Pediatric Nutrition
Personalized nutrition support for children and families, including picky eating, starting solids, growth concerns, ADHD, and complex feeding needs.
PEDIATRIC NUTRITION COUNSELLING
Support For Your Child’s Nutrition
Feeding children can feel stressful, especially when you are dealing with picky eating, food refusal, growth concerns, allergies, or medical needs. Pediatric nutrition counselling gives families practical, evidence-based support to help children build a healthier relationship with food.
At Vital Roots Nutrition, we work with caregivers to understand your child’s needs, routines, preferences, and challenges. Our goal is to create realistic strategies that reduce mealtime stress, support growth and development, and help your family feel more confident with food.
FEEDING SUPPORT THAT FITS YOUR FAMILY
Start With Practical Guidance
Book pediatric nutrition counselling in Sault Ste. Marie or connect virtually across Ontario for personalized support tailored to your child and family.
WHO WE HELP
Who Benefits From Pediatric Nutrition?
Pediatric nutrition services can support families at many different stages, from introducing solids to navigating school-age eating concerns. You do not need to wait until feeding feels overwhelming to reach out. A Registered Dietitian can help you understand what is typical, what may need more support, and what steps can help.
Care is personalized to your child’s age, development, health history, and family routines, so recommendations feel manageable and realistic at home.
- Children who eat a limited range of foods or avoid new foods.
- Families starting solids, baby-led weaning, or spoon feeding.
- Children with growth concerns or changing weight patterns.
- Children with ADHD or appetite and intake challenges.
- Families managing allergies, nutrient concerns, or medical needs.
HOW WE CAN HELP
Pediatric Nutrition Support
Every child and family is different. Pediatric nutrition counselling focuses on practical goals that support your child’s health while making feeding feel less stressful at home.
Picky Eating Support
Practical strategies for selective eating, food refusal, limited food variety, and stressful mealtimes, with a focus on reducing pressure and building confidence.
Starting Solids
Guidance for introducing solids, baby-led weaning, spoon feeding, textures, allergens, meal routines, and age-appropriate nutrition during the early months.
Growth and Development
Support for children with growth concerns, nutrient gaps, low energy, frequent illness, or changing weight patterns that may need closer nutrition guidance.
ADHD and Feeding Needs
Personalized support for children with ADHD, sensory sensitivities, appetite changes, medication-related intake concerns, or complex feeding challenges.
Allergies and Food Avoidance
Help with allergen avoidance, safe food substitutions, label reading, balanced meals, and making sure your child’s nutrition needs are still being met.
Family Mealtime Support
Realistic strategies to reduce mealtime stress, create more structure, support positive food experiences, and make feeding feel easier for the whole family.
OUR APPROACH
Less Stress. More Confidence.
Pediatric nutrition care is not about forcing foods, creating rigid rules, or making mealtimes more complicated. Our approach is supportive, family-centered, and focused on helping your child make progress in a way that feels safe, realistic, and developmentally appropriate.
- Practical strategies that fit your child’s age, needs, and routines.
- Support for reducing pressure and stress around mealtimes.
- Guidance that considers growth, development, and medical history.
- Clear next steps for picky eating, feeding challenges, and food variety.
- A family-centered approach that helps caregivers feel more confident.
We look at the full picture, including your child’s eating patterns, growth, medical history, routines, preferences, and family dynamics. From there, we help you build a plan with clear next steps, practical tools, and strategies you can actually use in daily life.
PEDIATRIC NUTRITION FAQS
Common Questions From Families
Have questions about pediatric nutrition counselling? Here are a few common things families ask when looking for support with feeding, growth, picky eating, and their child’s relationship with food.
What is pediatric nutrition counselling?
Pediatric nutrition counselling is personalized nutrition support for children and families. It can help with picky eating, starting solids, growth concerns, allergies, ADHD, sensory sensitivities, complex feeding needs, and other concerns that affect a child’s intake, health, or relationship with food.
Who would benefit from pediatric nutrition services?
Pediatric nutrition services can benefit children who eat a limited range of foods, refuse certain foods, struggle with mealtimes, have growth concerns, need support with allergies or nutrient intake, or have medical or developmental needs that affect eating. It can also help parents who want reassurance and practical guidance.
What results can I expect?
The goal is not perfection or immediate food acceptance. Instead, the focus is on:
- reducing stress at mealtimes
- filling nutrition gaps and supporting growth
- improving willingness to interact with new foods
- slowly expanding variety over time
- supporting adequate nutrition in a realistic way for the child and family
Progress is typically gradual and builds with consistency and repeated exposure.
Do you help with picky eating or severe picky eating? What does picky eating support look like?
Yes. We support children, teens, and families with a wide range of picky eating and food selectivity concerns, including more severe or long-standing selective eating patterns.
Picky eating is very common and can be influenced by sensory preferences, routine, appetite patterns, anxiety around new foods, medical factors, or previous negative feeding experiences. Our approach is practical, supportive, and low-pressure, focusing on understanding the underlying factors and building gradual, sustainable change rather than forcing foods or using pressure-based strategies.
Support is individualized, but may include:
- Identifying “safe foods” and ensuring nutritional adequacy
- Gradual, step-by-step exposure to new foods without pressure to eat
- Strategies to reduce mealtime stress and food battles
- Supporting sensory comfort with textures, smells, and presentation
- Meal structure and routine to support appetite regulation
- Guidance for parents on how to respond to refusal and anxiety around food
- Involving children in food preparation to build familiarity and confidence
In more complex cases, we may also collaborate with other health professionals when additional support would be helpful.
Can you support children with ADHD, Autism, or sensory sensitivities?
Yes. Nutrition counselling can support children with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), sensory sensitivities, and other neurodiverse needs. Our approach is neuroaffirming, practical, and family-centered, with support for appetite changes, food preferences, meal routines, nutrient intake, and reducing stress around food.
Do you help with starting solids?
Yes. Vital Roots Nutrition provides support for starting solids, including baby-led weaning, spoon feeding, textures, allergens, meal timing, safety considerations, and how to build balanced meals as your baby grows.
What do Registered Dietitians do, and do they only care about BMI?
Registered Dietitians help people improve their health and relationship with food using evidence-based nutrition care tailored to their individual needs, medical history, lifestyle, and goals. Dietitians look at the whole person — not just body weight or BMI. Nutrition is complex, and care is individualized, practical, and focused on overall wellbeing.
Dietitians support areas such as:
- Behaviour change and sustainable habit building
- Challenging relationships with food, disordered eating, and eating disorder recovery
- Blood sugar management and diabetes care
- Heart health, cholesterol, and chronic disease management
- Digestive health and gastrointestinal conditions
- Hormones, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and pediatric nutrition
- Sports nutrition and performance
- Picky eating, sensory concerns, and feeding challenges across all ages
- Malnutrition, nutrient deficiencies, and specialized nutrition support such as tube feeding
- Medication and nutrient interactions
- Cultural foods, traditions, and family values around eating
- Food accessibility, budgeting, meal planning, and realistic strategies for everyday life
Dietitians also interpret lab work, medical history, medications, and nutrition-related symptoms to provide individualized care that supports long-term health and quality of life.
Registered Dietitians work in many settings including hospitals, clinics, private practice, long-term care, public health, schools, sports settings, research, food service, and community programs. They support individuals, families, athletes, businesses, and communities by translating complex nutrition science into practical, sustainable guidance that helps people feel nourished, supported, and well.
Is a Registered Dietitian the same thing as a Nutritionist?
No, a Registered Dietitian (RD) is not the same thing as a nutritionist.
A Registered Dietitian is a regulated healthcare professional with extensive education and clinical training. To become a dietitian in Ontario, individuals must:
- Complete a 4-year accredited undergraduate degree
- Typically complete a master’s degree
- Be accepted into a competitive accredited post-graduate internship/practicum program
- Complete approximately 1 year of supervised practical training
- Pass a national certification exam
- Maintain continuing education and professional standards throughout their career
Registered Dietitians are regulated by the College of Dietitians of Ontario, which helps ensure care is safe, evidence-based, and ethical.
In Ontario, the titles “Dietitian” and “Registered Dietitian” are legally protected. Only qualified professionals who maintain registration in good standing can use these titles.
In contrast, the term “nutritionist” is not legally protected in Ontario. This means anyone can call themselves a nutritionist, regardless of education, clinical training, or accountability to a professional regulatory body.
Do you offer evening or weekend appointments, and are virtual appointments available?
Yes. Jordan primarily works Tuesday to Friday, 9–5, with some limited evening and weekend availability upon request. Please reach out to inquire about current openings, as these times are not always reflected in the online booking system.
Appointments are available both in person in Sault Ste. Marie and virtually across Ontario, making it easier for families to access support from the comfort of their home.
Do you bill insurance companies directly?
Yes. Vital Roots Nutrition offers direct billing to many extended health insurance plans. Coverage depends on your individual policy and provider. If direct billing is not available, you will be provided with a receipt to submit for reimbursement.
BOOK PEDIATRIC NUTRITION COUNSELLING
Support Your Child With Confidence
Get practical, evidence-based nutrition support for your child and family through in-person appointments in Sault Ste. Marie or virtual care across Ontario.