Meet Megan McNamee of Feeding Littles

Today we’d like to introduce you to Megan McNamee.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
As a registered dietitian, I had always loved working with moms and babies. Shortly after my first daughter was born, I found myself not wanting to go back to a full-time position but knew I wanted to somehow work in the new mom space. I was teaching prenatal nutrition classes at Babymoon Inn in Phoenix and they asked if I wanted to teach a class about Baby-led Weaning. (For those unfamiliar, Baby-led Weaning (BLW) is a way of feeding babies by which parents skip making purees and spoon feeding and jump straight into letting baby self-feed soft, whole foods.) I researched BLW and started teaching classes at Babymoon each month. At that time, I started a Facebook group (Feeding Littles Group) to allow parents from my class to ask each other questions and offer my professional support. I was also going through BLW for the first time with my eldest and the process was so fun. I knew I wanted to somehow expand on this concept and offer support on a larger scale, but I had no idea what would come of it.

As our followers’ children grew older, they started to ask questions about behavioral issues that accompany mealtime in toddlerhood. I knew what to put on the plate, but I had no idea how to manage tricky toddler behavior. A wonderful friend introduced me to Judy Delaware, an occupational therapist and feeding therapist out of Boulder, Colorado. My friend’s son, Jack, suffered from a horrible terminal illness called SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) and Judy had been his feeding therapist before he passed away at just 6 months of age.

The first time Judy and I talked on the phone, we knew our connection – which started because of sweet baby Jack – was special. We had the same philosophy, the same end-goal, just with different approaches. We knew there was no other partnership like ours that was helping parents raise healthy, competent eaters while keeping mealtime fun and low-stress. After about 18 months of planning and creating, we released our first online course for toddlers in August 2015, shortly before the birth of my second daughter.

At this point, my Baby-led Weaning classes had grown so large that I grew out of the space at Babymoon and began to teach at Modern Milk in Scottsdale, Arizona. Our private Facebook group was also growing and is now up to almost 22,000 members. Our community asked us to put my in-person BLW class online, so in July 2017 we released Infant Feeding: the Baby-led Way. We are so grateful for the wonderful response from our Feeding Littles Community and we have plans to create additional courses and online products in the future.

Through this all, I have continued to see private clients, teach barre classes at ReBarre North Scottsdale and work mainly when my youngest daughter sleeps. It has been a blessing to be home with my girls and as they get older I look forward to even more time to develop our products and free resources for parents.

Judy and I are so grateful for the opportunity to reach so many parents worldwide. Our courses are fully online, mobile-optimized and taken on your schedule. They allow parents to access professional information in a visual format (all video-based) at a price most families can afford. We are confident that sweet baby Jack has led us down this path and continues to inspire us daily. A portion of our course proceeds benefit the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation for SMA research, advocacy and support.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No! We assumed that we would passively sell our online courses easily, as they are what our community requested, but we didn’t realize how much marketing and promotion we would have to do. Almost 3 years into the process are courses are now selling themselves, but it takes daily attention to social media and constant content creation and marketing.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Feeding Littles – what should we know?
Feeding Littles sells online, video-based courses for parents of babies and young children. We help parents learn how to let their baby feed themselves and prevent or reverse troublesome toddler feeding issues. Our courses allow parents to access a dietitian and a feeding therapist from the comfort of their own home, at a fraction of the price it would cost to hire individual professionals.

Judy and I are very proud of the community we have built. We are grateful to reach so many parents who want this information and above all we are proud to represent a safe place for parents to get support and encouragement without fear of being criticized. We know that this kind of respect and parent-to-parent support in the baby and child realm is not common, and we are so glad that our company represents positivity and joyfulness around mealtime and food.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Empathy. I try my best to put myself in our clients’ shoes and am very careful in how I relay information. I want parents to learn and evolve without feeling like they’re doing something “wrong,” so I carefully consider how I communicate information. Feeding and parenting are emotional topics and the last thing we want is for our customers to feel like they’re bad parents. In fact, they’re GREAT parents because they’re doing their best and looking out for the best interest of their child.

Pricing:

• $59 Infant Feeding: the Baby-led Way
• $69 Feeding Littles: Toddlers

Contact Info:

• Website: www.feedinglittles.com
• Email: megan@feedinglittles.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/feedinglittles
• Facebook: facebook.com/feedinglittles
• Other: facebook.com/groups/feedinglittlesgroup

Image Credit:
Jenn Hydeman

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