❋

An Aware Parenting audio course

THe Connected Eater

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

Join the Presale
Your Child is NOT a Picky Eater
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 podcast about sugar, every post about ultra-processed foods, every well-meaning comment from a friend 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 the cultural conditioning 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 making food the enemy. And without meaning to, we start doing things — subtle things, well-intentioned, loving things — that make the whole situation harder.

Monitoring. Talking about healthy food. Starting a "just one bite" rule. Offering a dozen alternatives. Hiding things in the sauce. Praising when they try something new. Saying how carrots "make you see in the dark". This isn't "bad" parenting. It's what you do when we're letting fear and worry run the show. But they can have equally long-lasting consequences. (Take it from someone who grew up with a "clean eater" before the phrase even existed.)

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 connecting to our bodies.

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.

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. 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 a developmentally appropriate stage. 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 miss what it really means to our family. 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 and lack of autonomy and control elsewhere express themselves through eating, and what changes when feelings are welcomed.
Module 5
Early Feeding Experiences and the Body's Memory
Prenatal stress, reflux, schedules, breastfeeding patterns, medical internventions — 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 power-over. A clear look at 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, anxiety and diet culture 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. With lots of examples from my own experience.
Module 10
What Helps (and What Doesn't)
Clear guidance without prescription. What I recommend parents stop doing, what to do instead, how to repair after past pressure, and what change actually looks like over time — and how to keep trusting your child.
Module 11
Mealtimes in Real Life
Eating out, parties, relatives who comment, siblings with different patterns, school food, noticing your own food stories. Where the theory meets Monday morning.

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 11 April. Price goes up to £59 after that.

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 I'm a "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, and I don't have all the answers.

This course is what I wish I'd had when my kids were small — probably when I started weaning, before I realised how many arbitrary rules aobut food still lived in my head. It's not a set of instructions. It's a different way of seeing.

Want to go deeper?
Con Calma

The course gives you a completely new framework. Con Calma adds me — so you're not doing that alone.

This is for parents who want to bring their specific child, their specific table, their specific history. A different kind of support: unhurried, personal, and focused on what's actually happening in your house.

£193

Course included. Two dedicated sessions with Maru.

Payment plan available — split into two instalments if you prefer.

Add Con Calma →

What's included

◆ The full 11-module audio course — Your Child is Not a Picky Eater
◆ Two 1:1 sessions with Maru (1 hour each) — to work through your specific situation, at your own pace
◆ Space to bring the dinner that went sideways, the child who only eats beige, the pattern you can't quite shift
◆ Access to the prelaunch Telegram channel (13-20 April) if you join before 11 April

A few things people ask

Absolutely not! I made it with that age group in mind. But the framework applies from post-weaning through older childhood (my daughter is 8 and everything here still applies to her). If you're in the early stages of weaning and want to start without the anxiety spiral, this is also for you.
Two ways. If you join during prelaunch (open until 5 April), you get access to the Telegram channel — running 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 above.
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.
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.
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.
Yes — for Con Calma (£179) you can split the payment into two instalments. Just get in touch after purchase and I'll sort it. The course on its own (£47 prelaunch, £59 after) is a single payment.
That's what Con Calma is for — scroll up to see what's included.

Join the prelaunch

Pre-sale is open 23 March – 11 April. The course drops on 13 April. After that, the price goes up and the Telegram week won't be available again.

£47
Price goes up to £59 after 11 April
⏳ Prelaunch bonus — included free, not repeated
A week inside the course with me — Telegram, 13-20 April

The week after the course drops, I'll be in a private Telegram channel with everyone who joined prelaunch. Short audios 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 13 April. Self-paced. Listen on any device.