The Food Lab
A 12-week feeding therapy programme for fussy eaters and restrictive eaters
Starting 1st July 2026
6 one-to-one sessions, fortnightly
Special Founder Price: £399 (normally £599)
Led by me, Emma Shafqat, Paediatric Dietitian, Feeding Therapist, and mum who’s lived this too.
Let’s make food feel fun, magical and safe again
If your child sticks to the same handful of “safe” foods, panics when something unfamiliar lands on their plate, or just won’t go near certain textures you’re not alone, and you’re not doing anything wrong.
I bet you’ve heard it all already:
“Just keep offering it.” “They’ll eat when they’re hungry.” “Stop giving them the safe foods.” “Just get them to try one bite.”
Here’s the thing if food feels scary or overwhelming to your child, piling on more pressure doesn’t make them eat. It usually makes them retreat further.
The Food Lab takes a different approach. It turns food into something your child can explore, investigate and play with no pressure, no power struggles. Because kids don’t need eating to feel like another boring job they can fail at. They need curiosity, playfulness, and a reason to want to get closer to food.
That’s exactly where The Food Lab begins.
What is the Food Lab?
The Food Lab is a 12-week one-to-one programme to help your child build real confidence around food. Think part feeding therapy, part food science, part playful exploration designed to fit into real life, at home, with your family.
Together, we’ll look at what your child eats now, where the nutritional gaps might be, which textures and tastes feel hardest, what’s really going on at mealtimes, and how to gently grow their food confidence through small, fun, achievable steps.
This isn’t about forcing bites. It isn’t about hiding veg in sauces. And it definitely isn’t about making mealtimes feel stricter.
It’s about helping your child feel safe enough, curious enough, and brave enough to explore food in a whole new way.
Is this right for your family?
The Food Lab might be a great fit if:
- Your child eats a limited range of foods
- They lean heavily on beige or dry foods
- They’ve dropped foods they used to happily eat
- You’re worried they’re missing out nutritionally
- Mealtimes feel stressful, emotional or just exhausting
- You want a proper plan not another round of tips from Instagram
This programme works well for fussy eaters and restrictive eaters. If your child has more complex medical needs or faltering growth, we can chat about whether this is the right fit on your discovery call.
Life on the other side of fussy eating
Inside the Food Lab
How we’ll work together?
Most feeding advice zeroes in on the end goal: get them to eat it. But children don’t leap from refusing a food to happily tucking in they build confidence in tiny steps. Looking, smelling, touching, playing, licking, tasting, eating.
The Food Lab follows that same natural path. We make food feel fun, magical and safe not another task your child can fail at.
For little ones, that might mean messy play, pretend play and silly food adventures. For older kids, think food scientist experiments, taste tests and texture investigations with proper “brave” challenges.
The goal isn’t to get your child eating on command. It’s to spark enough curiosity that they want to explore and that’s when the real progress starts.
Stage 1 - The Food Map
Before we add anything new, we need to understand where your child is starting from. You’ll log a food diary in the Libro app, and I’ll run a nutrition analysis to see what they’re eating, what they’re avoiding, what they’ve dropped, and whether there are gaps in iron, zinc, protein, vitamins or minerals plus how to keep them nourished while we work on the rest. This isn’t about judgement. It’s about clarity.
Stage 2 - The Mealtime Detective
Food refusal isn’t always about the food. Sometimes it’s the pressure, the routine, how food is served, or sensory overwhelm creeping in. With your information and short videos if helpful. I’ll look at what’s happening before and during meals, where the pressure is sneaking in, and how to make mealtimes feel calmer and more predictable.
Stage 3 - The Safe Table
Children explore food best when they feel safe. We’ll work on what to say (and what not to say) at mealtimes, how to use safe foods without getting stuck on them, how to respond to refusals, and how to cut down on the negotiating and meltdowns so you know exactly what to do instead of guessing.
Stage 4 - The Texture School
A lot of “fussy” eating is actually genuine sensory difficulty with crunchy, dry, wet or mixed textures, sauces, smells or how food looks. Your taste and texture questionnaire helps us map out what feels easy, tricky or overwhelming for your child, so we can build small steps forward without tipping them into overwhelm.
Stage 5 - The Food Lab
This is where the magic happens. Your child becomes a little food scientist exploring what something looks, smells and sounds like, whether it’s crunchy, squishy or sticky, and whether they can poke it, paint with it or dip it. No pressure, just curiosity. And when food feels interesting instead of scary, your child naturally gets closer to it.
Stage 6 - The Brave Bites
As confidence builds, we work towards small, achievable “brave bites” touching, smelling, licking, a small dip, or a slightly more nutritious version of a food they already love. Alongside this, Big Strong Nutrition helps your child understand in a fun, age-appropriate way how food helps their body feel strong and ready for play.
Ongoing support between consultations
Any queries or questions you may have between our online chats can be raised via email as they arise. I’ll respond just as soon as can, so you are always in the best and most confidence space to keep working through the programme.
Online Resources
You’ll also get access to videos, recipe ideas, games, and books tailored to your child’s age. Learning won’t stop with the support I give you. I want you to draw on a range of resources to keep mealtimes fun, engaging, and full of opportunities for your child to explore new foods.
Food Chaining Masterclass
Food chaining is one of my favourite ways to help children expand their diets so much so, I’ve even been called the “Food Chaining Queen”! In this programme, I’ll share my masterclass and guide you step by step, giving you prompts to build your own food chains and a spreadsheet packed with ideas.
Special Founder Price
only £399 (usually £599)
Payment Plan £199.50 x 2
Unsure, if the programme is right for your family – book a free discovery call.
Hi, I’m Emma
I’m a Paediatric Dietitian, Feeding Therapist and mum. I know how stressful feeding can feel, because I’ve been there too.
I dreaded mealtimes, especially weaning. My little girl wouldn’t put food (or even toys) in her mouth unless I spoon-fed her from a pouch. It felt lonely, frustrating and scary and the advice I got didn’t help one bit.
That’s why I do this work. I support families who are tired of being told to “just keep offering it” when what they need is a proper plan. As a Dietitian and Feeding Therapist, I bring together nutrition, feeding therapy and real, lived parent experience to help children feel safer and more confident around food.
The Food Lab brings all of that together in a way that feels fun and exciting for your child, too. Because eating shouldn’t feel like a battle, and your child shouldn’t feel like they’re failing at food. Sometimes they just need a different way in.
Emma xx
Ready to Join the Food Lab
If you’re tired of guessing what to try next, The Food Lab gives you a clear, playful plan for the summer one that supports your child’s nutrition, eases mealtime pressure, builds food chains, and helps them take tiny brave steps towards new foods.
The Food Lab
6 one-to-one sessions over 12 weeks
Opening 1st July only £399 founding family price save £200 (normally £599)
Email em**@*************************co.uk for payment plan options