How to Prepare for Baby-Led Weaning: A Guide for Parents & Caregivers

The Go Diaper Free Podcast (1s):

Real quick, I want to tell you about a podcast that I know you are going to love. The Go Diaper Free podcast is hosted by my friend Andrea Olson. Andrea teaches elimination communication, EC for short, and it's all about infants learning how to toilet so that you can avoid using diapers. Andrea and I always kind of have a little competition like what do you think is weirder? A baby Feeding themselves or a baby toileting themselves? But Andrea is the real deal. She is the expert in EC. Her own children were toilet trained by nine months of age. They were totally outta diapers by 17 months, which is pretty amazing, especially considering that you can do this approach Part-time. So I recently listened to Andrea's Go Diaper free podcast episode on Part-time Elimination Communication. Her approach is just so sensible this does not have to consume your whole life. She did another episode back episode 45, all about starting solid foods and how that affects elimination communication. There's a lot of overlap between her approach with EC and Baby-Led Weaning. I think you guys are really going to love this podcast. She's super into returning to the natural roots of parenting and helping you save time, money, and the stress associated with having to buy diapers for a long time and agonize over potty training. Check out the Go Diaper free podcast wherever you listen to your podcast.

0 (1m 20s):

Have you ever tried to crack your own coconut? I remember the first time I tried to make coconut for my baby twins. I had no clue what I was doing. It involved a coconut, a screwdriver, a hammer. There were safety goggles. Since that time, I've learned a lot about making foods safe for babies. And spoiler alert, there are way easier ways to get your baby to safely try coconut. This week I'm actually making coconut as one of the five new foods that I'm making for my friend's baby Ezra. So I'm cooking all of his a 100 First Foods and we're on week 10, meaning we're almost halfway there. He is gonna be trying foods number 46 to 50 this week. He's just past eight months of age now, and the five new foods we're trying this week are coconut for the new fruit of the week. Green beans are his new vegetable.

0 (2m 0s):

The whole grain starchy food we're doing is bulgur one of my favorite plant proteins, kidney beans. I'm making this amazing kidney bean pie. It's is new plant protein. And then we're also gonna be doing ricotta cheese as another way to introduce the potentially allergenic food, cow's milk protein. So if you are just getting started with solid foods, if you're interested in learning more about how to make foods safe for Baby-Led Weaning without having to wear safety goggles, the best place to get started is on my free online video workshop. It's called Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners. I just redid this whole training. There are so many good visuals of how to prep foods safely and ideas what to feed for the first few weeks of Baby-Led Weaning, plus a whole section on making allergenic foods like the ricotta or make our own ricotta.

0 (2m 43s):

You can definitely buy your own too, but it's super easy to make and to make it safely for your baby to eat. Everybody on this free workshop gets a copy of my original 100 First Foods list, so you'll never run out of ideas that your baby can eat. You can sign up for this workshop if you go to workshop, do babyledweaning.co. You can register and take it right now, or you can take it later today or like if your baby's taking a nap or sleeping and you can also do it tomorrow. Really, whatever works for your schedule. If you've got a little bit of time to learn about babyledweaning, I'd love to see you on this free workshop. Again, that's sign up is at Workshop Do baby babyledweaning.co and happy feeding. Five things that I think are helpful for parents and Caregivers to be able to do before their baby starts Solid food is take a Refresher Infant CPR course number two to choose a safe seat for your baby to eat.

0 (3m 32s):

The third thing, assess your baby's food allergy risk. The fourth thing is grab some basic feeding gear. And then the fifth tip is please anticipate a slow start. Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. 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 and welcome to this episode. It's all about you.

0 (4m 12s):

That's right, the parent or the caregiver. You are the one who's responsible for making sure that your baby gets a safe start to solid foods, no big deal, right? Of course, it's a big deal. These next few months are going to be transformative for your baby. You're going to help your baby go from a point where at six months of age they're getting 100% of their nutrition from infant milk. That's that's Breast milk or formula. And you're helping your baby work towards age one, where at around 12 months of age, most of your baby's nutrition can be coming from food. So that's a lot of ground to cover in a few short months. But before you even get started, I have five things that you as the parent or caregiver can do before your baby starts solid foods.

0 (4m 54s):

Now I like to start each of these mini Baby-Led Weaning training episodes with a Baby-Led Weaning tip of the day. And today's tip is please be prepared for a very slow start to Baby-Led Weaning. I'm talking like snail space here, you guys, because parents have a tendency to come out of the gate when they're starting solid foods and they are so gung ho that their baby's going to eat everything immediately. 'Cause I know you're on social media and you see other babies and they're like eating no problem, and your friend's babies are eating finger foods so well already, and you have a tendency to compare your baby to them. But don't compare leads to despair.

0 (5m 34s):

Babies need a lot of time to learn how to eat this weaning period. It's your long runway for your baby to gradually learn how to use food to get more nutrition from food and eventually less nutrition from Infant milk. That's what weaning is. But again, it's a long process. It doesn't happen overnight. I want you to be realistic in your expectations that your baby might not eat much or really at all for a while. Sometimes a few days, even a few weeks after you start solid foods, but you still gotta practice because every time that you are sitting down at the table and you're getting your baby in their highchair and you're letting them explore with the new food that you're offering every day, that represents a really important micro step in your baby's collective learning and their experience.

0 (6m 19s):

That is learning how to eat. And if you're nervous, this happens all the time. You're like, oh my gosh, they're not gonna be getting enough nutrition from food. Don't be nervous because infant milk, again, that's breast milk or formula that's gonna continue to be your baby's primary source of nutrition even after you start solid foods. So let's get started looking at five things that you as a parent can do before your baby starts solid foods, so that you are ready when your baby is ready. My first suggestion when you're getting ready to start solid foods is to take an infant refresher CPR course. Okay. I know you all took CPR before your baby was born, but that was over six months ago. And I don't know about you, but I can't even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday, let alone the particulars of an online class I took six months ago.

0 (7m 4s):

In the previous episode, if you were listening, I shared some research that shows that babies who starts solid foods with the baby-led approach are at no higher risk of choking than our conventionally spoon fed babies. But that's only true if the parents are educated about reducing choking risk. And you're gonna learn a ton about how to prepare food safely so your baby doesn't choke on them. But in the rare event that your baby does have a choking incident, knowing CPR can save your baby's life. There's a wonderful, very affordable online CPR course that I personally take every quarter for work myself. And I recommend all parents who are starting solid foods get your CPR skills up to enough as well. Whether you do that in person, maybe you're a community hospital. But the online options are really, really nice.

0 (7m 45s):

They're very, very thorough. And I'm an affiliate for this online CPR course. It's taught by Brandon Doerksen. He runs Thrive Training Institute. He is a Baby-Led Weaning dad many times over as well. And I have a discount code that works for another $10 off that pretty low price point. The code is Katie10. So if you check the link right below where you're listening to this, it's in the description in the Shownotes at blwpodcast.com/3, you can get that online CPR course, you get lifetime access, and you gotta get those skills up to snuff. And I really suggest that everybody who helps feed your baby knows basic CPR and doing an online course is a great way to do it. So put that on your list of things to do before you start solid foods.

0 (8m 26s):

Number two, the next thing you can do is to choose a safe seat for your baby to eat. So I recommend high chairs that have an adjustable footrest or foot plate. These chairs will grow with your baby from infancy, some of them even grow through adolescence. But as you'll be learning, if you're going through this podcast or taking my online workshop, which is called Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners, that solid foot plate that your baby's feet resting on is very, very important. That helps to stabilize your baby's core. If and when you start solid foods, your baby is eventually going to gag on foods. And when they gag on foods, they stomp their feet down and they engage their core muscles and they get those muscles in their mouth working so they can push that food from the back of their mouth forward if they're not yet ready to swallow it.

0 (9m 8s):

And having that foot plate is important. So we have lots of ways that you can DIY or kind of adjust your existing highchair if maybe the baby's feet don't reach the footrest. But if you wanna check out some of the highchair that I recommend, I'll put a link to that again in the description as well as the Shownotes. What's important when you're positioning your baby as far as reducing choking risk is that their back is flat. So we want your baby's waist at a 90 degree angle. We want your baby's knees at a 90 degree angle and their ankles at a 90 degree angle 'cause they're resting flat on that solid foot plate. That is the safest positioning. So check out some of those high chairs. One of my absolute favorites is the Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair. It's been around since 1972. This is an iconic high chair. I have this for all seven of my kids.

0 (9m 48s):

I use it in my infant feeding practice as well. What I love about this chair is 'cause it's been around for so long, is that you can usually find a used one on a used marketplace. Or if you can go to shop on Craigslist, they're generally much more affordable than if you buy it new. But I do think it's worth investing in a safe seat for your baby to eat. If you don't buy a new one, look for a used one. Love the Tripp trapp. Have some other suggestions linked up for you in the description and the Shownotes at blwpodcast.com/three. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Skylight Frames (10m 22s):

Mother's Day is coming up quick. And I know since I became a mom, my own mother and my mother-in-Law have been instrumental. I mean total lifesavers in helping me and my husband keep our heads above water with all the new things that accompany parenthood. But I always struggle like what do you get them to adequately thank the grandmothers for all their help and support with the kids. So one thing that I'm decent at that they're not so hot at is taking pictures. Like my phone photo roll is literally bursting at the seam with pictures of all of our kids. And an easy way to share these memories with your loved one is by giving them a Skylight Frame. So the Skylight Frame is a touchscreen photo frame that your whole family can upload photos to and they appear in seconds. So you can share your favorite moments with the people that matter the most to you. Like the grandmas, the Skylight Frame so simple to use. The setup really took me like just a couple of minutes. And what I love is that even the least tech savvy people can benefit from the Skylight Frame. It looks like a real photo frame adds a beautiful touch to your home. And the Skylight Frame comes in two sizes. So they have an original 10 inch one or the newer 15 inch gallery frame. That's the one that I just got from my mother-in-Law. It's beautiful, it's so easy to use. You can send photos to the frame in just seconds via email, or I actually set up both of our phones and my mom's too, like all of them together with the Skylight Frame app. And you can just send pictures that then magically appear on their frames every time you add them to the app. So as a special limited time offer for our listeners, you can get 15% off your purchase of a Skylight Frame when you go to skylight frame.com/baby. That's S-K-Y-L-I-G-H-T-F-R-A-M e.com/baby. Mother's day is coming right up. So order today to get 15% off your purchase@skylightframe.com/baby. It's so easy and you'll be so glad you set them up with a Skylight Frame.

Puffworks (12m 13s):

The third thing that you can do before you start solid foods is to assess your baby's risk for food allergy. Now, there's some fear associated with starting solid foods as you probably picked up on when your baby does start eating, you might be scared that they're gonna choke or that they're gonna have an allergic reaction to food. And the reality is, the only way to know if your baby is allergic to a food is to actually offer them that food. They'll provide you with lots of resources on how to offer the top nine foods. So those are the nine food that account for about 90% of food allergy all over this podcast. But I do want you to know that there are two things that put babies at high risk for having peanut allergy down the road. So peanut is the one that we have the greatest amount of data. That early introduction of peanut can help prevent peanut allergy down the road. If your baby has severe eczema and or an egg allergy that puts babies at high risk for peanut allergy. And you'd want to talk to your provider about possibly introducing peanut protein prior to six months of age. Now, I know you guys said eczema and parents are like, oh my gosh, my baby has eczema. I'm not talking about the run of the mill eczema that all babies have. I'm talking about severe eczema. Your baby's being treated by a pediatric allergist or a pediatric dermatologist already. If your baby has that severe eczema and or egg allergy, you are the ones that are in the high risk category for peanut. Everybody else, the guidance is to recommend start introducing those peanut protein foods around the six month mark. One of my favorite ways to do that. The lowest mess, no stress way to offer peanuts. I use a product called Puffworks Baby. So Puffworks Baby makes these amazing peanut puffs for babies. They have no added sugar, just a smidge of sodium that's for preservative. And what I love about the Puffworks peanut puffs is that they are so soft that they dissolve in your baby's mouth. If you wanna grab a case of the Puffworks baby peanut puffs, the code BLWpod, that's POD works for 15% off. They also make an baby almond puff, which is cool for introducing a separate allergenic food category. That one is almond. Just a heads up though, that the almond baby puff from Puffworks, it has some Peanut in it. So make sure you do the peanut puff first before you do the almond one. But Puffworks recently started offering a case that's like half baby peanut and half baby almond. So I think that's a good way. you know you're gonna knock out two different of the allergenic food categories with peanut and almond there. And the website is Puffworks.com. Again, that code is BLWpod to say 15% on Puffworks.

0 (14m 35s):

Alright, so far we have taken our Infant refresher CPR course. You've chosen a seat for your baby to eat. You've assessed your baby's food \allergy risk situation. Now the fourth thing, you might wanna stock up on some gear. Now when it comes to feeding gear, there is so much stuff out there. It's like when you were registering for your your baby registry and you're like, oh my gosh, what is half of this stuff? Do I even need it? And the answer is you don't need most of it. Okay. There are a few pieces that I think are really helpful. They also can promote independent eating and they're designed by feeding experts. So you do not have to buy a lot of stuff if you only wanna get one thing to start solid foods. I love the first foods set from EZPZ.

0 (15m 16s):

Now a lot of parents think, oh, I'm just gonna put the baby's food directly on the highchair tray or on the table. But actually there are so many benefits to feeding your baby out of a suction bowl, especially with regard to Baby-Led Weaning. So you have a whole blog post on the benefits of offering foods out of a suction matter bowl. You can check that out. It's on my website at babyledweaning.co if you go to the blog section. But I love this first Foods set from EZPZ because it's got a little bowl. It's called a tiny bowl. It sucks to your baby's high share tray or your tabletop that stabilizes your baby and helps them use their whole hand or their Palmer grass to rake and scoop Foods up and into their mouth. That first foods set also has a two pack of their tiny spoons 'cause we're gonna be using that for the preloaded spoon approach for when we do pureed foods.

0 (15m 59s):

And it also has a little tiny cup that's the open cup. And we're gonna start practicing that pretty soon after your baby starts solid foods. So EZPZ was started by a mom. She has three kids. Her name is Lindsay Lorraine. I interview her in a separate episode on the podcast and I'll link to that. She was on Shark Tank, so some of you might have seen her there. Some of the dads get all excited about feeding gear if they're big Shark Tank fans. But I love, love, love the EZPZ products because again, they're all designed by an infant feeding specialists. The Code Katie 10 always works for 10% off at EZPZ. But again, if you're like overwhelmed by all the gear out there, just check out the first food set. I absolutely love that one. And my last tip for parents who are getting ready to start solid foods with their baby is kind of reiterating that tip of the day.

0 (16m 42s):

But just a friendly reminder to anticipate a slow start. Your baby is not going to eat very much food the first few days, and you'll question yourself like, am I doing this right? Like, what the heck? This baby is not eating any food. But please remember, learning how to eat takes a lot of time. We're not that concerned about what your baby's eating or how much they're eating. What matters is are we giving them the time and the space and the grace to learn how to eat? So don't worry about calories, don't worry about iron, don't worry about the grams in them. Portion sizes. None of that matters. You guys. Your baby needs a lot of time to learn how to eat and heads up. It can take some Babies upwards of eight to 12 weeks before they even really get the hang of feeding themselves. So in my program, Baby_Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, I walk you through the three distinct phases of Baby-Led Weaning.

0 (17m 26s):

That first phase. Phase one, it's a little tricky, but we can help your baby eat 40 different foods in phase one, the first eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning. If you want some info on how to do that, you can check out my program at babyledweaning.co/program. That's where all of my original 10 First Foods content is. I've got a 100 First Foods daily meal plan that will walk you through the first hundred days. It's 20 full weeks of meal plans if you want to check that out. I love helping families move through the stages, especially that first stage. Just be patient and trust this process. It will work. And you will look back on this period and be like, oh my gosh, I am so glad that we decided to do Baby-Led Weaning. And if all of this is totally new to you, I know you're a podcast listener, but if you wanna get some visuals on what Baby-Led Weaning looks like, I do teach a free online workshop called Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners.

0 (18m 16s):

Inside of this free workshop, I'll show you how to prep some of the first foods. I'll do two weeks of menus for you to get you started, plus everybody on this free training. It's a copy of my original 100 First Foods, so you'll never run out of ideas of foods your baby can eat. You can sign up for the workshop at babyledweaning.co/workshop so I've got no shortage of resources for you so that you feel ready when your baby is ready to start. And as a reminder, the five things that I think are helpful for parents and caregivers to be able to do before their baby starts Solid food is take a refresher Infant CPR course. Get that course. Go get a course. Sign up for it You. Don't have to take it today, but at least you can get it on your list of things to do before your baby starts.

0 (18m 59s):

Solid foods CPR is so important and saves lives. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Slaycation (19m 11s):

Besides Baby-Led \Weaning, what other type of podcasts do you like to listen to? Well, if you're into true crime and you also dig traveling, I want to tell you about a new podcast you are going to love. The new podcast is called Slaycation, and it's a darkly humorous look at murders and mysterious deaths that all take place on vacation. So the show is hosted by a true crime fanatic and her comedy writer husband, and he has a TV producing partner. So Slaycation brings a totally unique perspective to chilling thrilling. What the heck? Stories of vacations gone horribly wrong from the twisted tail of Harold and Tony Henthorn, whose romantic anniversary in the Rocky Mountains ended with one of them falling off a cliff to Angelica and Vincent. Their two recently engaged Lovebirds whose Hudson Valley kayaking adventure ended up underwater. Every episode of Slay]cation will have you asking accident or murder, but it's not just the stories that will intrigue you. I think you're gonna love the discussion between the longtime married couple and the business partners. They also happen to be an Emmy nominated TV producers. Every episode of Slaycation also includes humor and takeaway and travel tips. They're gonna keep your next family vacation from becoming your last. So if you're ready to pack your body bags, Slaycation is available on all major podcast platforms. Search for Slaycation on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0 (20m 38s):

Number two, to choose a safe seat for your baby to eat. Take an assessment of your current highchair situation. Do your baby's feet reach the footrest? What can you do to modify that footrest? If you need some ideas and some visuals of a YouTube channel, that's just youtube.com/ babyledweaning and there's lots of high care tips on there as well. The third thing, assess your baby's food allergy risk, knowing that if they already have an eggsAllergy or severe eczema, they're gonna be at high risk for peanut allergy. Talk to your doctor about introducing peanut prior to six months of age. Everybody else who's not in the high risk category, do that peanut as early as you can around six months of age once your baby is ready to start solid foods, I love those Puffworks baby peanut puffs.

0 (21m 18s):

If you need a no stress and low mess way to get peanut in, I'm not a Peanut butter fan. There are ways you can modify other peanut containing foods, though if You don't wanna buy any products, I'll teach you how to do that. There's some other Episodes on this podcast about Peanut, but just get ready 'cause we're gonna introduce the top nine allergenic foods in our program. We do them one per week, starting in week one, so that in week nine of Baby-Led Weaning, your baby's already gotten in all nine of those allergenic foods and you're going to try to get all the allergenic foods done. So you gotta do 'em early and often, but we wanna get 'em done before 11 months of age because research suggests that that protective window for the early introduction of allergenic foods, in order to help prevent food allergy, it closes somewhere around the 11 month mark.

0 (22m 2s):

So let's get kraken on those allergenic Foods. The fourth thing is grab some basic feeding gear. I love the silicone suction mats and bowls and all of the feeding products from the company EZPZ, the first food set I think is fantastic if you just wanna buy one thing for when your baby is starting solid foods. And then the fifth tip is please anticipate a slow start. It's like tragically slow sometimes, but don't give up. Don't resort to force feeding your baby by spoon. If you hang in there. The first eight weeks are kind of brutal, but then, oh my gosh, the golden age of Baby-Led Weaning phase two, the second eight weeks where they start eating more food and you're dropping a milk feed, they're getting more nutrition from food and less from milk. And you're like, oh my gosh. It reminds me a lot of like, you know, the first trimester is so terrible, right?

0 (22m 43s):

When you're pregnant and you're like, oh, I'm so tired and I'm so sick and I'm so nauseous and I don't even look pregnant. And then you get to the second trimester and you're like, oh, okay, starting to feel better. This thing is working, starting to look pregnant. That's kinda like Baby-Led Weaning. The second phase is like, oh my gosh, there goes the baby. Look at that. They're actually eating and swallowing some of the food. Oh, they're a little bit less interested in their Infant milk. Oh my gosh. Offering five new foods a week is totally working. My baby's eaten over 40 foods at this point. Stick with it. Stick through those first eight weeks. If you need additional help, my program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro can help you. If you just like a plan where you're like, just tell me what foods to feed my baby. Check out the 100 First Foods Daily Meal plan inside of that program.

0 (23m 25s):

And if you're just kind of dabbling in Baby-Led Weaning, go check out my workshop, Baby-Led weaning for Beginners. It's a free online video training. I'll give you that 100 First Foods list so that you never run out of ideas your baby can eat. Everything is linked up in the Shownotes page for this episode, which you can find@blwpodcast.com.three. A special thanks 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. Again, we're online@blwpodcast.com. Thank you so much for listening. I'll see you next time.