Your Child is NOT a Picky Eater

An Aware Parenting audio course

Your Child is
Not a Picky Eater

A self-regulated approach to food, feelings, and trust at the table — so mealtimes stop being something you dread.

🌿 Prelaunch price: £47

You leave the playdate early because your child won't eat what everyone else is having. You've started packing chicken drumsticks to other people's houses — just in case. Mealtimes used to be fine, and now they're not. You're cooking two things, or three. You're hiding vegetables. You're Googling "how to get toddler to eat more variety" at 11pm and coming away more anxious than before.

And underneath all of it, there's this low hum of worry — that you're doing something wrong, that your child isn't getting what they need, that this is going to be a problem.

That worry? It's not coming from nowhere. You're swimming in it — every article about sugar, every post about ultra-processed foods, every well-meaning comment from a health visitor or a relative. The noise is relentless. And it has a way of turning ordinary mealtimes into something that feels like a test you keep failing.

Here's what nobody is telling you:

The problem isn't your child's eating. The problem is the framework you've been handed for understanding it — one that was built on fear, control, and a very narrow idea of what "eating well" even means.

When we call a child a "picky eater," we're treating a completely normal developmental response as a character flaw. We're making food the enemy. And without meaning to, we start doing things — subtle things, loving things — that make the whole situation worse.

Monitoring. Commenting. Offering alternatives. Hiding things in the sauce. Praising when they try something new. Worrying visibly. These aren't bad parenting. They're what you do when you're scared. But they all send the same message to a child's nervous system: this is a problem. You are a problem.

What children actually need at the table is remarkably simple — but it runs against almost everything the food and parenting industry tells us. It's not a technique. It's a completely different way of seeing.

What this course is — and what it isn't

This is not a behaviour-fixing course. You won't find scripts for getting your child to try one more bite, or strategies for sneaking nutrients past them. If that's what you're looking for, this isn't it.

This is a course about understanding — and understanding changes everything. When you genuinely get why your child eats the way they do, the urgency lifts. The monitoring softens. The mealtimes stop being a performance.

Your Child is Not a Picky Eater is an audio course rooted in Aware Parenting, trauma awareness, and self-regulated eating. It covers the whole picture: where the anxiety about food actually comes from, how early experiences shape a child's relationship with eating, what feelings have to do with it, and what you — as the parent — are and aren't responsible for.

It's podcast-style, so you can listen while you're doing the dishes, walking, driving. No worksheets. No homework. Just a genuinely different way of thinking, delivered in a format that fits real life.

What's inside

11 modules covering the full picture — from the cultural noise around food, to your child's early experiences, to what actually helps at the table.

Module 1

Setting the Frame

What self-regulated eating actually means, how this differs from intuitive eating, and why this is not about fixing behaviour. We start here because jumping to "what do I do" before understanding the paradigm is exactly what makes things harder.

Module 2

Reframing "Picky Eating"

Where the label comes from, why it misses the point, and how narrow eating is actually communication — not a problem to solve. A non-pathologising look at ARFID included.

Module 3

Food Is Not Just Nutrition

Food is safety, culture, connection, pleasure. When we flatten it to nutrients, we lose the plot. This module looks at why modern feeding anxiety is historically unusual — and what children are actually learning at the table.

Module 4

Feelings at the Table

Why mealtimes are such common flashpoints, how accumulated feelings express themselves through eating, and what changes when feelings are welcomed somewhere else.

Module 5

Early Feeding Experiences and the Body's Memory

Prenatal stress, reflux, schedules, breastfeeding patterns, hospitalisation — how early experiences shape eating without conscious memory. This module makes a lot of things make sense. And it reduces self-blame considerably.

Module 6

Pressure, Control, and Worry

What pressure actually looks like — including the loving, well-intentioned kind. How "just try one bite" and exposure-based approaches affect appetite and trust. How to recognise yourself here without shame.

Module 7

What Parents Are Responsible For (and What They're Not)

Structure without domination. A clear look at the Division of Responsibility — where it's useful, where it's often misunderstood, and how it changes across ages.

Module 8

Language Matters

How "healthy eating" talk, praise, and visible concern all add pressure — and what to say instead. Practical, real-life language that supports trust rather than control.

Module 9

Sugar, Snacks, and Fear-Based Feeding

Probably the most emotionally loaded module. What the research actually says (without the diet culture framing), why restriction creates obsession, and how children learn to self-regulate with sugar over time when we let them.

Module 10

What Helps (and What Doesn't)

Clear guidance without prescription. What to stop doing, what to do instead, how to repair after past pressure, and what change actually looks like over time — which is usually slower and quieter than we expect.

Module 11

Mealtimes in Real Life

Eating out, parties, relatives who comment, siblings with different patterns, school food, staying regulated when you're triggered. Where the theory meets Monday morning.

Is this for you?

This course works best for parents who are open to questioning the frameworks they've been handed — not just looking for new tactics.

This is for you if…

You have a toddler or preschooler whose eating has narrowed and you don't know why

You're newer to weaning and want to start without the anxiety spiral

You're already into Aware Parenting or NVC and want this applied to food

You've tried the tips and tricks and they haven't worked

You're exhausted by monitoring and you want to stop

You're willing to look at your own relationship with food as part of this

This probably isn't for you if…

You want a step-by-step plan to expand your child's food repertoire quickly

You're looking for recipes, meal plans, or nutrition advice

You need clinical support for a diagnosed feeding condition

You're not open to the idea that the problem might not be your child

Who made this

I'm Maru Rojas — Aware Parenting Instructor, parenting coach, recovering strict parent, and originally from Mexico. I've been living in London since 2008, and I came to this work the way most people do: through my own children, my own confusion, and eventually my own unlearning.

I started out as an artist and art educator. I came to Aware Parenting when my daughter was a baby and nothing else I'd tried made sense of what I was experiencing. It didn't just help with sleep — it changed how I understood children entirely. Including at the table.

I say "recovering strict parent" because I think it matters to be honest: this framework doesn't come naturally when you've been raised in an authoritarian culture, surrounded by rules about food, about bodies, about what good eating looks like. I've had to do the work too. I still do.

This course is what I wish I'd had when my kids were small — before the worry set in, before the monitoring became a habit, before mealtimes got hard. It's not a set of instructions. It's a different way of seeing.

A few things people ask

Is this course only for toddlers and preschoolers?

Mostly, yes — that's the main focus. But the framework applies from post-weaning through older childhood. If you're in the early stages of weaning and want to start without the anxiety spiral, this is also for you.

Do I get any personal support?

Two ways. If you join during prelaunch (open until 28 March), you get access to a week-long Telegram channel — 7–14 April, while the course is fresh. Think of it as listening to the course with me in the room: short audios from me going deeper on what tends to land hardest, plus space to bring your real questions and specific situations. If you want dedicated 1:1 time with me, that's what Con Calma is for — see below.

What is the Telegram channel actually like?

It runs 7–14 April, the week after the course drops. I'll be posting short audios — 3 to 5 minutes — going behind the modules: the things people always push back on, what this looked like in my own house, the nuance that doesn't fit neatly into a recording. You can drop questions, share what's landing, or just listen. It's the difference between sitting with an idea alone and sitting with it alongside someone who knows it inside out.

My child has been assessed for / diagnosed with ARFID. Is this still relevant?

There's a module that addresses ARFID in a non-pathologising way — what it is, what it isn't, and how the framework still applies. This course doesn't replace clinical support, but many parents find that understanding the emotional and relational picture shifts things even when there's a formal diagnosis in the background.

What format is the course in?

Audio only — podcast style. You can listen while you're doing the dishes, on a walk, in the car. No worksheets, no video you have to sit down for. Just a genuinely different way of thinking, in a format that fits real life.

What if I want more than the course?

That's what Con Calma is for. See below.

Join the prelaunch

Prelaunch is open 16–28 March. The course drops on 30 March. After that, the price goes up and the Telegram week won't be available again.

£47

Price goes up to £59 after 28 March

⏳ Prelaunch bonus — included free, not repeated

A week inside the course with me — Telegram, 7–14 April

The week after the course drops, I'll be in a private Telegram channel with everyone who joined prelaunch. Short audios from me going deeper on the ideas, the real-life application, the bits that tend to be hardest to land. Plus space to bring your questions, your specific dinner situation, your child. It's the difference between listening to something alone and listening to it with someone in the room who knows it inside out.

Join for £47 →

Instant audio access from 30 March. Self-paced. Listen on any device.

Want to go deeper? — Con Calma

Con Calma combines the course with two dedicated 1:1 sessions with me — for when you want to bring your specific child, your specific table, your specific history, and work through it properly. Not a transaction for hours. A different kind of support.

Con Calma is available for £179. Get in touch to find out more →

Mealtimes don't have to feel like this.

Not because you found the right trick. Because you finally understood what was actually going on.

Join the prelaunch for £47 →

Prelaunch closes 28 March. Price goes up to £59 after that.

Your Child isNot a Picky Eater