#73_Trading Dinnertime Battles for Curiosity and Connection, with Katie Kimball

I'm Dr. Shelly Mahon, your host, and today I sit down with Katie Kimball, author of The Picky Eater Playbook. Katie talks about why picky eating is rarely about the food, how pressure turns dinner into a power struggle, and what parents can say and do instead.

"One of the greatest food gifts you can give your kids is to help them connect what they are eating with how they feel."

If dinner at your house feels like a negotiation, you are not alone. According to Katie Kimball, founder of Raising Healthy Families and author of The Picky Eater Playbook, picky eating usually has less to do with broccoli and more to do with what is happening between parent and child at the table.

In this episode, Katie walks us through the five Ps behind picky eating, how our own childhood experiences with food shape the way we parent, and why pressure so often backfires. She shares the Team One Meal, the Exposure Bucket, and the Experience Bite, the phrases that help (and the ones that don't), the red flags that mean it's time to call a professional, and why teaching kids to cook may be one of the best ways to change how they eat.

Katie Kimball is the founder and CEO of Raising Healthy Families and host of the Healthy Parenting Handbook podcast. A former teacher and mom of four, she has spent more than 17 years helping parents raise healthy, capable kids. Her new book, The Picky Eater Playbook: Stress-Free Strategies to Jumpstart Healthy Eating Habits in Kids (Familius, November 2026), grew out of her TEDx talk, "Picky Eating Isn't About the Food," which has more than 300,000 views. She is trained in the SOS Approach to Feeding and is a Certified Stress Mastery Educator.

Katie created the Kids Cook Real Food and Teens Cook Real Food programs (named the best online cooking class for kids by The Wall Street Journal in 2020) and founded LifeSkillsNow, a virtual summer camp that has reached more than 100,000 families. She has written the Kitchen Stewardship blog since 2009 and has appeared on ABC, NBC, and FOX. Her mission is to help parents raise healthy, independent adults who are ready for real life.

• Why picky eating isn't about the food
• The five Ps that impact eating: palate, pain, processing, pressure, and power
• Setting boundaries without forcing a child to eat
• Helpful phrases to use at the dinner table
• Developmental differences in picky eating
• Why "yet" is the magic word
• Preparing for busy days with quick and easy meals
• The Team One Meal, the Exposure Bucket, and the Experience Bite
• Why exposure doesn't always mean eating, and experience bites don't have to be swallowed
• Red flags that mean it's time to talk to a practitioner
• When, how, and why to teach kids to cook

• The Picky Eater Playbook: Katie's new book (Releases: Familius, November 10, 2026)
• Pre-order bonuses through November 17, 2026
• Katie's TEDX Talk: Picky Eating Isn't About the Food
• Website: Raising Healthy Families
• Instagram: @raisinghealthyfamilies
• YouTube: @KatieKimball