For international parents who want their kid to eat the vegetables. Without the battle, the guilt, or the patterns you promised yourself you’d leave behind. So you can finally experience calm, connected mealtimes.
You've done everything by the book. And dinner is still a battle.
You’re the parent who cares about nutrition. You’re the one who reads the guidelines, follows the right Instagram accounts, and prepares dinner by the book. All while making sure that what happens at your table looks nothing like what happened at yours growing up.
You moved countries, raised a family across cultures, time zones, and school systems. You figure things out. That’s who you are. And still, you are quietly, persistently exhausted by dinner.
The one thing nobody tells the parent who already knows everything? Knowing more was never going to fix it. The only way out is in. That’s the work I do with you.
You want one meal. One table. Everyone eating.
You want to put something on the table tonight and feel calm about it. Not proud, not perfect – calm. You want to stop doing the mental math before every meal: will he eat this, will she touch that, is this enough protein, too much sugar, not enough variety. You want one meal, at one table, that works for everyone sitting around it. Not four versions, not a compromise that satisfies no one. You want your kids to try things. Not eat everything, just try. You want mealtimes to feel like the heart of your family, not the source of your stress.
And underneath all of it, you want to feel good in your own body too. Not a diet. Not a protocol. Just a way of eating that gives you energy and doesn’t feel so frustrating.
But right now, here's what's happening.
You’ve read the guidelines. You follow the right accounts. You know about tuning in to your child’s hunger cues, about not forcing bites, about food neutrality. And still, you planned a meal you know they can eat, you sat down together, and within four minutes your daughter is saying she doesn’t like it, your toddler is throwing the fork, and you can feel something rising in yourself that isn’t patience.
You catch yourself saying ‘just one more bite’, and immediately hear your own mother’s voice. You sit with that for a second. Then you put the fork down and say nothing, because you know enough to know that pressure backfires. So you just sit there, watching the untouched plate, doing the math in your head. Is she getting enough iron? How many vegetables did he actually eat this week? Should I be worried about this?
You know more about nutrition than most people in your life. And it has not made one meal easier. Others will tell you to just let it go. But that’s not who you are. You don’t let go of something so important to you. So you continue reading, trying things, and still standing at the open fridge at 7 pm, pulling out whatever your hungry kid will actually eat. The frustration isn’t loud. It’s just always there.
By Thursday you’re food burnt out, so you end up ordering pizza. Pizza isn’t a failure, you just ran out. Out of time, out of ideas, out of the mental bandwidth to make the fourth version of a dinner that nobody finishes anyway.
And you’re the only one who carries all of this. Your partner has opinions. Your mother-in-law has opinions. The internet has seventeen contradicting opinions. But you’re the one who wakes up thinking about it.
This is what Rosemarie says
“This summer, I joined the fantastic Family Food Flow program by family dietitian Sofie De Niet. We started taking a deeper look at our eating habits, both from a distance and up close. The benefits have been incredible. Under Sofie’s expert and gentle guidance, we gained new insights into our relationship with food and made some crucial practical decisions, like keeping frozen meals and vegetables on hand for quick and easy options. Now, nearly two months into the program, I often find myself feeling relaxed during our family meals – a calm I rarely felt even before our baby was born. Her arrival made us more aware of how we eat together and whether we wanted to continue that way. Amid the chaos of three kids with their own needs, we’ve rediscovered the essence of family life. It will never be perfect, and that’s okay. But making sure our time at the table is chill has become a top priority for me.”
The table is not just about the food
Most feeding support will give you a plan. A list of what to do when your child refuses, when they only want pasta, when they’re asking for sugar at 4pm. That’s not nothing. But it’s not enough for you. Because you don’t need more information. You have plenty of information. What you need is someone who can see through the information to what’s underneath it – and who has the courage to show it to you clearly, without flinching, and without making it mean you’ve failed.
Here’s what nobody is saying out loud. The reason the table still feels this hard – despite everything you know, despite how much you care – is not that you haven’t found the right strategy yet. It is not that you need to push harder, or step back more, or find the right hack, or follow the right account. The gap is not information. You have more of that than most people around you. And if anything, it has made this heavier, one more standard to measure yourself against, one more thing to get right.
The gap is that you have been working from a framework you never chose. A story – absorbed long before you had children – about what eating should look like, what a good meal means, what it says about you when your child refuses. About what bodies need and what they can’t be trusted to do on their own. That story is what what turns a refusal – broccoli or dinner – into a fear that something is wrong. None of the mainstream feeding advises touch that. No meal plan reaches it. No Instagram account addresses it. That is where this work begins.
The more you know, the harder it gets. Because knowledge without a framework just adds weight. It adds another thing to get right, another standard to fall short of, another reason to doubt yourself at the dinner table. And the table is never just about the food.
Feeding is a relationship. Every person at the table affects another. And that is exactly where the shift begins, not in what your child eats tonight. Not in whether they tried the broccoli or finished their plate. The shift begins in how you show up. In what you stop focussing on. In the moment you decide that a successful meal is no longer defined by what your child is (not) eating. That is not stepping back. That is the most important thing you will do for them.
Nourishment is personal, it’s part of our identity, feelings of safety, and agency. A grown-up who is aligned, free, and at ease in their body, that is the goal. Not a child who eats everything. A child who grows up making choices from what feels good, not from fear, not from rules, not from the patterns you inherited and never chose. Aligned choices. Free choices. Their own. We are not trying to control the outcome at the table tonight. We are building the foundation for a lifetime of that.
This is what Toufan says
“A child goes through phases, you have periods were things are easy and others where you’re lost and need support. It’s like a rollercoaster. Sofie has been amazing giving the support I need, explaining everything super well, and really caring for every struggle I’m dealing with. She’s always available and the group sessions are really nice because each has a specific topic – and even if you think it doesn’t really concern you, it does, you’ll build a tool kit to support you through different phases. The group sessions are also helpful to connect with other moms and reassure you seeing that you’re not the only one. The podcast is also a great addition if you missed a group session or if you forgot about something, they are always a good reminder. I definitely recommend Sofie. She’s is the sweetest and she’ll be the best support you need.”
This is what life looks like on the other side.
Two months from now. It’s Tuesday evening. You made one meal. Your toddler pokes at it, eats the pasta, leaves the rest. You notice – and then you just … let it be. Not because you stopped caring. Because you stopped needing it to look a certain way to feel okay. That’s the shift. That quiet moment where you don’t intervene. Where you don’t negotiate, bribe, or brace. Where you just sit at the table and eat your own food.
Your selective eater still has her preferences. Some nights someone doesn’t eat much (or too much). But the atmosphere is different. The tension that used to live in your shoulders from the moment you started cooking, it’s lighter. Not gone, but lighter. And your kids feel that. They always felt it. Now they’re feeling something else. Your daughter tries something off your plate. Not because you asked her to. Not because there was a reward waiting. Because she was curious, and the table felt safe enough for that. You didn’t make it a moment. It just happened.
And underneath all of it – you. Eating your own meal. At your own table. Not a diet. Not a protocol. Not a version of yourself made smaller by rules you never actually chose. Just you. Nourished. At ease. In a body that starts to feel like your again. A child who is free around food. Who eats from curiosity, not compliance. Who grows up without the weight you’ve been quietly carrying since long before she was born. That’s the goal. Not a child who eats everything. A child who grows up making choices from what feels good, not food that earns approval. You are creating food memories, not food rules.
This is Family Food Flow
Family Food Flow is not a feeding program. There is no fixed meal plan waiting for you at the end of this. No list of foods to introduce in a specific order. No protocol to follow, no scripts for what to say when she refuses dinner.
What this is, is a mirror – where we go underneath the table, into the framework you’ve been working from without knowing it and we rebuild from there. From something you actually chose. From something that fits your family, your culture, your history, and who you are becoming.
The strategies come. The clarity at the supermarket comes. The dinners that don’t require four versions come. But they come from a different place than the place you’ve been working from. That’s what makes this different. And that’s what makes it last.
You and your partner get access to:
★ Personalized family guidance
We start with an online family intake session, scheduled in your first month. If we need to speak live, you can always book a weekly check-in session with me.
★ Audio library and resources
Short podcast episodes packed with practical insights, tools, and exercises – about food refusals, food labels, mealtime stress, … Listen anytime, anywhere, and explore linked resources.
★ Your living roadmap
We keep a food diary to understand what’s really going on, then build eating competences together – around structure, mindset, family roles, and food acceptance.
★ Ongoing 1-1 support
If you have questions or you’re unsure what to do in a tricky moment, you can send me a voice or video message. I’ll get back to you within 48 hours. Expect honest guidance from both my professional experience as a dietitian and my lived perspective as a mother of two young boys, living in a multicultural family.
★ Live group sessions (optional)
Safe, small, and guided sessions on Zoom with other international parents with a multicultural backpack. Learn from others’ experiences, share your own, and get practical strategies you can use right away.
Meet Sofie
I became a dietitian when I became a mother. I already had the degree in functional nutrition. I’d spent hours with the gut health research, the micronutrient literature, the evidence on early food exposure. I had access to information most parents never see. And I used all of it to make sure he got the best. The best foods. The best start. The best possible foundation. Food wasn’t just nourishment. If I’m honest, food had always been where I felt most in control. And now there was a tiny person who needed me to get this right.
When he started refusing foods – the foods I’d carefully introduced, at the right times, in the right way – I did what any trained dietitian would do. I researched harder. I added more structure. I tried better strategies. And none of it worked. Because none of it was about him. It was about what happened inside me when he said no. The small panic that looked like patience but wasn’t. The story running underneath every meal: ‘He won’t grow. He’ll get sick. He’ll be ruined forever. He’ll have a sweet tooth he’ll spend his whole life fighting.’ Every fear I’d ever absorbed about food, sitting at the dinner table, waiting.
Without realizing it, I started doing the one thing I swore I would never do. ‘See, this is what happens when you don’t eat your fruit’ or ‘Are you sure you don’t want a bite?’, and ‘The kitchen is closed now’ I said to my two-year-old. I knew exactly what fear-based feeding language looked like. I had removed ‘good food, bad food’ from our vocabulary. I invited him to listen to his tummy.
I genuinely believed I wasn’t repeating the pattern I wanted to break up with. I was still, quietly, desperately, trying to control what went into his body. Here’s the thing nobody tells you when you’re deep in the research and the strategies and the doing-everything-right – toddlers don’t process frameworks. They read nervous systems. And mine was telling him: this matters so much to me, I would do anything to get you to eat well. The only one who couldn’t see that was me.
It took other healthcare professionals mirroring back what I couldn’t see from inside. And it took me being willing to look. Not with more information. Not with a better strategy. It was understanding what the fear was actually about. And choosing – actively choosing – to look at it directly.
That’s what I bring to this work now. Evidence-based practice, yes. But also the willingness to ask the inconvenient question. The one that makes you go quiet. The one that leads you back to the answer that was already in you. Not telling you what to feed your child. Helping you see what feeding your child is doing to you. And from that place, everything changes.
FAQ
How do I know Family Food Flow is what I and my family need?
Family Food Flow is designed for anyone who faces challenges with family nutrition. If you recognize one or more struggles mentioned here, my 1-1 guidance is tailored to help you and your family overcome them. To avoid any surprises, I recommend booking a free digital introductory session with me so that we can explore if Family Food Flow is a good solution for you and your family.
When is Family Food Flow NOT for me?
Family Food Flow may NOT be suitable for you if:
✘ You never reflect on your relationship with food and don’t question your own eating habits.
✘ You’re seeking new recipes, like to weigh quantities or like to follow strict instructions.
✘ You prefer quick solutions, or top-down feeding strategies that mirror the mainstream.
✘ You or a family member has a medical problem – including mental health – that needs to be addressed first (please check this with me during a free digital introductory session).
✘ You’re not open to challenging your beliefs, making space for a non-restrictive, weight-inclusive and non ableist approach.
✘ You don’t speak English (as all the information in the private podcast is given in English). In our 1-1 sessions, we can also speak French or Dutch.
It’s also important to know that Family Food Flow is NOT about getting your child to comply, finding the trick to make your child eat, or pushing children into things they’re not ready for, even if nutritional pressure makes that tempting. Instead, we work around this pressure and focus on creating a safe, supportive, and responsive feeding environment.
My youngest child is younger than 6 months or older than 8 years old. Can I still join?
Yes, you can still join, but I recommend checking with me through a free digital introductory session to ensure my guidance aligns with your expectations.
What happens when I join?
It all starts with an 1-1 intake session, building clarity around what’s really going on and understanding the core challenges you both face. After this session, you’ll know what the next steps are, and we’ll take those steps together, in a way that works for you. You’ll gain practical tools and parental strategies that address real, everyday situations with confidence. Yet, Family Food Flow isn’t about collecting information, micromanaging meals, or memorizing scripts, it’s about transformation, about making food easy and enjoyable again, while also screening for deficiencies and working together in a multidisciplinary team (your pediatrician, family doctor, …). Whether we work together for 2 months or longer, you’ll leave with more clarity, stronger skills, and real transformation in how you approach food and family mealtimes.
How much time should I make for all this?
As much as feels right for you. Some people love attending a weekly session with me and are exploring every resource, while others focus on one idea, try it out, and see big shifts. Your investment pays off in transformation, not in the number of hours you spend. The magic happens when you start applying what you take from what you learned in the podcast or a session. Of course, if attending everything makes you happy, you can absolutely do that too. You can even join group sessions, and connect with me as much as you need to in our private family chat.
Can you guarantee results?
I can guarantee that you’ll gain meaningful insights into your role as a feeder, along with practical tools to help you and your family eat in a way that truly nourishes you. Family Food Flow is about understanding what’s really going on, trying new approaches, and nourishing healthy eating competences for life. Healthy eating competences do not equal eating healthy food. This is why, among others, you might need to unlearn more than you learn from me. I commit to giving you my best guidance, resources, and support, but your results depend on your actions, open mind, and willingness to experiment with evidence based feeding advice.
What changes can I expect in 2 months?
The first results you’ll notice will be in you – you’ll feel calmer, clearer about what matters and what doesn’t, and more confident in knowing what to do in different situations, even when applying it still feels hard. You may also notice positive changes in your own eating along the way. I won’t promise specific changes in your child’s eating right away. Many shifts happen quietly, below the surface. Some changes might even feel like a step back in the short run, while actually being two steps forward in the long run. As you grow more confident in your feeding role – and use the guidance and support I offer – you’ll be laying the foundations for lasting change, even when that change is still invisible. Remember that Family Food Flow is not about your child’s compliance, it’s about supporting you as a confident, responsible, and calm feeder. It’s about raising healthy eaters, thriving on internal motivation. If your child’s eating were the direct result of our work, that would imply pressure, and external pressure backfires.
Why would I stay longer than our 2 foundational months together?
Staying longer allows you to practice, experiment, and adapt new approaches across different stages, challenges, and seasons in your family life. You’ll continue building confidence, deepen your understanding of your child’s natural eating patterns, and see how small shifts under the surface grow into lasting habits. The longer you stay, the more these changes become natural and deeply embodied. Family Food Flow isn’t just about trying new strategies with your child. At it’s core, it’s about transforming your own relationship with food and translating that into confident, calm feeding. Over time, you’ll integrate what you learn into your beliefs, habits, and ways of thinking about food, sometimes breaking with patterns you’ve carried for your whole life, even over generations.
Why do you have a family approach? Must my partner join?
Family Food Flow includes a family approach by default, because lasting change works best when feeding the family is aligned. Your partner doesn’t need to join, but is welcome anytime. If your partner has questions or faces specific challenges, it’s possible to access the sessions, resources, and me directly through the family group chat. The goal is shared understanding and collaboration so your family can thrive together. You don’t need to do everything the same way, but ideally, your intentions and goals stay aligned. Family Food Flow is an opportunity to think and talk about this with your partner, also when your partner isn’t actively participating in our sessions, or sees things differently. Important – involvement of a co-parent outside the home can always be discussed and is billed separately.
You focus on the relational aspect of food, does that mean you skip the nutritional screening side of things?
Not at all. My focus on the relational aspect of food is where I’ve found the biggest gap in how families are supported, but it doesn’t replace the clinical foundation. I’m a registered dietitian first. In practice, this means I assess nutritional status, look at relevant lab work or growth data, coordinate with your pediatrician or other practitioners when appropriate, and make sure nothing medical is being overlooked. If something needs a referral, I’ll say so. What I’ve learned over years of clinical work is that knowing what a child should eat rarely solves the problem. The missing piece is usually the family’s relationship with mealtimes. That’s why I bring both.
I don’t live in the Brussels Capital Region. Can I join?
Of course! While we can meet in person in my cabinet in Auderghem during our intake session, the check-in sessions are organized online, making it just as valuable to join from a distance or abroad.
Why should I work with you and not another dietitian?
If you value honesty, helpful feedback, insightful guidance, and authenticity, I’m the right choice for you. Being a mother myself and having let go of diet culture through my son’s eating adventure, I offer a non-diet, nourishing and non-restrictive perspective on food. I’m to the point and no-nonsense while maintaining a gentle approach. I also put you – and your partner – first so that you can truly embody your family’s nutrition goals.
Will I receive personalized meal plans?
I don’t give out fixed, top-down meal plans, because I want to help you and your family learn to feed from within – to choose and prepare meals that feel good for your bodies and fit your life. Instead, you’ll get plenty of inspiration, ideas, and guidance for creating balanced family meals you actually enjoy eating together.
Do you have general conditions?
Sure, you can check these here!