Parenting / 5 April, 2022 / My Baba
My Little Foodie is a family meal kit service on a mission to help families form life-long healthy eating habits. They believe in providing more than just great food. With ongoing support and guidance from their in-house Children’s Dietitian, they’re making it easier for parents to feed their kids fresh and healthy options on a daily basis.
What we love about My Little Foodie is that they’re all about reframing our children’s relationships with food by getting kids in the kitchen. My Little Foodie kits are meant for the whole family to enjoy. It’s an opportunity for parents and their kids to enjoy cooking and experimenting with food together, exploring cultures, sharing recipes and mastering skills that will set kids up for life.
Their in-house Children’s Dietitian plays a supporting role, teaching parents to cook nutritious, quick and tasty meals while passing skills on to their children so that the whole family can thrive.
Your first My Little Foodie box will arrive with a super-cool welcome booklet created in collaboration with resident Children’s Dietitian, Lucy Upton. The booklet guides parents through the feeding journey from six months through to adulthood, with helpful food safety advice and healthy breakfast and snack recipes.
My Little Foodie is the only recipe meal kit service to use 100% organic* meat and veg in their boxes, for the best taste and quality. What’s more, each meal by My Little Foodie is available as three different types to cater to different dietary requirements:
Each box comes with three easy-to-follow recipes, together with all the fresh, organic* ingredients you need to make a delicious meal in just 30 minutes. Every recipe is designed to be served as a nutritious lunch OR dinner.
Most importantly, each recipe has been balanced with ingredients to provide key nutrients, vitamins, and healthy fats, to support healthy development.
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My Little Foodie knows that the first 1000 days of a child’s life (starting from conception up until they reach two years of age) is well recognised as a crucial window of opportunity to shape a child’s growth and development. Nutrition during this period of time lays essential foundations, supporting a child’s ability to grow, learn, develop and thrive. The transition to solids is a key part of a child’s nutritional journey during this time, and has the ability to contribute both positively and/or negatively to a child’s health and development.
All My Little Foodie recipes are children’s dietitian-approved, so you can rest assured you’re providing your family with the right amount of variety, balance and quality of food.
Family mealtimes can be the perfect environment for babies and children to learn about food. Whilst this might not mean they eat each of the foods you offer at each mealtime (in fact it’s very normal that they won’t!) your children will have the opportunity to see you, other family members and friends eating a variety of foods.
Role modelling is a fantastic way to support children’s skills with eating and acceptance of a variety of foods. They look to you for confidence and learning! Even if all the foods offered don’t reach their mouth, don’t despair. Just being around the family at mealtime and exploring foods, colours, shapes, smells and textures are all important aspects of exposure to food – an essential step to acceptance.
Fussy eating can often be a reason why families don’t end up eating the same foods together, however sharing the same family meal has actually been shown to have a positive impact on the development of children’s food preferences – with the potential to reduce fussy eating behaviours.
The earlier you start the better! Studies have shown that children in families who regularly eat together may refuse less food. Wider exposure to a variety of foods, rather than limiting to offering preferred foods only, is typically considered an essential step in managing fussy eating, and certainly, one Lucy recommends to all families both to support prevention and management of fussy or picky eating behaviours.
Establishing your baby on a balanced, varied and appropriate diet that meets their unique nutritional needs can feel daunting – but knowledge is power. My Little Foodie provides you with information at each stage of weaning to support you with key foods and nutrients to consider, why they are important and how to build the balance for your baby’s nutritional needs as you take each step through weaning. They’re passionate about supporting parents on their weaning journey. They’ve created a separate weaning guide so you can adapt a portion of every recipe for even the littlest of mouths.
The time saved in recipe planning, shopping and cooking different meals for children can now be spent doing the things you enjoy with your family. My Little Foodie’s boxes work out cheaper than buying the same ingredients at the supermarket so you can use the spare change for another family adventure!
With carefully pre-measured portions, a My Little Food subscription will help you reduce your food waste. All packaging is environmentally-friendly, and your carbon footprint is reduced by not visiting the supermarket so often.
Let’s face it, mealtimes aren’t just about food! They offer children a valuable space to observe, learn and experience a whole range of other factors such as language and communication, socialisation, humour, feeding skills e.g cutlery use, and a whole lot more. Mealtimes are often a space for sharing, emotional connections, security, love and time away from life’s distractions – all of which are undoubtedly beneficial for children.
With My Little Foodie, you’re encouraged to prepare and eat meals together as a family. The short and long-term benefits of family mealtimes are significant, and having a family meal is undoubtedly one of dietitian Lucy’s top tips for children of all ages.
Research has found that children who regularly eat together with their family have observable benefits in their mental well-being and even behaviour. Across a variety of studies, outcomes have included reduced risk of depression, lower levels of aggressive or oppositional behaviours and less risk of disordered eating practices. Numerous studies have also shown that regular family mealtimes can lower the risks of childhood obesity or excess weight gain.
For families with children who have dietary requirements due to food allergies or medical diagnoses, it is understandable that planning family meals can be more difficult. My Little Foodie’s recipes offer complete inclusivity, you won’t have to offer separate foods for your little one with dietary needs.
It’s worth noting that children with food allergies or dietary needs can ordinarily have a reduced range of foods available to them, and as a consequence, as they grow older they tend to be hypervigilant around less familiar foods (even if they are safe to eat) and/or they may become increasingly aware of ‘being different’.
Inclusivity for children with dietary needs can be supported by sharing the same family meal which is suitable for everyone as well as helping your child build confidence around foods.
You only have to cook once! This benefit really is for one for the parents. It’s so common to hear of parents providing multiple different or ‘solo meals’ each evening. Cooking one meal for all the family means less stress for you, and savings in the bank too.
It’s easy as a parent to pay lots of attention each day to what and how much your little one is eating. Family mealtimes can often help remove some of this child-only focus, as you can sit and enjoy your mealtime too.
My Little Foodie has also developed a range of freezer-friendly options for those busier days. Using their most popular recipes and the best organic ingredients, freshly prepared meals are frozen to lock in all the goodness, so parents can enjoy peace of mind that their children are getting protein, vitamins and essential fats to support healthy growth.
It’s really simple to subscribe, simply choose the Healthy Family Recipe Box that suits you, schedule your delivery date, and et, voilà! Bon appétit!
*All the meat and fresh fruit and veg are organic and free from artificial pesticides or fertilisers.
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