
Dr. Robyn Koslowitz is a clinical child psychologist, trauma treatment expert, TEDx speaker, and author of Post-Traumatic Parenting: Break the Cycle, Become the Parent You Always Wanted to Be. As the founder of the Post-Traumatic Parenting model, Dr. Koslowitz helps parents break free from inherited patterns and become the parents their children—and their inner child—need.
Her core message is simple yet profound: Your inner child can’t raise a child, but raising your real-world child can heal your inner child.
Dr. Koslowitz combines research-backed tools, clinical insights, and lived experience to help parents transform trauma into growth. As she says, Adulting is hard. Adulting is especially hard if you never childed. And parenting? That’s adulting on steroids.
Her “trauma app” metaphor has reached thousands, empowering parents to recognize and rewrite the patterns that no longer serve them—or their children.

 Post-Traumatic Parenting (Book): https://bit.ly/4lRIyuL
  TEDx Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF09vjKqCyo 
 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.koslowitzpsychology/
  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrobynkoslowitz/
  Threads: https://www.threads.com/@dr.koslowitzpsychology
  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@posttraumaticparenting
  Podcast: https://posttraumaticparenting.com/podcast/
  Website: https://posttraumaticparenting.com/about/
  Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/targeted-parenting

Please note that while I am a pediatrician, I am not your child's pediatrician. This podcast is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. For any medical concerns or decisions, please reach out to your child’s health care professional.

Cover art by Charlotte Feldman