Episode 50 of Plateful Parenting is a special one.

When Christine and Chanel started this podcast, they simply wanted to create the conversations they wished had existed when parenting through eating disorders, anxiety, body image struggles, and food-related challenges felt overwhelming and isolating.

Fifty episodes later, those conversations have done more than support listeners — they've changed the hosts, too.

In this reflective milestone episode, Christine and Chanel step back to talk about what 50 conversations with clinicians, experts, and parents have taught them about navigating the hardest seasons of parenting.

Because whether you're supporting a child through an eating disorder, ARFID, anxiety, body image struggles, or simply raising a sensitive child in a very loud world — hard seasons happen in every family.

In this episode, they explore:

✨ What Christine and Chanel get wrong in the beginning
✨ What makes parenting a challenge when struggling with a dysregulated nervous system
✨ The surprising power of connection over correction
✨ Why consistency matters more than getting the "perfect" parenting script
✨ How rupture and repair strengthen relationships with kids
✨ The hard truths parents rarely hear about recovery and family stress
✨ Why progress is rarely linear — and what to expect along the way
✨ The grief parents often carry when a child is struggling
✨ What gives families hope: resilience, brain healing, and repair

Christine also shares something many parents feel but rarely say out loud — the deep isolation that can come with supporting a struggling child.

One of the biggest lessons from these 50 conversations?

Parents need support too.

Because recovery and healing don't happen in isolation — they happen in relationships, in community, and in environments where parents feel steady enough to lead through the hard moments.

Christine and Chanel also share a glimpse of what's ahead for Plateful Parenting: new ways to support families through community, practical tools, and guided parent support.

They close the episode with gratitude for the listeners who have shared their stories and helped build a space where hard conversations can happen with honesty and compassion.

As Christine reminds parents in the closing moments:

Hard seasons don't define your family.
How you show up in them does.

And if you're in one of those seasons right now — you're not alone.

🌐 Website: https://platefulparenting.com
📸 Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plateful.parenting.podcast/#

Follow your hosts:
Christine — https://www.instagram.com/christineheller621/#
Chanel — https://www.instagram.com/chanel.kenner.nutrition

In Episode 49, Christine and Chanel unpack something many parents are faced with: the powerful role of health and wellness marketing in shaping how kids think about food, bodies, and safety.

From viral social media claims to emotionally charged commercials and influencer sound bites, today's nutrition messaging is often designed to feel urgent, simple, and morally clear. But for kids—especially those vulnerable to eating disorders—these messages can land very differently than intended.

With Christine bringing the parent lens and Chanel the clinical RD perspective, this episode helps families think critically without becoming more anxious or reactive.

Together, they explore:

✨ Why modern wellness marketing is so persuasive right now
✨ How fear-based language ("toxins," "poison," "clean") impacts developing brains
✨ The difference between helpful health education and oversimplified marketing
✨ What happens when kids hear rigid food rules framed as "wellness"
✨ Why a child can sound health-conscious while becoming medically unstable
✨ The influence of celebrity messaging and authority bias
✨ Practical ways parents can respond when kids repeat scary food claims
✨ Red flags that food anxiety or rigidity may be increasing
✨ What actually supports health, regulation, and recovery in growing kids

Throughout the conversation, Christine and Chanel return to one grounding reminder:

You don't need to win the internet.
You need to protect your child's relationship with food and their body.

This episode is especially helpful for parents feeling overwhelmed by loud, conflicting nutrition messages in today's media landscape.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plateful.parenting.podcast/#
Christine: https://www.instagram.com/christineheller621/#
Chanel: https://www.instagram.com/chanel.kenner.nutrition

In Episode 48, Chanel and Christine sit down with dietitian Lauren Dorman, MS, RD, CDE to talk about what parents are really navigating when food feels hard: stress, regulation, emotional wellbeing—and the messages kids absorb every day at school.

Lauren's work centers on Nine to Nourished, a framework that expands "nutrition" beyond food rules and checklists, and instead focuses on whole-child nourishment—especially in environments where diet culture can show up quietly (and constantly). She also shares what she's seeing in school settings right now, how "healthy choices" messaging can backfire, and what supportive, non-shaming nourishment education actually looks like.

Together, they explore:

✨ Why "nourishment" is bigger than food—and how it connects to emotional health
✨ How Nine to Nourished moves families away from diet-centric thinking
✨ What diet culture looks like in schools (even when intentions are good)
✨ How school-based food rules can impact anxious, sensitive, or struggling kids
✨ What it looks like when schools "do it right"—supporting regulation, safety, and connection
✨ How parents can help kids process mixed messages between school and home
✨ Small, practical shifts that reduce stress around food and emotions at home
✨ Phrases to retire—and better language that supports whole-child wellbeing

If you've ever felt caught between what your child hears at school and what you're trying to build at home, this episode will leave you feeling clearer, calmer, and more equipped.

About + services: https://www.laurendormanrd.com
Schools work + STRONG Student Shift: https://www.laurendormanrd.com/schools
Article (Brainz Magazine): https://www.brainzmagazine.com/post/transforming-health-and-nutrition-education-in-schools-the-strong-student-shift
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dont_diet_dietitian/
Nine to Nourished Guidebook (free download link on site): available via the "Download your FREE Nine to Nourished Guidebook" section on her homepage

Website: https://platefulparenting.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plateful.parenting.podcast/#

Follow your hosts:
Christine — https://www.instagram.com/christineheller621/#
Chanel — https://www.instagram.com/chanel.kenner.nutrition