The Child Psych Podcast

This is a re-run

Does your child refuse to try new foods? Are family dinners filled with negotiations, frustration, or worries about whether your child is getting enough nutrition? If mealtimes have become a daily power struggle, you're not alone.

In this episode of The Child Psych Podcast, registered psychologist Tania Johnson sits down with Katie Kimball, founder of Kids Cook Real Food, TEDx speaker, and author of the highly anticipated new book, The Picky Eater Playbook, releasing November 10, 2026.

Together, they explore why picky eating is about so much more than what's on a child's plate. From sensory sensitivities and anxiety around unfamiliar foods to the unintended consequences of pressuring children to eat, Katie shares a refreshing, practical approach to helping kids develop a healthier relationship with food.

In this episode, you'll discover:

Why kids become picky eaters: Understanding the developmental, sensory, and emotional factors that influence children's eating habits.

Why pressure makes picky eating worse: How bribing, negotiating, and insisting on just one more bite can increase resistance and mealtime anxiety.

How to end mealtime power struggles: Simple, practical strategies to reduce stress and create more peaceful family dinners.

How to raise adventurous eaters: Helping children become curious and confident around unfamiliar foods without forcing them to eat.

Why getting kids into the kitchen matters: How cooking, food preparation, and playful exploration can help children build confidence and independence.

How to support a healthy relationship with food: Moving beyond controlling what children eat and toward building lifelong habits rooted in trust and connection.

Drawing from her new book, The Picky Eater Playbook, Katie offers parents a compassionate, pressure-free approach to navigating picky eating and helping children feel more comfortable exploring new foods.

The takeaway: Raising healthy eaters isn't about winning the battle over broccoli. It's about helping children feel safe, capable, and confident around food—one small step at a time.

Join Tania and Katie for an encouraging, practical conversation that will help you understand your picky eater, reduce mealtime stress, and bring more joy and connection back to the family table.
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In this powerful conversation, Dr. Michele Borba joins us to discuss what she calls the growing “empathy crisis” in children and teens — and why empathy may be one of the most important skills we can nurture in the next generation.

Dr. Borba is an internationally recognized educational psychologist, parenting expert, speaker, and bestselling author of UnSelfie: Why Empathetic Kids Succeed in Our All-About-Me World. Her work explores how empathy shapes children’s mental health, moral development, resilience, relationships, leadership, and long-term success.

Together, we explore why self-absorption, overvaluing achievement, excessive praise, screen use, stress, and cultural messages around performance may be making it harder for children to notice, care, and respond to the needs of others. Dr. Borba shares why empathy is not simply a personality trait children either have or do not have — it is a skill that can be taught, practiced, and strengthened through everyday moments at home and school.

We also talk about how to raise children who are deeply caring without becoming people-pleasers, overly accommodating, or lacking boundaries. Dr. Borba offers practical ways parents can help children see themselves as kind, responsible, and capable of making a positive difference, including using family values, identity-based language, perspective-taking, repair, and calm accountability.

This episode is a hopeful reminder that empathy is not “soft.” It is a strength. And in a world that often prioritizes achievement, popularity, and self-promotion, raising children who can care deeply, regulate themselves, take another person’s perspective, and act with courage may be one of the most important parenting tasks of our time.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Why empathy is declining and what may be driving the shift
• The connection between empathy, resilience, happiness, anxiety, and academic success
• How achievement culture can undermine caring and moral development
• Why overpraising or overvaluing children may increase narcissistic traits
• How to raise empathetic children with strong boundaries
• The role of screens, social media, and self-focus in empathy development
• How to help children repair hurt and understand the impact of their actions
• Practical ways families can build empathy into daily life

Dr. Borba reminds us that children become more empathetic not through lectures, but through repeated experiences of being guided to notice others, reflect on their impact, repair harm, and live out the values their family stands for.
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Ever wonder why your child holds it together all day at school, only to completely fall apart the moment they get home?
In this episode of The Child Psych Podcast, registered psychologists Tammy Schamuhn and Tania Johnson explore why children often save their biggest emotions for the people they feel safest with.

From after-school meltdowns to emotional outbursts over seemingly small things, Tammy and Tania unpack what may be happening beneath the surface and why these behaviours aren't necessarily signs of defiance or poor parenting.

In this episode, you'll discover:

- Why children fall apart with their parents: How emotional safety, attachment, and the effort of holding it together throughout the day can contribute to meltdowns at home.
- The hidden cost of being good all day: Why following rules, managing friendships, and meeting expectations can leave children emotionally exhausted.
- Why small things trigger big reactions: Understanding how accumulated stress and unmet needs can overwhelm a child's capacity to cope.
- How to respond without escalating the meltdown: Practical ways to offer connection, co-regulation, and boundaries when emotions run high.
- How to prevent the after-school explosion: Simple strategies to support decompression, emotional regulation, and connection.
The takeaway: Your child's biggest emotions aren't always a reflection of how you're parenting. Sometimes, they're a sign of just how hard your child has been working to hold everything together.

Join Tammy and Tania for a compassionate, practical conversation that will help you see your child's meltdowns through a different lens—and feel more confident supporting them through those difficult moments.

Join us for our upcoming FREE Parenting Summit, November 16–19! 🎉
Four days of inspiring conversations, expert insights, and practical parenting tools—all completely free!
👉 Register here: https://instituteofchildpsychology.com
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Are we protecting our children—or unintentionally making them more anxious and less confident?

In this episode of The Child Psych Podcast, we sit down with Lenore Skenazy, founder of the Free-Range Kids movement and co-founder of Let Grow, to explore how overprotective parenting may be contributing to childhood anxiety, declining independence, and a lack of resilience in today's children.

Lenore challenges us to rethink modern parenting and the culture of fear surrounding childhood. We discuss why giving children age-appropriate freedom, opportunities for healthy risk-taking, and space to solve problems independently is essential for building confidence, emotional resilience, and problem-solving skills.

Together, we explore the connection between parental anxiety and childhood anxiety, why children need more independent play and unsupervised experiences, and how parents can move away from helicopter parenting without compromising their children's safety.

You'll discover how small changes in parenting can help children develop greater independence, self-esteem, emotional regulation, and the confidence to navigate life's challenges.

Because raising resilient kids isn't about protecting them from every challenge—it's about helping them believe they can handle challenges themselves.

Whether you're raising an anxious child, struggling with the urge to overprotect, or simply looking for ways to foster independence, this conversation offers a refreshing perspective on raising confident, capable, and resilient children.

To find out more about Let Grow , click here

Join us for our upcoming FREE Parenting Summit, November 16–19! 🎉
Four days of inspiring conversations, expert insights, and practical parenting tools—all completely free!
👉 Register here: https://instituteofchildpsychology.com
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we sit down with Julie Lythcott-Haims, New York Times bestselling author of How to Raise an Adult, to explore how well-intentioned parenting can sometimes get in the way of the very skills children need to become capable, confident adults.

Julie unpacks the rise of the “checklisted childhood,” where success can become defined by grades, activities, achievements, and getting into the “right” school, and explains how this pressure can undermine independence, self-efficacy, and a child’s ability to discover who they really are. We talk about why parents often overhelp out of love and fear, how to know when support becomes overparenting, and why struggle, failure, responsibility, and everyday life skills are so important for healthy development.

We also explore how parents can step back without becoming disconnected, support anxious or struggling children without rescuing them, and shift from managing a child’s life to becoming a trusted guide. Julie offers a powerful reminder that the goal of parenting is not to create a perfect childhood, but to prepare children to navigate adulthood with confidence, resilience, and a sense of ownership over their own lives.

Julie Lythcott-Haims is a New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and former Stanford dean. She is best known for How to Raise an Adult, which explores how overparenting and achievement culture can undermine children’s independence, resilience, and self-confidence—and how parents can better prepare kids to become capable, self-directed adults.

Get Julie's Book "How to Raise an Adult"Join us for our upcoming FREE Parenting Summit, November 16–19! 🎉
Four days of inspiring conversations, expert insights, and practical parenting tools—all completely free!
👉 Register here: https://instituteofchildpsychology.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.