Feeding Toolkit / ARFID: The Anxious Eater

Learn from feeding expert and author Melanie Potock during this 2-day, in-person training designed to advance your pediatric feeding therapy expertise. 

When: Friday and Saturday, June 12 and 13, 2026 

Friday: 7 hours, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Your Feeding Toolkit

Saturday: 4 hours, 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM ARFID: The Anxious Eater

CEUs: 11 ASHA

Location: 6000 Hawk Ave Suite 200, North Richland Hills, TX 76180

Cost: $250.00

Who should attend? 

Speech Language Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Registered Dietitians, Pediatricians and other health professionals; Parents, Teachers and Family members of extreme picky eaters. 

Instructor: Melanie Potock | Feeding Specialist • Award-Winning Author • Influencer • International Keynote Speaker • Kids’ Food Coach

Day 1: Your Feeding Toolkit: Treating the Whole Child and the Whole Family 

What you will learn: 

Upon completing the course, participants will be able to: 

• Discuss how protective behaviors develop when GI discomfort, sensory processing challenges, and delayed gross and/or fine motor skills impact a child’s willingness to eat 
• Teach gentle, basic parenting principles to support the caregiver’s carry-over of the child’s treatment plan 
• Implement strategies of responsive feeding in typical feeding development and guide the family to a responsive feeding model upon discharge 
• Apply gentle, basic behavioral principles in therapy while respecting a child’s unique sensory system, temperament, and emotions 
• Describe how to teach the following skills as they coincide with the developmental process of learning to eat: biting, chewing, swallowing independently, straw and open cup drinking 
• Implement a hierarchical method of problem solving to meet functional outcomes 
• Understand how to problem solve new challenges with future clients by systematically breaking the task into smaller steps and teaching one step at a time 

Day 2: ARFID: The Anxious Eater 

What you will learn: 

You will walk away with a rich understanding of the steps it takes to take kids from anxious to adventurous, including: 

• How anxiety hinders a child’s ability to try new foods 

• Why kids get stuck “just licking” or “just kissing” a new food and can’t make progress from there 

• Strategies to help the hesitant eater take a bite 

• Specific techniques to help the anxious eater manage anxiety 

• The relationship between parental anxiety and a child’s anxious behaviors 

• The research behind Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) 

About the Instructor: Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, is a pediatric feeding specialist, certified speech-language pathologist, and mom who once navigated life with a picky eater herself. Having experienced firsthand the stress families face around their child’s nutrition, Melanie blends over 20 years of feeding therapy expertise with practical, parent-friendly strategies that help the entire family eat healthier—together.

An international speaker and trusted voice in pediatric feeding, Melanie is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater (2015, 2022) and the author of Adventures in Veggieland and Responsive Feeding. 

Affectionately known as “Coach Mel,” she is a trusted partner to families seeking supportive, evidence-based approaches to raising confident, healthy eaters.