When Should My Baby Start Eating with the Family?

Hungry Root (0s):

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Katie Ferraro (3m 3s):

And I'll hear people trying to explain baby led weaning, and they're like, oh, it just means your baby eats exactly the same foods you do. And I don't know about you, but personally I like tortilla chips and red wine, and those are foods that babies don't eat, right? So there's some nuance here about getting our babies engaged in family meals because of course those are foods that we don't offer to our baby. But there are some tips for getting Your Baby to participate in family meals. And you can actually start this even before Your Baby starts solid foods, and this is how you do it safely. Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast. 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.

Katie Ferraro (3m 56s):

So a new mom, Emily recently asked me a question that I actually hear quite frequently, and she said, Katie, I'm confused about timing. My baby is starting solid foods and we wanna do baby led weaning, but when should my baby start eating with the rest of the family? So today we're gonna be breaking that down. When should your baby start eating with the family and what does that actually look like? And then how does this work when you're just getting started with solid foods and Your Baby doesn't actually know how to eat anything? So one of the biggest benefits of baby led weaning is that your baby can begin eating with the family from their very first bites. But the logistics of how that happens, it's not always obvious, especially early on.

Katie Ferraro (4m 40s):

So today we're gonna walk through the who, the what, the where, the when, and the why of family meals with your baby. Before we dive in, here's an important thing that I wanna clear up right away. I like to start each of these mini solo training episodes with a baby led weaning tip of the day. And here is today's tip. Alright, I see this misconception all the time. People will say, oh, baby led weaning is easy. You just feed your baby whatever you're eating. And while that sounds nice, in theory, it's actually a little bit more nuanced than that. Now, there are plenty of foods that adults eat that babies cannot safely eat when you're starting solid foods, right?

Katie Ferraro (5m 20s):

I personally enjoy tortilla chips and red wine, and my baby is definitely not eating those, and that's okay, right? What baby led weaning does mean is that your baby learns to eat modified versions of the same foods that the rest of the family is eating over time with practice. Okay? If you think about it with baby led weaning, your baby is starting out at six months of age when they get a hundred percent of their nutrition from infant milk. So that's breast milk or formula. And then six months later, by the time your baby turns 12 months of age, a hundred percent of their nutrition can be coming from food. Okay? But your baby doesn't start out eating like lasagna, for example, at six months of age, right? You've got to do the single individual foods in there like tomatoes on their own, and then strips of safely prepared meats, and then the individual allergens like egg and dairy foods.

Katie Ferraro (6m 6s):

And then over time you start to bring those things together. But hang tight, because today I'm gonna share with you the exact steps that you can take to incorporate your baby in family meal times, even before you get to lasagna. All right? Whatever that looks like for your family. But we're gonna run through who, what, where, when, and even the how of getting Your Baby engaged in their family meals from their first bites. So let's start out looking at where do family meals happen? Okay? When we talk about family meals, the goal is to bring your baby to the table whenever possible. Okay? So ideally, your baby is going to be seated in a high chair that allows them to be pulled right up to the table so that they can eat alongside the rest of the family.

Katie Ferraro (6m 49s):

Okay? So some high chairs are designed specifically for this and they do not require a tray. Okay? My favorite high chairs for baby led weaning do not require a tray. If you use a tray, that's perfectly fine too. 'cause sometimes you might have a bar height or a counter height table and high chairs don't go that high. Or maybe you guys eat outside and you wanna move your baby around, but you don't need a tray. What does matter is that Your Baby is positioned safely and securely and that you're including them in the meal environment, right? We don't want your baby sitting over there in the corner by themselves of the kitchen with the pie chair and the tray just eating by themselves. That's sad. I see that all the time. It makes me sad. Babies wanna eat with you. Okay? One important tip here. I don't recommend placing the food directly on the table or the tray, okay?

Katie Ferraro (7m 30s):

Especially early on when your baby is starting solid foods. Early eaters, when they're six, seven months of age, you mean eight months old? They don't have their pincer grasp, okay? They're gonna be using their whole hand or their Palmer grasp to rake and scoop food up and into their mouth. So If you put the food on the flat surface, they just smash it around. It's very frustrating for your baby. Okay? What I like to use is a suction mat or bowl that has pliable or flexible rim. That's a boundary against which your baby can rake or scoop the foods up and into their own mouth, which makes it much more successful and enjoyable from the start.

Ezpz (8m 1s):

So the suction mats and bowls that I use and recommend are from a company called Ezpz. So all of the ezpz feeding gear is designed by their infant feeding expert who's on their staff. Her name is Dawn Winkelmann. She's the dear friend of mine. She has got all of your child's development and feeding skills in mind when she's developing this gear because you might be surprised a lot of baby feeding gear out there, or maybe you're not surprised, it's like designed to look cute, but it actually does like not developmentally appropriate. Dawn stuff looks good, but it's also developmentally appropriate. I love the ezpz mini bowl for trying new individual finger foods. I also love their First Foods set. It's a fantastic, it's got a tiny bowl. It's got the tiny spoons and one tiny cup. It's great for just starting out. You can use the affiliate discount code Baby Lead. You can get 15% off all of the feeding gear at Ezpz If you head to ezpzfun.com/babyled.

Katie Ferraro (8m 56s):

But again, let Your Baby be the one picking up the food at the table. That's key with baby led weaning. Let's talk next about what foods does your baby eat at the family mealtime, okay? Your Baby is not expected to eat every single thing that you're eating, okay? And you also don't need to change your diet to match your babies early on. Your baby are gonna do best, as I mentioned a moment ago with single isolated individual foods, okay? This gives them a chance to practice new textures, to learn how to move food around their mouth, and how to safely experience those allergenic foods individually. So in my baby led weaning program, it's called Baby Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, the first eight weeks of the program. So the first 40 foods, we do five foods a week.

Katie Ferraro (9m 36s):

So five foods a week times the first eight weeks, foods one to 40 are what we call phase one of baby-led weaning. So all the foods in phase one are those single individual foods where we're really helping your baby practice with their finger foods. The combination foods come later, okay? So we call that phase two and phase three. So that's foods 41 to a hundred. Basically, when your baby gets to the second and third eight week components of baby led weaning, then we're doing those combination texture foods. So I'll give you an example in my house, like we live in San Diego, we love fish tacos. We eat fish tacos a lot. If it's fish taco night and your baby's eating with your family, it doesn't mean your baby who's six or seven months old gets a full taco, okay? Instead, you might offer soft unbred cooked fish.

Katie Ferraro (10m 19s):

Okay? Maybe you'll do rice. Depends upon how old they are and how we prepare the rice changes based on the baby's age and stage. If they're in phase one versus two three, you could do guacamole or avocado. Okay? You'd offer full fat sour cream If you know they've already passed cow's milk so they're not allergic to cow's milk foods. You could do salsa before the salt is added, but basically this meal can be deconstructed for your baby. You're still pulling from the same family foods, okay? So that's the goal there. Modification, not duplication. Basically, over time, as Your Baby gains more experience and skills, the family meals will start to look more and more similar for everyone at the table. Okay? So If you want more ideas of these foods that your baby can eat, make sure that you have a copy of my original a hundred First Foods list.

Katie Ferraro (11m 2s):

I wanna see it hanging on your refrigerator. You can be knocking off all of these 100 FIRST FOODS that your baby can eat before they turn one. So if you're just starting out with solid foods, the best place to learn about baby-led weaning is my free online workshop. It's called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. This is a one hour video training that shows you how to make these foods safe. Everybody on the free workshop gets a copy of my original 100 FIRST FOODS list, so you can sign up and take the workshop. If you go to baby led weaning.co/workshop, you can grab that 100 FIRST FOODS list so that you'll never run out of ideas of foods that Your Baby can eat. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

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Katie Ferraro (12m 21s):

Now, when does your baby start eating with the family? Okay. Starting solid foods. I know at first it feels like it can represent a shift in your daily routine, and I don't want parents to feel overwhelmed by the idea that they suddenly need to do everything perfect. Okay? What I teach in My program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, is that during phase one, the first eight weeks of baby-led weaning, you actually do not alter your baby's nap schedule or their infant milk schedule. So whether you're breastfeeding or bottle feeding, okay? So think about that the whole first eight weeks. You don't have to change either your nap or your milk schedule. Parents love that. The general rule of thumb for how often to offer solid foods around six to seven months of age, try to do solid foods one to two times per day, okay?

Katie Ferraro (13m 5s):

At the eight to nine month mark, we like to see babies eating solid foods two to three times per day. And by the 10 month mark, we like to see families. If this mirrors your family meal pattern, we wanna see that baby eating three meals a day if that's how the rest of the family eats, okay? The goal here is that by 12 months of age, most of your baby's nutrition can be coming from food. Meals last on average, about 15 to 20 minutes, okay? Early on, your baby might fuss in their high chair simply because this is something that's new. It doesn't mean that they hate it, okay? It just means that they're adjusting. So even before you start solid foods, you can help your baby out by having them sit in the highchair, play with the spoon, practice with the open cup. I've got a whole section in my baby led weaning program called pre feeding skills.

Katie Ferraro (13m 47s):

So these are things that you can do with your baby, even at four and five months of age to help them get ready for starting solid foods. And then when you start solid foods, you're in phase one for the first eight weeks, got all the instructions and videos and recipes on how to make the foods safe for your baby. Then, and once you've done those first 40 foods, you're gonna have so much confidence in all the foods your baby could eat. Then you move on to phase two, boom, you're on your way to getting your baby those a hundred foods before they turn one. If you wanna check out my program again, it's baby-led weaning with Katie Ferraro. You can actually get $50 off for podcast listeners when you sign up using the code BLW Pod 50. All you have to do is go to baby led weaning dot co slash program.

Katie Ferraro (14m 26s):

Again, that's baby led weaning.co/program. Use that code BLWPOD 50, and you can get $50 off when you sign up. Also, put it in a link to wherever you're listening to or watching this. So remember, exposure and comfort for Your Baby are gonna go a long way. Now, who should be at these family meals? Okay? Your baby should never be left unattended during meals. Duh. That kind of goes without saying. I know though how tempting it can be to use mealtime as a break. Okay? You're stressed out, you're tired, this baby's a lot of work. You're gonna put 'em in the high chair and boom, you're gonna just like pop your phone out and start your scroll. Nope, don't do it. Okay? Keeping in mind that if your baby is going to choke on food and choking is a very rare but real risk.

Katie Ferraro (15m 7s):

And you should also know there's no higher risk of choking with baby led weaning compared to conventional adult led spoonfeeding. But that only holds true if parents are educated about reducing choking risks. So one thing we do to reduce choking risk is we never leave that baby unattended. And we know the difference between gagging and choking and gagging is a natural and necessary part of learning how to eat. But choking is a potentially life threatening situation, and choking is going to be silent. If Your Baby chokes on food, you will not hear it. So if you're staring at your phone or you're goofing around somewhere else in your house and not watching your baby, you are not gonna be hearing your baby choke again because no air is passing through your baby. Iss going to be silent when they choke. So you always need to make sure that you are sitting and eating with Your Baby.

Katie Ferraro (15m 47s):

Also, keeping in mind that your baby is mimicking what you're doing. So sharing in meal times, you eating what you're eat, your baby's eating what they're eating, you guys are actually enjoying those meal times together, okay? Your baby is learning by watching you. How you bring that food to your mouth, how you chew, how you enjoy your meals, you might feel kind of silly, okay? But modeling those eating behaviors is a very powerful teaching tool. Now, if you're not totally convinced about the power of family meals yet, family meals matter. Okay? Now, why do family meals matter? Because there's a large and growing body of research that shows that family meals are associated with a number of really cool things, greater food variety. I mean, this idea of your baby eating a hundred foods before they turn one, okay?

Katie Ferraro (16m 29s):

That's baby led weaning. That is like diet diversity at its finest. Okay? Your baby's gonna do that if you're offering them all these foods, higher fruit and vegetable intake, okay? We know that parents tend to offer more nutrient dense foods if they take the opportunities to sit down and actually eat together. If you take the time to cook it and you sit the take the time to sit down and eat together, these two things track, okay? We see better long term eating habits for families that eat together. We know that babies who eat with the family are allowed to self feed. If they're allowed to self feed. They tend to eat a wider variety of foods by age one. So that diet diversity and that exposure, it matters. Family meals also serve as a counterbalance to like the constant food messaging that kids receive about less than healthy foods from advertising and media.

Katie Ferraro (17m 12s):

So when we sit together and we eat real foods and we share positive experiences around meals, that really helps build a healthy relationship with food from your baby's first bites. I always like to remind parents like, you've got to feed this small person for the next 17 and a half years of its life. All right? You might as well do the work now in offering a wide variety of foods, when that all important flavor window is open, okay? That's the brief period of time where your baby is gonna like and accept a wide variety of foods. So establishing those family meals early, even if it doesn't look perfect, who cares? You are setting the foundation to help your child develop a relationship with food. Food that's gonna put them on the right course for the rest of their life. Because a lot of us will admit we don't have a great relationship with food.

Katie Ferraro (17m 54s):

Now, a lot of parents in my program that are like, Hey, I'm a picky eater and the reason why I join your program is 'cause I actually don't want to raise a picky eater, and I'd like to remind you that picky eating is developmentally appropriate. All children are gonna experience some degree of picky eating when they get into toddlerhood. You cross over that one year mark picky eating, you're gonna slow down on the number of new foods that you're gonna try. But remember, if your child only has eight or 10 foods by the time they turn one, as most spoonfed babies do, and then Your Baby stops eating those eight or 10 foods due to picky eating, that becomes a very challenging child to feed. But if Your Baby has a hundred foods under their belt by the time they turn one and then you lose eight or 10 of those foods to picky eating, who cares, right? You still have like 90 or 92 foods that Your Baby will eat.

Katie Ferraro (18m 34s):

That's the whole point of the hundred First Foods program. So again, If you wanna grab that 100 First Foods list, I give it away to everybody on the free online workshop called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. That's at baby-led weaning.co/workshop, and if you're ready to start making all those foods on the 100 First Foods list, safe for your baby, check out the program, baby-led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. I've got a full 100 First Foods Daily Meal Plan in there. It's 20 weeks of done for you meal plans. I literally wrote out every food, every meal with every recipe you've got videos, instructions, so you don't even have to think about which food to offer your baby. Next, you can get $50 off when you join with the code BLWPOD50 at baby-led weaning.co/program.

Katie Ferraro (19m 18s):

So when should Your Baby start eating with the family as soon as your baby actually starts eating solid foods? And actually, you can do all those pre feeding exercises with your baby at the table even before you start solid foods. So bring that baby up to the table, modify the foods as needed, keep the meals short, safe and positive. And remember, this is a learning process, okay? It is not a performance. I'll put a link to all of the resources that I mentioned today on the show notes for this episode, which you can find@blwpodcast.com/83. I wanna say a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science, and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave Media.

Katie Ferraro (19m 59s):

We're online@blwpodcast.com. Thank you so much for watching and listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye now.

Nhl (20m 13s):

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