Episode 75: Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane – Three Simple Tips for Time-Poor Parents

Episode 75: Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane – Three Simple Tips for Time-Poor Parents

Hi all! Karina here. This week on The Easy Feed Podcast, we’re talking about something I know so many of us struggle with — how to feed our kids well when life feels like a constant race. Between work, school runs, sport, and everything in between, family nutrition can quickly fall down the list. But it doesn’t have to.

In this episode, I share three simple, practical tips to help you nourish your family with ease — no overhauls, no guilt, and no complicated plans. These are strategies I use myself as a mum and paediatric dietitian to keep meals balanced, nutritious, and realistic for busy families.

Links:
https://nourishwithkarina.com/feedingbabies
https://nourishwithkarina.com/membership

Highlights:

Introduction (00:00.606)
The Busy Reality of Feeding and Raising Kids (02:18.658)
3 Simple Nutrition Tips That Change Everything (04:35.704)
Busy parenting life + healthy routines (07:01.598)
The 3–3–3 Method: How Simple Planning Can Transform How Your Kids Eat (09:20.014)
Healthy Kids in a Busy Life: Small Wins, Smart Planning & Snack Strategies That Work (11:24.514)
Three Strategies to Make Feeding Kids Easier (and Healthier!) When Life Is Busy (15:59.124)
The Hidden Power of Family Meals (18:22.988)
Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane: 3 Simple Tips for Busy Parents (20:43.031)
Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane: 3 Simple Tips for Busy Parents (22:49.56)

Show notes

READ TRANSCRIPT

Show Notes

More about Karina and Nourishing Kids!

Join Karina’s 5 Days to Healthier Kids Challenge https://learn.nourishwithkarina.com/5-days-to-healthier-kids-challenge

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Karina's popular Nourishing Kids lifts the "food stress" load, giving mums a clear plan to get kids trying new healthy foods and guidance on how to feed their family more easily! Learn more here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nourishingkids

Karina is a regular on Channel 7, Sunrise. Check out her segments here: https://nourishwithkarina.com/press

For online consultations & personalised support. Click here https://nourishwithkarina.com/nutrition-consultation

Karina's popular Kids Food Reviews are here https://nourishwithkarina.com/food-reviews

If you have a Fussy Eater, register for Karina's online training and learn the 3 Essential Steps required to end fussy eating. https://nourishwithkarina.easywebinar.live/endfussyeating

Explore free tools, healthy recipes, and nutrition guides at:
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🔗 https://nourishwithkarina.com/guide
🔗 https://nourishwithkarina.com/planner

Introduction (00:00.606)
You're listening to the Easy Feed podcast, episode number 75, feeding kids in the fast lane. Three simple tips for time for parents. Hi there. I'm Karina Savage. And with over 20 years experience feeding children, including my own, I've learned all the secrets that busy mums need to get their children eating better and actually enjoying healthy foods. So a huge welcome to the Easy Feed podcast.

Hello everybody. Welcome back. It's great to have you and thank you for being here for another episode of the easy feed. It's great that this podcast is getting out to all parts of, you know, the globe, which is so good. It's great to be able to share this information with parents all over and you know, even grandparents as well. had a, a patient online the other day and I said, how did you hear about me?

And she said, oh, my mom listens to your podcast. So that was great because I could help her because her mom listens to my podcast. And then it's so funny, actually, my daughter says, oh my gosh, mom, some of my friends listen to your podcast. I'm thinking, not sure you're my target audience, but okay then, if they get some tips, then great. So you just don't know who's listening to your podcast, but.

I know that it is getting out there and helping people. So thank you for listening. Thank you for sharing my podcast and please actually give me a review because hit the star rating. Give me a review because that helps get the podcast out to more and more parents and we can just share the love, right? So today I wanted to talk about feeding kids in the fast lane. I recently did a talk online to a bunch of Google parents, which was wonderful. I love doing corporate talks because you know, it's really good to help.

everybody, especially those that are working part-time, full-time and trying to juggle everything. And it's really hard sometimes to try and keep on top of it all. And even if you're not working and you're a full-time mum at home, trying to juggle your kids and commitments and everything, you know, it can be very challenging trying to keep on top of everything. So I wanted to just give some quick tips to help simplify the week because let's be honest.

The Busy Reality of Feeding and Raising Kids (02:18.658)
feeding and running kids around can feel like a full-time job on top of the job that you might already have between school runs and afterschool activities and sports. And well, Haven had to run to the doctors to get my son some extra antibiotics because he has had tonsillitis and we thought that it was all done and dusted, but then, you know, I think his throat's still a bit sore and it's a bacterial one. So we actually needed the antibiotics. So then we walked the dog.

I've come back home, made the lunchboxes. My son's ridden off to school. My daughters have dropped her at the bus stop to catch the bus to go to school. She probably could walk, but she doesn't. I'm a yes mum and I drop her at the bus stop. Often she's laden with so many bags anyway, hanging off her shoulders. So was like, okay, I'll drop you at the bus stop. And then I duck to the cameras, grab the next script of antibiotics. Then I rushed to school because I wanted my son to.

get onto it because his throat's getting sore and I'm like, okay, we need to just keep this going. Gave him the antibiotics cause he met me at the gate cause the school gates hadn't opened yet. So he rides to school, but luckily the timing was perfect. So I could quickly give it to him and then he got into school. And then I came home and sort of went, right, now let's like regroup. But you know, your life's busy and you're running around and sometimes when you get to work, I remember sometimes you get to work and it's like, right.

Now we can actually sit down and have a cup of tea and actually rest. it's, yeah, it's busy, right? Life is just busy. I think trying to have some strategies in place to simplify life a little, can really help structure can really help. And it can also mean that you are feeding your kids a little more healthy and the whole family is a little more healthy because when you're not.

planning or when you don't have any structure, that's when the takeaway creaks in a lot more, the junk snacks creaking a lot more. And you know, because it only takes an extra couple of junk snacks that creep in consistently day in, day out, an extra couple of takeaway meals that sneak in consistently each week.

3 Simple Nutrition Tips That Change Everything (04:35.704)
to really change the nutrition that your family's eating. And, know, I've just been running my five days to healthier kids challenge this week. And we're always talking about making small changes, but consistent changes, small consistent wins that when done consistently will add up. And I guess the opposite is true that if you have those junk foods or junk snacks creeping back in consistently, then things are going to go downhill in terms of their

gut microbiome in terms of their immune system and everything starts to get a little more unhealthy. And you may not notice it at first, but you then might start to see their poos change. They might get a bit more constipated or they might start to get sick more often, or they just don't feel as good. Their behaviour might be off. And that can be a direct result of poorer nutrition. Last night in the Five Days to Healthy Challenge, I was talking all about sugar and the direct impact of sugar.

on attention, behaviour, gut health. Food is medicine. Food affects us way more than we even realise. And the same goes for our children. So the next time your child's misbehaving, it might not just be their temperament. Have a look at what they've eaten because that can directly impact their overall health, wellbeing and behaviour and mood. Absolutely. So I've got three tips for you today.

I just want to interrupt this podcast because I have a very time sensitive public service announcement. It relates to my nourishing kids membership being open right now only for another 24 to 48 hours, depending on when you listen to this podcast episode. It's my nourishing kids membership. It's the last time it's going to be open to new members for the rest of the year. So if you're interested in joining, you need to head to nourishwithkarina.com.

forward slash nourishing kids, or just click on the link and that will take you to my membership where you can join at the moment. As I said, it's open right now and it's the last time it's going to be open for the rest of the year. So come in and join us. It's a beautiful community of parents and it's such a wonderful way to support families. Check it out. It's hands down the easiest way that you're going to improve how your family eats. And you're to have me in your corner helping you do it. Okay. Back to the episode.

Busy parenting life + healthy routines (07:01.598)
Number one is to plan loosely, not perfectly, but plan something because having a rough plan in place makes such a big difference. I know that I'm guilty of not planning and when I do just some loose planning, my goodness, it makes such a difference to the week. It makes it so much easier when you get to 5.30 and like, my gosh, I've got to quickly pull something together. You've got it there and you can put something together, even if it's the simplest dinner.

At least you've got the ingredients there and you've got an idea that's a seed that's planted somewhere deep down in your subconscious that you've actually thought about maybe last Sunday. And you're like, right, I can pull together this meal. Great. Let's go. Rather than going, I'm just going to have to swing past McDonald's or KFC. So it's, it's just about having a bit of a loose plan and that will make a big difference.

If you head to the free information section of my website, so just go nourish with karina.com forward slash free info. You'll see all sorts of free information there, including my blog, my food reviews, but you'll also see an inspiration tips picture from the left second one down. And if you click on that, you will head to my planner, which is basically an empty pro form. And you can just write things down. You can write down some meal ideas. You can write down ingredients. It just printed off and stick it on your counter and have a bit of a plan on a Sunday.

It's going to make a big difference. honestly believe that having some sort of structure make a difference. Whether you're planning dinners, whether you're planning lunchbox snacks, whether you're planning what you're to put in the lunchbox because gee, that's tricky in itself. Either they're sandwich kids or they're not sandwich kids. And if they're not sandwich kids, you need to have backups. And there's plenty of alternative ideas. That's why I've created my lunchbox planner.

which is a package of all different tips and tools and tricks to help prepare lunch boxes more easily and make them nutritious. And I've got a guide for sandwiches and alternatives. And then I've got a guide of what to exactly put in a lunch box. And I've got all sorts of tips and recipes and whatnot in that lunch box planner. So having a plan for what's going in the dinners, what's going in the lunch boxes, perhaps snacks as well on a Sunday, making sure that in the online order you put

The 3–3–3 Method: How Simple Planning Can Transform How Your Kids Eat (09:20.014)
three or four snacks that you know you can include in the lunchbox that are semi healthy. I like to call it the three, three, three methods. So having three healthy snacks, three lunch ideas and three dinner ideas. Having that every Sunday can make a real difference to your week. Repetition builds familiarity. So you don't have to have a whole brand new menu every week. That's not real life. That's not easy.

And the kids don't necessarily love that anyway. It's nice to have some familiarity and routine. Kids love structure and routine. So whether it's taco Tuesday, pasta Wednesday, pizza Thursday, schnitzel Friday, know, Monday could be a satay or stir fry or, you you pick what your family likes, but trying to have some sort of structure and routine.

Really helps everybody. So perhaps this Sunday, try to pick three dinners that your family usually likes to eat. If you're saying to me, Karina, my kids will eat none of what I want to eat. I want to eat, you know, red curries and my kids won't even go near them. Then I say, listen to my podcast episode number five. It's way back at the beginning, but it's where I teach you how to simplify feeding your kids, feeding them one meal, despite having fussy eaters. And I talk about how to deconstruct it.

and sub out various components so that you're still only cooking one meal for the family. You are being considerate, not necessarily catering and cooking a whole different meal because there is a difference between being considerate to fussy eaters and respecting different taste buds.

And then catering and cooking a plan B and cooking a plan C for the various fussy eaters. We don't want to be going down that rabbit hole. Okay. My tip number two is to be very intentional with what you buy. If we're trying to feed our family more healthily or healthy, whichever word is more correct, just pick which one you want to listen to. you had to listen to both, sorry. But anyway, moving on, if you, if you want your family to be more healthy is probably the better way to say it.

Healthy Kids in a Busy Life: Small Wins, Smart Planning & Snack Strategies That Work (11:24.514)
You need to be intentional with what you choose to put in your online order or what you pick up in the supermarket and put in your trolley. Now, if you've spent any time with me, you will know that I talk a lot about snacks and healthy kids' snacks. I do a Friday food review every week on Instagram. I've got my food reviews page, which has got over a hundred kids' food reviews. So you can have, you can either find the click through link on the free information section of my website.

Or you just go nourish with karina.com forward slash food dash reviews and you'll see that there. But you need to be intentional with what goes into the trolley and what comes into your pantry and fridge. Because if you're not, then your children are going to gravitate towards those Tim Tams to those salt vinegar chips to that chocolate ice cream. 100%. You know, it's normal, it's human nature, it's kids, right? So.

You need to be very intentional with what you're putting into the pantry and the fridge because otherwise they're just going to gravitate to the junk, even though you don't want them to. And if you leave it on the supermarket shelf, it's going to be much easier to, well, they can't, they don't, they can't have access to it because it's often the kids too that are left at, not necessarily they're left at home to their own devices. Well, some are, some are walked home from school by their older sibling.

And then they have free access to countless packets of, you know, barbecue shapes or tiny teddies or Tim Tams or whatever they want to lay their hands on. And those foods are, you know, crunchy and salty and sweet and highly addictive. And they just keep coming back more. And that's just a disaster for your child's gut, health and immune system. So what we really want to be doing is limiting those foods that actually

get into the house and sure I'm all about balance and keeping things real. And certainly my kids eat junk too, but limiting those junk snacks because the more they have them, the more they want them. Those foods activate the brain's reward system and make them addicted. happens to all of us. And what we want to do is try to replace those foods with others.

Healthy Kids in a Busy Life: Smart Food Choices That Really Work (13:37.122)
that are slightly healthier. Look, they can still be snack foods, but for example, swapping a packet of Oreos for a packet of popcorn. So it's still a crunchy packet food, but it's a much better option. So my second tip is to be really intentional with the foods that you bring into your house, because even just stopping the purchase of one, know, family pack of biscuits and then just not being there means that the family can't eat them. And maybe if you do get a chance,

You check out my healthy kids recipe book, you cook some healthy recipes from there, like a biscuit or, it might be a black bean brownie or my banana bread. And you can just give them that instead of the Kingston biscuits or the Monte Carlos, I don't know, whatever the Tim Tams, whatever that may normally go into their lunchbox. So being really intentional with what comes into the house is.

clever because it then helps you in the long run, create a healthier family. If you don't have time to read all the labels and it's just too hard, then grab my Healthy Kids Supermarket Guide. It's really affordable. It's $4.79 at the moment, an introductory price and it has over 85 Healthy Kids snacks, breakfast cereals, muesli bars, chips, crackers and ice creams. So you just head to nourishwithkarina.com forward slash guide.

And you can grab that and it's just easier. As I said, in my supermarket planner, you've got heaps of tips and tricks and guides as well. In fact, my supermarket guide is inside my planner. To get that, you go to nourishwithkarina.com forward slash planner, P L A N N E R. And it just gives it all to you. It's done the thinking for you. It's all laid out for you. And you basically just have to open it up on your app or on your laptop.

And print it off or just look at it and go, right. Okay. I'm going to buy this. I'm going to buy this. I'm going to make the lunchbox this way. It's just done all the thinking for you. And if you're busy and time poor, then grab them because it will make your life a lot easier, especially when the focus is to try and improve your family's health. Okay. Moving on to tip number three. I want you to focus on the environment. I want you to focus on connecting with your child around food rather than being hyper-focused on

Three Strategies to Make Feeding Kids Easier (and Healthier!) When Life Is Busy (15:59.124)
every mouthful that they eat and what goes into their mouth. Because sometimes when we have fussy eaters at dinnertime, especially, we can be so hyper fixated on every bite of broccoli or every bite of, you know, meat, because they might not be getting enough iron that they eat. And we really lose that ability to connect and have a calm, happy meal time. And that is so important. And I feel that in this day and age, when everyone

is so busy and parents are working really late, it's not always possible for the whole family to eat together. But if one parent can at least eat with the child or the children and connect and talk about the day and just talk about life, do life together for 15, 20 minutes, that's it. That you connect with your child. Sometimes we can just rush through the whole day and you know, you're being pulled from pillar to post and if it's not

lunch boxes and dropping kids off at school and rushing to work or rushing home from working, taking them to sport or getting to the supermarket and getting some food on the plate and serving up dinner. And then it's like, well, homework and books and bath and bed. And it's just a rush sometimes. And sometimes we don't spend any time connecting with our child. And if you look at the evidence around family meal times and connecting with your children, the social and emotional benefits

to your child's wellbeing from connecting with their family at dinnertime is huge. And it far outweighs an extra bite of broccoli or an extra bite of capsicum that they might consume. So connecting with your child at meal times is a number one priority in my view. Yes, it can be very easy to focus on what they are or aren't eating or talk about it and being focused on it only stresses them out and makes everything worse.

I talk a lot about this in my Fuzzy Eating program. It's called the Three Week Feeding Kids Reset. And the framework of that program is my kids feeding ecosystem, which is a framework that I've created based on my observations over 25 years as a pediatric dietitian and 13 years as a mother feeding children. It's a feeding ecosystem, which has to be working well for your child to learn how to love food.

The Hidden Power of Family Meals (18:22.988)
It's got three components and it's all broken down and clearly laid out for you. And it's all explained to you in my program, where you get to work out where the holes are in your child's feeding ecosystem so that they can learn to love a variety of healthy foods and that meal times aren't a big stress. A lot of parents, working parents included, feel a lot of guilt around what their children eat.

And when you're so busy and you're rushing and you just feel like, my gosh, I don't have time to put healthy food on the plate. That's not true. Like a healthy meal could be baked beans and toast and some frozen peas, right? It doesn't have to be elaborate, but you just need a plan and you need to be very clear with how you serve up meals so that there are, as I said, food options for the child that might be a little bit fussy, but then there's foods that you as a parent still want to eat.

that connecting at meal times is just so important. And so that needs to be a priority for you and for your family. I know it's hard and often mum will wait for dad to come home from work or vice versa. will wait for mum to come home from work so that the parents can eat together, but that's not great for the children. So the priority is trying to eat with your child and connecting with your child. As I said, I go into a lot more detail about all of this and your child's feeding ecosystem.

inside my Fussy Eating program. It is a standalone program. You can buy it separately to my website nourrishwithkarina.com forward slash three weeks. Or it is one of the programs inside my membership. When that opens, actually, when this podcast drops, my membership will actually be open for newbies. It's going to be the last time for 2025. So this is a great time to actually let you know that if you want to jump inside, then you are very welcome. It won't be open for

probably a couple more days, think it's going to be opening up on Monday the 27th and we'll be closing the evening of Wednesday the 29th of October. So if you're listening to this episode when it drops on the 28th, then yes, jump in and join us because it's the way you're going to learn exactly how to take the stress out of feeding kids and simple strategies to get your children eating much better, much more quickly. It's a great community. The mum's inside there.

Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane: 3 Simple Tips for Busy Parents (20:43.031)
And actually we've got a couple of dads now too, are brilliant. Okay. I'll start to wrap it up now in the interest of time, because this segment was all about feeding kids in the fast lane for busy parents. So I don't want this segment to take two hours to listen to. But in summary, I wanted to give you three quick tips on how to feed kids more healthily in the fast lane so that they are still getting good food despite life being chaotic.

So my tip number one was to plan loosely. It doesn't have to be perfect, but have some sort of plan. And I talked about a three, three, three system where you've got three good snack ideas, three good lunchbox ideas and three good dinner ideas that you can then rotate through the week.

Remember that routine and structure is really good for kids and it's good for us too. It just helps the weeks run more smoothly. Number two was shop smart. Okay. Leave more of the junk on the supermarket shelves. Don't bring it into your home because soon as it gets into your home, it's much harder to say no to the kids, especially if you're not around. And number three is focus on calm and connection at meal times rather than being hyper fixated on what's going in their mouth.

And as I always say, just focusing on one small change that you do consistently, it will add up and it will make a difference and it gives you momentum. And that's what you need to start making healthy changes for your family, despite being really busy. So as I said earlier, if you've loved this episode and you love listening to the easy feed, please share it with other families. Please leave me a review. As I said, I've got my guide, my planner.

Lots of information and freebies and also useful tools for you to purchase to make feeding kids more easy. And you can find all of that on my website. So to keep it simple, go to nourishwithkarina.com and then you can navigate the tabs from there. What's the one thing that you're going to change after listening to this podcast episode? I want you to repeat it in your mind right now so that that's helping to consolidate it. And it doesn't have to happen today.

Feeding Kids in the Fast Lane: 3 Simple Tips for Busy Parents (22:49.56)
Just try and make these simple changes over the week is all we need to be aiming for. Let's not set the bar too high for ourselves, especially as we are starting to sprint towards the end of the year. I wish you a beautiful week and I look forward to chatting with you next time. Bye for now.