Exploring Responsive Feeding with Katja Rowell

Dec 20, 2021

In this episode, Elizabeth Davenport and Anna Lutz have a conversation with Katja Rowell, M.D., a family doctor, author, and responsive childhood feeding specialist. We highlight Katja’s work on extreme picky eating and kids with feeding challenges. 

We also discuss: 

• Responsive feeding and responsive feeding therapy 
• Differences between responsive feeding and Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility
• Issues with mainstream advice on feeding and what makes these messages confusing
• What ‘pressure’ looks like and how a parent knows if they are creating pressure in the feeding relationship
• Advice for parents of teenagers who are selective eaters
• Felt safety and connection amidst traumatic experiences for children 
• Eating and feeding accommodations for neurodiverse children

Katja Rowell M.D. is described as “academic, but warm and down to earth,” she is a popular speaker and blogger and has appeared in numerous publications. Katja has developed an expertise in anxious and avoidant eating (including ARFID), food preoccupation, and supporting foster and adopted children. Katja is on the SPOON medical advisory board and founder of The Feeding Doctor. Her books include: Helping Your Child with Extremely Picky Eating: A Step-by-Step Guide to Overcoming Selective Eating, Food Aversion, and Feeding Disorders, and Love Me, Feed Me.  Learn more about Katja at theFeedingDoctor.com

Links: 

• Katja Rowell: The Feeding Doctor
• Responsive Feeding Therapy: Values and Practice White Paper
• Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility
• Sunny Side Up Nutrition Podcast 
• Lutz, Alexander & Associates Nutrition Therapy
• Pinney Davenport Nutrition