Back to Work & Baby-Led Weaning: How 3 Moms Did It

Windows (0s):

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Andor (31s):

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Katie (1m 2s):

What really helped me the most was preparing his meals in advance each day. I tried to offer a good variety, so he loved pancakes from the very beginning. So I would make different versions using fruits and vegetables. I also seen them mix of veggies and cut up fruits into finger size pieces.

Katie Ferraro (1m 17s):

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. Hello and Welcome back. If you are getting ready to go Back to Work and you're also staring down that transition to solid foods, you might be feeling like this is just one too many things because I know it's one thing to say, yeah, I wanna try and give Baby-ledweaning a go.

Katie Ferraro (2m 0s):

But it's another thing entirely to think about actually doing it when you're juggling pumping or bottles and you've got daycare forms or a partner who may or may not be on the same page about feeding. And then you've got that very real fear of what if this just doesn't work for us? And if that's where you are right now, I want you to know something Baby-led weaning can work for working moms. Not because it's magically easier, not because you have tons of free time and definitely not because you need to be making like cute little Instagram lunches at 5:00 AM Nobody's got time for that. It can work because Babies can eat so many more foods than we give them credit for. And with the right plan, baby-led weaning does not have to add more chaos to your life.

Katie Ferraro (2m 43s):

It can actually help reduce the mental load because your baby's learning to eat modified versions of the same real foods the rest of the family is eating. Now I know also that for a lot of moms, the biggest sticking point, it's not even the food, it's daycare. Maybe you're wondering like, are they gonna let me send real food? Do they have a purees only policy? Will they be comfortable with finger foods or am I gonna have to explain and defend this whole thing to somebody who thinks that maybe purees are the only safe option? That part is hard. Okay. Especially when you already feel a little unsure yourself. So In this episode, I want to help take some of that pressure off because you do not need to have everything figured out before you start.

Katie Ferraro (3m 28s):

You do not need to be home all day in order for baby led weaning to be successful. That's not real life, okay? You don't need to give up the idea of raising an independent eater just because your maternity leave is ending. So in a moment, you're going to hear from three moms who did go Back to Work and they still made baby Led Weaning work for their families. And that looks different for all of us, right? I know personally, I have an au pair who helps us and I would never be able to work and have kids if I didn't have her help. She's invaluable to our family. But some families do daycare, some families work from home. One of the moms you're gonna hear from has a babysitter. Another one actually has her own mom watching her baby, which sounds awesome, but I know that also comes with a lot of other stuff as well.

Katie Ferraro (4m 14s):

So these again, are real moms sharing what helped, what their childcare situation looked like and how they handled the logistics. And then what made this feel doable in real life, not just in theory, but before we get into their stories. If daycare is the part that you're worried about, and I know I was just talking to one of my cousins, I sent her her highchair because her baby's starting solid foods and she's like, Katie, I can't even think about starting solid foods till I get my daycare situation figured out. I know how hard it is to focus on anything in life if your childcare situation is not figured out. If your baby's going to daycare and you're doing baby-led weaning, listen up. This is for you. I have a free feeding guide that I made called How to Be a Baby Led Weaning Advocate at Daycare.

Katie Ferraro (4m 59s):

Okay? Inside of that guide, I'm gonna be sharing the exact scripts that I use and you can use to help your daycare get on board with Baby-led weaning so that you do not have to make this up as you go, or try to explain from scratch when you're already stressed, okay? So you can grab that free feeding guide, How to Be a Baby Led Weaning Advocate at Daycare by going to my website, baby led weaning.co/resources. Or you can also just click the link in the description wherever you're listening to this, we're watching this. So again, that's baby-led weaning.co/resources to grab the free feeding guide, How to Be a Baby Led Weaning Advocate at Daycare. And now I want you to hear from three wonderful moms who are going to share their tips on how they went Back to Work and still succeeded with Baby-led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (5m 51s):

The first mom that I wanna introduce is Yesenia Hacobo. So Yesenia is also a registered dietitian. She is a brand new mom too. Yesenia was my intern back before she was a dietitian. I remember interviewing her and she had told me that she was just pregnant And we actually timed her rotation so that her baby would be around six months of age when she was doing her pediatric rotation with me. And it was so fun. So she got to work on all these recipes for My program, Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro, and then try 'em out on her own baby. So it was wonderful to get to work with her. And she went Back to Work pretty quickly after she had her baby. So she was doing, check this out, she was doing her dietetic internship, getting her master's degree and working as a new mom at the same time.

Katie Ferraro (6m 37s):

Moms are such wonderful people, but here are Yesenia's thoughts on how she made Baby-led weaning work while having a baby at daycare.

Yesenia Hacobo (6m 47s):

Going Back to Work wasn't easy. However, what worked for us is one, educating our Daycare person on baby Led Weaning because they were unaware of the approach of baby Led Weaning and what it was about. So showing them videos and kind of just showing them what it was about. And then we would send them, we would send my daughter with foods that we would try the day before. So if we tried a new food on Tuesday, that's what she would be sent with on Wednesday. And since we would have kind of like an abundance of food that was made that she tried out, that's what would be sent for the rest of the week.

Yesenia Hacobo (7m 28s):

Just kind of like a mixture of different foods that she was trying out for the week. And that's kind of like how we would send her breakfast and her lunches with with daycare.

Katie Ferraro (7m 41s):

I love that Yesenia pointed out the reality that you do have to send the food to daycare, and that's the unfortunate reality of it. Okay? We do have to make food for these small people for the next 17 and a half years of their life. If you want a done for you plan that shows you exactly how to make all of these foods safe for Baby-led weaning, My program BABY Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro is the perfect fit for you. I have a hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan in there. Tons of all the recipes and the videos and the instructions on how to make the food safe for your baby's age and stage. There's also a $50 off discount code located in the episode description. If you wanna get started, head to baby-led weaning,co/program to learn more.

Katie Ferraro (8m 23s):

The next mom who's gonna join us is a mom who's also in my program. Her name is also Katie. This is Katie l and she's a nurse, so her situation is a little bit different and they have a babysitter versus a daycare situation, but she's gone for 12 hours at a time. So listen to what's working for her.

Katie (8m 42s):

Hi Katie. I am a nurse, so my schedule is a bit all over the place. I only work a few shifts a week, but they're 12 hours long. So on the days that I work, I'm not home at all. I usually don't see my daughter. And so we've been doing baby Led Weaning. We've been using your Daily Meal Plan, which we love. So how we make it work is over the weekend my, either my husband or I will go to the grocery store and get all the foods that are needed for the upcoming week. And then when I'm home with her, I can make the foods. But when I have a shift or two coming up, I'll prep the foods the day before that she'll be me to eating for the next couple of days.

Katie (9m 26s):

And we have been using the ezpz bowls and Matt's because I love that they have a lid on them. So I just prep the meals, I put them in the bowls and I put 'em in the fridge so that they're ready to go for our babysitter. And then she will just feed our daughter a couple times during the day while she's here. And before we started all of this, we just talked to her about the basic principles of Baby-led weaning and you know how to sit my daughter in the high chair and how to make sure that she was safe. And so that's been working for us and we've been really loving it.

KiwiCo (10m 3s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. Can I be honest? That summer kind of freaks me out and it's primarily because my kids are home from school, which I love, but also I'm still trying to work and suddenly the days seem so long. Camps are not long enough and they're super expensive, especially with seven kids. So I'm constantly trying to figure out what can they do that's actually fun that will keep them busy and that will not turn into like a screen time free for all. And that is why I've been very grateful for Kiwi Co and their summer adventure series. So Kiwi Co provides hands-on fun educational kits that come right to your door. So when you give a Kiwi co crate or a kit or a gift set, you are not just giving a toy, you're giving kids the tools to create their own fun. And if you have little kids who are curious, you've got to check out the Kiwi Co Make and Play Kit for kids age two to three years old. I love watching toddlers get totally locked in, right? They start experimenting, they get stuck for a second, then they try again without asking for help. And when it finally works, they have that proud little I did it moment, and then they wanna keep playing. It's the best kind of busy because it feels like play, but they're learning and creating. With the Kiwi Co Summer Adventure Series, kids get six ands on projects and they get these kits that come to them over six weeks. The themes are so fun. There's Ocean Games, neighborhood fun, alphabet play, little driver space search, my personal favorite kitchen play. So if you want to build the best summer ever with Kiwi Co, get $10 off your summer adventure series@kiwicode.com/summer promo code weaning. That's K-I-W-I-C o.com/summer promo code weaning for $10 off.

EasyPeasy (11m 58s):

I am also a huge fan of those easy peasy lids that she was talking about when they came out with the lids. I was like, oh, finally you can stack your plates. So what I'll do sometimes is, especially if I'm making like a food for babies that I'm working with, I'll make a whole week's worth of foods and put the lids on 'em and stack 'em. It is so convenient. And then the sitter grandma partner, whoever it is, knows exactly what to feed. You can actually write in dry erase marker on the easy peasy bowls as well, which I do that to kind of stay organized. If you want to check out the Easy Peasy products, I do have an affiliate discount code. So the code BABYLED works for 15% off. So if you go to easy peasy fun.com/ BABYLED, I've got all of my favorite products for Babyledweaning that work really great for babysitters, daycare going Back to Work, but definitely check out the easy peasy lids.

Katie Ferraro (12m 45s):

And thank you Katie for sharing all of that. I think you're so super amazing and organized, especially that you're doing all that weekend food prep. So the third mom that I wanna introduce you guys to is Edna. Edna is a registered dietician and an I-B-C-L-C. So she has a specialty advanced training in breastfeeding and lactation, and her little baby is just so absolutely adorable. She worked for me for a number of years before she had a baby. So she's also going through my program and helping her baby eat a hundred different foods, and she's got some great tips for you, and I think she has a really cool situation on who's helping her watch her baby.

Edna (13m 24s):

My son was born cream at 33 weeks, so my husband and I decided to wait and introduce solids based on his adjusted age, and the timing just ended up aligning with when I had to return to work. Thankfully, I was able to leave him with my mom during the day, but that did make our baby Led Weaning journey a bit more challenging. I had to make sure she had everything she needed to confidently follow the baby Led Weaning approach while caring for him. But what really helped me the most was preparing his meals in advance each day. I tried to offer a good variety, so he loved pancakes from the very beginning. So I would make different versions using fruits and vegetables. I also steamed a mix of veggies and cut up fruits into fingers size pieces.

Edna (14m 4s):

Then I would store everything in separate baby food containers, which made it easier for my mom to either warm the food or serve it directly on his plate. And he's also been a breastfed baby since the beginning. So I would also pack pumped breast milk for him to drink from his small cup. And the essentials I made sure to include in his bag every day where his easy peasy plate, his cup and his spoon. And just having those familiar tools really helped keep things consistent. But overall, my biggest tip for working mom, starting their BABYLED wing journey is to prep ahead as much as possible. That includes planning and grocery shopping. Having a clear idea of what you'll be offering and buying what you need at the start of the week can help reduce stress and overthinking, but most importantly allows you to enjoy the process because it really is such a fun and rewarding experience.

Katie Ferraro (14m 51s):

Well, thank you Edna. It's so great to hear from all of the moms. I know that going Back to Work is a stressful time, but I also want you to know that just because you are working, your baby still deserves the right to learn how to eat real food, And we can make this work even if you're in a somewhat challenging childcare situation. So I hope that hearing from those moms helped you out. Again, if you're going to daycare, check out that free feeding guide, How to Be a Baby-Led Weaning Advocate at Daycare, and it's at baby Led Weaning.co/resources. That's a free feeding guide if you're packing up food. I love the Ezpz products that Code BABYLED works for 15% off@easypeasyfun.com/BABYLED.

Katie Ferraro (15m 33s):

If you're looking for step-by-step instructions on how to make all of these foods safe for Baby-led weaning, please check out My program, BABY Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. I've got my hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan in there. You literally don't have to think about what food to offer your baby next 'cause I already did it for you. And the discount code to save $50 and get started today is in the episode description. So thank you guys so much for listening

Airwave Media (15m 56s):

and 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. We're online@blwpodcast.com.

Katie Ferraro (16m 10s):

Thank you so much for listening and I will see you next time and good luck. If you're going Back to Work, you will figure this out. Trust me, your baby will learn how to eat and like one of the moms in our program just told me, she said that her daycare called her and said, your baby is the best eater in the infant room. And she said, it's all due to the hundred First Foods program. So I hope your baby is also the best eater in the infant room, and I'm here to help you get there. Alright guys, thanks so much for listening. See you next time. Bye now,

‎The Past and the Curious (16m 47s):

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