Auckland Family Nutrition

Out of office on today, but I’ll leave this as a reminder on the grid too.

Whilst many of Auckland Family Nutrition’s followers are trying to conceive and pregnant, there are many of you that have been here for all six years of Auckland Family Nutrition (thank you!!) and therefore may benefit from a reminder to check your breasts, see your GP +/- book your mammogram (if relevant/appropriate) and/or book any other health or screening appointments that are relevant to your medical history and life stage.

As a side story, the dietitian profession lost a wonderful dietitian a few months ago after a short illness. At the memorial, the dietitian’s husband spoke and reminded the health professionals attending that we spend a lot of time caring for others, but… it’s also reminder to look after ourselves too.
So this month I thought about this dietitian (who was a mentor to me earlier in my career), and the words her husband shared at the memorial and with me when we chatted at the afternoon tea.
So I blocked out time to look after myself this month. I booked a variety of important health appointments into my calendar, and that included a mammogram today.

So this is a reminder to you too… it might not be a mammogram, but don’t forget to check in with your GP or relevant health professionals and book those health and screening appointments!

💜 World Prematurity Day - 17 Nov 2025 💜
On Friday 14th November, I was invited to a special lunch recognising World Prematurity Day which was hosted by the Carosika Collaborative and The Liggins Institute. Professor Katie Groom spoke on preterm birth, and shared the story of Baby Carosika, including what the Carosika Collective is doing to achieve the best outcomes for babies at risk of preterm birth, and babies born preterm. The MC was Tova O’Brien who beautifully and articulately shared her journey with her preterm baby.

It was such a wonderful lunch and I really enjoyed returning to the world of neonates and the opportunity to discuss pregnancy and preterm birth with those at the event. I spent the first half of my career working in a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and really miss working as a dietitian in neonatal care. In private practice, my focus is pregnancy nutrition (and fertility/postnatal), of which, for some of the parents I work with, preterm birth and having a premmie baby is their reality.

Thank you to The Liggins Institute and the Carosika Collective for inviting me to this special event!

📣Bookings update 31.01.25

There are just a few appointments left in the last week of Feb 2025, some of the March 2025 clinics are already fully booked!
If you are a current patient, or want to book in for an initial dietetic assessment we are now booking around 4-6 weeks ahead (unless you’re one of the quick people to book in for the last week of Feb).

We run a cancellation list for those who are already booked in and would like to be contacted if an appointment becomes available at short notice.

You can see the available clinic dates and times on our website.

Share this post with a pregnant friend so they know that they can eat Christmas Ham while hot this festive season!


Do you have Christmas Ham as part of your Christmas or festive celebrations?

As a dietitian specialising in pregnancy, I feel this is a long awaited update to the wording on the MPI safe food in pregnancy list!
The previous wording has confused pregnant people for many years, especially regarding bagged baby spinach and mesclun salad.

“Salads: Pre-packaged salads such as mesclun and spinach, ready-made salads, and coleslaws from delis, salad bars, or similar.
Vegetable-based salads, pasta salads, rice salads, fruit salads, or similar: Don’t Eat”

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/food-pregnancy/list-safe-food-pregnancy/

🌟15 years of dietetics and 15 thoughts to share🌟

If you’re a dietitian this post is for you!
Please comment below with something that you have learnt or have reflected upon through-out your dietetic career! We can all learn from one another!
Please don’t forget to tag your colleagues and friends so they can add their thoughts and comments too!

When you work in private practice, sometimes you have to think outside the box for professional development and continuing competency activities.
Reflective practice is part of dietetics and in my CCP I’m going to be reflecting (in much more detail than what is in this post) on what I have learnt, and what has changed in 15 years of dietetics, and the next steps and goals for the future.
Perhaps if you’re a dietitian, maybe this year for CCP you might like to do this too? Maybe we can learn from one another and use this in our reflections.

Tag a dietitian (or registered nutritionist) and add your comments below 👇

🍞Did the post delivery toast go a-rye? My bread puns are on a roll 😅
🍞Today I’m sharing my opinion on “toast-gate” alongside the comments you shared with me on Sunday (names covered).
🍞 please feel free to add your comments and opinions on toast gate in the comments below!

We’ve had a huge influx in bookings for June 2024.
If you’re an exisiting patient over due to book in for follow up, or a new patient hoping to book in soon - book in quickly for clinic on 1st July 2024, we have opened an extra clinic due to high demand.

- Sarah-Jane Simpson, NZ Registered Dietitian, Auckland Family Nutrition

Nutrition for Breastfeeding! What is a food group and a serving size? And how many do you need per day during breastfeeding?

This is a summary of the NZ MoH Eating and Activity Guidelines with food groups and serving size advice.

There are some people that require more or less than these recommendations, so dietetic care during the postpartum period and during breastfeeding means that the dietitian will provide individualised recommendations and goals for you during this life stage.

What is particularly interesting (to me as a dietitian), is that we don’t have nutrition guidelines specifically for people who have just birthed a baby and who are not breastfeeding, those who are mixed feeding or feeding toddlers or tandem feeding. These guidelines provided by MoH are generally based on exclusive breastfeeding.

Which food groups and serving sizes do you feel you find the hardest to meet? Pop it in the comments 👇

📣 NZ Registered Dietitian’s this post is for you!!
I know all the NZ Registered Dietitians are finishing up their annual professional development (CCP/CPD) right now to reapply for their annual practicing certificate before the end of March.

If you’d like to plan ahead with your CCP/CPD for 2024-2025 I can highly recommend enrolling in Nutrition Therapy for Fertility run by

The Early Life Nutrition Alliance are running their annual online 9 week course: Nutrition Therapy for Fertility. Enrolments close 1st April 2024.

I have personally completed this course for the last four years and will participate again in 2024. Each year I learn something new that benefits my patients/clients at Auckland Family Nutrition and I use elements of this course for both continuing competency and peer review sections of our NZ Dietitians Board CCP programme. I like networking with fertility dietitians worldwide and keeping up to date on the latest research. The course is interactive with different speakers each year.

You may (or may not) have spotted that I’m in two of the promotional/marketing videos filmed in 2020 and 2023 (one for first time participants and one for alumni).

If you’re participating in this course and are also part of the Dietitians NZ Women’s Health Special Interest group, we’d love for you to present your new learning and support you to gain peer review points for CCP.


/ad I’m not paid to promote this course. I have been offered free entry. I am an Alumni returning for the 5th year in a row.