The Modern Mommy Doc Podcast

There’s so much parenting advice out there, and most of it doesn’t matter nearly as much as the internet wants you to think. (Seed oils? We have bigger fish to fry.) In this solo episode, Dr. Whitney is getting back to basics and sharing the six evidence-based parenting principles she focuses on as a pediatrician, the ones she dug into with a leading child development researcher. She's also sharing how these play out in real life as a mom of two neurodivergent kids, because guidance only helps if it actually fits your family.

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Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Thanks for Listening!

Everyone focuses on the teen during the college admissions years. But moms are carrying the household, the emotions, the logistics, and the quiet fear of watching their kid leave. This week Dr. Whitney is joined by Danny Ruderman, Stanford grad, and a coach with 20+ years and 40,000 hours spent with teenagers. His new book, Harvard Doesn't Care About You, Mom, is written for the mothers.

He and Dr. Whitney talk about how to communicate with a teen who's pushing every button, when it's actually time to start thinking about college, and why "Does this look good for college?" is the wrong question. They also cover whether families without money for tutors and counselors still have a real shot. And Dr. Whitney gets honest about her own Bay Area memories and why wellness has to come first.

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Two and a half weeks after dropping her daughter off at college, psychologist Dr. Sheryl Ziegler joins Whitney to talk about the messy, unfiltered reality of watching a kid leave the nest — including the fight at breakfast, the tissues in her purse, and the psychological reason her daughter picked their last morning together to be completely impossible.

In this episode, we get into:

• "Soiling the nest": the psychological term for why sweet kids suddenly turn prickly right before a big transition (and why it's protective, not personal)
• Why the 18-year-old version of pushing you away looks so different from the 14-year-old version — and what both are really doing
• Why parents of neurodivergent kids may have an advantage when the teen years hit
• "Future tripping": Dr. Sheryl's term for the anticipatory anxiety that steals parents' present moments, and how to catch yourself doing it
• A simple gut-check for deciding which social accounts, sidelines conversations, and parenting rabbit holes to walk away from

Learn More

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

In this candid, unscripted episode, Dr. Whitney reminds parents that there's no such thing as "winning" back-to-school season. Drawing on a genuinely chaotic 24 hours in her own life — a burst water pipe during a kitchen remodel, a big corporate consulting meeting, an anxious child struggling at school, and a stomach-medication mishap — she walks through what it actually looks like to choose "good enough" over perfection, and why that choice makes her a better parent, not a worse one.

Mentioned in this episode:

Introducing The New Book: Raising Body-Confident Kids!

Every great sports team has a culture. Every great company has one too. So why don't we ever talk about our families that way? This week, Dr. Whitney sits down with siblings Nancy Shapiro and Steven Shapiro — combined, 68 years in public education as a middle school counselor and a high school teacher/program director — who co-founded Our Family Culture after watching, year after year, which kids thrived under pressure and which ones got swept up by achievement culture, social media, and influencers competing for their attention. Hint: their method relies on the same principle The Ritz Carlton uses every single day.

Learn more.

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Does becoming a mom have to mean giving up your ambition? Dr. Anne Welsh — psychologist, Fair Play facilitator, and author of Ambitious Mother: From Surviving to Thriving in Your Career and at Home — joins Dr. Whitney Casares to make the case that motherhood doesn't kill ambition, it clarifies it.

Learn more.

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Summer's relaxed, grab-and-go eating is about to collide with the structure of a new school year. For a lot of parents, that transition brings a fresh wave of food-related stress. In this episode, Dr. Whitney Casares sits down with registered dietitian and mom of three Shira Sussi (founder of Shira Sussi Nutrition) to talk about how families can move into the school year without the mealtime anxiety. They cover everything from starting solids with baby to breaking the "picky eater" spiral to building lunchbox and dinner routines that actually hold up past week two.

Learn more

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on my journey from aspiring writer to published author (five books now!) to sought-after media expert...and sharing the real financial and strategic lessons I've learned along the way.

I break down how my early blog posts for Modern Mommy Doc evolved into my first two books, The Newborn Baby Blueprint and The Working Mom Blueprint, which I wrote as a package deal with the American Academy of Pediatrics. I get candid about book advances (spoiler: they're a lot smaller than people assume), the value — and limits — of publisher-funded PR, and why saying yes to every media request early on wasn't necessarily the growth strategy I once thought it was.

I also talk about the turning point with my book Doing It All, when I started funding my own publicity and became far more selective about which opportunities were actually worth my time. I share the exact litmus test I now use to decide which podcasts, articles, or interviews to say yes to. I'm also sharing how that shift led to bigger opportunities finding me, including NPR, KQED, and The New York Times.

In this episode, I cover:

• What book advances actually look like for most authors (and why the book itself isn't where the money is)
• The pros and cons of publisher-paid vs. self-funded PR
• Why chasing every media mention isn't the same as building thought leadership
• The two-question litmus test I now use to decide which opportunities to pursue
• How narrowing my focus led to bigger, more aligned press opportunities finding me

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Vacation sounds dreamy...until you're the parent of a neurodivergent child navigating airports, new hotels, unfamiliar foods, and a completely blown-up routine. I see this in my practice all the time, and I've lived it myself. In this episode, I'm breaking down exactly how to make family travel not just survivable, but genuinely good for your child and for you.

I'm walking you through seven practical, real-world strategies for vacationing with neurodivergent kids, whether your child has ADHD, autism, dyslexia, sensory processing differences, or any combination of the above. From building visual itineraries to packing a sensory toolkit to giving yourself permission to ditch the perfect-trip fantasy. This is the travel prep conversation I wish someone had given me sooner.

Here's my reminder to you before we dive in: messy doesn't equal failure. And your family absolutely deserves to make memories.

In This Episode, I Cover:

Why neurodivergent kids struggle with travel, plus what's really happening in their brains when routines break down

How I recommend building a visual itinerary that actually reduces your child's anxiety before the trip even starts

What I always put in a sensory toolkit (and why it's non-negotiable carry-on luggage)

How to choose accommodations that set your whole family up for success

The honest conversation I think every parent needs to have with their child before you leave and why overpromising a perfect trip backfires

How to recognize early dysregulation and use exit strategies without guilt

Why self-care isn't selfish on a family vacation and how I actually make it happen

Mentioned in this episode:

Find Out More About NeuroQure

NeuroQure's ASD Insight™ test is the first of its kind. It detects autism risk not through behavioral observation, but through a simple, non-invasive skin sample. And it can be done as early as two days after birth.

Learn More About NovaFerrum

NovaFerrum is a clinically proven line of iron supplements specifically designed to solve the compliance problem — meaning, getting kids to actually take it. They offer great-tasting liquid and chewable options, no metallic taste, no artificial dyes, no added sugar, and they're gentle on little stomachs too.

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

I have a confession.

My 12-year-old's face broke out and I panicked. Not in a calm, clinical, pediatrician way. In a this-is-somehow-about-me way. And I had to stop and ask myself: what is actually happening right now?

In this episode, I'm getting honest about one of the most under-addressed parts of raising kids through puberty: what happens inside us when our kids' bodies start changing in ways that trigger our own stuff. The acne. The stretch marks. The weight shifts. The curves we weren't expecting.

In this episode:

• Why seeing your kid's body change can instantly activate your own oldest wounds — and why that doesn't make you a bad parent
• The part nobody talks about: how our kids' appearance has been tied to our worth as mothers, and why that distortion makes it impossible to show up clearly for them
• Three things you can do right now when you feel that panic rising
• Why you don't have to be fully healed to get this right — you just have to be willing to look at what's yours

This one is personal. I wrote an entire book on body image and I still felt it. If you've ever caught yourself having a reaction to your child's body that surprised you, this episode is for you.

Read more.

📖 Mentioned in this episode: Raising Body-Confident Kids (available September 2026)

Mentioned in this episode:

New Book! Raising Body-Confident Kids

You want your kids to love their bodies. You're still trying to do both. My new book, Raising Body-Confident Kids, helps you do both. Releases Sept 1, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: https://www.raisingbodyconfidentkids.com/books

Find Out More About NeuroQure

NeuroQure's ASD Insight™ test is the first of its kind. It detects autism risk not through behavioral observation, but through a simple, non-invasive skin sample. And it can be done as early as two days after birth.

Learn More About NovaFerrum

NovaFerrum is a clinically proven line of iron supplements specifically designed to solve the compliance problem — meaning, getting kids to actually take it. They offer great-tasting liquid and chewable options, no metallic taste, no artificial dyes, no added sugar, and they're gentle on little stomachs too.