Sonal Babbar-Bhardwaj
Sonal Babbar – Bhardwaj, is a certified infant & pediatric feeding and nutrition specialist. Sonal holds a masters degree in International Business, and a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering.
Sonal has worked in hospitals, clinics and medical companies across India, the UK, the U.S., and Netherlands. After years of heading product management with companies where she could only selectively help parents, Sonal decided to start her own company to expand her reach in infant and pediatric feeding to work directly with women who need clinical support with breastfeeding and parents who need nutritional support for their children.
Sonal is passionate about nutrition and strongly believes in revolutionizing the perceptions of child growth and raising a generation which has a healthy and positive relationship with food.
Sonal completely understands the corporate deceit in marketing, she understands the real motivations of the food companies who spend way more on marketing than the actual product, who mis-lead parents by not sharing the actual information, or feed on their fears to convince them to buy their products.
Sonal’s philosophy: Food is medicine and given to our children in the right way, it can nourish their bodies, support their growth and development, and lay the foundation for a lifetime of good health.
Sonal is a wife and mother of a busy toddler. She is originally from India, living in the Netherlands, working with her clients across India, Netherlands and the U.S. Sonal loves to practice holistic living and loves to be a mother and nurture her son and her home with the same ideologies she follows.
Kelly Benson -Vogt
Kelly Benson-Vogt, co-founder of Viraa Care & owner of Pediatric Feeding & Speech Solutions is a wife and mother of two boys and two dogs that keep life busy. Kelly received her bachelor’s degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from West Virginia University and her master’s degree in Speech Pathology from Northwestern University in Illinois.
Kelly has worked in private practice, hospital settings, outpatient, long-term care, hospice, schools, and early intervention settings. After working with many children in a variety of settings and after having children of her own, Kelly found love in the area of pediatric feeding. Kelly is a faculty member for Lactation Education Resources, she is a member of the International Association for Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing organization, and she is a Certified Orofacial Myologist® from the International Association of Orofacial Myologists (IAOM).
Kelly has been working with many Indian-American parents at her practice and is also working with parents and clinicians directly in India.
For Doctors & Clinicians
If you are a private practitioner or have your own hospital you can connect with our team to check if you are eligible to qualify for Viraa Care + program.
VIRAA
We are a passionate team of infant and pediatric feeding specialists dedicated to empowering parents through the intricacies of breastfeeding and infant and pediatric feeding.
We provide expert guidance and support to parents navigating baby feeding, starting solids, baby nutrition and picky eating through our comprehensive courses, personalized consultations, and tailored one-on-one programs.
Our company's mission is to transform how child growth is perceived and help create a generation that has a happy and long-term healthy relationship with food.
We firmly believe that providing nutritious foods from the beginning can shape a baby's lifelong relationship with food. A child who was introduced to a variety of colors and textures of food from the beginning will naturally lean towards them as an adult.
We aim to accomplish this by offering professional support and education to every parent as they introduce real foods to their baby or navigate picky eating challenges into toddlerhood.
Furthermore, we strive to educate parents about breastfeeding and nutrition for babies, disproving myths propagated by commercial baby food companies, and providing evidence-based insights to ensure the best possible start for every mother and child.
Our Values
Food is so much more than eating. Food is love, emotion, culture and connection. Over the years the baby food industry has been convincing families that things have to be done a certain way such as “babies need to be given special separate pureed foods in jars and pouches” or “if their suggested techniques are not followed then babies will end up becoming a picky eater”. These selling strategies are fear based, they feed on the fear of vulnerable moments of parents and make them become a hefty consumer of their products.
We are here to become your support group and professional guide in your breastfeeding and baby feeding journey including introduction of real foods, offering optimum nutrition to the baby and managing picky eating.
We respect culture and differences, we believe that every parent wishes to give the best to their children but in moments of doubt, we professionally guide them.
We do not feed on fears; instead, we empower and educate parents to face them head-on and provide them with the means to overcome them, because when parents learn, their children blossom.
We meet you where you are, whether it's your breastfeeding journey or your baby’s eating journey.
Our Story
I would have never imagined that my sweet little newborn son would end up giving me the biggest courage of my life to take that step I always wanted to.
Heading and managing product management in healthcare for 12 years, I got closer and closer to amplifying product profits and further away from patients and families who I actually wanted to support as a clinician.
During my early days of motherhood and baby feeding, I was not only busy caring for my baby but also heavily preoccupied with dispelling myths, addressing misinformation, and confronting judgement.
The more I searched about breastfeeding, baby nutrition and starting real foods for my baby the clearer it became that baby companies are also capitalising on parents' fears and exploiting them for profit, like most other healthcare companies do.
I knew we could change this..
We had the skills, the knowledge and the perseverance to establish a company which meets parents where they are in their journey without feeding on their fears, without judging them or inducing any guilt.
In 2022, we started our community work, direct consultations with parents, local hospitals in India and online education on dispelling breastfeeding myths, starting real foods for babies and child nutrition. The support and response we got was both overwhelming and encouraging and the need for an empathetic and evidence-based support system for parents became clear.
In the journey of establishing our company, Kelly and I were destined to meet, our ideologies matched, our end goal was the same and we were determined to bring change.
Kelly has over 25 years of experience in pediatric feeding in the US, she has worked in private practice, hospital settings, outpatient, long-term care, hospice, schools, and early intervention settings. After working with many children in a variety of settings and after having her own, Kelly found love in the area of pediatric feeding.
So, Kelly as a pediatric feeding therapist and I as an infant and pediatric feeding specialist, came together under the strategic guidance and support of our team of clinicians and marketers to establish Viraa - a company for new mothers, young parents and an entire generation for lifelong health.
Meet the Minds Behind Viraa
We founded Viraa to provide evidence-based support to parents worldwide, consider us your go-to experts through breastfeeding or bottlefeeding, introduction of real foods to your little one, managing optimum nutrition for them and managing the challenges of picky eating. Kelly is based out of the USA, Sonal is from India, and based out of Amsterdam, our parents come from every part of the world.
