Katie Ferraro (0s):

Online CPR is important because although Baby led Weaning does not increase your baby's risk of choking, I should add compared to traditional spoon feeding. We do know that in the event, your baby has a choking incident. It's important to know CPR skills, CPR saves lives. Hey, there Im 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 (41s):

So where do you even start? When it's time to make the transition to solid foods? I know it can feel really overwhelming. This is something that most parents have never done before. It is your first baby, especially when you're doing baby led weaning. He might be like, oh my gosh, I don't know where to start. Or if you started with purees and now you want to make the switch to Baby led Weaning today's episode is a beginner's guide to baby led weaning, Starting Solid Foods Safely with BLW. So welcome beginners, or some of you might just be looking for a refresh. Maybe you've gotten a little bit of a start with baby led weaning, and you're feeling stuck. This is an episode to help you get unstuck.

Katie Ferraro (1m 23s):

And a lot of people when they're starting baby led weaning and find this podcast, they'll go all the way back to the end and listen to the first 20 episodes. So just the backstory on the podcast we launched in May of 2020, like right when the pandemic was going crazy, which was a great time. I had no idea what was going to happen, but people were at home and they were listening. We launched with 20 episodes. We thankfully went right to the top of the parenting category and we've been fortunate enough to be top rated in parenting since that time. So I'm all over the metrics and the numbers for the podcast. And it blows my mind. How many people go back and start at the beginning? The episode you guys are listening today is episode 199.

Katie Ferraro (2m 3s):

And you know, like with the podcast, the most recent episode, and then your last trailing two or three, we do two episodes a week. So for us, it's kind of our last trailing four. We'll always be performing high that week. And then right after that, there's a huge gap. And it's like episodes one to 20. So some of you might've gotten to 199, 1 mom DMed me the other day and said, she's listened to every single episode. And I was like, oh my gosh, you deserve a medal. Listening to my annoying voice all the way through. But she was like, it's literally taught me everything I need to know. So that's my hope here. And I hope you guys are finding stuff you need to know or interested in learning about. And if you're just starting baby led weaning, I want you to feel welcome in this community because this is a totally non-judgemental safe space here at the Baby led Weaning Dame.

Katie Ferraro (2m 44s):

And we've got some tips for you about Starting Solid Foods Safely. So my emphasis is on safety. Cause I understand the potential for choking risk or not getting enough nutrients or giving up. Cause you don't feel that this is safe. I want you guys to be confident in your baby's to start solid food safely. So I'm also a huge advocate for you not needing to buy a lot of stuff, just start solid foods. A lot of you are just like, I need the knowledge and I'll figure it out from there. I'm going to give you a little bit of gear recommendations today too, which might make your life a little bit easier, but also share ways that you can do this totally for free if you needed to. So having said that, my first suggestion is to take something that costs a little bit of money, but that is a refresher infant CPR course.

Katie Ferraro (3m 27s):

I don't know. Maybe you guys can get CPR for free where you live. I take an online CPR course every quarter. I always used to take an in-person one pre COVID and then during COVID moved online. And I was like, I mean, I know nothing replaces the in-person experience, but I really love how much you can learn in an online CPR course. Now, why do you need that? Well, I know you guys all took CPR before your baby was born, but that was like six months ago. Okay. I don't know about you, but I can't even remember the particulars of what I had for breakfast yesterday. Let alone like the details from CPR. So I take it every quarter because of my line of work. I also learn something every time I take it online, CPR is important because although baby led weaning does not increase your risk of choking compared or your baby's risk of choking.

Katie Ferraro (4m 8s):

I should add compared to traditional spoon-feeding. We do know that in the event, your baby has a chocking incident. It's important to know CPR skills, CPR saves lives. I have always been an enforcer of the rule and I have a lot of house rules, but one of them is if you're going to help feed my baby, you need to know CPR. And to be honest, if you're going to have, watch my baby or be involved with them at all, you should know CPR. So I like the option of an online CPR course because you get those CPR skills back up to snuff, but also everyone who helps feed the baby can also check in and take the course online. So I'm an affiliate for a CPR online course. I'm also their student. It's a course offered by thrive training Institute. It's a $35 course, but have a code for $10 off to make it $25 to do that course online.

Katie Ferraro (4m 54s):

So I'm going to link up some of the codes that I'm talking about today, because these are just ways to maybe get some of these products or ideas that a little bit of a discounted rate. If you're interested in checking them out, I'll put them all on the show notes. For this episode, BLW podcast.com/ 199. You can find the $10 off CPR code there and get started getting safe with your CPR skills, getting back up to snuff. So step number one in a beginner's guide, take her refresher, infant CPR course. Step number two, you need to select a safe seat for your baby to eat. I would say this is the one area where some parents are willing to spend a little bit of money. I feel like you spent it's like comes in waves with babies, right?

Katie Ferraro (5m 33s):

Like you spend a ton of money at the beginning because you need the stroller and then you need the crib and then you need all the stuff. And the fricking diapers are so expensive. And then there's like, hang on. I got, I figured this out. I don't really need to buy any more stuff. And then six months hits and you're like, ah, but I do need a high chair. So there are you, you know, high chairs run the gamut, like all baby stuff. There's affordable ones. There's fancy ones. Sometimes the fanciest ones, aren't the safest kind reminds me of supplements. A lot of patients that I've worked with in the past when I was in geriatric nutrition, they always thought like the more expensive the supplement, the better at work. And I was like, that is really not the case. And certainly with high chairs, there are certainly safe chairs out there that are affordable. And when we're talking about what a safe high chair is, all high chairs in the US at least have to pass certain certifications and standards that they don't tip over backwards.

Katie Ferraro (6m 20s):

So they do, what's called a tip test. So if you've ever noticed, like if you have a bar height or counter height table, they don't make high chairs that go that high because it would tip over backwards or your baby. So when we're looking for chairs, my have a couple of suggestions for safety considerations. Look first for a chair that has an adjustable foot rest. Okay. Your baby's feet resting flat on a solid foot plate is really helpful for facilitating a safe swallow. Okay? We don't want those dangling feet. If at all possible. Now you can just buy a chair that has an adjustable plate or look at the chair that you have. We have a lot of families that do really cool DIY adjustments for their high chair, because maybe there is a foot rest, but it's like for a toddler or there's no foot rest.

Katie Ferraro (7m 1s):

So they add on like kind of an aftermarket third-party one parents make their own with yoga blocks and bungee cords. I see Amazon boxes. I know personally I use a lot of phone books when I'm at my mom's house where there's some crappy highchairs, but do what you can to make your baby's feet rest flat. I recommend two different highchairs, both by the same designer, Peter Opsvik. So he created the Stoker trip trap chair. It's kind of the old school ladder looking very iconic design from 1972. That's a wonderful chair of use that extensively in Baby led Weaning. We have seven of them for our kids. They all use them when they're babies, they grow with them. I love Peter Peter Opsvik designs because he really embraces the idea of the baby coming to the table with a family, which of course is in line with Baby led Weaning.

Katie Ferraro (7m 44s):

So when you look for a chair, look for one that doesn't need a tray, okay. In both the trip trap. And then the next chair that Peter designed the Nomi high chair for kind of the newer generation, the trip trap, he actually designed for his children. And then for his grandchildren, he redesigned a different chair, the Nomi. A lot of the same principles though. No tray pull it up to the chair, adjustable foot plate, a removable baby guard. So the baby can be held in when they're a baby, then you remove it and allow the toddler to climb in and out. So we're supporting independent feeding from babies at first bites. And I did a whole episode on high chair positioning and how to reduce choking risks. It was an interview with Jeff Turkey from Nomi highchair that's episode 172, if you want to check that out. So I'm a big fan of the trip trap, as well as the Nomi, the trip trap, you can usually find used, which almost all of mine are used.

Katie Ferraro (8m 31s):

They're so iconic. They've been around forever and yet they're still like good as the day that you bought them new to 30 years later. So I like those because you can find them for about, I get them on Craigslist around 90 bucks for a trip trap is pretty good. They're pretty pricey, new upwards of $300. And some parents really balk when they see a $300 high chair, which I totally get. But then sometimes with the same parents who have a $1,200 stroller and I'm like, okay, the high chair, you're going to feed your baby in no less than three times day, you got to feed this baby for the next 17 and a half years of its life. You can buy a chair that grows with your baby until the teen years, both the trip trap and the Nomi do that. The Nomi's newer. It's an amazing chair. It's actually my favorite chair. I use that all the time. Now I have my kids have no music that we use for homework and in our dining room table.

Katie Ferraro (9m 13s):

And we have trip troughs that our breakfast table, the trip just has a smaller footprint. The Nomi is a larger footprint, but I like the design. It's a little more modern. I use the Nomi for all of my families that I work with too, because it's so lightweight and I can carry it around. But yes, it's pricey. So if you guys are interested in a Nomi, if you send me an email, I have a special tip for how you can get into this high chair. Just trust me. You're going to like it. But you got to email me and you have to put know me in the subject line. So I'll put the link to the email stuff and the info on the show notes at blwpodcast.com/199. But if you're seriously considering the Nomi seriously, consider sending me an email with Nomi in the subject line. And I'll send you that tip. So highchair, probably your biggest cost or DIY and make your existing not so safe.

Katie Ferraro (9m 56s):

high chair a little bit safer with that adjustable foot plate. And then if you can find one without a tray that you can bring up to the table even better. Now, what about the mess? You're just starting baby led weaning. You might be worried about the mess. He don't stress about the mess. Okay. Even if you're a super type A neurotic, a lot of parents can be like, you know what? I can get past this because the mess is a necessary part of learning how to eat, right? Eating is such a sensory experience. Your baby needs to smell and smush and smash that food. And eventually some of it gets in their mouth, but you can minimize the mess. Okay. And so a good Baby led Weaning bib can do that. I know a lot of parents are inclined to get these like big contraption. There's one big that stretches all the way over the highchair tray. I saw one that goes over the baby's head.

Katie Ferraro (10m 38s):

Some of them are very restrictive and we don't want to restrict your baby's range of motion at all. As they're trying to learn how to eat because eating is, it's not just about getting quote unquote nutrition into the baby. That's actually not what it's about early on. And when we allow our babies to self-feed, there's the development of all of the different motor skills, both fine motor skills and gross motor skills. And we don't want to interfere with that by restricting baby's range of motion. As they're trying to learn how to pick up foods first with their whole hand grasp and then their pincer grip. So I recommend a bib that I love for Baby led Weaning. It's called a Bapron bib. It's a Pinafore style bib from a company called Bapron baby. So a bapron and is like a hybrid between an apron and a bib.

Katie Ferraro (11m 20s):

And it was created by Kelsey Larson. Who's the founder of vapor and baby. And I just love her backstory. If you guys are interested, she was on the podcast in episode 118 called why I built a better bib with Bapron baby founder, Kelsey Larson. And if you're just looking for like a small business mom run to support within superior product, I highly recommend Bapron and her products are made out of this really cool waterproof fabric. I've never seen it anywhere else. Cause at first I was like a $20 bib, really, but I've gotten so many cheaper bibs that I just end up throwing out the bapron bib I've used some of them for seven years now. And they will again, look as good as the day they were new. They have really nice prints, but also solid colors because I don't always love prints.

Katie Ferraro (12m 1s):

And we do a lot of photo shoots and we don't want the print distracting from what's going on with the food. So if you just like basic colors, they have those bibs too. And the baby and bibs, they fold up really small. But what I love is you can rent them under the faucet, wring them out and hang them on the drain board and then like reuse them for the next meal. I think it's just genius. Her materials are beautiful. Her quality is fantastic. I have an affiliate discount code for Bapron Baby. It's Katie 10 to get 10% off, but I really love their company. And I love the work that Kelly is doing to make high quality feeding products that makes baby led weaning doable. She also makes these amazing splash mats. And I think that's another. If you're gonna invest in like a $30 splash, Matt and I have tried every single possible thing you can put underneath a baby's high chair or feeding table and the Bapron baby slash months, hands down the best ones.

Katie Ferraro (12m 48s):

Again, you're like $30 for a piece of fabric. It's the same waterproof fabric that she uses in the bibs. They fold down super small. So you can shove them in your diaper bag. Like if you're going to the park or you're going to play date or to grandma's house and you, you need to feed food, but you don't want to mess the whole joint up. Check out the splash mounts. I love them. And again, that code Katie 10 works for 10% off for the Bapron splash mats. Kind of kill two birds with one stone, get a baby and baby bib, get a splash mat. You're good to go. Now, what else do we need? If we're Starting Solid Foods Safely, okay, you got your bibs to help minimize the mess. You could live without it. Some of you guys feed your babies naked. I mean, I always think that's people like, why don't you repost my pictures? Like what? Cause you send me a picture of your naked baby. So it's kind of weird. Like I definitely don't feel comfortable reposting it, but also if it's drafty or it's cold, it's like, do you eat when you're naked?

Katie Ferraro (13m 32s):

Like if you're there naked, eating next to your baby, maybe of getting don't send me pictures of you guys eating naked next to your babies. But especially if there's, you know, temperature, swings, et cetera, like we don't want the baby to be uncomfortable. Some parents I do recommend like checking your baby, especially after you do allergenic foods. Like if they're gonna have skin reactions, sometimes it's not going to be on their face. It might be on the rest of their body. Some parents are like, I just do it naked so I can see if there's a reaction, which I guess, you know, you do what works for you. I would rather wash a bib than a whole baby, but that's just me, but for the plates. Okay. So a lot of parents be like, why do I need a plate? Why don't I just put the food right on the tray or the table? Here's why, because when your baby is Starting Solid Foods, the point of Baby led Weaning is to raise an independent eater, right?

Katie Ferraro (14m 12s):

So we need to meet the baby where they're at, which at six and seven months of age, they don't have their pincer grasp. They can't pick up the pieces of food that you're putting out there. If there's no barrier against which for them to rake or scoop the solid pieces of food up with their little tiny baby hands, they're just going to smash the food to the side of the tray or smash the food around the table and then throw it on the floor. And then you're going to get frustrated and be like, see this doesn't work. I got to pick up the spoon and force feed my baby. We don't want you to do that. So I use silicone suction, mats or bowls. They suctioned to the table, which provides an anchor for the baby. And then they have the pliable silicone rim. So the baby can rake or scoop the foods up and out and actually feed themselves these adult pinky finger sized shapes of food that you're offering your baby.

Katie Ferraro (14m 57s):

So the brand that I love is Ezpz. They make the original silicone suction bowls and that's, there's a lot of knockoffs and people will message me back. They didn't stick. It's like, well, the original easy-peasy ones, if the surface is flat and clean and dry the mats and the bulls suctioned to the table or to the tray. Now, if your tray is too small and people are using really, really small portable highchair trays, and if the matte or the bowl is bigger than the tray space, and obviously it's not going to suction. If you have a distressed table, what I do is I just take a solid wood cutting board and put it on the table and then function the mat or the bowl to that. Again, anchoring the baby. I have a whole blog post about five different benefits of using a baby plate or bowl. I'll link to it in the show notes for this episode at blwpodcast.com/1 9 9.

Katie Ferraro (15m 42s):

If you want to read some of the other reasons why it's preferable to serve food out of a plate or a bowl from a developmental standpoint, if you're checking out the easy-peasy products, I have an affiliate discount code for them. It's Katie 10. I start with the tiny bowl, the mini bowl, the mini mat. I'll link them all up on the show notes. If you guys want to check them out, if you need to get a couple plates or bowls, it's nice to have them when you're trying new foods. Now what about utensils? And people want to go and buy like a bunch of forks and knives and spoons. When you're starting baby led weaning, you don't need that. Your baby can learn to eat solid strips of food with their hands. And that's how people have been doing baby led weaning for many years. Okay. In many even centuries and millennia prior to that, before the advent of utensils, right?

Katie Ferraro (16m 23s):

When it comes to utensils, there's no feeding milestone for babies for a fork until after age one. So had a great podcast episode about spoons and forks, et cetera, with Dawn Winkelmann, who's the feeding expert for ezpz. When it comes to spoons, she created the tiny spoon for easy-peasy. That's a Baby led Weaning spoon. If you're doing foods like yogurt or applesauce, and Dawn teaches you in episode 64, how to preload a BLW spoon. And that's a wonderful episode because she explains kind of the problems with some of the traditional parent led spoons and why we don't use those for baby led weaning. So check that out. Episode 64, and again, Dawn designed the tiny spoon. That's another espz product. And that code Katie 10 works for 10% off those.

Katie Ferraro (17m 3s):

They come in a two pack, which is really nice because if you are doing her preloaded spoon approach, you learn you're going to need more than one spoon. And when it comes to cups, some parents go and buy like a bunch of plastic cups. We really tried to refrain from using plastic and feeding when possible The American academy of pediatrics recommends against the use of certain additives in and around food products for children, including plastic. So I like all those easy-peasy products because they're made with 100% food grade, silicone, your baby can start learning how to drink out of an open cup at six months of age. But if you're feeling a little pressured and you're like, there's a lot going on and I don't have time to do that, it's not the end of the world. If you wait a little bit longer to start, but ideally feeding milestone is wanting baby to be able to drink out of an open cup independently at age one.

Katie Ferraro (17m 45s):

Okay. By 12 months, It'll be it with a little bit of spillage. So they don't wake up on their 12 month birthday and know how drink out of an open cup. If you haven't been practicing and you really only have to practice like five minutes after each meal for my own babies, I did it my twins who are my sixth and seventh baby. Right? When the tiny cup came out was when they were doing baby led weaning. So we I'm friends with Don the creator in real life. And she was at my house. She showed me a prototype. We started practicing with the babies. They were eight months of age and they did fine. They got the hang of it by the time they were one and we totally skipped the sippy cup. So straw cups are another question parents will ask about you do not need to buy any straw cups early on. We want to do open cup before straw cup and Dawn who created that open cup for ezpz also was on the podcast in episode 101, talking about straw cups versus open cups and which comes first.

Katie Ferraro (18m 31s):

So save your money. If you are going to buy a cup, you don't need to do a straw cup. You do the open cup. First. She designed that tiny cup for ezpz I love it. So many design features that are developmentally appropriate for six to 12 month old babies. Sometimes we see people buying the bigger kid cup from easy-peasy the mini cup and they'll buy it for their baby. The mini cup is bigger. It's four ounces and it's shaped differently for a larger baby's mouth size from 12 months of age on. So we see these little tiny six and seven month old babies trying to drink out of the mini cup, which is too big. It covers their airway could actually be dangerous. We need them to start again, meeting the baby where they're at, right. Meet them with the right sized tools for where they're at. So start with a tiny cup and the tiny spoons from six to 12 months of age, all right, baby food.

Katie Ferraro (19m 12s):

What do you need to buy surprise? You don't need to buy any baby foods when you're doing baby led weaning. But I know parents like they graduate from the baby aisle at target and they go to the next tile, which is the baby food aisle. And they're like, oh, I got to buy stuff from here. Cause now my baby's eating food. No you don't all that stuff on the baby food aisle at target, it was packaged and processed long before your baby was even born. It does not even resemble real food. Many of those products have added sugar and salt, which we're not supposed to feed the babies in the first place. The one that always kills me is the shelf stable yogurt, like the baby food yogurt. It's a big national brand that does it. I'm like, dude, this is so gross. If it were actually yogurt, would it be shelf stable? No, of course not.

Katie Ferraro (19m 52s):

Your baby can eat regular yogurt. You don't need to buy any of those baby foods, which to be honest, are really marked up for what they are. And all they do is condition your baby to expect packaged and processed foods. And it puts parents in the position of thinking that they need to buy all these specialty foods for babies. When in reality, babies can just eat modified versions of real foods that you and the rest of your family are eating. So I don't recommend many packaged or processed foods or baby led weaning. Yeah, it happens sometimes, but you don't have to go buy special baby food yogurt, for example, because Babies can eat regular whole milk, full fat yogurt. If you need help on picking a yogurt, I did a whole episode on yogurt and how to choose the right yogurt for baby-led weaning that's episode 157.

Katie Ferraro (20m 36s):

If you're like feeling the urge to buy baby food yogurt, go listen to that one and save yourself some money and also added sugar, right? Baby food yogurt with added sugar in it, which blows my mind. But as far as packaged foods go, I do buy the puff, baby peanut butter puffs and almond puffs. When I'm Starting Solid Foods, you don't have to. There's lots of other safe ways to make nuts. So peanuts, which are a legume and an allergenic food, as well as tree nuts, which are a separate allergenic food category. You can make them safe for baby led weaning, but it's a little bit tricky to do early on. And we want to introduce especially peanuts early and often good data that suggests that that helps prevent food allergy risk. I personally don't love peanut butter, so we don't offer chunky peanut butter ever. And thick gloves of nut butter can be a choking hazard.

Katie Ferraro (21m 17s):

And a lot of times cooking with peanut flour means making baked goods and they have added sugar and salt, which babies shouldn't have. So I will shell out for the puff, works puffs for a baby, just for a low mess, no stress way to introduce peanuts and Tree nuts. So these are baby puffs, not like those little tiny star starch puffs that you see in canisters in the baby food aisle. These are puffs. They're like the shape of Cheetos basically. And they're about the size of your adult pinky finger so that the right size for babies to pick up and feed themselves. The puff works. Baby puffs have no added salt. No, they have a smidge of salt, like five milligrams. It's just for preservative, but that's almost nothing, no added sugar to the softest peanut butter puffs on the market. So they dissolve on your baby's tongue really easily, even early on in baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (21m 60s):

And then Puffworks recently came out with an almond baby puff. It has some peanut protein in it. So you want to peanut first, a number of times, and then for the next allergenic food or later you can do Tree nut and do their almond puffs. I love those. They kind of go in and out of stock. So you have to check puff works.com. My affiliate discount code is Baby led. I say, get a case of the peanut, a case of the almond, make sure you're getting their baby product though. Cause they have all these awesome adult snack puffs too. They actually started as an adult product to make like a healthier snack puff. I had the founder of puff works. Greg Murphy, the puff daddy. He calls himself. He was on the podcast in episode 136, talking about puff works and how he created this company puff works to make us safer snack, but he also has a child with food allergies.

Katie Ferraro (22m 41s):

So it kind of parlayed into this product, which is now a wonderful Baby led Weaning product for introducing peanuts and almonds. So check them out puffers.com. And again, that code is BABYLED. And if you want to hear more from the puff daddy he's in episode 136. So there's not a lot of things you have to buy to get ready for baby led weaning. There are some knowledge and skillset things you might want to get on board. You're already educating yourself by learning about the transition to solid foods, which I think is awesome. It's so cool that you even care. I mean, a lot of parents, I don't think would take the time to learn at the level that you are at the end of this podcast. So I do have free online workshop. If you're looking for a free training, it's called baby LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS.

Katie Ferraro (23m 21s):

That's all about how to get your baby to eat 100 foods before turning one, without you having to spoonfeed periods or buy pouches. I also give away my a hundred FIRST FOODS list to everybody on that free workshop. So if you head to BabyledWeaning.co you can check out that workshop, get some more info. If you want to go to the show notes page for this episode, BLWpodcast.com/ 199. I've got all of the links in the products that I mentioned linked up there with some of the discount codes. If you want to check any of that stuff out. And I'm just so excited that you have decided to even consider baby led weaning as an approach to starting solids for your baby. It is a safe and effective alternative to traditional parent led spoon-feeding.

Katie Ferraro (24m 2s):

And I hope if you're not already that you soon will become a huge fan of baby led weaning. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you next time.