November 19, 2024
Cindy Lopez: Welcome. My name is Cindy Lopez, the host of this CHC podcast, Voices of Compassion. We hope you find a little courage, feel connected and experience compassion every time you listen.
Karly and Rachel, thank you so much for joining us today on this topic of food and our kids. So before we get started, why don’t you take a minute to introduce yourselves and tell our listeners a little bit more about you.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: My name is Karly. I’m a licensed clinical social worker. I have been at CHC for over six years, and I work a lot with kids and teens and see that food is a big part of our lives. So I think that this topic is really relevant to most of the families we serve here.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Hi, I’m Rachel O’Harra. I am an LMFT, licensed marriage and family therapist, here at Children’s Health Council, and I’ve been here for about eight years now. And I find this topic interesting because I see it does come up often in the children and teens and families that I see, whether it’s power struggles during mealtimes, picky eaters, sudden changes in appetite, or body image challenges that come up in the course of treatment, it is something that is relevant and interesting to work with families upon.
Cindy Lopez: Thank you so much, Karly and Rachel. And, as I think about this, and so many of the episodes that we’ve done in the past, you know, they’re all very, I’m going to say more clinical in nature. So this feels a little different. At CHC, we usually talk about learning differences and mental health. And today we’re talking about food. So talk a little bit about that. What does food have to do with mental health?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: Yeah, as Rachel and I chatted in anticipation of this podcast, it became very evident that food comes up in all sorts of ways in our work at CHC, both in a clinical setting and in like a more informal way, both with the client or youth themselves, as well as the families. As a lot of our listeners likely know, CHC has various areas of specialty, including neurodiversity, such as ADHD and autism, as well as learning differences and mental health diagnoses like anxiety and depression and each one of those areas of expertise are associated with different challenges and behaviors that come around food and eating. And so, in that way, it makes a lot of sense to be talking about this topic with the perspective of CHC’s clinical areas of supporting children and youth.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, I think, it’s also important to consider cultural factors and family dynamics and how that comes into play with a relationship we have with food, messaging around food, how mealtime plays out in the home setting. And so I think that comes up as well when we’re doing family therapy or coaching parents and how to consider cultural and environmental factors, when we’re coming up with an approach on how to help their child.
Cindy Lopez: So you mentioned cultural views of food, and I know there’s lots of other things that can impact like what we eat, how we eat. There’s social things. There’s even medication we take that can impact it. How we feel impacts how and what we eat, right? We do talk about comfort food because of that, you know, like just there’s something about food and its relationship to how it makes us feel or helps us to feel. So talk a little bit about why a positive relationship with food is needed.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: I also want to add on to what you’re saying, Cindy, because I think that it’s bi-directional, which means it goes both ways. Food can impact how we feel, we want something comforting so that we feel comforted and how we feel impacts how we engage with food. So sometimes people who are anxious want to eat a lot in an attempt to self-soothe, or someone who’s anxious gets stomach aches and then they don’t want to eat at all, and they can be really avoidant of food. So again, just kind of linking this topic to mental health and the services that CHC provides, I think there are a lot of ways that they feed off of one another and kind of interact in various dynamics. And then to your question, why is a positive relationship with food needed? Well, from a basic level, food is energy and energy is what enables us to act and engage in the world and modulate emotion. So if we don’t have the proper level of nutrients and energy, it can be really hard to maintain a positive outlook and have the resources to problem solve and to communicate effectively and to navigate daily life stressors. So, from, like, a really big picture perspective, food is needed for, like, basic functioning and collaborating with others and doing the daily tasks that are required of us, which includes us as professionals, also caregivers, teachers, and the youth that we work with.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, if you think of our needs as a pyramid, our relationship with food and getting like Karly said, you know, food equals energy. It’s really at the base, right? It’s very foundational to be able to work on higher order needs and be able to work on emotional regulation and focus at school and getting along with my peers if they’re not having the proper nutrition to support the mental health piece as well, then, you know, that becomes an issue in many areas of their life. So I think it’s part of that foundation to set them up for success at home, school, socially.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: I just wanted to chime into what Rachel’s saying, because food also helps set kids up for success in mental health services, which is why CHC has such a big snack pantry and all the kids who come to our office for sessions start by getting snacks. It’s such a grounding way to connect and to engage and kind of zone in, tune into that moment and fuel up for the work of therapy.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: It really does make a difference, you know, and I think that is a very mindful approach at CHC to have snacks readily available. The kids come after school in all different mental states and a lot of times worn down from the day. And some kids actually, Karly was saying earlier, whether it’s for anxiety reasons or just maybe difficulties with peers and being worried about how they’re perceived or not liking the food options or picky, they don’t eat much during the day. So, having a snack can help curb that hangriness that might come on or help them be able to settle in and focus on deeper conversations and therapy. It’s something I recommend to families too. I have some parents, they actually pack a small meal or a snack to have the child eat when they pick them up from school and then realize that that helps quite a bit with their mood and helping them make that next transition home, to other activity.
Cindy Lopez: Yeah. And I’m sure like we could do a whole podcast episode on like appropriate snacks, healthy snacks, but let’s talk for a minute about what are some of the signs that a child might need more support with healthy and positive eating?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: As we’ve been talking about, there’s this interaction between food and mental health, both like well-being mental health, as well as, like, clinical mental health concerns. And there is a line where something that like most children and teens benefit from in terms of, like, regular nutrition and energy consumption can transition to a more clinical concern. And while this podcast isn’t going to focus on some of the more clinical aspects of eating, it is something to be aware of, especially because there is such an overlap as we’re discussing with various mental health diagnoses and concerns around nutrition and eating. You know, we were just talking about anxiety and how that can lead a child to overeat or undereat, and another thing to look out for with anxiety that can impact appetite and eating behaviors is the somatic symptoms of headaches or stomachaches, feeling nauseous, and speaking to that mind-gut connection and how those symptoms can accrue to the point of being more severe and requiring more intervention outside of some adjustments in the home setting. So that would be an example where as a caregiver, a parent, you’d be monitoring how your child’s reporting, how they’re feeling and what’s going on in their body. And that can be an indication of what types of support you might want to provide at home, or if you would want to seek support outside of the home.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, it’s definitely important to be curious and try to understand what might be going on from the child’s perspective and have those open discussions. And trying to troubleshoot and figure out how to support them with the relationship with food. It’s not always as simple as it seems. Sometimes there’s layers. I had a child once who wasn’t eating school lunch for several months, wouldn’t have snacks at school. It turned out it was more of a social anxiety piece of eating in front of others or how he might appear when he’s eating, being self-conscious of that. And it kind of generalized to other settings, not wanting to eat in restaurants, but he would eat in the home.
And so, every child, I think, is really unique in their presentation, so just being curious and understanding the why, and it might take time to peel back the layers and get to that piece. We often see appetite changes as well, connected to mood and depression, and that can be common, kind of a loss of appetite, and that would be something to monitor as part of those symptoms. Sometimes we also see it related to sensory challenges. So certain textures, colors, flavor profiles, with our kids with neurodivergence, they might have heightened sensitivity to that. And that could be an area to work on with your providers. And so, there’s really a lot of things to consider and it’s a unique approach, you know your child best. So really just starting with curiosity and going from there.
Cindy Lopez: Yeah, it’s interesting that you mentioned curiosity. It seems like it comes up in almost every podcast episode we do as we talk about different parenting methods or approaches. It always seems to start with be curious and listen, observe all of those things.
So, what can parents do, what could caregivers do if they’re seeing some of these things, like you were just saying, my child won’t eat at school. My child won’t eat things that have a certain texture and therefore you know, like won’t eat vegetables, whatever it is, right? So their healthy eating is not so healthy, right? What do parents do when they’re seeing some things that they’re not sure it could be an issue or it could not be an issue. What do they do then?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: A good starting place would be to talk with the child’s doctor because the doctor can rule out some general medical conditions, check the child’s vitals, make sure that they’re like physically stable, you know, we’re not concerned about an eating disorder that would require emergency intervention, and then from there the pediatrician could make the appropriate referral, about whether it was like nutrition support or services at Children’s Health Council with mental health treatment or occupational therapy. There’s a wide variety of services and interventions that may be helpful depending on what the caregiver and doctor determine may be the root of the child’s change in behavior or eating pattern.
Cindy Lopez: We also, for our listeners, just so you know, we have a couple other episodes on eating disorders, and we’ll include those in the show notes. So make sure to check those out too. If you’re thinking that there is more going on with your child’s eating and what you’re seeing.
So let’s dive into strategies, I think our listeners really want to know, okay, you set the stage for me. I get it. What do I do? How can I in like an everyday way, as I work with my child, as I care for my child, how can I help them develop a positive relationship with food?
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, so, as I mentioned earlier, that curiosity isn’t just towards your child and understanding, but also towards yourself, right? A little bit of self-reflection. We grow up with a lot of different messages around food. And sometimes parents have grown up in a different community or culture than their child is currently growing up in. So there could be conflicting messages or approaches around mealtime. And so I always encourage parents to self-reflect.
And my personal experience in growing up in a Latino family, my mom really saw food as a love language. Creating the meal for the family was a way to show love towards her children. And, if we weren’t part of the Clean Plate Club, you know, it might be a sign of disrespect or that we weren’t grateful or appreciative or accepting of that love, but then that can be confusing as a child cause sometimes we’re not listening then to our hunger cues or developing our own palate or preferences because we feel like I have to eat everything that’s presented to me, this is the way my elders, my mom, my grandmother shows love to the family. And so, I see sometimes that dynamic play out with the families I work with too and encouraging parents to consider how their child might perceive it and having kind of an open dialogue around that. And, helping the child to have a sense of agency as they’re developing a relationship with food. And so, this is how parents feel about it. This is how a child feels about it. How can we make mealtime a positive experience for everyone? And sometimes that looks like involving the child more as they get older, especially in meal planning or coming up with a recipe or setting the table, kind of having a ritual or tradition that includes fun at mealtimes in a form of connection and kind of relieves some of that pressure they might feel about how much they ate or what they ate on their plate and making it more of a time of connection in the family.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: And you’re speaking about the curiosity we’re encouraging caregivers to have about their child as well as with themselves. And kind of building off of that, I think there’s also the value of the caregiver being curious out loud with the child to again build the child’s agency and develop the partnership between the child and the caregiver to reflect, to build hypotheses, to develop insight, and then also to collaborate on problem solving strategies or those ideas that you’re suggesting Rachel of how to involve the child in ways that may improve or make positive changes to their eating behavior.
I think it’s also important to note that when it comes to talking with your child, it can be tempting to bring the conversation up in the moment that the problem is occurring because you want to solve the problem. You want the distress to go away, and it’s really important, and I bet Cindy, you’ve seen this in podcasts over and over again as the host that like a common strategy is after the moment of discord and the heat kind of cools off that’s when the caregiver needs to return to the kid and reflect and debrief and process and then talk more more clearly, you know, both of you can be a little more level headed in reflecting and being receptive to the other person’s perspective and then can more effectively collaborate on strategies that may be helpful in the home, to make it a more positive experience when it comes to meal times.
Mike Navarrete: CHC’s Voices of Compassion podcast is made possible by the generosity of people like you. To learn more about supporting CHC, go to chconline.org/donate. Also make sure to follow us on social media for more inspiring and educational content from CHC.
Cindy Lopez: I’m wondering, as I’m hearing both of you talk, I think about situations where I’ve been, even when I was a kid. I can definitely relate to the clean plate club. I’ll show my age here, but I think my grandparents were alive during the depression, right, and so when I was growing up, and when I was with my grandparents, like you definitely ate everything on your plate. Don’t take more than you’re going to eat for one and make sure then you eat it. So there’s definitely a lot that goes into our experiences with food.
I’m also thinking about a situation and wondering if both of you might have a comment on this, like what if the child is just not eating? So it throws off dinner time for everyone, not necessarily dinner, but meal time for everyone. And you know, it’s so frustrating to deal with that child, so they let the child either remove themselves from eating, and so they don’t eat. And then of course they’re hungry later. I’m wondering, our listeners probably are facing that kind of situation. I wonder if you have any thoughts or advice for them. Do they let that child just walk away from the table? Does the child eat when they’re hungry? Like, just wondering what kinds of boundaries would you place around that or not?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: I’ll jump in first because I’m smiling really broadly, and I know listeners can’t see us right now because of course, Cindy, I’m like, well, I’m curious, why isn’t the kid eating? What’s the environment like? What’s the sensory piece? What’s their emotional state coming to the dinner table? What’s the pressure of the family expectations on them? So I would start there to try and unpack the dynamic because that would inform some of the parents interventions or approaches to the child. I’m sure Rachel, you have some other thoughts too.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, and I think you touched on a good point, Cindy, on like, how do you navigate that situation? Are there certain expectations that are in place at home? And I think routines are really important for children and boundaries and they really thrive when expectations are clear. And so, bringing it back to having kind of a brainstorming family discussion around it. And reaching a compromise and really wanting to validate the child’s feelings around it and understanding and also how that can throw off the meal for the rest of the family or cause some discomfort or some distress. And I think, it is something that can also be modeled. And so I’d be curious about like the messages from other family members around meals, around food, around how much you eat or not, what you choose to eat or not, preferences, and sometimes it’s unintentional, but parents or siblings or even extended families that are in the home might have different perspectives, and the child internalizes that, and it can become more of a power struggle, or it can become more challenging to navigate that if there’s messaging that could be reinforcing some of that behavior or dismissing some of the underlying feelings that the child might have around mealtime. So I go back to the curiosity piece.
Cindy Lopez: Yeah. You brought up power struggles, and I’m sure that is part of every parent’s journey, right, like, what do I do here? Should I push this? Should I take my cues from my child and just let them figure it out, like, what can parents do to avoid getting in that power struggle with their kids, especially around food?
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: So, I think picking your battles is a really important strategy as a parent and, you know, is it just one meal time or is this becoming a pattern, right, would probably change the approach. I think sometimes parents maybe out of desperation or worried my child’s not eating enough. We fall into unhelpful patterns of behavior, like trying to bargain or bribe the child to eat and make sure they got their vegetables or their fruit for the day and that might provide a temporary solution in that moment, but actually add to the larger problem long-term. So I think, it’s important to kind of pick your battles and also understand what might be the function of that behavior. Is the power struggle about the child wanting attention? I’ve seen this a lot with families, like the mealtime, the dinner might be the first time they have to connect after a really stressful, busy day with school and work and there’s this rush because we got to do homework or sports or, you know, bath time, bedtime. And, so, hurry up and you got to finish eating and move on. And that can actually add to that anxiety a child might feel around meals or maybe getting into a power struggle or disagreement with their parent about how they want the food presented or what they will negotiate to eat or not is a way to extend the interaction and actually connect with their parent in a negative way, but attention is attention.
So, I think, taking a step back as a parent and trying to consider what might be contributing and if there’s any adjustments to be made. I know it’s a busy, busy, busy life, and it’s hard to make time for meals, but I found that to be one of the most stressful things that comes up for kids that they don’t actually have enough time to sit down and enjoy the meal or to connect with their family. And the rushing actually makes it worse, right, becomes more of a battle. That or just not feeling heard by their parent around the meal and how they would like to be–And they have their own opinions and ideas of what might help the meal go smoother. So sometimes I facilitate that conversation in sessions in helping the parent and the child understand each other’s perspective, so we can figure out a collaborative solution. I could jump in and offer strategies, but if the child’s not buying into it, it’s not going to go over so well.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: What you said, spoke out to me Rachel about the importance of the caregiver understanding the function of the child’s engagement around the power struggle and that’s funny, because I was thinking about the importance of the caregiver understanding the function of their engagement in the power struggle. So if a caregiver finds themselves setting a boundary, why? Why are they setting it? What’s the purpose of that boundary? Is it intentional? Is it again coming from what we were saying earlier? Is it coming from maybe an unconscious history of this was what was done when I was a kid and therefore this is how it should be done? When like, if you haven’t examined it, maybe it doesn’t need to be that way because you’re a different family. Your kid’s different. It’s just not a very helpful standard at this stage of your family’s life. And once the caregiver is like, okay, this is the boundary I want, this is why I want it, then there’s more space for them to either uphold it. So there’s consistency in the family interactions or communicate with the child around it to again, get the kids buy in and if not buy in, at least maybe some like understanding or like acknowledgment, again, that might be asking a bit much, depending on the child’s developmental stage and like, where they’re at in this dynamic, but at least the caregiver has some like awareness as to what they’re bringing in and why around the power struggle and that expectation or boundary.
Cindy Lopez: Yeah, I think that just parents and with anything, I mean, my background is education. So having been a teacher and been in a classroom with kids, you’re just thinking on your feet all the time, right? So you’re kind of like evaluating and reevaluating what’s working here and what’s not. And I think I would say, just reiterate what you’re both saying to our listeners is like, what are the boundaries, and why did you make those boundaries and are they still viable, like, is it still matter? And I also think developmentally, like you mentioned this a little bit, like kids who are at different ages need different things. And that goes with like eating too, but how much they can be involved in the meal process, probably changes over time too. And some kids actually probably might really love to be in the kitchen and love to participate in meal planning and cooking and all of that. So, it’s an opportunity, I think, for parents and caregivers to, again, be curious, like, what is it that is really working for their child, or what interest does their child have around all of this?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: Another resource that I wanted to include in this podcast was Dr. Becky’s podcast, “Good Inside.” She also has a book and like a parenting resource and in her podcast episode titled, The Clean Plate Club, she talks about some different strategies. And one that I thought was helpful was the idea of giving the child their meal and including on their plate, their dessert. And that can decrease the power struggle of the child refusing to eat dinner and insisting on dessert. So at this point, like they can choose what they want and if they eat just the cookie, okay, they will likely learn that eating just the cookie means that they’re hungry later. And if the expectation is that this is your food, you eat it, then like you can come back and eat it later. But there’s not the same bargaining that goes into, well, if you eat all your carrots, then you can have your cookie, like eat what you want, including the cookie. And the goal there being again, to decrease the power struggle as well as trying to start to change the relationship that we have with different types of food oftentimes dessert or sweets may be criticized as being unhealthy or bad. And while we do want to eat things in moderation, we don’t necessarily need to label foods in ways that can create different relationships with them. So you’re kind of de-stigmatizing the food by saying, “Hey, it’s on the plate, just like the carrots and the mashed potatoes and the broccoli are. And I’m not going to give you five cookies, you get one.” So if this sounds like a helpful strategy, you can hear more in her podcast episode as well.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: And then I can speak to the mindful eating. A practice that we often incorporate in therapy when we’re teaching mindfulness skills is mindful eating. And, oftentimes I’ll teach the child or the teen and then also the parent and the family it can be something they can do together at home, but really slowing down and being aware and present when we are sitting down for a meal or enjoying some food and this day and age you’ve probably seen it, you’re out to eat and everyone’s on their phone or tablet, right, their device, or the tv is on in the background at home, and so the importance of being present right turning off those screens and actually really noticing using your five senses, right? What does my food look like? What does it smell like? What does it taste like? The sounds it makes when I’m eating it. Some things are soft, some things are crunchy, different textures, different flavors, you know even thinking, where was this food made? Where did it grow? How did it get here to my plate? That curiosity around the food, it can bring a little bit of playfulness and fun back to the meal as well and help slow down and enjoy the food together. Maybe notice something new that the child didn’t notice about that food and how it was presented or their food preferences, maybe they enjoy it in a different way, rather than just eating to eating and check it off and move on to the next task, really being aware of the process of eating.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: That strategy can also be adapted based on the child’s developmental stage. And so at a younger age, you could be helping them understand, you know, when Rachel says, where’s the food come from, where is it made? Well, is this something that is like an animal product or is it grown in a garden? Like little kids are still figuring that out. And so it is a point of discussion, and they’re also broadening their horizons, and when it comes to picky eating, you know, it’s recommended that you continue as a caregiver to introduce and offer foods to kids, even if they say they don’t like it, or they try it once. And so using this mindful approach can also introduce the child to the food in a different way or from a different perspective, depending on like what the question is or what the caregiver is posing around the food. And even if the kid doesn’t eat it or they take a little bite and they spit it out, they’re still interacting with it. And that’s increasing their tolerance or expanding their relationship with the food that may pave a path forward to a broader diet as they grow.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: I am a parent to a preschooler, and what mindfulness looks like a lot of times in mealtime is, it’s at that stage where he loves to ask a billion questions, and so he is very curious about, what does this food do for my body? Is this going to help me see better? Is this going to help me get stronger, faster, you know, and curiosity about where things grow. He really enjoys like going to the grocery store, the farmer’s market and helping select the food and how all that goes into preparing a meal and sometimes he’ll even pick foods that we don’t usually eat as a family, but I think if a child shows a genuine interest, it’s worth exploring that together. Maybe it’s a new food the whole family finds that they do enjoy and they can add it to, you know, the mix of groceries they pick up and, kind of following your child’s lead and interests, even if it’s something new or different, kind of exploring that together. It could be a totally new vegetable, but let’s find a recipe and figure out how to create it. So following your child’s lead.
Cindy Lopez: Is it okay to have fun with food? Is that something that caregivers want to do?
Karly Crockett, LCSW: I think it’s a lot better than not having fun with food.
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: I think the mentality has changed over the years about that cause right, I grew up in a generation where it’s like, don’t play with your food, right. But now starting from a young age, even with infants and toddlers, they’re supposed to have a really hands on approach is what’s recommended now. To play with their food–that’s their form of mindfulness, I guess, you know, getting their hands dirty. And that actually encourages them to build that tolerance for different textures and colors and flavors. And eventually, you know, ingesting more of the food rather than playing with it. But I think that relieves a lot of the pressure we might feel as caregivers and our kids might feel around mealtime, or trying new foods. So am I going to like it or not? Being playful with it. I think it’s okay to have fun.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: Yeah, and kind of going back to the power struggle piece and the caregivers creating boundaries, it is the caregivers responsibility to have boundaries to create the container and the container can change shape and size. So that container can include space for fun with limits. So we’re not throwing food and putting food on every surface, but we can like maybe create a face out of the food or like, touch it with our hands, like Rachel’s saying, even at a slightly older age, if we’re using it in a mindful way, but it’s also, like, silly and curious, but we’re still building that exposure and curiosity in the child around food. And then, you know, we’ve also been talking about modeling and the caregiver modeling, and part of the agency building in the child is maybe the caregiver follows the kid’s lead. So the kid is modeling, this is how it could be to be playful. I’m like, oh, let me join in again, as long as that playfulness fits within the container that the caregiver’s created, and then you’re bonding, you’re connecting over something new, you’re playing, but you’re also exploring food with the goal, the underlying goal, again, the caregiver having that intention behind their behavior, like, I want to continue building my child’s relationship with food. Food is positive, food is good, food is helpful. It doesn’t have to be scary. It doesn’t have to be rigid. It doesn’t have to be stressful. I think in those ways that the playfulness can change the energy and the dynamic at the meal table.
Cindy Lopez: Well, Karly and Rachel, you’ve given all of us a lot to think about. As I sit down at the table and with my grand nieces and grand nephews I definitely have some more things to think about. So thank you for that. And I’m just wondering, as we wrap up our conversation today, if you have anything else that you’d like to share with our listeners, or anything you really want to make sure that they hear from you today?
Rachel O’Harra, LMFT: Yeah, I think for me, it would just be to be curious and to be playful, to be creative in how you approach it with your child and to be collaborative, right, with the child or teen, that you guys can work on this together as a team to figure it out, and I think that will remove a lot of the barriers, the defensiveness, the fear, the pressure that might add to some of the challenges. So really being curious, listening and working together on how to make mealtime and food time a positive experience.
Karly Crockett, LCSW: I’ll build off of what Rachel’s saying, because I’m thinking about the power of following your child’s curiosity and interest. And again, within the confines of the caregiver’s container. So, we’re not just letting the kid be willy nilly and eating breadsticks for all meals, every meal, every day. And the kid could bring in a new interest or curiosity and want to try something new, or they learned about something at school or from a book. I’m like, “Cool, tell me about it. Have you had that before? Do you want to try making it? What do you think? How should we do that?” And so in that way, the caregiver is giving the child a lot of voice and space to lead the play and the developing of their relationship with food.
Cindy Lopez: Well, Karly and Rachel, thank you again for joining us today. And to our listeners, thank you for joining us as well. And just so you know, for our listeners, please feel free to reach out. If you think that something’s going on with your child and it’s more than just kind of picky eating, or it’s picky eating and you just need some help, feel free to contact us, reach out to our care team, you can email the care team at careteam@chconline.org or you can call 650-688-3625. So thank you again for joining us all today.
Visit us online at podcasts.chconline.org. Make sure to subscribe to Voices of Compassion so you never miss an episode, and we’d love it if you’d leave us a rating and review. Have a question? Send us an email or a voice memo at podcasts@chconline.org. We’re here for you when you need us
