The Airplane Spoon Podcast: Real questions and Real stories about Feeding Children

Smoothies are often used to hide fruits and vegetables. In this episode, feeding therapist Sarina Murrell shows how to use them ini plain sight of the child, and with the child instead. When your child helps prep, build, and taste the smoothie, it becomes a predictable, low-pressure way to learn about new foods. It can lead toward eating those foods in their whole form, and it does so without hiding anything.

Parent reflection questions

1. Have you ever hidden a food in a meal? How did your child respond when they found out?
2. Which Food Job could your child do this week to help get the smoothie ingredients ready?
3. How can you hold back from correcting how your child cuts or adds ingredients, so they feel successful?
4. Is there a “safe” recipe your family already repeats? What is one thing you could change in it?
5. How could you talk about the vegetable in the smoothie openly and with pride, instead of keeping it a secret?

Books are one of the easiest, lowest-pressure ways to introduce children to new foods. In this episode, Sarina pulls ten favorites off her therapy shelf. They include interactive felt and pull-tab books, silly read-alouds, and one that some parents find a little creepy. For each one she shows how she brings it to life with kids of all ages. She also explains why pretend play, silliness, and big feelings in stories help build positive associations with food, even when a child isn't eating anything.

1. Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert
2. Little Helpers: Grocery Day Sort and Play (Kane Miller), part of the Little Helpers felt-piece series by Susie Brooks, illustrated by Dawn Machell
3. Feed the Animals! by Bernd Penners, illustrated by Henning Löhlein (Kane Miller)
4. The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems
5. Stir Crack Whisk Bake by America's Test Kitchen Kids
6. Vegetables in Underwear by Jared Chapman
7. Pete the Cat and the Perfect Pizza Party by Kimberly and James Dean
8. Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri
9. Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas by Aaron Blabey
10. How Are You Peeling? Foods with Moods by Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers

1. Which foods does your child never see except at mealtimes? Could a book introduce them in a playful way first?
2. How does your child react when food shows up in stories, play, or pretend? What does that tell you about their comfort level?
3. Is there a book your child asks for over and over? What might they be getting from that predictability?
4. How can you bring the silliness and connection of reading time to the table?

Have a food book your family loves? We'd love to hear it. Visit TheAirplaneSpoon.com

You've got this. Love. Enjoy. Eat. And read.

Ever had a meltdown on your hands because you bought the "wrong" brand of strawberries or a different noodle shape? In this episode, Sarina breaks down why kids get rigid about specific foods — and how to gently build flexibility without turning mealtime into a battle.

Key concepts

• Predictability helps kids feel safe; rigidity is predictability taken to an extreme, often used as a form of control
• Packaged foods are engineered to be identical every time — kids can detect small differences even when adults can't
• "Parenthesis foods" — foods that only get accepted under a growing list of specific conditions (bowl, brand, show, temperature)
• Flexibility-building works best in small doses: a single bite of something new, not a full plate

Parent reflection questions

• Is there a food in our house that's become a "parenthesis food"? What's on the list of conditions?
• Am I offering variety in a way that feels safe (small, optional exposures) or overwhelming (a whole new plate at once)?
• Where could I loosen just one variable this week — bowl, temperature, brand — without asking for a big change all at once?

Eating with your child isn't just nice to have — it's a learning opportunity. In this episode, Sarina Murrell, MS, CCC-SLP, breaks down the neuroscience behind why modeling eating (not just telling a child to eat) is one of the most powerful tools parents have, and gives realistic, low-pressure ways to build toward shared family meals.

Here's a dedicated Key Concepts section, plus two more reflection questions rounding it out to five. Slot these into the show notes right after the summary paragraph.

Key Concepts

• Learning by observation, not instruction — telling a child to eat doesn't teach them how; showing them does (the soccer-ball analogy).
• Face blindness — we can't see our own mouths or faces while eating, unlike our hands or arms, so a child can't simply copy what they can't watch you do without you being in front of them.
• Mirror neurons — the brain's visual-cortex-based system for learning through watching; observing someone eat activates the same neural patterns as doing it yourself.
• Applies from roughly 6 months on — once a child starts solids and sits in a feeding position; earlier bottle/breastfeeding relies on innate reflexes, not modeling.
• Ability vs. manners — children pick up both the mechanics of eating and incidental habits (like talking with a full mouth) from what they observe, not just what they're told.
• Feeding each other builds trust — offering and receiving food is an intimacy ritual found across cultures (e.g., feeding a partner at a wedding), and a child wanting to feed you is a sign of engagement and trust.
• Social modeling amplifies eating — children often eat better in group settings (like restaurants) because of the shared observational experience.
• Shared meals build incrementally — start with a snack next to your child, then a shared snack time, then one anchored meal a week (e.g., Friday nights or Sunday mornings), and let it grow into routine.
• Mealtime is more than nutrition — it's bonding, connection, and family culture, not just calories delivered.

Parent Reflection Questions

• Where does my child currently eat, and am I eating with them or nearby them?
• What's one low-effort way I could eat something alongside my child this week — even a snack or a cup of coffee?
• Is there one meal or day I could realistically protect as a shared family meal time?
• Am I modeling ability (how to eat) as well as manners (how we behave while eating) — and are those two things getting mixed up in how I respond to my child at the table?
• If my child wanted to feed me a bite right now, how would I respond — and what would that moment be teaching them?

What Is a Feeding Therapist?

There's no official degree or license called "feeding therapist" — so who actually is one? In this episode, Sarina breaks down the overlapping (and sometimes confusing) roles of speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists, lactation consultants, and registered dietitians in a child's feeding journey.

Key Concepts

• "Feeding therapist" is a specialization, not a licensed credential — it's built on top of an SLP, OT, or (less commonly) RD license
• SLPs: oral motor and swallowing safety
• OTs: sensory regulation and the motor mechanics of getting food to the mouth
• Lactation consultants: milk transfer/production and getting baby fed, not oral motor specifics
• RDs: nutrition, volume, and growth
• Which discipline covers infant feeding in a hospital (SLP or OT) depends on that system, not a fixed rule

Reflection Questions for Parents

• When someone is introduced as your child's "feeding therapist," do you know which license they're practicing under?
• Has your child's team included more than one of these providers? How did their focuses differ in practice?
• If you've worked with a lactation consultant, were you ever referred to (or from) a feeding therapist?

Baby-led weaning or purees? In this episode, feeding therapist Sarina Murrell breaks down the real difference between letting baby lead the feeding and spoon-feeding purees — and makes the case that most families land somewhere in between. She walks through why babies are inherently messy eaters (and why that's developmentally normal, not a red flag), then offers a simple three-step framework to help you decide what's right for your baby, your energy level, and your family's season of life right now.

1. Where am I right now — do I have the capacity for messy, exploratory meals, or do I need convenience this week?
2. Am I treating purees as a failure, or can I reframe them as one valid food form among many?
3. What's my goal for this specific meal: getting food in, or letting my baby practice a skill?
4. How often am I actually sitting down and eating with my baby, versus feeding them separately?

Going out to eat should be a shared, positive memory — but for a lot of families, it turns into a stressful cycle of waiting, wiggling, refusing, and cold food. In this episode, Sarina walks through why restaurants are hard for young children in the first place, and four practical strategies to make the experience calmer and more successful for the whole family.

Key concepts:

• Children (especially birth to five) are wired for sameness and predictability, not novelty — so restaurant eating goals should look different than they do for adults
• "Success" at a restaurant can simply mean calm and connection, even if your child eats the same familiar foods every time
• New foods and higher-volume eating are better goals for home, not restaurants
• Previewing the menu (or bringing food from home) reduces uncertainty and anxiety for both parent and child
• You don't have to order off the kids' menu — side dishes, shared plates, and small portions of familiar foods are all valid options
• Waiting is the hardest part of the restaurant experience for kids — plan around it with snacks or by delaying table time until food is close
• A hard restaurant moment doesn't mean your family can't do restaurants — give yourself permission to adapt or leave, without worrying about what others think

Reflect on this:

• What does a "successful" restaurant outing actually look like for your family right now?
• Is there a restaurant or a few go-to menu items that already work for your child?
• What's one strategy from today's episode you could try on your next outing — previewing the menu, bringing a familiar snack, or splitting up wait time?

Is it OK to use screens to get through mealtime with my child? If you've ever grabbed the remote, handed over the iPad, or given up your phone just to get your child fed, this episode is for you — and it starts with permission, not guilt.

In this episode, feeding therapist Sarina Murrell breaks down why parents reach for screens at mealtime, what the research says about screens and the brain (dopamine, cortisol, and attention), why screen size and distance change how "checked out" a child becomes, and how distracted eating affects hunger cues and food choices. She also shares how to tell the difference between a bored child and a child who "needs" a screen to eat — and a realistic, step-by-step way to start scaling screens back without overhauling every meal at once.

If this episode resonates, start with just one meal this week — often a weekend dinner is the easiest place to begin.

Learn more about feeding support at TheAirplaneSpoon.com

You've got this. Love. Enjoy. And eat.

🎧 This is The Airplane Spoon Podcast — real questions and real stories about feeding children, hosted by a pediatric feeding therapist.

Constipation is one of the most overlooked contributors to “picky” or low-appetite eating in young children. This episode walks through the withholding cycle, how a full colon affects hunger, how to recognize withholding behavior, and the evidence-based basics of treatment — diet, toileting routine, and medication when recommended.

• Have I noticed my child stiffening, hiding, or going still at certain points in the day — and could that be a withholding going poop response rather than a mood or behavior issue?
• Does my child's appetite pattern (little interest in meals, filling up on a few bites) show up alongside any signs of bathroom discomfort or infrequent stools?
• Am I comfortable bringing up poop frequency or possible constipation at our next pediatrician visit, even if bowel habits feel like an awkward topic?

What are your family's values around feeding your child — and are you holding onto them when a doctor, therapist, teacher, or even a stranger tells you otherwise?

In this episode, feeding therapist Sarina Murrell breaks down how assumptions and stereotypes — about breastfeeding, cultural food practices, self-feeding, and more — quietly override what families actually want for their kids. Through real stories from her clinical work, Sarina makes the case for one simple shift: ask, don't assume — for parents and providers alike.

Parent reflection questions

1. What are your non-negotiable values around how your child eats?
2. Has a provider ever told you something needed to change without asking what you wanted first?
3. Where do you fall — low priority or high priority — on things like self-feeding, utensils, or where your child sits to eat?