100 First Foods Graduates: Success Stories from Around the World

Hungry Root (1s):

It's that cozy comfort food season, time of year, soup season, pumpkin, everything season. But if you're anything like me, it's also just another month of, oh my gosh, how is it already? Dinnertime again. Season chaos work is so busy, which I love, but our kids' sports schedule is extra insane this month. I literally never know what's for dinner for my real family because I spend all day making baby led weaning eating food and recipes and meal plans for your guys babies. So that's one of the main reasons why I love Hungry Root. Hungry Root is not just another meal kit, it's a personalized grocery and recipe service that thinks ahead. So I don't have to, and because I usually forget to, I tell Hungry Root, Hey, I'm trying to eat more high fiber, gut-friendly, plant-based foods. And then they load my cart up with hearty soups and grain bowls and fall veggies that I love. Plus we just had this like incredible pumpkin spice granola. I am now low-key obsessed with every meal from Hungry Root. Takes 15 minutes or less to prep, which is perfect for that witching hour if you've got that in your house. When the babies are crying and someone else is asking for a snack and I'm trying not to lose my mind. The best part, no food waste. There's no midweek store runs. I actually enjoy cooking for my real family. Again, I'd love if you could check out Hungry Root and I want you to take advantage of this exclusive offer for our listeners. For a limited time, you can get 40% off your first Hungry Root box, plus get a free item in every box for life. Go to hungry root.com/weaning and use code weaning. That's Hungry root.com/weaning code weaning to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life hungry root.com/weaning code weaning and let Hungry Root help you streamline meal prep for your family out of the comfort of your own kitchen.

Rula (1m 53s):

I don't want to pile on, but being a mom and a new parent is not for the faint of heart. All of a sudden you have this tiny person who's totally dependent on you and you are 24/7 fixated on keeping all the balls in the air with parenting and work and relationship. It's a lot. And we all know that periods of burnout or stress or anxiety take a toll on your mental health. And while high quality therapy can help with stressful situations, finding a provider that your insurance actually pays for is a challenge. Ruler is changing the game when it comes to finding the right therapist for you. That's in network covered care for most insurance providers because we've all used insurance to cover our physical health, right? So why shouldn't also it cover our mental health? Well rule Up makes sure that it does rule up partners with a network of over 15,000 therapists and psychiatrists nationwide, enabling you to find your personalized solution and the right therapist for you based on your needs, your preferences, and the requirements of your state. And what I love about RULA is their commitment to making the average copay just $15 per therapy session. That's real therapy from licensed professionals at a price that actually makes sense. So there's no wait lists or no frustrating back and forth rula makes it easy to find a mental health provider who is accepting new patients and appointments are available as soon as tomorrow. Plus rula sticks with you throughout your journey, checking in to make sure that your care is helping you move forward. Thousands of people are already using RULA to get affordable high quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit rula.com/weaning to get started. After you sign up, you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support this show. Let them know I sent you. That's RULA.com/weaning because you deserve mental care that works with you, not against your budget.

Erin Callaway (3m 46s):

I would totally recommend this approach a hundred percent. I think what was really nice about the program for me was that it was the perfect amount of structure without being really prescriptive. Not buying baby food was very appealing to me.

KiwiCo (4m 0s):

Hey there, I've about 10. I spent an entire summer in my garage trying to build a co cart out of scrap wood and bicycle wheels. And spoiler alert, it did not go that well. But I'll never forget the feeling of sketching out a design and trying and failing and then trying again and it didn't feel like school. It felt like play. And without realizing it, I was learning problem solving and patience and how it feels like so good to just bring an idea to life. And that is exactly what I love about Kiwi Co. Our kids get to have those same aha moments but with projects that actually work. Each kiwi co-create is designed so that kids are learning the fundamentals while having fun. They're building skills that grow with every new project. So they might start with something simple like a bow and arrow and down the line. I mean they're engineering robots in our house. We've been doing the Tinker Crate lately. So my daughter just built a working pinball machine. She's been playing with it nonstop. The best part, she did not just put it together, she understood how it works. So there's springs and leader's intention, all those concepts that like really click when you're using your hands to make something real. And Kiwi Co isn't just one size fits all. They have crates for every age and interest, science, technology, engineering, art, math, you name it. Plus Kiwi co members get perks like 10% off orders, free shipping in the US and early access to new crates. These Kiwi co projects do not just get built and tossed aside, they get played with Revisited and they spark that curiosity that kids will carry into everything else that they do. So if you want something that will keep your kids engaged and off of screens and excited to learn, Kiwi Co makes it so easy to spend quality time together while building creativity and confidence you and your kids can tinker, create and innovate with Kiwi Co too. Get up to 50% off your first crate@kiwicode.com, promo code weaning. That's up to 50% off your first crate at K-I-W-I-C o.com. Promo code weaning

Katie Ferraro (5m 58s):

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. 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. So really, what's the big deal about a baby eating a hundred different foods before they turn one well? Diet diversity from your baby's first bites can help prevent severe picky eating. It can build confidence with self eating and it can make family meal times so much more enjoyable.

Katie Ferraro (6m 40s):

Back in 2016, I created the original a 100 first foods approach to starting solid foods with baby-led weaning. This is a step-by-step system that helps you introduce five new foods for your baby every week. That's 20 foods a week and in five short months your baby's eaten a hundred foods before they turn one. And over the years, tens of thousands of families around the world have used this approach to raise happy independent eaters. Now a few episodes back in the podcast back in episode 63, I did a whole history of the a 100 first foods approach to starting solid foods with baby-led weaning. So if you wanna hear more about the story and how the whole approach came to be, you can go listen to episode 63. But in today's episode you are going to hear from six parents who have successfully completed the 100 first foods program with their babies and they're gonna share how they overcame their own fears, how they built confidence in their baby's ability to eat real foods and how they watch their babies thrive by learning how to eat real food.

Katie Ferraro (7m 40s):

So these are real life parents just like you. Some of them work full time, some of them actually don't like cooking. But for all of these parents, they were up for a challenge. They wanted to use that weaning period for their babies from six to 12 months of age to do the work to help their babies build a lifelong relationship and love of real food. And that's the whole purpose behind the 100 First Foods approach to baby-led weaning. It's literally why I went and built the exact program that I wish that I had had when I was starting Solid Foods and baby-led weaning with my own babies. So today I have an online program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro and it contains all of the hundred first foods information and success and guidance that you need.

Katie Ferraro (8m 25s):

There's a 100 first Foods Daily Meal plan in there. I've got 20 weeks of done for you meal plan. So you don't even have to think about which food to feed next. I have a 100 first foods content library in the program with all the videos and instructions and recipes on how to make the foods from my 100 first foods list safe for your baby's age and stage. And I know we are living in an era of information overload like you're probably doing something else right now while you're listening to this podcast, right? You're multitasking and I know you can hop on AI and you can look up how to do anything. But if you are looking for a proven system taught by an expert who is going to guide you through step by step two Success for starting Solid Foods, the baby-led weaning with Katie for our program is built for you.

Katie Ferraro (9m 13s):

So the moms today are gonna share how this program worked for them. And if you would like to check out the program for yourself, if you head to baby-led weaning.co/program right now I'm offering $50 off enrollment for the program for my podcast listeners. If you sign up using the code BLWPOD50, you can save $50 on enrollment. So again, that website is baby led weaning.co/program and use the code BLWPOD50 to save $50 and get started feeding your baby real food today. So with no further ado, here are six of the moms of some of our 100 first foods graduates who are going to be telling their success stories about starting solid foods and how they did that using the 100 first foods approach and they're from all around the world.

Katie Ferraro (10m 6s):

So here goes. All right guys. I wanna introduce you to Kayla Sherwood. She is a mom of boy girl twins William in Adelaide. They just finished a 100 first foods with baby-led weaning at 11 and a half months. And what I love about Kayla's story is that she's a nurse by training. She's worked in pediatric and adult oncology, but she shares how even when she was starting solid foods with her twins, she had some anxiety and she said that she took that to heart. But that having this program where she knew exactly what five foods to introduce the babies to each day really helped her kinda conquer some of those fears. So I think you're gonna love her insight, especially if you're a mom of multiples for how baby-led weaning can help simplify your life.

Katie Ferraro (10m 51s):

Here's Kayla. How would you say they're doing now? Like are they eating as you would anticipate? Do you think they're not eating enough? Like how are you feeling going into like the first birthday having done a 100 foods with them and baby-led weaning? Like what's your assessment of their abilities to feed themselves?

Kayla Sherwood (11m 8s):

I feel amazing. They pretty much can eat whatever we eat already now. So it's like a huge relief that I'm not having to cook them specific other things they take to it. I mean I can't keep up in my kitchen. I feel like Sundays and Mondays are my prep day of how much food that they're consuming and they do go to school during the day and and I, the teacher said all they do is eat. They gobble it all up, your meals even look great that we wanna taste them. And so they've done a really good job and they have a, have each of the foods individually, but then we've also done mixtures of it. So whether it's just the cauliflower and then we make a fritter with the cauliflower and so that they, you know, it's the same type of foods that they're eating just in a different texture a different way.

Katie Ferraro (11m 49s):

That is amazing. Okay. Do you have any advice for other twin parents who might be considering doing baby-led weaning in the the 100 first Foods approach? Like do you think it ends up saving time, was it kind of a hassle? Like would you recommend this approach or not?

Kayla Sherwood (12m 2s):

I would totally recommend this approach. I had no idea. I have a nephew so I kind of understood a little bit and even as a nurse, but my biggest thought is, is patience. As as a nurse myself, I was very anxious of not just the choking or the gagging hazard but also just being able to truly enjoy the mealtime with them. Where I have one that is craving and always hungry and making noises and always wanting more and more and more. And then the other one, you know, wasn't eating. And so I had this a lot of anxiety about it at first as to are they getting it, are they gonna be able to self sufficiently feed? And I remember one of your comments was like, give it, you know, two months to truly let them indulge to, to even look at the food to play with it. And I really took that to heart and tried not to analyze and you know, not feed them myself of picking up the food for them and and providing it to them that it, it's just made my, it's made it so much more enjoyable and that I can have breakfast with them and not have to cook a separate meal has been probably the biggest blessing of, my husband's a picky eater so having him as a picky eater but my two kids eat whatever I eat.

Kayla Sherwood (13m 7s):

It's amazing and nice to not have to be so time consuming. Like I said before, I do a lot of the meal preps for all of us on Sundays or Mondays and then I'm pretty much done outside of a couple snacks. I'll, I'll do toast here and there, you know, with homemade hummus or pesto or something. But other than that it's so easy.

Katie Ferraro (13m 26s):

Wonderful. Thank you so much. This is so helpful. I really appreciate it. Next up I wanna introduce you guys to Erin Callaway. I feel like such a stalker because I feel like I know Erin in real life but I don't, I do know her from Instagram. Her page at the Callaway's Eat is where I first met her when she was doing the hundred first Foods program with her daughter Sonny, who the day Sonny finished a hundred first Foods. Aaron found out she was pregnant with Rowan her third and now Rowan has started solid food. So he's doing the hundred first foods. So she's kind of sharing a unique perspective as a mom who's doing this for the second time, having the whole system set out for her. But what's different for their family this time they're living in Greece so they're an American family living abroad.

Katie Ferraro (14m 8s):

Erin shares a little bit about some of the challenges about that, some of the benefits. And then she's also sharing with us what the difference is between her anxiety level and her knowledge level. The first time she did a hundred first Foods versus the second time. So I hope you guys love meeting Erin as much as I did the first time we ever talked, even though I feel like we're best friends from Instagram. And again, her page is the Callaway Eat. I'm gonna link all of the different resources from this episode on the show notes for thisPage@blwpodcast.com/66. Here's Erin Callaway. I love that you guys are doing, you know, you're doing one new allergenic food every Friday. Tell me about how it went with eggs, which you did in week one of baby-led weaning,

Erin Callaway (14m 47s):

Right? Yeah, Rowan gag is a lot more than Sunny did. So it's eggs were kind of difficult for him. I did the fried egg and then cut it into strips, but then the next day when I introduced pumpkin, I used your pumpkin muffin recipe and I, so it was just, you know, banana pumpkin and eggs and cinnamon and he loved it. So that introducing eggs that way to him again was just, it was easier for him. For parents

Katie Ferraro (15m 10s):

Who are just starting out on solid foods, they're not like you. This is their first baby or their first time doing baby led weaning and they're feeling apprehensive or like God a hundred foods is way too much. What would you say to a mom just starting out who's kind of on the fence about whether or not to do the hundred first Foods approach? It's

Erin Callaway (15m 27s):

So much fun. Just do it. Like I know it, it is overwhelming. I remember, I think we got to food 21 and I was like, I cannot like 80 or 79 more foods. I cannot do this. And I, I just remember having that feeling and I honestly think it was then that you followed us or something. So like something happened and it was like, all right, now I, now I have to, now I kind of have to. But it was so fun just watching her skills develop and I'm excited to see what Rowan does too. I

Katie Ferraro (16m 1s):

Like that social media stocking is what inspired you to stay on the hundred first food track and we are just so excited to have Rowan like for round two of your family for a 100 first Foods.

Erin Callaway (16m 12s):

I cannot speak highly enough about the baby-led weaning community. I've met some of my best friends through this Instagram page.

Katie Ferraro (16m 20s):

That's amazing.

Erin Callaway (16m 20s):

It's crazy. It's crazy.

Katie Ferraro (16m 21s):

Well thank you so much for sharing your story. I really appreciate it and we're also excited to watch Rowan tackle his next like 92 foods.

Erin Callaway (16m 29s):

Yeah, no sweat. Right? Thank you so much for having me Katie. I appreciate it.

Katie Ferraro (16m 35s):

Next up I wanna introduce you guys to Renee Cameron. She is a mom of baby boy Elijah, he's almost 13 months now, but back when he was six and a half months of age they started Solid Foods using the hundred first Foods approach and she's gonna share a little bit about how her pregnancy journey was difficulty, her nursing journey was difficulty and she's like feeling super overwhelmed going into starting solid foods. But when she eventually found the 100 First Foods program, it really started getting serious about planning out the foods that the baby was gonna eat. She said it kind of lifted a lot of the stress off of her shoulder. So she'll share with you where she's from, where she's used to living, where she's living now. She had a little bit of a different geographical situation than other parents, but I think you're gonna love her stories.

Katie Ferraro (17m 17s):

So with no further ado, this is Renee Cameron, mom of Elijah and I love your story too 'cause you share that like okay, it was stressful for you, your pregnancy was stressful then nursing was stressful because of the tongue tie and then now you're starting Solid foods, like literally every degree of parenting is stressful. But part of why we made the whole 100 First Foods program is to like take some of the stress out of the planning as far as like what your baby can eat. So did you find it was helpful to have that structure each week? Like knowing which foods to feed?

Renee Cameron (17m 45s):

Yeah, a hundred percent. I think what was really nice about the program for me was that it was the perfect amount of structure without being really prescriptive. Like because we're living in Turkey, I don't speak fluent Turkish, I speak conversational Turkish so I can kind of read a little bit of the resources that I hear for weaning. But a lot of what I know about weaning my child is from English resources. But a lot of those are written in the us the UK or Australia and I can't get all the ingredients that they're introducing to those kids easily here. And so that's a little bit stressful when I look at other like recipe books, recipe books and stuff, I feel like I can't do the program that other experts were setting out. But I loved this one because it was just the pattern.

Renee Cameron (18m 25s):

It wasn't like I had to do every food that you had listed on the 100 first foods guide that you had. It was just the structure that I could use and run with. Another reason I found it really fun to do the program was because in Australia, and I'm guessing like in the US you can get a ton of pre-made baby food and we don't really have that here. Like there's maybe one or two brands and so there's like six or seven flavors available at the supermarket and they're really expensive. So most local parents make their own food for their baby, right? A lot of them would then like puree it before rather than doing baby led weaning. And I just found that extra work so exhausting going from you know, exclusively nursing where you don't really have to think about like what you are offering your child or or sterilizing bottles or anything.

Renee Cameron (19m 7s):

Suddenly I'm having to cook multiple times a day and blend food and freeze food and think about all that. And I found that transition really hard. But then when we moved to baby led we, it was just so much simpler. It was a lot less just because I, you know, a lot of the foods we were feeding, I could also eat. I'm not gonna sit there eating a lamb puree, but I will happily eat like a slow cooked piece of lamb. And so doing the program and doing baby led weaning took a lot of the, the pressure and anxiety out of feeding solids. So that was really nice because I think before that, like we'd been on holiday in Australia and I'd like looked at the aisle of all the foods that pre-made foods and thought this feels like a nice like easy option to wean if I wanted to go through that way. But I'm really glad that it worked out that I was feeding my child like actual

Katie Ferraro (19m 48s):

Food and I feel the same way. Like having the other adults to talk to in the group was like my adult outlet every,

Renee Cameron (19m 54s):

oh my gosh.

Katie Ferraro (19m 54s):

Because I like at home with having kids all day long like talking to them. Right. Well I love having the other parents to talk to and also you guys just, it's become such an international group which has been really cool. Like there's parents in Egypt who met each other 'cause they were both doing a 100 first foods. There's not a big group of moms in Singapore. There's a few from Turkey. Like it's been, we've been learning so much about, I teach a cultural foods class in a couple colleges here in the US and like I have used the moms stories of the foods they're feeding their babies in these different countries. So like it's, it's been such a cool experience because at the end of the day our babies all have to learn how to eat no matter where you are. And we'd ideally like for them to eat real foods but we need them to do it safely, which is why Dawn and I are there to answer your guys' questions. So I'm so glad you found that part helpful.

Renee Cameron (20m 35s):

Absolutely. And you know for us as well, it was like there were two months where kids under the age of 20 weren't allowed out at all. It's like 24 7 curfew. So for me to be doing weaning like that for that two months, that kind of coincide to when we were starting solids pretty intimidating 'cause it also meant that like we weren't going to the hospital as often for our checkups to talk to the pediatrician and I was stuck at home all the time. So having like a fun program and then having regular check-ins with people who could help me with that without having to leave the house, that was worth everything. Everything I paid for the program I feel like was worth it for that. So yeah.

Katie Ferraro (21m 10s):

Well thank you so much for sharing. I really appreciate your time in hearing about Elijah and it has been such an honor and so enjoyable to watch him learn how to eat. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back. The next mom we're gonna hear from is Lauren McClure. Now Lauren and her husband both work from home and they're in a situation where I think they're really lucky because the grandparents help them watch the baby. But for those of you who have grandparents, you know, it can kind of be a double-edged sword 'cause sometimes it's wonderful to have the extra help but grandparents might not always be on board with baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (21m 55s):

Now Lauren, I've really gotten to know over the years we actually did a whole separate episode with Born in episode two sixty eight. It's called Second Baby Baby LED Weaning, how she was doing Hundred First Foods differently with Baby number Two. So if you wanna listen to that, go check that out. But Lauren's gonna share her hot take on the hundred first Foods approach here. Give us a little background about Kira. I know she's 13 months old, but take us back seven months ago when you started Solid Foods. How'd you know what baby led weaning was? How, why'd you decide to do a hundred first foods? Like tell us the whole story.

Lauren McClure (22m 25s):

Yeah, so I definitely have picky eating that runs in my family. My brother, he's in his mid twenties now. He has a a sensory disorder so I know that's a little bit of a unique situation but he has extreme picky eating and I really just wanted to combat that and I wanted her to like and accept a variety of foods. And when she was four months old she was diagnosed with a a congenital condition and she ended up having a few surgeries on her skull before we started baby led weaning and then actually during that process. And so baby led weaning actually kind of became to me a way to find something that was fun and exciting that I felt like we could win at, that we were kind of in control of during that whole process where we had something that was going on that was out of our control that was scary that you know, was bringing a lot of anxiety.

Lauren McClure (23m 24s):

And so the baby led weaning really gave us something that we could look forward to every single week. Planning out what the foods were gonna be and seeing her just thrive during that journey while we had some other things that were going on was really amazing.

Katie Ferraro (23m 38s):

And I know you guys were doing all of the new foods and stuff during the pandemic and that your mother-in-law watches Kira and I was just curious, I know now she's 13 months, she eats everything you guys eat, but how did your mother-in-law deal or how did she do with this idea of like, hey, I'm going to work and she's gonna eat all these foods. Like how was that transition?

Lauren McClure (23m 57s):

Yeah, so definitely we did everything that we could to make it as easy as possible on her. So you know, that was making sure she had a highchair with a footrest and a flat mat and you know, the apron bib and her easy peasy first food set. We had all of that stuff at my mother-in-law's. So she had all of the, the, the tools that she needed. And when we were first starting out, it's funny, I remember it was like the third day that she had done solid foods and I, you know, confidently was like, oh yeah you can, you can give her banana. Here's how you cut the banana up into long strips.

Lauren McClure (24m 37s):

And there's actually a video that my father-in-law was taking where she's eating the bananas, her third day of eating and she gags on it and my father-in-law is like, call an ambulance. He immediately just panics and thinks that she's gonna choke. So we kind of took a step back for a little while with my mother-in-law and did some naturally pureed food. So you know, gave her some, some yogurt that she could do on a preloaded spoon until she got a little bit more comfortable. And I'd say about six weeks in she was really able to see those, those quick win foods and how she was, how she was progressing in her eating journey. And they actually started becoming even more adventurous than me and would ask me, Hey, can I give her strawberries?

Lauren McClure (25m 23s):

You know, while I'm, I'm at work and I'm like, okay, yeah you can give her strawberries, here's how you should cut 'em up. So I'd say, you know, by about a month and a half they were, you know, fully on board with Baby Living Wean and they bragged to all of their other grandparent friends and show pictures and videos of her eating sardines and using her spoon and her fork.

Katie Ferraro (25m 44s):

I love that. I love the grandparents bragging about the baby when they were scared of doing it six weeks ago. And one thing I wanna point out that you mentioned that's so important is that it took about six weeks for the caregiver in that case grandparents to get comfortable with the baby being able to eat. And most babies you guys will take four, six, sometimes even eight weeks to really kind of get in the flow of feeding themselves. And so just be advised that those first few weeks can be a little rocky, they can be a little anxiety inducing and you feel like your baby's not eating that much and you're like, why am I even doing this? But in the grander scheme of things, I mean listen to Lauren's story. She's the mom of a 13 month old who now basically eats everything the rest of the family eats. There's no drama with regards to mealtime.

Katie Ferraro (26m 25s):

She's able to be at work and not be worried about, you know, her daughter and needing to make special foods. But those first few weeks can be a little bit, they can be nail biters I guess you might say, props to you guys, you did an awesome job. It's been such a pleasure watching Kira learn how to eat.

Lauren McClure (26m 39s):

Yeah and I think that the, you know, the hundred first foods that what's in the course is a, a great guideline. You know, I'll tell you what, I never had a problem finding those really obscure ancient grains

Katie Ferraro (26m 51s):

Or what to do with them. Finding them is the first step of the battle, but it's like what do you actually do with them? And it is such a great supportive community of like other parents who are at the same point as you because sometimes you can feel so isolating, especially if you're the only one in your friend group or your family or you only have one child at home and you feel like you're doing this in a bubble by yourself. You're not, there's a whole group of people all around the world that are actually introducing many of these new foods and a lot of people, we had a big group from Singapore in your particular group and they were like trying all sorts of different foods that you might not have access to in the United States, but it was just so cool to see all the babies around the world learning how to feed themselves and a lot more foods than most people would give babies credit for. Well thank you so much for sharing your story about Kira.

Katie Ferraro (27m 34s):

We really appreciate it.

Lauren McClure (27m 38s):

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much.

Katie Ferraro (27m 39s):

Next up I wanna introduce you guys to Kelly Ann Tay. Kelly is the mom of baby Kate and her family lives in Singapore and I have been pseudo stalking their whole family on Instagram for a while now. I love the power of social media being able to connect with different families. I feel like I actually know Kelly in real person even though she lives halfway around the world from me. And it's been such a pleasure watching her daughter Kate do her hundred first foods and to get to know their family, the foods they were trying, the struggles they were having. So with no further ado, here's Kelly Ante. Alright, so tell me a little bit about Kate, how when you started baby led weaning, what, what were some of the hardest things for you guys to do besides the gagging? Like getting over your fear of gagging,

Kelly Ann Tay (28m 18s):

The idea of wasting food. I think because I was brought up in an environment where, you know, it was clean up what was on your plate, finish your food, it's a, you know, food's a blessing, right? You don't just like discard it. So I think that was quite hard for me to see because you know, at the beginning they kind of just, you know, it's a win even if they lick the food or they just munch on it and spit it out or, or just touch it even. So finishing the meal and then realizing that there was this whole plate of food that was still going was quite difficult for me to grapple with mentally. But I eventually did sort that out with myself once I realized that look, this is my issue, not hers. She doesn't have to eat her food. And then just being very realistic about what kind of portions I was putting out in the first place so that I would minimize the amount of waste.

Kelly Ann Tay (29m 3s):

You know, it's okay, you can put it back in the fridge and then it can come back out later for the next meal. And so generally when things weren't very touched, I would just do that. And then, so it helped quite

Katie Ferraro (29m 13s):

A bit. And I know you said it's commonplace for people to do traditional spoon feeding in Singapore, but I feel like you single-handedly are changing that because so many moms from Singapore have joined the hundred first Foods program because of you. So tell me a little bit about that. Like how do you know every other mom in Singapore? I feel like

Kelly Ann Tay (29m 31s):

I don't, I just, well like Instagram, so I guess posting about Kate's journey has made people see that it is possible. I don't post a whole lot, but I do share a little bit about what she's having for breakfast or lunch when I, I have the time. And I think people seeing that has made the difference because I think even for myself, I didn't believe a child could eat the kinds of food Kate eats until I saw it for myself, until I saw an action. Which is why I'm really, I don't know, I guess I'm a big believer in it and I want to spread the word because I think there's, there's no need to go the hard way chasing after your child with a spoon if you can have a very joyous time at the table with a baby who feeds themselves. So I think through posting and then telling people about it in my mom's groups or when we go to play dates, people are really curious because they haven't really seen a baby eat like that.

Kelly Ann Tay (30m 18s):

So I think people get curious and then they ask questions and then I tell them about it. And then I guess the part about your course that I really like that I always stress to people is if you're starting solids right now, it's a good time to do the course because you have actual questions that are coming up every day. I know I did.

Katie Ferraro (30m 34s):

Well thank you so much for sharing your story about your baby led weaning journey and the hundred first Foods with Kate has been such a pleasure watching her learn how to eat.

Kelly Ann Tay (30m 45s):

Thank you Katie.

Katie Ferraro (30m 47s):

Alright, next up is Gina Giacomo. Gina's a mom of Darby Kate, she's one of like the original hundred First Foods graduates. This little girlfriend is so adorable. She's got a great Instagram with her hundred First Foods. I'm gonna link to that in the show notes for you guys. But not only did Darby Kate hit the hundred first Foods Mark, she's about to turn two now. She's got a little sister Seila Jo who is just about turning six months old. And so Gina, their mom is gonna give you kind of a little rundown on how she did Hundred First Foods the first time and then what she's doing a little bit different this time. Take us back. I know Darby Kate just turning two, but like a year and a half ago when she was six months and you started Solid Foods, how did you decide to do baby led weaning or where did you learn about it and why the Hundred First Foods approach?

Gina Giacomo (31m 29s):

Okay, so my niece is five and I very vaguely remember my sister saying the words baby led weaning. And literally that's the only context I had for it. I didn't know what that meant. I didn't even know if my sister really did it, but I just knew that Darby was kind of coming up on eating solid foods of some sort. So I just kind of started researching everything and I came across your page and then I became obsessed and I followed everything and I just wanted to learn more because I really wanted to go down this path. Like not buying baby food was very appealing to me.

Katie Ferraro (32m 1s):

Although I have like a like your Instagram. So if you guys, I'm gonna link to everybody's Instagram. Who's sharing on this episode your a hundred Fruit Foods highlight? Like I went through the whole thing recently. It's amazing. 'cause I feel like Darby Kate had two teeth for most of her foods. Like

Gina Giacomo (32m 14s):

She did. She did. It was

Katie Ferraro (32m 16s):

Crazy. Okay. Did you get more confident in her ability to do meat as a result of the whole hundred First Foods approach?

Gina Giacomo (32m 21s):

Yes. I was not nervous and I felt like I had the hundred first Foods program where it has the videos of like the best way to prepare things. So I felt confident in like if I make the meat tender, if I use dark meat versus the white meat, if I make sure it's juicy and not dry, different textures, I was, I was fine with it. I felt like I was pretty confident in her ability, and I'm sure you will talk about this or have talked about this, but she did have a couple of gagging episodes on different kinds of foods. But I feel like after I watched all the videos, I was prepared for them and I almost like trusted her to get it out, to figure it out. And she always did. And I think

Katie Ferraro (32m 57s):

That's so key. Like seeing really is believing. And sometimes it can feel so isolating when you're starting solid foods if you're like, you the only one in the partnership who wants to do it or you don't have friends who do it or family members. But then one of the beauties of this program is that you have this kind of group of built in friends and people doing the same exact thing as you at the same time. And you can like kind of bounce ideas off of each other, share videos, which is so cool with like today's era. Like I could see every single food your daughter was eating every day. It was so

Gina Giacomo (33m 22s):

Cool. Yeah, I'm so excited. I feel like I need to spend a week just going back through everything, refreshing myself, printing out the calendars, printing out the checklists, like just really get back into it. My husband made fun of me with the Darby for the first time because he was like, you are becoming a baby feeding nerd. I said, yeah, I'm, and it's fine. Awesome.

Katie Ferraro (33m 40s):

Well thank you so much for sharing all of this with us, Gina, I really appreciate

Gina Giacomo (33m 43s):

It. No problem. It was so good to talk to you. Well,

Katie Ferraro (33m 46s):

I hope you guys enjoyed hearing from these parents who did the hundred first foods approach. Hopefully you get the idea that this is totally doable. I know it feels overwhelming, but as I like to tell parents, you know, babies don't just magically wake up on their first birthday and know how to eat a hundred foods and the weaning period is really important, right? 'cause you're starting with a baby who at six months of age is getting a hundred percent of their nutrition from infant milk, that's breast milk and or formula. And if you fast forward to the 12 month mark, a hundred percent of your baby's nutrition can be coming from food. So that's a lot of ground to cover in 12 months. But we've got a roadmap that your baby can follow by introducing one new food a day. That's five foods a week. It's 20 foods a month, and in five short months, your baby will also eat a hundred foods.

Katie Ferraro (34m 28s):

So thank you to all of the parents who contributed their success stories. It was a lot of work. But I'll guarantee you that every single parent who finishes the hundred First Foods part of our program, they'll say more oftentimes than not that that was, and my mom just told me this, the most important thing I did in the first year of my baby's life. And that's really powerful stuff because food is important, right? You've got to feed this small person for the next 17 and a half years of its life. You don't wanna be short order cooking, you don't wanna make different foods for different kids because they're picky eating. You don't wanna deal with mealtime battles or feeding therapy because your child is down to three or four or five foods that they will eat. So if you would like to also take this a 100 first foods challenge and try this approach with your child, I'm offering $50 off my baby LED weaning with Katie Ferraro program for our podcast listeners, the code to get started for you is BLWPOD50.

Katie Ferraro (35m 23s):

If you head to baby led weaning.co/program and enter that code PLWPOD50, you can get $50 off. I'd love to get started with you. Everything you need to help your baby get started. Loving and eating real food is inside of that program. Baby led weaning, do co slash program and use the code BLWPOD50. I'll put a link to all of the different moms who were contributing to today's episode on the show notes for today's episode, which you can find@blwpodcast.com/67. And a 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 or online@blwpodcast.com.

Katie Ferraro (36m 8s):

Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.

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