Holistic Pediatricians

Dr. Chheda – Let’s talk about a common concern: toddler eating habits between 18 months and 3½ years. During this phase, something interesting happens – children become grazers!

Here’s what’s normal: Your toddler might take a bite, run off to play, come back for another bite, and repeat this pattern all day. This isn’t a problem – it’s actually developmentally appropriate!

Restaurant tip: This might not be the best age for dining out, as sitting still just isn’t in their nature right now. Important points to remember:

This age group doesn’t need many calories, but they do need nutrition

Focus on offering fruits and vegetables throughout the day

Avoid the “clean your plate” rule, which can create unhealthy habits

Grazing is a perfectly safe and healthy eating pattern for toddlers

Is your child having difficulty sleeping? It’s a common concern that we address during well visits, and there are some tips and tricks that you can do to help your child sleep better.

The first one is no screen time an hour before you sleep. So really that should be unwinding time. That should be meditation, maybe journaling, drawing, reading, yoga – absolutely.

The second is to make sure that you are physically active earlier in the day. When your body is physically tired, it will help you sleep better, but don’t exercise right before you sleep in that one hour. The third, for our older kids, they could drink a little bit of chamomile tea, and that will help kind of calm them. They can also take magnesium. Teenagers can take 200 mg of magnesium to help them sleep. And side note: it also helps with some anxiety.

Lastly, make sure that the temperature is just right – not too cold, not too hot.

Hope your child sleeps better tonight!

Dr. Chheda – I actually do like the use of pacifiers. Babies will learn to self soothe, and whether they use their fingers, their thumb, or a pacifier, they will find something to soothe themselves with. And I would rather a pacifier because I can get rid of a pacifier. I can’t really get rid of a thumb or finger.

At 18 months of age, what you want to do is cut the tip of the pacifier, give it back to the child. They will immediately look at it, say “broken” and throw it away. Within two to three days, your child will not ask for the pacifier anymore. It’s a very easy way to get rid of it. And around 18 months is when most babies are ready to get rid of their pacifier, or their finger and thumb. But you want to make sure that if it is a finger or a thumb, you talk to your pediatrician about how you might have your child stop that habit.

But I do like pacifiers because they are so easy to get rid of.

Dr. Chheda – 🥦 Okay so I come from an Indian background. To me, boiled vegetables without any flavour is just nasty. And so if you’re trying to feed your child, regardless of what age they are, just boiled vegetables or steamed vegetables and they say they don’t like them? Flavour it up!

Put in whatever flavouring you think that they would like. You know, Mrs. Dash makes lots of flavourings without any added sodium. Sprinkle Mrs. Dash on them. If you want a little bit of Indian flavour, some curry powder. If you want a little bit of Chinese flavour, the Chinese five spice recipe – whatever!

But flavour it up, and then you’ll notice that they’re actually eating it. Why do you think toddlers dip their vegetables in ranch? To give it a little bit of flavour.

Steamed boiled vegetables without any flavour? Hmm, not so interesting.

Dr. Chheda – 🏥 Understanding Medical Advice: A Doctor’s Perspective

The role of medical advice:

Based on education, experience & evidence

Patient decides whether to follow

Trust and understanding are key

Open dialogue is essential

Saying ‘No’ is Important! 🚫 Children need to hear and understand the word ‘no’—and more importantly, they need to know why they’re hearing it.

🗣️ What happens when kids hear ‘no’?

✅ They learn about consequences

✅ They understand boundaries

✅ They develop resilience As kids grow, they will face rejection and negative criticism—and they need to know how to handle it positively.

💡 Real-life lesson:

Dr. Mona’s daughter recently worked on an Eagle Scout project, collecting donations for families in need. She approached seven grocery stores for permission to set up a donation table. Five of them said no.

Instead of getting discouraged, she accepted it and moved forward. Because ‘no’ is okay!

Teaching kids to accept ‘no’ helps them build confidence, resilience, and problem-solving skills.

Dr. Chheda – 👶 Due to a number of factors, 6 months is when your baby will develop their first cold.

They are usually born with all of mom’s blood, all of mom’s antibodies inside of them. All of those antibodies go away between 4 to 6 months of age. For the first 4 to 6 months of age, they have enough antibodies to start to fight things off if they come in contact with any germs.

But after 6 months of age, all those antibodies are gone. Plus your baby’s at the age where they are touching everything, everything goes into their mouth. So they will be exposed, and they will get their first cold around 6 months of age.

And then they will get a cold every two weeks for the next two years, and that’s normal. That’s how they will develop their own immune system.

Dr. Chheda – 🤧 The typical symptoms of a cold you might notice is a runny nose, but what really is happening with all the other symptoms?

Initially, you get a little drip, post-nasal drip down the back of your throat, so your throat might feel a little scratchy. So your kids may not want to eat as much. They might say “my throat hurts.” It’s not so much that you can really tell, but you feel you get that scratchiness first.

And then the next day you produce enough mucus that you actually see the running nose. And then when that running mucus increases, you’ll not only see it from the outside, but you get more mucus draining down, and kids will automatically cough to try to keep all that mucus out of their lungs.

We don’t want to stop the cough. If we stop the cough, the mucus will drain into the lungs and can turn into a pneumonia. So we want them to cough. Now, kids are not great at coughing out – they cough up and then they swallow the mucus into their stomach.

Now their stomach’s full of mucus, so they don’t want to eat because they’re full of mucus, and they might throw up because mucus is very irritating. So they’ll throw up some mucus, or they might have diarrhea cause all that mucus has gotta come out somehow. So you have more slimy poops.

So yes, you can get vomiting and diarrhea with a cold, and it’s all related to the mucus. Once you stop the mucus, the runny nose stops, the post-nasal drip and the sore throat stops, the cough stops, the vomiting stops, the diarrhea stops. Mucus is the issue. So those want to deal with the mucus part of it, not the other symptoms. All the symptoms will go away once you stop the mucus.

Dr. Chheda –

Let’s talk about a universal truth of adolescence: the “invincibility complex.” Every teenager goes through this phase where they believe nothing bad can happen to them.

You’ll hear thoughts like: “I don’t need a seatbelt” “It won’t happen to me” “I’m not going to get hurt”

For parents, this can be terrifying. But here’s what you can do:

Keep repeating safety messages

Consistently model good behavior

Understand that some mistakes are part of growing up

The goal isn’t to prevent every mistake – that’s impossible. Instead, focus on preventing those permanent, life-altering ones. That’s every parent’s real concern.

A candid discussion about balancing video games with other family activities:

Why daily gaming isn’t recommended

Setting weekend limits

Creative alternatives for family bonding

Making screen time meaningful