4 & 5-Month Olds: Your Baby-Led Weaning Pre-Feeding Plan

Whisker (1s):

Today's episode is sponsored by Whisker makers of the Litter Robot, the self cleaning litter box that helps take one more household chore off your plate because as a mom of seven, I know when you're in the baby phase, you've already got so much cleanup, right? You're wiping the high chair and cleaning sweet potato off the floor, getting food out a tiny little neck folds. And when people would talk about getting a cat, the thing that always stopped me was not the cat, it was the litter, the scooping and the smell and the whole like, wait, I have to touch this everyday situation. Because when you have a baby at home, you are already touching enough questionable things. That is why Litter Robot by Whisker makes so much sense for busy families. It automatically cycles after every use so you're not scooping every day or handling waste the way that you would with a traditional litter box. And the big thing for me is the no contact benefit Litter Robot handles the dirty work So you are not building your day around litter box duty. The Whisker app can also notify you about your unit, like when the litter robot has completed a clean cycle or when the drawer or the litter level needs your attention. I love a system that's quietly doing its job in the background because as parents, like we already have enough tabs open in our brains. Whisker has an automatic litter box model for different types of cat families. So if you have like a single cat home, but it also goes for homes with up to five cats plus bundles that make it really easy to get fully set up while saving money, you can take an additional $50 off bundles with the code weaning when you shop Whisker dot com slash weaning. So that's an additional $50 off bundles using the code weaning when you shop at Whisker dot com slash weaning.

Disney (1m 40s):

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Katie Ferraro (2m 11s):

And I know that the tummy time can feel like such a pain in the neck. You've got so many other things to do, but it becomes so important in the pre feeding phase. So that's why we do these sitting exercises. We do the reaching, we do the rolling, we do the tummy time because you're helping Your Baby build that foundational support and those important muscles they're gonna need for that head and their neck control, their trunk strength, all that are gonna show up around the six month mark when they're sitting that are going to help support a safe swallow. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the Baby-Ledweaning 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 5s):

Hello and welcome back. Today we're talking to the parents of four and five month olds in, I've got Your Baby Led Weaning Pre Feeding Plan. Now you might be like, why do I need to worry about this when my baby's not even ready to start solid foods? Well, I talk to lots of parents who are doing baby led weaning and a lot of them, especially the ones in my program, self-identify as being type A. I like a plan, I like to know it's coming. I like to know what I need to do. I like to check a box and once I start something, I'm gonna finish it. So we know, especially from breastfeeding education, that the more education a parent has about breastfeeding before the baby arrives, the more successful they are with breastfeeding.

Katie Ferraro (3m 46s):

And so in baby led weaning, we also see that when parents are prepared for what's gonna happen when the baby starts solid foods, so when they're paying attention in that pre feeding phase, they have more success with baby led weaning when the child actually starts solid foods. So that's the point of today's episode, getting Your Baby ready with a pre Feeding Plan. Now, I like to start out each of these mini training episodes with a baby led weaning tip of the day. And today's tip is your four or five month old is not ready to eat solid foods. So that doesn't mean that there's nothing for you to do though. And I know this sounds kind of confusing because you might have a pediatrician visit coming up or your mother-in-law's asking you like, Hey, the baby's four months of age.

Katie Ferraro (4m 26s):

When are you gonna start solid foods? Or maybe there's a mom from your birth month group and they're already posting pictures of their eating purees and you're thinking like, wait, what am I behind? Is my baby supposed to be doing something? So we want to be very clear from the top that we wait until babies are six months of age or six months adjusted age if Your Baby was born prematurely to start solid foods, breast milk and or formula is sufficient to meet your baby's needs for the first six months of life. So from a nutritional standpoint, they don't need anything other than breast milk or formula. But there's still what I call the pre feeding phase at four to five months of age where you're not feeding Your Baby solid foods yet, but we're helping Your Baby build the developmental skills, the setup, and the safety foundation that's going to make starting solid foods so much easier when your baby's actually ready.

Katie Ferraro (5m 16s):

So in today's episode, I wanna walk you through what you can do at the four and five month mark to get ready for baby led weaning without starting too early and hang tight. 'cause I'm also gonna share what you don't need to do, what you don't wanna waste your time or money on in the pre feeding phase. 'cause there's a lot of marketing, especially towards parents of four and five month old babies. And a lot of this comes from the food side where they want you to think that Your Baby should start solid foods at four or five months of age. Because the reality is that's just expanding the timeline where you as a customer or purchasing food products from them. But let's be clear, babies don't need anything except breast milk or formula prior to six months of age. Alright, so first, what are we not doing at four and five months of age? We're not offering solid foods.

Katie Ferraro (5m 57s):

We're not putting rice cereal in a bottle that doesn't help babies sleep through the night. And in fact, it could increase the risk of choking. We're not practicing with taste of food in your finger. We're not saying, well, I'm just gonna shove a little bit of this spoon of food in their mouth. It might be fun. What's the harm? Okay. And we're not starting solid foods early. 'cause Your Baby is big. We're not starting solid foods early 'cause Your Baby is small. We're not starting solid foods early. 'cause your baby's not sleeping through the night yet. Okay? And the confusing message that a lot of parents hear it comes from the doctor is you can start solid foods between four and six months of age. That is outdated information. Every major health body maintains that breast milk is sufficient to meet a baby's needs for the first six months of life. So if a doctor is telling you to start solid foods at four to six months of age, that's an anti breastfeeding message.

Katie Ferraro (6m 41s):

Especially for those of you that are exclusively breastfeeding. You are going to start to question yourself, well, what's wrong? Am I not getting an giving enough to my babies? Is there something wrong with my breast milk? You start offering even just small amounts of solid food, take a very valuable room in a baby's stomach that should be reserved for breast milk until six months of age. So whoa, take a breath. At four to five months, your baby's still learning how to organize their body, how to use their hands, how to control their head and neck. They're gonna be learning how to sit with support. They're gonna start bringing the objects to their mouth and how to tolerate new sensory input. All of these are important skills that they're working on in the pre feeding phase because starting solid foods and baby led weaning is not just about put food in front of the baby and hope for the best.

Katie Ferraro (7m 25s):

Safety is a system. It's not a social media search here. So we're gonna talk about five things that you can do in the pre feeding phase. And number one, keep infant milk as your baby's nutrition plan. We've talked about the importance of infant milk. Food is not in the picture yet. And honestly, for a lot of parents, this is a relief. You finally figured out your breast or your bottle feeding routine. You know how often your baby's gonna nurse or need a bottle. Solid foods can feel like, oh my gosh, somebody's just handing me another job. I get it. So the good news, at four to five months, we're not adding meals yet. We're holding steady with that infant milk. Breast milk or formula and preparing the environment around the baby. That's your work right now. Number two, I want you to learn the real signs of readiness to eat.

Katie Ferraro (8m 5s):

Okay? The first sign of readiness is age. We talked about being six months of age or six months adjusted age if they were born prematurely, but age alone is not enough. Okay? Your Baby needs to also be able to sit relatively on their own. And this is the big one. 'cause being able to sit relatively independently shows us that the baby has the trunk strength and the head and the neck control to help support a safe swallow. So do they have to sit like perfectly upright in the middle of the room for 20 minutes while you like, you know, run around the house and vacuum or whatever you do? No, not, that's not the standard. Okay? But Your Baby should be able to sit with very little support, hold their head steady and maintain a safe upright position in the height chair. And not all babies are really ready to sit at six months, right? It sometimes it's six months plus one week or six months plus two weeks, six months plus three weeks. This is not a race.

Katie Ferraro (8m 45s):

You do not get bonus points for Your Baby starting solid foods early, okay? Other signs of readiness to eat include, they're gonna start bringing objects to their mouth. They're gonna start showing interest in their food. But again, don't over interpret these signs if your baby's not sitting on their own and pass the six month mark, pump the brakes. Not time to start solid foods yet. Alright, step number three, practice sitting before food. Okay? At four and five months, Your Baby is not sitting on their own, but you can start doing some sitting exercises, other exercises, And I know everybody hates tummy time, but tummy time is still really important in the pre feeding phase, okay? It's going to help them develop that head and neck strength, that trunk control eventually, that they'll need to support that safe swallow.

Katie Ferraro (9m 28s):

We can do supported sitting exercises, we can play on the floor, we can do rolling exercises. We want the baby reaching for toys, bringing toys and objects to their mouth. Okay? I know this can be like a whole situation. Some babies love it. Some babies you have to like, you know, they act like they're personally offended when you put them on their belly for 37 seconds. But practice makes progress. Just keep the tummy time, keep the supported sitting, keep the rolling exercises just as part of your daily plan when you're playing with Your Baby, okay? You can use pillows around Your Baby for support when you're there with them. You can offer toys at the midline so they can practice reaching and bringing the objects to their mouth. Okay? These are just a few of the skills that you can do before Your Baby starts solid foods. All right? Step number four, let's get your high chair situation handled.

Katie Ferraro (10m 10s):

Okay? This is one of my favorite pre feeding tasks because again, a lot of my baby led weaning moms self identify as type A. I know you have the highchair at your house, but you may not have put it together. This is the memo to put the highchair together. All right? Because at four or five months you can get your highchair, get it set up, start getting Your Baby acclimated to it. The highchair matters because Your Baby needs to be stable in order to safely eat. Okay? I teach what's called the three by 90 safe highchair seating setup. We want the baby's hips at 90 degrees, their knees at 90 degrees and their ankles at 90 degrees. Again, the baby's back should be flat, okay? We don't want them reclined backwards. Their feet are supported on a solid foot plate that their feet can reach on the high chair.

Katie Ferraro (10m 50s):

Okay? If your high chair doesn't have an adjustable footrest, you can add foot support. Parents can do this. You can do it with, I use a lot of my own nutrition textbooks or cookbooks, a yoga block, a fixed with a bungee cord. Whatever you need to do to get your baby's feet to reach that footrest is important. So get the high chair together because we know, especially for the babies who don't like their stroller and they don't like their car seat, they tend to really not like the highchair. So let's get them acclimated, sitting in the highchair, joining you at meal times, even before they're eating so that it's not a situation where the first day Your Baby eats solid foods. Also happens to be the first time they've ever sat in the high chair.

KiwiCo (11m 25s):

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Katie Ferraro (13m 19s):

Step number five is to offer safe oral development tools and teethers. So at four or five months of age, babies are starting to mouth everything. Their hands, their toys, your hair, okay? The drawstring on your sweatshirt, like whatever they can get their hands on. Mouthing is not a problem. Mouthing is part of learning. As Marsha Dunn Klein, the esteemed pediatric feeding expert says, if you can't bring things to your mouth, you can't learn how to eat. Like that's step one. Okay?

EasyPeasy (13m 42s):

So this can be a helpful time to offer safe oral development tools or teethers. Okay? You don't need to put food on them at this point. No, we don't do honey or peanut butter purees. Okay? Just give them the tool or the tether. Your Baby can practice bringing it to their mouth, moving it all around. A couple ones that I like. Marsha Dunn Klein makes a tether heart. I'll link to that in the description and she has a discount code for that as well. And then the easy peasy oral development tools. Those were designed by their pediatric feeding expert and there's lots of really good information about like oral development inside the packaging of that product. If you use the code Baby lead, that's my affiliate discount code for easy peasy. You can get 15% off all of the easy peasy feeding gear. So if you head to easy peasy fun.com/baby lead, you can check out those oral development tools.

Katie Ferraro (14m 32s):

Alright? What do you not buy or nee can skip in the pre feeding phase? Alright? You don't need to go get a baby food maker. Those are asinine. If you have a pot with a lid and water at your house, you can literally do the same things that a baby food maker does. Okay? So pump the brakes on any $300 device that you're gonna use for like two days. You don't need it. You don't need a freezer tray system for 47 different purees. You do not need to buy mesh teethers for feeding. You don't need pouches, you don't need sippy cups. You don't need to go buy like forks for a six month old, okay? They don't even use a fork till after they're one. You don't need a bunch of complicated gadgets that turn your kitchen into a baby feeding laboratory. Okay? The essentials for baby led weaning. Pretty simple. A safe high chair, I like a suction mat or bowl, a baby led weaning spoon to practice the preloaded spoon and open cup.

Katie Ferraro (15m 18s):

Okay? A bib that doesn't restrict their movement is good. And maybe a splash mat under your high chair. That's the basics. All right? So where do parents tend to get stuck at four and five months of age? The biggest place where parents get stuck is pressure from outside people, pressure from family pressure from the pediatrician, pressure from social media, pressure from your own brain. That's like everyone seems to know what they're doing. And I'm the only one who missed the instruction manual. You did not miss the instruction manual. There's no instinctive like mom or dad, gene that magically teaches you how to safely prepare meat and introduce allergens and set up a highchair and know the difference between gagging and joking. Okay? Feeding is a learned skill for both Your Baby And you. Okay? So when you're in that four or the five month stage, you have this really nice opportunity to learn before the pressure is on.

Katie Ferraro (16m 4s):

Because once Your Baby is six months and they're sitting relatively on their own, the questions start coming fast. What food do I offer first? How do I cut it? How soft does it need to be? What if they gag or choke? What if my daycare won't do baby led weaning? What if my partner's nervous? What if my baby doesn't have teeth or they don't eat or they eat too much, or I mess this up? Like you're constantly inundated with questions, okay? That's why the pre feeding phase matters, okay? Because Your Baby does not need food early. What you deserve is a plan before the first bite. So if you want to grab the full pre Feeding Plan, I've laid it out for you. I have a whole pre feeding section inside of my signature online program, baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro. I'll walk you through exactly what to do before Your Baby starts solid foods.

Katie Ferraro (16m 48s):

So what are the nutrition needs at four to five months? What are the sitting exercises that we can do? What are the best highchair? How do we use these oral development tools? What choking prevention practices should we engage in before we start solid foods? Okay? You're not gonna be piecing this all together from a free app or a Facebook group or like whatever your cousin did with her baby in 2016, okay? My program also includes my complete hundred FIRST FOODS content library with step-by-step videos that show you how to prepare foods for Your Baby age and stage. And I have a hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan with 20 weeks of done for you menus. So my hundred First Foods list is the what shows you what foods your babies can eat. But my program is the how.

Katie Ferraro (17m 29s):

So you can join the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro program today. There's actually a $50 off discount code for podcast listeners that's linked in the description wherever you're listening to or watching this episode. So if your baby's four or five months And you wanna walk into that six month mark feeling prepared instead of panicked, this is the perfect time to join. So let's recap real quick. Your four to five month old Feeding Plan. Number one, keep infant milk as the nutrition priority. Breast milk or formula is sufficient to meet your baby's needs for the first six months of life, and they will continue to provide nutrition even after you start solid foods. Number two, look for the real signs of readiness to eat Your Baby being six months of age or six months adjusted age if they were born prematurely.

Katie Ferraro (18m 10s):

Plus sitting relatively independently before you even think about offering a bite of solid foods. Number three, practice those sitting exercises before food. Keep it up with your tummy time. Do supported sitting. Spend some floor time together, practice reaching, enrolling to help build the strength and coordination that Your Baby will use later to support a safe swallow. Number four, get your highchair set up handled. Get that three by 90 position. Make sure the baby's feet are resting flat on the solid foot plate. You're gonna have to do some adjustments to your highchair 'cause I guarantee you, their feet will not reach that footrest right away. So start now before it matters. And then step number five, try out some oral development tools or teethers without food on them. Mouthing is learning, but mouthing doesn't automatically mean your baby's ready to eat.

Katie Ferraro (18m 52s):

And the big takeaway, don't start solid foods just because you feel pressure to start. Let Your Baby show you that they're ready after the six month mark when they're sitting on their own. Alright, so here's your action step. Your quick win. Get Your Baby on the floor for a few extra minutes every day. Practice that supported sitting, and then go take a look at your highchair setup 'cause I think it's gonna need some work. This is your pre feeding work. It counts. And when your baby's ready, you're gonna have that foundation in place to start solid foods with much more confidence. And I'm here to help you both before you're eating, but once Your Baby also gets ready to take those first bites. Thank you so much for listening. I'm gonna put the show notes up online@blwpodcast.com/113, and a special thank you to our partners at Airwave Media.

Katie Ferraro (19m 37s):

If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from Airwave Media or online@blwpodcast.com. Thanks again for listening. See you next time.

Mick Sullivan (19m 55s):

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