The fastest way to make mealtimes calmer isn’t a new gadget; it’s seeing what’s really happening beneath the spills. In this week's episode We unpack how posture, coordination, attention, and sensory processing shape every bite, and why small, smart changes can turn chaos into progress without power struggles or pressure.
We start with setup and posture, how this can impact on our ability to access feeding. We chat through the importance of mess and simple strategies to bring into mealtimes. We also chat through restricted diets through a sensory lens, showing how unpredictable textures and smells can shrink a child’s “safe foods,” and how low-demand exploring—an extra plate, silly food art, cooking together—opens the door to variety.
You’ll learn practical, OT-backed steps for self-feeding. For spoons and forks, we use backwards chaining and tiny prompts to fade support. We share simple cues that can help kids to organise their movements. For knives, we build bilateral coordination with the knife in the dominant hand, soft foods first, and a clear rhythm—fork in, saw forwards-back, press down then back. We round out with some quick strategies to support drinking from open cups. Along the way, we keep meals playful and social so learning sticks.
If these ideas help, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s in the thick of mealtime challenges, and leave a review to tell us what worked and what you want next. Your stories shape the topics we dig into next.
