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Katie Ferraro (1m 2s):
What I don't want you to do is standing there in your kitchen the night before at 10:00 PM like, do I do avocado or banana or sweet potato or should we start with the meat? Or, my mother-in-law said we should do cereal, but my sister said that this is what worked best for her baby. There are a few things you can do ahead of time to really go into day one with a plan so that you feel a lot more confident. 'cause it's gonna feel awkward and clunky no matter what approach you take. But you can minimize, you know, some of the stress with this little outline. 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 with Katie Ferraro podcast.

Katie Ferraro (1m 43s):
I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give Your Baby a safe start to solid foods using baby Led Weaning. Hello there and welcome back. Today we're talking about what do you do the day before your baby's first bite of solid food? Because if your baby's almost six months of age and you're here because you're learning like about, oh, wait a minute, this time to start solid foods. I've been looking at the calendar and you've been thinking, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to do this tomorrow. I want you to take a deep breath because you do not need to meal prep 47 different foods. You don't have to get the perfect plate together.

Katie Ferraro (2m 24s):
You don't have to become a baby food chef overnight, okay? And you definitely don't need to spend the next three hours like panic searching how to cut avocado for a six month old and, and like find yourself on some Reddit thread from 2014 that makes you feel worse. Okay? I know you're a busy person, so we're gonna hop right in. Now, I'd like to start each of these mini training episodes with a baby Led Weaning tip of the day. And today's tip is your baby's probably not going to eat very much on day one. And that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong. It doesn't mean baby Led Weaning isn't working. And it definitely doesn't mean you need to panic and start, you know, force feeding applesauce by spoon just because that first strip of avocado ended up on the floor day One of starting solid foods is not about how much Your Baby eats, okay?

Katie Ferraro (3m 9s):
Day one is about, huh, I'm gonna have to help this baby learn how to eat. Okay? And that doesn't mean that there aren't things though that you can do before Your Baby actually gets ready to sit down and you offer that first bite, okay? Because the pre feeding phase, if I've learned anything about teaching baby Led Weaning exclusively for the last 10 years, it's that the pre feeding phase matters more than anything. This is the part where we're checking to make sure your baby's really ready to start solid foods. And so something that I've really shifted in my teaching, especially in the last couple of years, I've just recently finished my I-B-C-L-C training. So I'm working on becoming international board certified lactation consultant.

Katie Ferraro (3m 50s):
And something that I think was really amazing about the I-B-C-L-C, and if you look at the breastfeeding education model is that we know from research that moms who have prenatal breastfeeding education, meaning when you learn about breastfeeding before you actually have a baby, and sorry, but they teach you about all the things that are gonna go wrong in those classes, that when you actually get the baby, you're, you have much better success rates with it because you knew what to expect. And so I'm really trying to bring that into the baby led leaning space because I've seen that so much with the tens of thousands of families I've worked with at this point. If you know what's gonna happen on day one because you paid attention in the pre feeding period, you are not gonna freak out when Your Baby starts gagging on food and go back to force feeding them by spoon because you think baby Led Weaning doesn't work.

Katie Ferraro (4m 35s):
So pre feeding is a pre-eminence import that gets the most important thing. That's what I'm trying to say here. Sorry. Let's start out with what is the pre feeding phase? Alright? This is the day or the few days or the period before Your Baby starts solid foods whenever it is that you started paying attention about. Hmm. Oh my gosh, they're got a baby eating food real soon. It's important because a lot of parents, they only think about starting solid foods when that food hits the tray. But the truth is a safe start begins before that. Okay? It's why I added an entire pre feeding section to my baby led weaning program. And I can see all the backend data. And that's the area where the parents who finish the program are more often not than not the ones who also did the prefer part.

Katie Ferraro (5m 18s):
And because success starts even before your baby's really ready, okay? It begins when you understand that gagging is part of learning. It's when you know what food you're gonna offer. And it begins when you have realistic expectations about what that first meal is really going to look like. Okay? Because the first day of solid food is not the finish line, okay? It's just the beginning. And I think this is where parents just put so much pressure on themselves because if you're listening to a baby Led Weaning podcast, you're like me, probably the litter type A. So you've been like researching about starting solid foods for a while. Maybe your pediatrician mentioned it, or your friend's already doing baby Led Weaning or your mother-in-law's asking you like, when are we gonna do some rice cereal?

Katie Ferraro (5m 58s):
And inevitably will tell you that I spoon-fed my babies and they turned out fine. And Maybe you wanna do baby Led Weaning, but you're thinking like, I have no clue what I'm doing. And that does not mean that you're behind. Okay? This just means you're a normal parent who's been handed a very important job with way too much conflicting information, okay? 'cause you are not supposed to magically know how to safely prepare like a hundred different foods. Like just because someone told you you're a parent, okay? Feeding is a learned skill for Your Baby and feeding Your Baby solid food is gonna be a learned skill for you. So hang tight, I'm gonna help you through it. We're gonna go through five things that I want you to be able to do before your baby's first bite. Not 50 things, just five. Step one, confirm your baby's actually ready.

Katie Ferraro (6m 40s):
Okay? This is not about a baby being totally ready to eat at six months of age at 7 42 in the morning because that's the time that they were born. All right? Most babies are gonna be around the six month mark, but the most important sign of readiness to eat is the ability to sit relatively independently. That means Your Baby has got the head, the neck, and the trunk control to support a safe swallow. So if your baby's still folding over like a cute little taco in their high chair, we're not starting tomorrow. That's okay. There's no trophy for starting solid foods, okay? They're not gonna be like in therapy when they're older and be like, my mom didn't offer me avocado on my six month birthday. Okay? Breast milker formula is sufficient to meet your baby's needs for the first six months of life. That solid food is coming, okay? But we don't need to rush a baby who's not developmentally ready.

Katie Ferraro (7m 22s):
So the day before you plan to start solid foods, get Your Baby in the high chair in the days like you can do this well before Your baby's ready. Okay? Find out if they can sit up on their own, put 'em on the carpet. Can they hold their head up? Are they leaning to the side? Do the sitting. We've got a whole sitting exercises section now inside of our program. Okay? All these floor exercises that you can practice. I know you thought you were out of the woods with the tummy time, but it matters so much and it's so important for that head control that they're going to need to support a safe swallow. So sitting relatively independently, it doesn't happen right at six months of age. And some babies are gonna be six months plus one week or six months plus two weeks, even six months plus three weeks sometimes before we see them sitting on their own. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back

Lowe's (8m 9s):
When you've got a job to do, Lowe's knows how to help you keep it moving. Milo's pro rewards members. Save more with member volume discounts on eligible orders through a quote of $2,000 or more. Plus, save time with job site delivery on select purchases. Not a member join for free today. Exclusions. More terms and restrictions apply. Can't be combined with any other discount, including, but not limited to contract and or special pricing. Loyalty programs, subject to terms and conditions. Details at lows.com/terms subject to change.

Katie Ferraro (8m 42s):
Step number two, check your highchair setup. I know this sounds boring. Go find your highchair. I know it's in a box like you probably got it and you're like, oh, I gotta put the highchair together. All right. You put the highchair together. Have the other person in your house who maybe is better at putting things together than you put it together. But safe seating really matters, okay? Your baby's feet need to be resting flat on a solid foot plate. That is what supports a safe swallow. The safe highchair positioning is what I call the three by 90 setup where your baby's hips are at a 90 degree angle. Their knees are at a 90 degree angle and their ankles are at a 90 degree angle. Alright? Dangling feet are not ideal. Your six month old baby, they're gonna be gagging on food as they move food around their mouth and they're gonna stomp their feet down on that solid foot plate and stabilize their core and use their mouth muscles to push that food outta the back of their airway and protect their airway.

Katie Ferraro (9m 25s):
But they can't do it if you didn't give them a solid foot plate. So see where the feet fall and make sure it's flat on that foot plate. And if it's not, I've got lots and lots of tips and suggestions inside of my program to help you. DIY, your high chair. You don't have to go buy a fancy new high chair. Lots of things we can do to get Your Baby safe, but we do that in the pre feeding phase. If you wanna check out my program, it's called Baby led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. The pre feeding phase is amazing. If I do say so myself, I've got a $50 off code that's in the description where you're watching this. If you want to get started, check it out. Baby Led Weaning Do co slash program. Alright? Step three. I want you to pick what food you're doing on the first day. You gotta know what food you're gonna feed. You can't just look in the fridge and be like, this is what we're having.

Katie Ferraro (10m 5s):
Okay? This is the one where parents get stuck. They'll download my a hundred FIRST FOODS list, or they'll save a bunch of Instagram posts and they'll like buy all the spoons, and then they'll be like, oh, I don't actually know what the food is. So here's what I don't want you to do. I don't want you to be standing in your kitchen at 10 o'clock trying to decide between like avocado, banana, sweet potato, egg oatmeal. Like whatever your sister-in-law said, worked for her baby. Pick one food. That's it. If you need to know what types of foods Your Baby can eat, grab my hundred FIRST FOODS list. If you don't already have that on your fridge, this is probably like 3.2. Put the hundred FIRST FOODS list on your refrigerator so you know what foods your baby's gonna be eating. All right? We do five new foods a week. If you're following my five step feeding framework, and they're all in the hundred FIRST FOODS list. It's divided into five categories, fruit, vegetable, starchy food, protein, and allergen.

Katie Ferraro (10m 49s):
We do a new fruit on Monday, a new vegetable on Tuesday, a new starchy food on Wednesday, a new protein food on Thursday, and an allergenic food on Friday. And you do that allergenic food twice on Friday, twice on Saturday, twice on Sunday, no other new foods across the weekend. Okay? We're observing for any potential allergic reaction, but we continue to reintroduce the familiar foods across that weekend. And then you start again the next Monday. All right? We're doing five foods a week. By the end of week one, you did five by the end of month one, you did 20. By the end of five months, Your Baby ate a hundred foods. You can grab a copy of the a hundred First Foods list on my baby LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS masterclass. That's a totally free training. Go to baby led weaning dot co slash masterclass. Everyone who's on there at the end gets a copy of that.

Katie Ferraro (11m 29s):
Hundred First Foods list, baby Led Weaning. Do co slash masterclass. Step four, I want you to make sure that your food that you're gonna offer passes the squish test. I teach you a lot in the masterclass about how foods pass the squish test, but we don't offer any hard, crunchy, raw or crispy foods for baby led weaning. It's gotta pass the squish test. Meaning when you put the food between your forefinger and your thumb, there's s the litter bit of give, all right? The food has to be shaped the right size. That's about the size of your adult pinky finger. So the baby can rake or scoop the food up into their mouth. Step five, I want you to know what gagging looks like before it happens. 'cause it's gonna happen. Gagging is very different than choking. Gagging is a good thing. It's a part of how Your Baby learns how to eat, and it's a protective reflex, okay?

Katie Ferraro (12m 13s):
So it's one of the ways Your Baby learns how to move food around their mouth, okay? But it can look intense. And if you don't know the difference between gagging and choking, you might accidentally interfere when Your Baby is gagging on food. And we don't interfere when a baby's gagging on food. 'cause what that can do is that can cause a harmless gag to actually turn into a harmful choke. Okay? So we know need to know the difference between gagging and choking. I teach you the difference between gagging and choking, both on the masterclass or in the program. There are lots of resources out there for you, but I don't want you to intervene for a gagging baby. But you do wanna know what to do if Your Baby does choke. So another pre feeding tip is to make sure that you take your infant refresher. CPR course CPR is very important.

Katie Ferraro (12m 56s):
'cause joking is a rare, but real risk and CPR can save your baby's life. So I've got a link to a course that I take myself every quarter. It's already really affordable, but there's a code in there that will take another $10 off. Everybody who feeds Your Baby should take this CPR class. Everyone can take it with that one login link there. Get yourself up to speed on infant CPR so you know what to do in case Your Baby does choke on food. I want you to set your expectations for day one. Your baby's not gonna eat very much. The meal might only last 10 minutes. They might tucker out. You might need to come back after nap time. They might drop it on the floor. They might push the food in their hair, and that's perfectly fine. What comes after that first bite?

Katie Ferraro (13m 35s):
Okay, at six to seven months of age, we generally like to offer food one to two times a day. I always tell family that practice makes progress. So the more often you can get that baby in the high chair, the quicker they're gonna get the hang of being proficient. Having a roadmap I think is nice if you know what foods to offer on what day? In my program, I have a hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan where I show you exactly what food to feed on, what day. If you wanna check that out, it's at baby Led Weaning dot co slash program. If you've got the list of foods and you're ready to prep 'em, I'm there to show you exactly what to offer, when to offer it, and how to make it safe. Inside of my program, you get the hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan. I've got 20 weeks of done for you menus. You get that a hundred First Foods content library with all the videos and recipes and step-by-step instructions.

Katie Ferraro (14m 20s):
I'm gonna show you how to safely prepare all the foods for your baby's age and stage so you're not standing there in your kitchen wondering, is this too big? Is this too small? Is this too hard? Is this too slippery? Or did I just create a choking hazard? I'll show you exactly what to do. 'cause that a hundred First Foods list is the how what rather. But the program's gonna show you the how. Okay? And again, if you're listening, there's that $50 off code. If you wanna join at a discount, you can find that in the description. So before you start solid foods, just to recap, I want you to do five things. Confirm Your Baby is really, really ready. By making sure they can sit relatively on their own or at least six months of age or six months adjusted age if Your Baby was born prematurely. Confirm that your highchair setup is safe with your baby's feet resting flat on a solid foot plate.

Katie Ferraro (15m 3s):
If not, go through some of the DIY steps to make sure you get the foot rest to a place where your baby's feet are flat. I want you to choose one food from the hundred First Foods list that you are gonna do on day one. I want you to make sure that that food passes the squish test. And then I want you to know the difference between gagging and choking. You get extra credit if you take your CPR class before, well, you shouldn't get extra credit. It should be required, but that's technically a sixth thing is complete your infant refresher CPR course before you start solid foods. I know you can do this. It feel feels the litter clunky at first. That's the way it's supposed to feel. Okay? The fact that you're here listening to a podcast about What to do before your baby bite, first bite tells me that you are already a thoughtful and proactive parent.

Katie Ferraro (15m 46s):
You are not behind, okay? You are not supposed to know all of this intuitively, okay? And you don't have to do it alone. I'm here to help you along the way. As I always tell parents, you've gotta feed this small person for the next 17 and a half years of their life. You might as well do the hard work now to help Your Baby learn to eat and love real food. Thank you guys so much for listening. I'm gonna put today's all the different things I shared on the show notes@blwpodcast.com/139. A very special thank you to our partners at Airwave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from Airwave Media. We're online@blwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

Katie Ferraro (16m 27s):
Bye now.

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