A Big Sister’s Perspective on Picky Eating with Molly Ferraro

‎The Past and the Curious (0s):

Grownups. If there's a child in your life who is interested in curious about or fascinated by people in places from history, then my podcast, The Past and the Curious might just be a hit in your home. From the invention of microscopes to world traveling dogs to fashions of the 1890s Gold Rush ghost towns and audiences going wild for walking competitions, we've got a little bit of it all hosted by children's author and museum educator Mick Sullivan, that's me. The show is fun, funny, engaging, honest and beloved by kids and parents alike. Find The Past and the Curious at all the usual podcast places.

Straight A Nursing Podcast (41s):

If you're a nurse or future nurse, you know how challenging and rewarding this career can be. Hi there. I'm Nurse Mo, creator of the Straight A Nursing podcast. I'd love for you to join me every Thursday as I teach nursing concepts and share tips to help you succeed in school and at the bedside. Each episode breaks down often complex information so it's easy to understand so you could feel more confident whether you're taking an exam or taking care of patients. So subscribe to the Straight Nursing Podcast and I'll see you on Thursday.

Molly Ferraro (1m 17s):

Hi Molly, and I'm dreaming my mom today to talk about how you do baby led weaning. If you have an older kid who is kind of picky, I hope you like this episode.

Katie Ferraro (1m 28s):

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 made easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leading you with the confidence and knowledge You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. Hey there. Before we get started, I wanna share a little context about This episode. So this is a throwback conversation I recorded a few years ago with my oldest daughter Molly. She was six years old at the time, she's now 11. We were talking about a question that I get all the time, which is how do you start baby led weaning with a baby?

Katie Ferraro (2m 11s):

If you already have an older child who's a more selective eater, and this happens a lot, right? Like parents will do not baby led weaning traditional spoon feeding with their first baby, they end up with a picky kid. They start poking around researching for the second kid. I don't wanna repeat that. They find baby led weaning, but they're like, how do I move forward? So at the time we recorded this, Molly was the oldest of my kids, well she's still the oldest of my kids. She'd already watched all six of her younger siblings learn how to eat real food using baby led weaning. So she had this like front row seat to what it looks like when babies are allowed to feed themselves. She had some pretty funny insights to share from a kid's perspective. So she's a big shot sixth grader. Now you guys, although the rest of our kids are all school age, she's still around babies a lot because I work with families, we do parent coaching and the babies come over.

Katie Ferraro (2m 55s):

So she has some thoughts on baby led weaning, namely now that she does dishes, she is not a fan of the mess that the babies leave behind. So while some of the details in today's conversation reflect life from a few years ago, the ideas in This episode are still just as relevant today, especially If you are juggling starting solid foods with the baby while you're also feeding an older child at the table. So, alright, let's get into it. Here's my conversation with 6-year-old Molly.

Molly Ferraro (3m 25s):

Hi guys. My name is Molly Ferraro. I am six years old And I am in first grade. I'm the oldest in my family. We have seven kids total, So I am a singleton and then we have 5-year-old quadruplets. The quadruplets are three boys and one girl. Their names are in order. They were born Charlie, Claire, Henry and Dylan. So my mom did baby led weaning with the quadruplets and that's when I first learned stuff about feeding babies. The quadruplets ate 100 foods before they turned one and my mom is a dietician so she counts that sort of stuff. She actually started working in baby led weaning when the quads were babies because we all saw how cool it was when the babies learn to feed themselves.

Molly Ferraro (4m 15s):

Then when the quads were two, we had two more babies. They are the twins and that's my brother and sister Guss and Hannah. They're almost three years old now and they also did 100 foods and baby led weaning. So yeah, I have six little brothers and sisters who eat a lot of foods. But here's a fun fact. My mom did not do baby led weaning with me. We're going to talk a little bit about that today and how I helped when I was A Big Sister to the babies who were learning how to eat because I know a lot of you have a baby or babies, but you may be interested in baby led weaning because you have an older China child who is kind of picky And you want to avoid that with your baby.

Katie Ferraro (5m 4s):

That's right molly. And there's nothing wrong with being picky. You might in some circles be referred to a a picky eater. We don't love to identify our children by their eating habits. So I try to avoid the term picky eating in teaching, but I get it that a lot of you are concerned about picky eating. And here's the deal with baby led weaning and picky eating. There is a good incredible body of research that shows us that babies who are exposed to the greatest number of foods and flavors and tastes and textures early and often, those are the babies who are more likely to be independent eaters and less likely to be picky eaters. And If you think about picky eating, there's some degree of picky eating that's gonna set in for your child. It generally happens in about the second year of life. Like I don't care how great of a parent you are or how well you did baby led weaning, your kid is gonna get kind of picky and that's okay.

Katie Ferraro (5m 49s):

But here's the deal. Your typical child who does traditional spoonfeeding, by the time they get to one, they might only have like 10 or 15 foods under their belt. And If, If you lose those 10 or 15 foods to picky eating, that becomes a really challenging child to feed. But if your baby has a hundred different foods that they know and like how to eat And you lose 10 or 15 of them to picky eating in the second year, it's not a big deal because you still have 85 or 90 foods left that your baby will eat. So if you're wondering what the link between picky eating and baby led weaning is, no one's claiming that baby led weaning prevents picky eating, but it helps make the picky eating less severe. And to be honest, less annoying because for those of you that have more selective eaters, you know it can be a real challenge.

Katie Ferraro (6m 30s):

And I think baby led weaning is so fascinating because it's one of the few things that does appeal to a second time parent. Think about it, you can sell a first time parent anything like we were all there, right? Like your first baby registry, like yeah, I'll buy anything. And then you realize babies don't need really much any of that stuff to stay alive. But if your first baby turned out to be picky, a lot of times parents will come back the second time around and be like, okay, I'm looking for an alternative or a solution or a different way to start solids to help reduce the picky eating. That's when they find baby led weaning. So we do have a lot of second time or subsequent baby parents out there who are like, okay, I'm here to learn a little bit more about picky eating. And that's what we're gonna talk about today with Molly is how does it work when you have the older sibling?

Katie Ferraro (7m 10s):

So Molly, I don't you don't remember this, but when you were four months old, we started solid foods the way our pediatrician told us how to, which was give her some iron fortified rice cereal And you did not like it sister. Like you did not wanna be fed. You were crying. I remember being so sad you definitely weren't ready. I know that now And you definitely didn't need me to put stuff on a spoon and put it in your mouth And I actually disliked feeding you so much And I was so sad at that time that I used to make your dad do all the feeding for you. So I didn't get a very good start in solid foods. But when the quads were born And I learned about baby led weaning and we started doing that, it was really fun because you could kind of help me in the kitchen. So do you remember when the quadruplets started solid foods?

Molly Ferraro (7m 48s):

I remember when they sat in the quadruple blit seats when they ate a lot of food.

Katie Ferraro (7m 54s):

Like what kind of foods do you start with for baby led weaning? Do you know what are some good foods for babies?

Molly Ferraro (7m 58s):

You should start with some sweet potato and yogurt and avocado. Okay.

Katie Ferraro (8m 4s):

And then after they did a hundred foods, one thing I remember is that you didn't like a lot of different foods And you still maybe don't eat as many foods as a lot of other kids. But one thing that was super helpful was you could help me in the kitchen. So we have a tower And I have, I remember we used to stand up in the tower And you could help me do stuff like eggs. So eggs are an easy food for babies to eat. You could help me crack the eggs. Even when you were two years old, you learned how to crack an egg And you used to stand up next to me and help me cook. Which kids who help their parents cook are more inclined to eat the food. So, And

Molly Ferraro (8m 35s):

I still remember and we still stand in that tower 'cause it's really fun and we help mom cook.

Katie Ferraro (8m 41s):

So an easy way to get your toddler involved is to have them cooking even if they can't do, And I know cooking with toddlers can be like the most aggravating thing in the world, but if there's any kitchen tasks that you can get them involved with. And one thing I love is having a tower, like just a safe space for the baby to kind of get pulled up to the counter. The one we have, and this is not sponsored by any means, And I don't even work with the brand, but I just love their tower. It's called the Learning Tower and it's from a company called Little Partners. And I like that one because then when the quads got a little bit bigger, like I could literally put like four toddlers in there at one time. I mean they fight and push, but it's a bigger tower on the flip side, it's like a little bit clunky and kind of hard and heavy to carry around, but it's a safe place for the kids to get up and be able to help you cooking early on, just giving them little tasks.

Katie Ferraro (9m 24s):

'cause again, they are more inclined to eat the foods that they help prepare. And I think those of you with older kids can vouch for that as well. So after the Quads, Molly, we did the twins, baby led weaning And you helped a lot with that because we were documenting their hundred First Foods for Instagram every single day. Lots of videos, there was always crying kids in the background, but that's real life when you're trying new foods. And so my next tip for sibling stuff is about trying to minimize distraction when your baby or babies are eating. So when it comes to minimizing distraction, one of the beautiful things about baby led weaning is that ideally you can be eating at the table with the rest of your family, but sometimes If you have an older child that can actually be distracting.

Katie Ferraro (10m 6s):

So you have to figure out what works for your family. I know when we were doing baby led weaning with the twins, I would do their new food of the day. So if I was feeding them two or three times a day, at least the first part of of one of those feeds, I would try to just have me and the twins by myself. And that meant probably putting five other kids in front of a show or having them screaming in another room. But it really does help the infant who's learning how to eat, if at all possible, to maintain a distraction-free feeding environment. So trying to keep the other SC screamy kids away If you can, trying to avoid, you know, loud music or lots of talking from other adults or the iPad. These things can all be distracting to your baby who's learning how to eat. And

Molly Ferraro (10m 42s):

Dogs can also be distracting even though they're cute. You should keep them out of the kitchen when the baby's eating. Another thing you can do with your toddler is make trying new foods a fun challenge. Let's say you're trying broccoli for the baby. Ask the big kid what color is the new food the baby is trying or can you tell me what it feels like in your mouth? Or do you want to be brave and show your little sister how to eat broccoli?

Hungry Root (11m 17s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. This episode is sponsored by Hungry Root. You know that saying about the cobbler's kids never having any shoes? I feel that to my core because I cook and prep food and tweak recipes for babies all day long in my business. But then the burden of trying to figure out what to feed my actual family for dinner, it just looms large at the end of every work day. And I know I sound like a broken record going on about Hungry Root, but it is one of the things that has truly simplified my life lately. It's been extra helpful 'cause I feel like Hungry Root finally gets me. Here's what I mean. Hungry Root is a personalized grocery and recipe service that plans your food for you. So it fills your cart with meals and groceries that fit your health goals, your food preferences, and your budget, and then delivers everything right to your door. So the mental load relief is real. Like even if I only use Hungry Root for one or two dinners a week, that's a few nights where I know I don't have to do the like what are we eating? Do we have the ingredients? Is anybody gonna complain? Like Spiraling outta control? I've just opened the app, I pick what looks good, it's basically handled. Plus, there is so much variety. There are over 50,000 chef crafted recipes with many ready in 15 minutes or less. Plus there's over a thousand grocery items now too. I know you're gonna love Hungry Root as much as I do for a limited time. You can get 40% off your first box plus get a free item in every box for life. Go to Hungry Root dot com slash weaning and use the code weaning, that's Hungry Root dot com slash weaning code weaning to get 40% off your first box and a free item of your choice for life.

Katie Ferraro (13m 4s):

So another fun thing you can do when you're starting solids, If you have an older child, is to kind of make a game out of the new foods that the baby is trying. So If you do my hundred First Foods approach to starting solid foods every day or five days a week, we try a new food with the babies. So when Gus and Hannah were starting solids And I was doing the a hundred First Foods on Instagram with you guys for them every day, Molly And I would talk about the food that it was. So each of the five days in the five step feeding framework on Monday we would do a new fruit on Tuesday, a new vegetable on Wednesday, a new starch Thursday, a new protein food. And then on Friday we would do an allergenic food. She would help me cross them off the list. So we would use it as a way to talk about foods.

Katie Ferraro (13m 44s):

We would also color the foods in. She would learn a little bit about numbers and it was just kind of a way to engage her more in the foods that she ate and then also giving her the opportunity to try them and kind of be in charge if she was with us when they were eating. So, okay, so Molly, do you remember what the hundredth food was that Gus and Hannah had? It was the one that I let you do the video for it when we were celebrating their hundred foods. What was their hundredth food? Lemon. It was lemon. Do you remember what we made to celebrate? Lemon Greek, lemon chicken soup, Greek lemon chicken soup. One of my favorite baby led weaning recipes. I'm gonna share that with you guys. Molly, do you still like Greek lemon chicken soup kind of kind of most foods with Molly? It's kind of, and that's okay. And another resource for you guys If you are struggling with picky eating or you want to learn more about it, I have a podcast episode I did called Preventing Picky Eating from Baby's First Bites with Dr.

Katie Ferraro (14m 31s):

Katya Roel. That was episode number 36 and Dr. Rowel was on, she's a family doctor turned childhood feeding specialist. She's the author of the book Helping Your Child With Extreme Picky Eating. It's a step-by-step guide to overcoming selective eating food aversions and feeding disorders. A lot more great info inside of that episode. That's at blw podcast.com/ 36. And that book, the Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating, she co-authored that with the speech language pathologist and feeding therapist Jenny McLaughlin. And Jenny was also on the podcast in a separate episode as well. So more resources for you on Picky eating@blwpodcast.com/36. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that conversation with 6-year-old Molly talking a little bit about how to handle the situation of baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (15m 18s):

If you've got more selective eaters in your family. And for some of you listening, I know you may be new to this space of baby led weaning or it's something that you're kind of on the fence about. If you are looking to learn more about how to start solid foods safely with baby led weaning, the best place to start learning is my free online masterclass. It's called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. So this is a one hour free online video training where I'll show you exactly how to prep foods safely for baby led weaning. I also give everybody on this free masterclass a copy of my original hundred First Foods list so you'll never run out of ideas of foods your baby can eat.

Katie Ferraro (15m 58s):

You can get signed up at baby led weaning.co/workshop. You can take this masterclass later today while your baby's napping tomorrow. Literally, whatever works for you. I know you're an audio person, but If you wanna get some eyeballs on the video aspect to actually see this food prep stuff in action, come check out BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. I'll also put a link to the signup in the description and the show notes for This episode. You can find those@blwpodcast.com/09 oh actually just slash 90 sorry. And 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.

Katie Ferraro (16m 43s):

We're online at baby led weaning.co. Thank you so much for listening, And I'll see you next time.