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

Every well-child visit starts the same way — your child gets measured, a dot gets plotted, and suddenly you're staring at a percentile number wondering if you should be worried.

In this episode, feeding therapist Sarina Murrell breaks down what growth charts actually measure, how they were built, and — just as importantly — what they can't tell us about how your child is really doing with food.

In this episode:

• What a percentile number actually means (hint: higher is not better)
• The difference between the CDC and WHO growth charts — and why it matters
• Why breastfed babies and children from certain ethnic backgrounds often track lower on US charts
• What a percentile drop really means, and when it's worth paying attention to
• Why a "normal" growth chart doesn't always mean feeding is going well
• Questions to bring to your next pediatrician visit

Growth charts are a valuable tool — but they're just one piece of the picture. This episode will help you understand the full story.

Getting your child to stay at the table can feel like one of the most exhausting parts of mealtimes. In this episode, I talk about why children struggle to sit still — and what you can actually do about it.

Spoiler: it's almost never just about behavior.

What You'll Learn

• Why sitting at the table supports digestion, nutrition, and family connection
• How physical comfort (seating position and setup) affects your child's ability to stay seated
• Why sensory sensitivities can make the table feel overwhelming
• How movement before meals can help your child settle
• Why having one safe food on the plate matters
• How transitions and hunger timing affect mealtime behavior

Tips to Try at Home

✔ Check the seating position — feet supported, table at the right height

✔ Sit in your child's seat and notice what they're experiencing

✔ Offer movement before meals (jumping, animal walks, wall push-ups)

✔ Always include one safe, accepted food on the plate

✔ Give transition warnings before meals and use a visual timer

✔ Check hunger timing — adjust snack and meal schedules if needed

Final Thought: If your child struggles to stay at the table, there's almost always something underneath — a sensory need, a physical discomfort, a transition challenge. Start with one small change, and know that you're doing an amazing job supporting your child.

🌐 www.theairplanespoon.com

Many parents wonder if children should only eat bland foods, or if it’s okay to introduce stronger flavors like spicy or sour.

In this episode, Sarina shares real stories from feeding therapy to explain why strong flavors are not off-limits for children—and how curiosity, exposure, and supportive language can help children safely explore new tastes.

You’ll learn how to introduce bold flavors in a way that feels safe, playful, and pressure-free.

• Why children can enjoy strong flavors, including spicy and sour
• How curiosity helps children explore new foods
• Why there are no “bad foods”—only new learning experiences
• How adult language influences children’s reactions to new flavors
• Why repeated exposure helps children build their flavor preferences

What you'll Learn:

• Children can enjoy a wide range of flavors—including spicy and sour.
• Exposure helps children learn what they like and don’t like.
• Reactions to strong flavors don’t always mean dislike—it may just be new.
• Flavor preferences change over time.
• The goal is exploration, not pressure.

Tips to Try at Home:

✔ Offer small tastes if your child shows curiosity

✔ Use neutral language (avoid saying “you won’t like this”)

✔ Let your child explore flavors slowly

✔ Have a “plan” when trying spicy foods (water, yogurt, or fruit nearby)

✔ Remember—trying a food once is already learning

Strong flavors like spicy or sour don’t have to be avoided.

With curiosity, support, and safe exposure, children can discover their own unique flavor preferences.

Many parents wonder why their child refuses foods like banana or avocado—even though they seem soft and easy.

In this episode, I explain why soft foods are not always easy foods and how foods like banana and avocado can actually be confusing for a child’s mouth. You’ll learn why gagging can happen, why these foods feel unpredictable, and simple ways to help your child feel more confident trying them.

• Soft foods are not always easy foods.
• Banana and avocado sit between crunchy foods and purees, which can make them confusing to eat.
• Gagging can be protective.
• It often means your child needs more time and feedback to understand the food.
• Some foods give less feedback.
• Banana and avocado can feel slippery and hard to control, which may lead to avoidance.

• Try the flavor first (smoothies or mixed into purees)
• Add crunch (chia seeds, sesame seeds, crushed toast)
• Use stronger flavors (cinnamon on banana, lemon on avocado)
• Change the temperature (try frozen banana)
• Model eating the food and keep offering without pressure

If your child refuses banana or avocado, they may not be picky—their mouth may still be learning.

With time, practice, and positive experiences, many children learn to manage these tricky textures.

You’re not alone—and you’re doing an amazing job supporting your child. 💛

Many parents feel confused when their child once ate a wide variety of foods and later begins refusing foods they previously enjoyed. This change can feel sudden and concerning, but in many cases, it reflects normal development rather than regression.

In this episode, we explore how children grow from reflexive eating to intentional eating, how changes in food predictability can affect acceptance, and how developing preferences and independence influence food choices.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why children may stop eating foods they once accepted
• How changes in texture, taste, and predictability affect eating
• The role of autonomy and developing decision-making
• Why children return to familiar foods when uncertain
• How to understand food refusal as part of development

This episode offers reassurance and understanding to help parents navigate this common stage with confidence.

If your child refuses vegetables, you are not alone. In this episode, we talk about the real reasons vegetables can be challenging for children, including taste sensitivity, food predictability, pressure around “healthy eating,” and why exposure matters more than actually eating the food.

We also talk about:

• Why children taste bitter flavors more strongly
• Why hiding vegetables can sometimes backfire
• How the language we use around food matters
• Why sensory exploration is more important than nutrition talk
• Easy ways to start introducing vegetables
• Why seeing, touching, and smelling vegetables counts as success

This episode is all about reducing pressure, building trust with food, and helping children learn to feel comfortable around vegetables over time.

Many parents don’t necessarily disagree with using food toys—but they often wonder:

“How could playing with toy food possibly help my child eat better?”

In this episode, we explore how pretend play with food can become a powerful first step in a child’s feeding journey—especially for children who feel avoidant, nervous, or upset around meals.

You’ll hear real-life therapy stories, including:

• A child who began feeding therapy while feeling anxious at mealtimes and needing distractions to eat—and how pretend food play helped shift his relationship with food.
• A child who used stickers and felt foods to explore new foods through play, language, and imagination—before ever tasting them.

We’ll talk about why pretend food experiences matter, even though the food isn’t real. Because here’s the truth:

Even when the food is pretend, the experience in the brain is real.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How toy foods help children build familiarity with new foods
• How playful exposure can change emotional associations with eating
• Why practicing food language like “yum,” “juicy,” and “crunchy” can be so powerful
• How pretend play helps children feel curious instead of pressured
• Why feeding progress doesn’t always start at the table

We’ll also talk about being strategic with food play—modeling language, keeping it playful, and creating safe opportunities for children to explore foods without pressure.

If mealtimes feel stressful right now, this episode will help you see how learning about food can begin through toys, imagination, and connection—long before bites happen.

How do I help my child try new foods?

If this question has been on your mind—you are not alone.

In this episode of The Airplane Spoon Podcast, therapist Sarina Murrell explores one of the most common concerns parents have: what to do when a child refuses to try anything new.

Through a real story from feeding therapy, Sarina walks through why children often stick to the same foods—and what actually helps them begin to expand their diet over time.

If mealtimes feel repetitive, stressful, or discouraging, this episode will help you see feeding through a different lens.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why trying new foods can feel overwhelming for children
• The many variables in food (texture, smell, taste, temperature, appearance)
• Why “sameness” feels safe and predictable
• What happens when children begin to reduce the number of foods they eat
• How pressure at mealtimes can make things harder
• A real story of a child who only ate a few foods—and how things began to shift

Key Takeaways for Parents:

• Children often need many experiences with food before they are ready to eat it
• Those experiences don’t always look like eating
• Learning to eat includes:
  • Touching
  • Smelling
  • Playing
  • Exploring
  • Talking about food
• Remove the pressure—avoid asking your child to eat
• Model and expose—let your child see and experience food in different ways
• Progress is often slow and gradual, and that’s okay
• Small wins matter

Keep in Mind:

If we stop offering opportunities to interact with food, children don’t get the chance to learn.

Keep exposing. Keep modeling. Remove the pressure. And look for small moments of progress.

If this episode resonated with you, follow the podcast and share it with another parent who might need support around feeding.

Welcome to The Airplane Spoon Podcast.

In this introduction episode, Sarina Murrell—feeding therapist and director of The Airplane Spoon—introduces the heart behind this podcast and why it was created.

If you’re a parent who feels like feeding your child has become overwhelming, stressful, or all-consuming… you are not alone.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why feeding challenges can feel so heavy for families
• The real questions parents ask every day
• What makes feeding more complex than it seems
• And what you can expect from this podcast

This is a space for honest conversations, real stories, and practical support—without judgment.

Because feeding is not just about food.

It’s about connection, learning, and helping your child feel safe.

A Note about this Podcast:

This podcast was previously P Soup: Real Conversations – For Parents, With Parents, About Kids, where we explored a wide range of topics in child development.

Those episodes will remain available, as they continue to hold meaningful conversations and stories.

As this podcast grows, it is shifting to focus more deeply on feeding—one of the most common and complex challenges families face.

In this episode of P Soup, we’re cooking up a bowl of Gestalt Language Processing Soup.

Some children learn language in “chunks” — long phrases, scripts, or song lines — instead of single words first. This way of learning is called Gestalt Language Processing (GLP). It’s a natural, valid, and powerful path to communication.

Together, we’ll explore:

• What it means to be a gestalt language processor
• Why echolalia (repeating phrases) is a meaningful step in language development
• How GLPs move from scripts toward flexible, self-generated speech
• Practical ways parents and caregivers can support their child’s language journey

Understanding GLP can shift how we see our children — from “just repeating” to truly communicating.

• Marge Blanc — Author of Natural Language Acquisition on the Autism Spectrum: The Journey from Echolalia to Self-Generated Language, a foundational text on GLP.
• Meaningful Speech — www.meaningfulspeech.com — A parent- and professional-friendly hub for learning more about gestalt language development.