There is a thought that has been sitting with me for a very long time.
In almost every feeding consultation I conduct, parents bring me urgent, practical questions about food:
“How much should my child eat?”
“What should I pack for breakfast?”
“How do I get them to eat sabzi?”
“Is this enough protein?”
“What do I do when they refuse every single thing I cook?”
We live in an age with no shortage of information telling us what to offer. There are endless recipes, meal plans, nutrient charts, lists of first foods, and guides on what to avoid.
Yet, after years of working directly with hundreds of families, I feel strongly that we are missing something much bigger.
We don’t just need more information about food.
We need to understand the relationship a child is building with that food.
And honestly? I haven’t found a single book in India that brings all of this together in a way that truly speaks to the everyday realities of Indian homes.
Because Feeding Isn’t Just About Nutrition
If you’ve followed my work at BLW India, you know how much I value nutrition. Protein matters. Iron matters. Healthy fats matter. Variety matters.
But none of these exist in a vacuum. A child can have a perfectly balanced, nutrient-dense plate placed in front of them and still reject it completely. Not because the food is bad, and not because the child is “stubborn”; but because eating is about so much more than calories and vitamins.
Eating is tied to:
Internal hunger and fullness cues
Sensory comfort and familiarity
Developing independence and trust
Family dynamics, atmosphere, and pressure
The emotional environment surrounding the table
Think about two children sitting down to the exact same meal of dal-chawal.
One child hears:
“Just two more bites.”
“Look at how well your sister finished her bowl.”
“Finish your sabzi first, then you get dessert.”
The other child is offered the same meal alongside a familiar safe food, allowed to decide how much to eat, and sits with a family that is simply enjoying their own meal together.
The food on both plates is identical. The psychological experience is vastly different. Repeated hundreds or thousands of times throughout childhood, that daily experience is what quietly builds a child’s lifelong relationship with food.
Indian Parents Have a Unique Feeding Story
Much of the feeding advice available today comes from Western frameworks. While the core principles are helpful, our food culture, home environments, and societal pressures are completely different.
We navigate unique dynamics every single day:
- Loving grandparents who genuinely believe “one more bite” equals love
- Generational mindsets shaped by a deep-seated fear of wasting food
- Deeply rooted traditional beliefs around milk, ghee, weight, and “strength”
- Joint family living, where five different caregivers might have five different opinions on how a toddler should eat
- A chaotic mix of traditional home-cooked meals, aggressive packaged-food marketing, and social media pressure to create “Instagram-worthy” plates
It can feel overwhelming.
Parents Don’t Need Another “10 Healthy Foods” List
Most parents already know that vegetables are healthy, eggs provide protein, fruit beats packaged juice, and dal is nourishing. Information isn’t the gap.
Where parents are struggling is in the emotional trenches:
- The toddler who rejects the dal they loved yesterday
- The child who refuses dinner but begs for biscuits ten minutes later
- The mother exhausted from running a short-order restaurant in her own kitchen
- The father unsure whether to insist on one more bite or let it go
- The grandparent convinced a slim toddler is “weak” or “underfed”
These aren’t purely nutrition questions. They are relationship questions.
A Different Kind of Resource
I keep coming back to what I wish I could hand a parent at 10:00 PM after a grueling, tear-filled dinner. Not another spreadsheet. Not another rigid meal schedule. Not another list of recipes to fail at.
I want parents to have a guiding voice they can return to when anxiety kicks in; something that explains:
- Why children naturally go through selective eating phases
- Why pressure and coercion backfire every single time
- How screens quietly detach children from their internal appetite
- Why milk intake can silently displace solid meals
- How to navigate conflicting advice from different caregivers smoothlyAnd most importantly: how to protect the relationship your child is building with food.
The Goal Isn’t Just a Child Who Eats Broccoli
Of course I want our children to eat nourishing meals. But more than that, I want them to:
- Recognize true hunger and fullness without relying on a clock or a clean plate
- Approach new foods with curiosity instead of anxiety
- Eat without needing bribes, screens, or negotiations
- Enjoy family celebrations without guilt or food obsession
- Grow into adults who can navigate food with confidence, trust, and peace
That journey starts much earlier than we think. It starts with the tiny, everyday moments around the dining table during childhood.
Coming Soon…
Every consultation I’ve conducted, every panicked message I’ve read, and every time a parent has sighed and said, “I wish someone had explained this to me earlier”, I wrote it down.
I don’t want these insights to remain trapped inside individual consultation rooms.
Indian parents don’t need another book telling them how to force their children to eat more. We need a book that helps us understand why children eat the way they do. A book about food, yes, but also about childhood, culture, trust, and the conversations happening at our tables.
I’ve been quietly pouring my heart into creating exactly that.
You won’t have to wait much longer.
With love,
Riddhi
BLW India
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Feeling Overwhelmed by Nutritional Gaps and Picky Eating?
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