Katie Ferraro (1m 2s):

So for Sick Days, we definitely want to prioritize hydration over nutrition right early on in baby led weaning. We offer food for lots of reasons, but it has very little to do with hunger abatement providing nutrition. So don't stress. If you miss a day or two, cause your baby's sick. Hey there I'm Katie Ferraro Registered Dietitian college nutrition, professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning here on the baby led weaning made easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the competence and knowledge. You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (1m 43s):

Well, hello there. Welcome back today. We're talking about Sick Days and Solid Foods. Do I need to stop trying new foods when my baby is sick now, before we get started, if you're dealing with a sick baby, which I assume you are, which is why you're listening to this episode, I just want to say, I'm sorry. It really stinks when your baby is sick, especially when you're trying to transition to something new in the schedule, like incorporating more Solid Foods. So I think you're going to like what you hear in this episode. And I want to start out with my baby led weaning tip of the day for this mini BLW training episode. But that is you do not need to make any major modifications to your schedule when your baby is sick, you can, if you want to, and I'm going to share some instances where you might want to switch things up with the feeding schedule.

Katie Ferraro (2m 32s):

If you're dealing with a sick child. Now, quick backstory, when I was doing baby led weaning with my quadruplets. So I have a seven year old, six year old quadruplets in three-year-old twins, but the quads were the first time I'd done baby led weaning because I had struggled a lot with traditional spoonfeeding. With my oldest. We worked our way through all the allergenic foods. And then when they were about like 10 months adjusted age, we had went to a super bowl party. And at the super bowl party, there was ceviche, this ceviche had shrimp in it and had fish in it. And my babies were super snotty. And I know some of you you're like, then you said they're taking them to a party. It was like a super bowl party at my brother's house. I'm sure it was fine that I took sick kids. This is pre pandemic PS. So back to the seafood, the shellfish, which is the shrimp and the fish, the babies that had multiple times, right?

Katie Ferraro (3m 17s):

And you guys know that a baby can react to any food at any time. It tends to happen within the first few exposures, but there's no hard and fast rules about that either. So the babies were super snotty. They ate ceviche, we came home and my son, Dylan had like, full-blown hives all over his face, like the puffy hives where you're like, Ooh, if that's happening inside your throat, you're definitely going to have trouble breathing. And he was particularly fussy, which you know, and when you're looking for an allergic reaction, you're sometimes like, hang on. Is it just skin stuff? Cause if it's just skin stuff and goes away on its own, then it's probably not true food allergy. But if it's accompanied by another symptom, one of which can be a significant change in demeanor. I'm like, oh my gosh, is this happening? Like he has skin stuff and now a significant change in demeanor or was he just crying because he's sick and fussy and I'm making him go to bed or whatever.

Katie Ferraro (4m 2s):

So I took a bunch of pictures, send it to the pediatrician and he's like, I think he's fine watching them. The hives went away like within an hour. But the point was because he was already immunocompromised, like he had already had a cold and this is a kid who was like a major drainer. So they was just snot everywhere. That one instance of having either fish or maybe more likely shellfish, I don't know. We're just guessing at this point caused him to have a reaction that looked like it could potentially be a food allergy reaction. But of course, then I tried, ceviche like three more times in the next three days just to see what would happen. And he didn't react at any point. So it was kind of maybe on the mend and just sharing anecdotally that it is the case that if your baby is sick or there's some underlying illness that sometimes they might react to a food in a way that might make you think it's a food allergy, but always keep in mind.

Katie Ferraro (4m 49s):

Gosh, if they're all already sick, is there maybe just the reaction to whatever the underlying sickness is going on. And of course, always check with your pediatrician. But my pediatrician was like, heck yeah, try. That ceviche again tomorrow. Cause they've already had fish and they've had shellfish a number of times. So sometimes when our babies are sick, we might see things that look like food allergies, but they might not ever be. But that kid Dylan, he's so funny. I have three boy and one girl quad and he's very articulate. And every time we have something with shrimp, he's like mom, you know, I really, I had that problem that one time with shrimp and I was like, oh my God, you were 10 months old. You don't even remember it. You just know it because I tell this story all the time. And he likes to look at the pictures of what he had at his face, which of course I took pictures of it.

Katie Ferraro (5m 30s):

You know what? I'll put them in the show notes for you guys for this episode, BLW podcast.com/197. If you want to see what a sick baby looks like, reacting to shelters, that wasn't true food allergy. And he's had shellfish a million times since then. So back to the episode, do I need to stop Solid Foods because my baby is sick. You might need to slow down. Okay? And by the way, you don't need to do anything. You do what works for you. But a lot of parents like my baby is super clingy. My baby is interested in nursing. More. Some babies want to nurse less. We do want to pay attention to fluids, right? So whenever a child is sick, we prioritize fluids over food because we want to prevent dehydration. So if your baby is proficient at and prefers to drink out of the breast, out of the bottle or the open cup, if you're doing that focus on the liquids during periods of sickness and don't beat yourself up.

Katie Ferraro (6m 21s):

If you're skipping a meal or a day, or sometimes even a couple of days with no Solid Foods. Now, one thing about offering solid food to the baby, you know, all sickness manifests itself different. So some babies, if they're super fussy and cranky and cry and whiny, we don't want them as a high chair trying to eat food because that does increase the risk of choking if they're freaking out. Okay. So never try to feed a freaking out baby, but also we never want to force feed a baby. So you may feel like, oh my gosh, we're doing one new food a day. And if I skipped a date, we're going to get behind. It doesn't matter. Skipping a day or a couple of days is not the end of the world. Now I work with parents who are like, oh, every time my baby gets a little runny nose, I take like five days off.

Katie Ferraro (7m 2s):

It's like, well, if your baby has a runny nose every week, that means you're only doing Solid Foods like two days a week. That's definitely not going to be enough exposures for your baby to develop the skillset, to meet all of their feeding milestones. But you guys know your baby's best. I just want to give you permission to skip a little bit of Solid Foods. Some families don't like trying new foods when the baby is sick. And I get that. If you're doing one new food a day, you might pause on that and just reintroduce some of the familiar foods. If they're up for it for the allergenic foods. I certainly don't introduce those when the baby is sick, because of the reasons that I just described with Dylan's situation. I want to know kind of, if it really is true food allergy and having a little bit more of a clearer picture helps without that underlying sickness clouding, what could potentially be a reaction, but maybe isn't who knows it's confusing enough.

Katie Ferraro (7m 50s):

I don't need sickness in there making things worse. Now what about teething? A lot of parents will say, well, if my baby's actively teething, should I stop doing Solid Foods? And the answer is no, because teething is not a sickness. Do you think can be up to a three year process? So we can't stop Solid Foods for three years. There's actually not a lot of modifications that you need to make for teething babies. You'll see parents say, oh my, I make these frozen teething treats. I have six out of my six kids who I did baby led weaning with the seventh one. We never did. She loves frozen stuff. The vow babies. I don't know why, but they don't. They never liked frozen treats. And they would freak out even if they were teething, but some families swear by them. But many times teething babies can just continue to eat the other foods that actually in many cases, pacifies them.

Katie Ferraro (8m 35s):

And they actually enjoy gnawing on the foods and gives them some sense of relief. You might tend towards colder foods when a baby is teething. But again, this is not like there's no hard and fast rules about teething or sickness. So you do what works for you. And I mentioned that some families get in the habit of skipping lots of days on a regular basis. If you feel that that's happening in your baby is chronically ill. You may need to obviously consult your pediatric provider. But if we're talking about acute sickness that comes on some seasonal stuff, that's, short-term skip a day or two, not the end of the world. You're not doing any irreparable damage by missing a few meals is the message I want you guys to leave with now for the families that might be skipping lots of days all of the time, if you're interested in what like a typical schedule looks like for feeding for your non Sick Days.

Katie Ferraro (9m 21s):

I just did a bunch of episodes on the podcast. So if you go back to episode 185, that was some sample feeding BLW schedules for six to seven month olds. I did it for eight to nine month olds in episode 187, be able to view schedules for 10 to 11 month olds in episode 189 and then 12 month olds in 191. Again, I don't provide those for comparison purposes. They're just ideas of what schedule your baby could follow. If you were looking for some ideas and some parents are like, Ooh, my seven month old, we're only doing solids every three days. If you listen to the recommended schedule, you realize, okay, maybe that's not frequently enough. And I do want to bump it up. So for your sick baby, you'll probably notice that their appetite may wax and may wane. You really don't need to make any massive changes with regards to Solid Foods, because please remember during baby led weaning, the majority of your baby's nutrition is still going to be coming from breast milk or formula.

Katie Ferraro (10m 14s):

Okay? So we're offering food for lots of different reasons, but it has very little to do with hunger, abatement and nutrition provision. Okay. So gear by skipping, you know, two tablespoons of avocado. It's not like the end of the world and your baby's not going to become malnourished overnight, but do just pay attention to signs of hydration, right? That's the wet diapers or is the baby having as many wet diapers? And as frequently as you would anticipate, some of the physical signs of dehydration include, like if your baby has dry or cracked lips, we sometimes can see what the skin, if you pinch the skin, like on your own hand, I'm doing it right now. Well, when I pinched my skin, it stays kind of pinched up. Okay. If your baby's well-hydrated when you pinch the skin, don't hurt them, but it should go back down flat.

Katie Ferraro (10m 56s):

That's generally a sign that your baby's well-hydrated. So, you know, pay attention to the signs of hydration. That's certainly more important than however many calories or milligrams of iron they're getting. So hang in there. If you've got a sick baby on your hands, it's not the end of the world. If you take a little break and try new foods, maybe stick to familiar foods, and I hope your baby feels better soon. And I hope you feel better about having a sick baby really soon, too. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.