Doctor Yum

06/08/2026

At 6 months, your baby is ready to be a true food explorer! This is the time to introduce many new flavors and textures. With practice, babies will accept these new foods and will ask for more. Simple modifications to family meals are a great way for your baby to build new skills and become an adventurous eater. Our "baby food option" recipes on doctoryum.org have these simple modifications right in the recipe, so you don't have to guess.

Review these tips about which foods to offer your baby and how much. Always contact your pediatrician with any questions or concerns regarding your baby's nutrition. To find tons of baby food recipes and tips, visit the Baby Food Toolbox and our "Raising Adventurous Eaters" series of free feeding guides on doctoryum.org.

06/01/2026

🤔What happens when teachers start seeing food as part of education — not just mealtime?
In this clip from our May 18 webinar, Bagnoli Casamir, Food Service Manager from the Child Development Council of Franklin County shares how Dr. Yum Adventure transformed the mindset of their Head Start team serving more than 1,000 children every day.
Teachers became deeply engaged and excited to bring food learning into the classroom — calling, texting, and emailing to coordinate lessons, ingredients, and activities. 🌟What emerged was something bigger than a curriculum: real partnership between educators and food service professionals, all working together to create joyful, meaningful experiences around food for children.
This is what systems change looks like. ❤️
Thank you to Bags and the incredible team at the Child Development Council of Franklin County for your leadership and passion for children’s health and learning.
CDCHR
👉 Find the full webinar here: https://www.doctoryum.org/en/pages/food-adventure

05/28/2026

Creating meaningful change around children’s health takes leadership, collaboration, and a willingness to try something new.
In this clip from our recent webinar, Maria Villareal, RDN, LD from the Child Development Council of Franklin County shares why her team chose to implement Dr. Yum Adventure across a program serving more than 1,000 Head Start and Early Head Start students.
From coordinating training for more than 200 staff members to helping build excitement across classrooms and food service teams, Maria’s leadership has helped create a culture where food is becoming part of learning, curiosity, and connection.
And they’re already seeing the impact on their students.
What’s especially inspiring is that this is only the beginning. 💚
We’re so grateful to Maria and the entire Child Development Council of Franklin County team for their vision, partnership, and commitment to creating joyful food experiences for children every day.
👉Link to the full webinar is in our bio.

05/26/2026

Still pinching ourselves a little. ❤️

The Dr. Yum Project was recently featured in FForbes and we’re feeling deeply grateful — not just for the recognition, but for what this moment says about the growing movement around children’s health, food education, and prevention.

Huge thanks to Afdhel Aziz for capturing the heart behind our mission so beautifully.

For the past 12 years, our small-but-mighty team has believed that helping children build joyful, curious relationships with food can change lives and communities. What started as a big idea has grown because of educators, families, healthcare partners, Head Start programs, supporters, and advocates who believed in this work alongside us.

This article isn’t just about Dr. Yum. It’s about the possibility of creating a healthier future for kids through connection, cooking, curiosity, and community.

And we’re just getting started.

If this mission resonates with you, help us grow the movement:
✨ Share Dr. Yum Project's work with an educator or parent
✨ Partner with us
✨ Support our work
✨ Help us bring joyful food learning to more children and families

Millions of small dinner-table surrenders are quietly building a public health crisis. Pediatrician Nimali Fernando's Dr. Yum Project is fighting back — one child at a time.

05/25/2026

Thank you to Dr. Alisa Minkin for inviting me into her podcast to talk about the work of The Dr. Yum Project and how this work comes from place of seeing families struggle with barriers to raising curious, confident eaters.  it was a real joy to share this conversation with her!

Podcast Episode · Kids Matter! · May 19 · 47m

05/12/2026

Last summer, one Head Start program realized mealtime had become something to rush through—not a meaningful learning experience. 🍎
Then they brought in the Dr. Yum Adventure.
With support from Maria Villareal, RDN, Bagnoli Casimir, and the Child Development Council of Franklin County, they:
✨ Trained 250 teachers
✨ Reached 1,000+ students
✨ Turned mealtime into hands-on learning
The result? Less resistance, more excitement, and teachers + food service teams finally working together. 💚
Now they’re sharing their story in our upcoming webinar:
🎥 From Picky Eating to Food Confidence
We’ll cover:
✔️ Reducing picky eating + food waste
✔️ Making food part of education
✔️ Building alignment across your program
SHARE THIS POST with friends who care about kids!
👉 https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YLxIAxm9SLiCqmweGGv9Kw #/

05/11/2026

Picky eating. Food waste. Mealtime struggles.

What if the solution wasn’t more pressure — but a completely different approach?

Join us on Monday, May 18th, for a conversation with the Child Development Council of Franklin County, Ohio, about how they transformed mealtime for 1,000+ Head Start students by treating food as part of education, not separate from it.

Together, they:
✔️ Secured federal funding
✔️ Trained 250 teachers
✔️ Aligned classrooms, food service, and leadership
✔️ Reduced resistance and increased engagement around healthy foods

And something unexpected happened:
• Teachers leaned in.
• Food service teams and educators began working together.
• Children started engaging with food instead of avoiding it.

If you work in early childhood education or school nutrition, we’d love to have you join us.

Monday, May 18th at 4 PM EST. Register via the link in the comments.

05/01/2026

We LOVE seeing how the team at Children’s Village Preschool is using the Dr. Yum Adventure to introduce fresh foods to babies and toddlers, setting them up for a lifetime of healthy choices.

02/16/2026

Over the weekend I met my nonprofit hero, José Andrés, at the airport and somehow managed to form full sentences, and have a heartwarming conversation with him! I thanked him for the incredible work he and World Central Kitchen are doing — right now producing nearly a million meals a day in Gaza.
As a pediatrician, I think about children first. So many little ones are facing malnutrition, and access to nourishing food changes everything.
I told him about our work through programs like Head Start — helping young children practice loving new fruits and vegetables early, so healthy food feels joyful, not intimidating. Prevention starts small. It starts young.
He told me to keep up the good work. ❤️
Also sharing:
📸 A portrait that reminds me what leadership looks like
🌮 Practicing my grasshopper tacos at one of my favorite José Andrés restaurants, Oyamel in DC
🤝 And the selfie I will absolutely treasure
Food can heal.
Food can teach.
Food can unite.
Thank you for leading with action and heart.