Blogs

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 …

The problem isn’t one spoonful of sugar. It’s what happens when food becomes something we have to fear. “Can I give my child jaggery?” “Is mango too sweet for a toddler?” “I don’t give my child any sugar at all. Is that okay?” These are some of the most frequent questions I hear in my feeding consultations. Lately, the anxiety goes even deeper: “If I let them have a piece of cake now, won’t they get addicted to sugar?” It is completely understandable why parents feel this way. We are …

During a recent consultation, an exhausted mother looked at me and confessed, “He eats everything at home, but the second we stepped into the airport, he lived entirely on plain crackers and three bites of a banana for two days straight. I reassured her immediately: absolutely nothing. Traveling with kids taught me and countless parents I counsel that normal home routines completely fly out the window the second you leave your doorstep. Between flight delays, motion sickness, and hotel rooms with zero cooking facilities, travel feeding isn’t about serving picture-perfect …

There’s something about the monsoon that changes the way children want to eat. The weather gets cooler. The evenings feel slower. Suddenly, warm food becomes much more appealing. Parents start looking for something beyond the usual dal-rice and paratha. At the same time, monsoon often brings its own challenges. Appetite can fluctuate, routines change, and children seem to ask for more snacks while spending more time indoors. This is when I like to keep food simple, warm, familiar, and nutrient-dense. You don’t need elaborate recipes. A few everyday Indian ingredients …

Whenever I talk to grandparents during feeding consultations, there is a recurring theme that almost always comes up. They look at the daily menu- polished white rice, ultra-processed wheat flour, packaged breakfast cereals and quietly ask: “Where did all our traditional grains go?” They remember a time when the kitchen smelled of freshly roasted jowar rotis, warm bajra khichdi during the winter, or fragrant red rice cooked on slow heat. Over the past few decades, our urban kitchens have slowly narrowed down to just two primary staples: wheat and polished …