Entering New Territory (Blog Hop Week 4)

This was my comfort-zone.

I've worked as a dietitian in the hospital setting for about 6 out of my 8 years as a dietitian. 

During that time I met many families who needed nutritional advice and instructions about the type of diet to follow based on a medical diagnosis. For example, the families of children with newly diagnosed diabetes needed to learn about carbohydrate foods, balanced eating, and blood sugar management. Families of children undergoing cancer treatment needed suggestions for nausea management and nutrient-dense options to support weight maintenance as much as possible. I was comfortable going to work every day, not knowing exactly what I would encounter, but still feeling ready to offer families whatever advice they needed at the time. 

But I recognized that it's not just a matter of "knowing the right answer" or "trying hard enough to follow instructions" ... there are so many variables that come into play in the real world outside of the family's visit with a nutritionist that can make it difficult to follow through on the suggestions they are given. So I wanted to create a tool that could really make a difference for families to help them implement the feeding recommendations that they are given by their medical team. 

During my 3 years at Duke I had started working with a team of doctors to create a diabetes management app. I was inspired by my work on that app to consider what type of nutrition app would be useful for families. 

One of the themes that I noticed across the board was that unless a child is willing to eat the food that is served to them, the food won't get in to be able to help nourish them.

I wondered... could an app work some magic to help kids actually want to eat the foods that are healthy for them??

The stars aligned in my life to be able to move to NYC where my sister lives, around the same time as the diabetes app project was becoming more demanding, so I was at a crossroads where I needed to make a decision. Would I stay at Duke and do my best to juggle my work there in addition to spending my evenings working on the diabetes app too? Or would I take the leap to quit my day-job and delve deeper into the app world to take on a second project too and create a nutrition app?

At that time, I was very nervous to leave the comfort and security of a 9-5, a paycheck, a community of fabulous colleagues, and a job that I absolutely loved. I was nervous about the unknowns of what app development would involve, where all the funds would come from, how it would feel to work from home when I had always enjoyed the collaborative setting of the hospital, and so many other things in my life that would change if this happened.

But at the same time, I knew that the power of apps was so fascinating to me and I wanted to dedicate more of my efforts to create a tool for my colleagues and the families we work with in order to help improve the nutrition and quality of life for kids and their parents!

So I did it -- last April I left my job at Duke and made the move from NC to NYC. I assembled a team of app developers who did a fabulous job implementing the illustrations that my sister created for Tiny Tastes. And we haven't stopped working on the app since! 

This was a huge leap for me to take, and it still remains to be seen how things will work out practically for us over time. But I am so glad that I made this decision, because now I am able to help more than just a certain number of kids per day in the hospital setting, as Tiny Tastes can now reach countless numbers of children and families to help them meet their goals! We've designed the app to not only help families with medical needs, but also to make the feeding process more fun for anyone trying to reach their own nutrition goals as well, such as helping kids want to taste new foods or eat more fruits & vegetables. 

I don't personally have any children, but I have gotten to know so many parents and kids over the years that I have tons of respect for what parents & families sacrifice for their children and how much they work, give, love, and care for their children's wellbeing. I am happy when there is something that I can share with them through Tiny Tastes in order to help reduce stress and improve the enjoyment of a family's food and their time together.

We're all in this crazy adventure called life, and I hope that you and yours have fun trying all kinds of new things along the way!

Tiny's Blog Hop | Using Tiny Tastes

During this week's hop, I look forward to hearing stories that people want to share about how Tiny Tastes can help children want to try new healthy foods and enjoy the eating process!

Yours,
Tiny

An InLinkz Link-up

Eating With Tiny! (Blog Hop Week 3)

I've been so glad to hear from families since Tiny Tastes launched! We've received lots of stories about how much children are enjoying eating with me in the app. Check out more here if you'd like to read some of the notes I've received!


For this week's blog hop topic, I decided to hop out for a fresh story of my own! I went to visit Ian (5), Jack (8), and Cooper (4), whose parents gave me permission to share their experience:

I asked their mom to pick out some foods that they normally don't want to eat or even try, so that we could see how I might be able to help them taste these healthy new foods with me in the app!

First we started out with red bell peppers. Their mom thought they would never eat them... but whenever they saw me eating the peppers, the children all wanted to join along to taste them too! As soon as they were done eating, we were pleasantly surprised to hear Ian say "more please!"

We had already read through the story together before trying the sweet peppers, but the 4 & 5 year olds especially wanted to read the story again before continuing with the next part of their snack. They kept talking about all of the fun story accessories they wanted to buy for me with the coins they're earning! 

Next we tried kiwi fruit and almonds, things that their mom likes but that the kids haven't wanted to eat before -- so she was very curious to see if they would want to eat them along with me in the app. Their mom took a picture of their snack plate and "shared the almonds and kiwi with me" (i.e. the picture of their food fills up my bowl in the app so it appears that I am eating the same things as them) and once again the kids were all really excited to eat those new foods with me too!

Since there were 3 children using the app together, we let them share the coins they all earned by taking turns picking out different items from the Tiny Store - I got a cool bowl, a little bow tie, and a new t-shirt from them! 

Soon, Tiny Tastes will be releasing a multi-user platform where all of the kids in a family can share and enjoy the app together on 1 device, while keeping their coin-pouch and purchases separate if they'd rather use it that way :)

Yours,
Tiny

Tiny's Blog Hop | Healthy Recipes That Kids Can Help Make!

I'm looking forward to seeing all of the yummy recipes that kids can help make... post your ideas here and let's get cookin'!

Let's keep the fun going with some more great ideas this week! Many thanks to our friends who are joining us for the blog hop ~ definitely check out their fabulous blogs too since they have a lot more to share there :)

Yours,
Tiny

*viewpoints expressed in these posts are those of the individual bloggers and not necessarily of Tiny Tastes

An InLinkz Link-up

Healthy breakfast or snack! (Blog Hop Week 2)

Kids Step 1: 

Choose your favorite healthy yogurt to use!

Tiny's tip: if you use plain yogurt, you can sweeten it with stevia or 

dash of another sweetener... a fruity Greek yogurt tastes great too :)

Kids Step 2: 

Choose which fruits you want to try, then help wash them!

Kids Step 3: 

Stir a little splash of milk (or milk-substitute if you'd rather) into the yogurt, just to smooth it out!

Tiny's tip: this is a good time to stir in any special ingredients!

Adult's job 1: 

Prep while kids are stirring....

Adult's job 2: 

Place the sliced fruit inside popsicle holders all along the edges (fruit should stick to the sides since it's moist)

Everyone: 

Place the prepared popsicle into the freezer and let them freeze for at least 6 hours... then enjoy!

Tiny Tip:

When kids are having a good time helping to prepare their food, they are more likely to want to taste it! When able, include them through simple things like stirring, rinsing, stacking, pouring, or whatever they are able to safely do at their age... sharing the joy of creating something new together!

In our Tiny Tastes app, we incorporate this principle of involving kids in the eating process as they get to choose which bowl Tiny eats with, which fancy spoon she will use, and where Tiny eats at. So far, they can take Tiny on a picnic or eat in the kitchen together... but stay tuned, since lots more fun destinations are coming soon!

And most importantly, when using the Tiny Tastes app kids get to choose whether or not to join Tiny for the meal after you share some of their food with Tiny. This is an important part of the Division of Responsibility (DOR) that we've considered in the app. You can read more about the positive DOR feeding-approach here. 

We've heard so many stories about how Tiny is inspiring kids to taste new foods along with her in the app! We'd love to hear your app feedback if you'd like to share it with us too :)

Tiny's Blog Hop | Health Goals for 2015

We look forward to hearing from some of our old friends and getting to know lots of new friends through the Hop!

Thanks for sharing your unique perspective here with us ~

Yours,
Tiny

*viewpoints expressed in these posts are those of the individual bloggers and not necessarily of Tiny Tastes

My Health Goal for 2015 (Blog Hop Week 1)

Unfortunately, I'm one of those people who needs at least 8 hours of sleep per night in order to function well. But I'm pretty willing to defer preferences and even needs in order to accomplish other important goals in life. I just wish that I was someone who has enough energy to continuously 'still do it all' after only 5-hours of rest! 

The thing is though, my sleeping patterns have had a tendency to backfire for me lately....
Most of the time I stay up until 2-3 am to get projects done. I come from a long line of night-owls, so that's no big thing -- definitely feels natural! But whenever I'm up that late working, I have to sleep in then to try to recoup. That might not be too big of a problem, except that even when I get to sleep in until 10-11 am the next day I still wake up feeling groggy. 

My biggest goal for 2015 - to both improve how I feel and function - is to get 8 hours of sleep per night to optimize my energy levels and wellness. 
The specific step that I plan to take towards feeling more rested is to try to get to sleep by midnight and to keep a consistent 12-8 am schedule as much as possible. 
This will allow me to also establish healthier eating patterns instead of missing breakfast or eating later at night.

This sounds a little unrealistic to me, since there is SO much that I will still continue working on - there isn't anything that I need or want to cut out of the schedule. But my hunch is that if I am well rested, I will be even more productive during the hours that I'm awake and will be able to recoup the loss of productivity-hours with increased efficiency during the ones that I have.

Writing this down publicly today to help keep myself accountable to this goal for 2015... we'll see how it goes!

Ready to Blog Hop!

I'm so excited!!

Today we sent out confirmation emails to our blogging friends to let them know all the details about my blog hop next week -- we have some interesting people on the list, and even more friends can sign up to join in through Facebook!

It will be awesome to get to read lots of new blogs in 2015, since most of my time now is spent writing with Emily on here and playing in my Tiny Tastes app.... Plus, I love doing fun new things with friends! We are excited that you will get to meet them too, since soon our friends will be posting links here to let us read their related blog posts -- everyone will be writing about the same thing at the same time, but through their own lens of experience. We will all have the opportunity to get to know more great people who are thinking about similar things. I am really looking forward to hearing everyone's unique perspective on each topic!

We will be writing about these weekly practical and inspiring blog hop topics here too -- and we have all kinds of cool things in store for our own posts here! 

Yours, 
Tiny


Visit us at www.tinytastesworld.com