When Can I Start Sending Food to Daycare? with Yesenia Jacobo

Katie Ferraro (0s):

Have you ever tried to crack your own coconut? I remember the first time I tried to make coconut for my baby twins, I had no clue what I was doing. It involved a coconut, a screwdriver, a hammer. There were safety goggles. Since that time, I've learned a lot about making foods safe for babies. And spoiler alert, there are way easier ways to get your baby to safely try coconut. This week I'm actually making coconut as one of the five new foods that I'm making for my friend's baby Ezra. So I'm cooking all of his a hundred First Foods and we're on week 10, meaning we're almost halfway there. He is gonna be trying foods number 46 to 50 this week. He's just past eight months of age now and the five new foods we're trying this week, our coconut for the new fruit of the week. Green beans are his new vegetable.

Katie Ferraro (40s):

The whole grain starchy food we're doing is bulgur. One of my favorite plant proteins, kidney beans. I'm making this amazing kidney bean pie. It's this new plant protein. And then we're also gonna be doing ricotta cheese as another way to introduce the potentially allergenic food cow's milk protein. So if you are just getting started with solid foods, if you're interested in learning more about how to make foods safe for baby-led weaning without having to wear safety goggles, the best place to get started is my free online video workshop. It's called Baby-Led Weaning For Beginners, I just redid this whole training. There are so many good visuals of how to prep foods safely and ideas what to feed for the first few weeks of Baby-Led Weaning plus a whole section on making allergenic foods like the ricotta.

Katie Ferraro (1m 23s):

We're gonna make our own ricotta. You can definitely buy your own too, but it's super easy to make and to make it safely for your baby to eat. Everybody on this free workshop gets a copy of my original hundred First Foods list so you'll never run out of ideas that your baby can eat. You can sign up for this workshop if you go to workshop.babyledweaning.co you can register and take it right now or you can take it later today or like if your baby's taking a nap or sleeping and you can also do it tomorrow. Really, whatever works for your schedule. If you've got a little bit of time to learn about baby-led weaning, I'd love to see you on this free workshop. Again, that signup is at workshop.babyledweaning.co and happy feeding!

Katie Ferraro (2m 55s):

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. If your baby goes to daycare and you've recently started solid foods or you're starting soon, then you've probably been wondering when do these two things link up? When is it okay for me to start sending finger foods to daycare?

Katie Ferraro (3m 35s):

My guest today is a new mom who's going through all of this right now, just like many of those of you who are listening maybe. Her name is Yesenia Jacobo, and Yesenia is a dietetic intern. She's actually in her supervised practice internship right now preparing to become a Registered Dietitian. So she recently completed her community nutrition rotation with me. I was her preceptor and we timed that whole rotation so it would coincide with when her daughter Sophia was gonna be turning six months and starting solid foods. So she's helping us with a lot of our infant nutrition work for her rotation, but then also getting to implement and apply it at home with her own baby. So we helped Sophia start on her journey to her a hundred First Foods with Baby-Led Weaning. She's following my hundred First Foods daily meal plan.

Katie Ferraro (4m 17s):

So this is an exact sequence of which food to offer each day doing five new foods a week with all the weekly menus and the daily recipes grocery list, it's all done for her. So she's working, she's also doing her internship trying to help her baby learn to eat food. It's a lot. So this kind of helps take the guesswork out of it. And I remember this one day in our rotation, Yesenia was at my house. We were working, Sophia was at daycare. They had recently started solid foods, but the baby wasn't really eating that much as is typical. And Yesenia was so stressed and her daycare was calling her and saying like, your baby's hungry. You need to send more milk. She's not eating. And it was so hard on Yesenia because she was exactly in that just messy middle period before the eating of solid food catches on and you're not able to physically pump anymore breast milk and you're wondering what you're doing wrong.

Katie Ferraro (5m 2s):

But they turned the corner and she wasn't doing anything wrong when she hit 40 foods, Yesenia felt comfortable enough to start sending finger foods to daycare. So we were chatting and I was like, I have to have you come on the podcast and talk about this. Like what was it that helped give you the confidence to take this next step? And how is your daycare doing with Sophia eating real food now? And how do you prep foods when you're so busy with your job and your internship? Yesenia is going to share it all inside of this interview. Her baby is now just about nine months of age. They're at 60 foods now, so I just wanted to have a realtime chat to share some strategies that worked for Yesenia to do Baby-Led Weaning at daycare and I hope they can help you as well.

Katie Ferraro (5m 42s):

I have done a number of other daycare podcast episodes. I'm gonna link to those right below where you're listening to this. It'll also be on the Shownotes page for this episode at BLWpodcast.com. But I also have, for those of you who are struggling with this idea, like how do I get daycare on board with baby-led weaning? I do have a free feeding guide called Daycare Plus Baby-Led Weaning, How To Be A Baby-Led Weaning advocate At Daycare. So this feeding guide, it's free, it has the strategies that we're discussing today. They're all laid out for you in writing. It's a PDF so you don't have to write them down and take notes today when you're listening. But there are also some very valuable sample scripts in this feeding guide about what to say when you decide to discuss baby led weaning with your childcare provider.

Katie Ferraro (6m 23s):

So you can download the free Daycare Plus Baby-Led Weaning Guide. It's on my website under the resources tab. So if you go to babyledweaning.co/resources, you'll find it there. And if you want to follow the same hundred First Foods daily meal plan that Yesenia is doing with her baby Sophia and has done for 60 days, they have 40 more days left, all of the daily meal plan stuff is inside of my program called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro and you can find that it's also on the website babyledweaning.co/program. So with no further ado, here is Yesenia Jacobo talking about When Can I Start Sending Food to Daycare.

Yesenia Jacobo (7m 5s):

Hi!

Katie Ferraro (7m 5s):

This is so fun. I know you helped a lot with our podcast when you were doing your community nutrition dietetic internship with us and I'm so excited that you're back as a baby led weaning success story. Tell me real quick, I wanna get into how baby led weaning is going. Tell me what you thought about baby-led weaning before you started solid foods with your daughter Baby Sophia.

Yesenia Jacobo (7m 29s):

At first I was a little afraid to start baby led weaning. I had seen some videos like on TikTok and everything of people doing it. However, starting it myself, I was very, very anxious.

Katie Ferraro (7m 43s):

So when I met you for the very first time, we zoomed back and forth with our potential interns and you said, you told me that you were pregnant and I was so excited for you. And then we kind of timed your rotation so that it could be when Sophia was starting solid foods. So tell us what was happening around the time, like around the six month mark. Was she sitting up on her own? Did you think she was ready? Did she need extra time? What was happening then?

Yesenia Jacobo (8m 7s):

At the six month mark, that's when we got the okay to start solids by our pediatrician and she was kind of sitting down on her own but not that ready yet. I think she got ready once we started the internship, it was actually perfect. So it was around like I think six and a half weeks or six and a half months. So that's when she was like more ready.

Katie Ferraro (8m 28s):

Okay. And so up until that point, how had you been feeding Sophia prior to starting solid foods?

Yesenia Jacobo (8m 34s):

So we had been sort of doing like pure raise. I kind of did try to start baby led weaning before we started. I kind of tried to give her one time food. And then I got a little bit anxious about it, a little bit scared so I kind of backed away.

Katie Ferraro (8m 47s):

Was that before she was sitting up on her own before the six month plus two weeks mark? Okay. And then what was she getting in addition to? Like tell me about her infant milk situation.

Yesenia Jacobo (8m 57s):

So she was just getting breastfed.

Katie Ferraro (8m 58s):

Okay. And did she take a bottle or were you exclusively like were you pumping and giving her express breast milk or were you always nursing?

Yesenia Jacobo (9m 5s):

So it was a little bit of both. So I was giving her, she was breastfeeding with me but while I was in my internship she was with dad and she was getting bottles.

Katie Ferraro (9m 15s):

I just wanted to ask a little bit about like the nursing stuff 'cause I remember when she started solid foods, you started with baby-led weaning and you were continuing to breastfeed but you were pumping and sending bottles. So I mean you guys, Yesenia is working, she's doing her internship full-time, she's a new mom, the baby's going to daycare, like you had a lot going on. Tell us about her first day with solid food when you restarted. So when she was six months plus two weeks, what did you guys start with?

Yesenia Jacobo (9m 41s):

Okay, so the first day we followed that a hundred foods first list. It was after I had watched the video and everything. We started with avocado and banana slices.

Katie Ferraro (9m 51s):

Okay, you did those both on day one?

Yesenia Jacobo (9m 53s):

Yes.

Katie Ferraro (9m 53s):

Okay. And how did she do with them?

Yesenia Jacobo (9m 56s):

She did well. Well at first she kind of just grabbed the food and smashed it between her hands and kind of just played with it a little bit. She did a little bit of tasting but that was about it. I wasn't expecting too much of her like just eating all the food or anything like that.

Katie Ferraro (10m 11s):

I always kind of check in and see you know, how's it going? But knowing that obviously the first few days and weeks there's not very much happening but you are following our hundred First Foods daily meal plan, which is where we do five new foods a week. So the first week in week one it's avocado, banana, we do sweet potato, and then we do lamb on day four. And then we did her first allergenic food, which was yogurt, so I remember when you came to the internship, you're like, I'm not a very big meat eater I haven't eaten meat in this many years but my husband eats meat and also we want our baby to be introduced to it because of the texture nutrition opportunities. So how was that experience of making and feeding her meat for the first time in the first week?

Yesenia Jacobo (10m 50s):

So the first week we actually opted out of the lamb and that was because I was still like thinking like, okay, do I wanna do this? Do I wanna do meat? Do I not wanna do meat and so we opted out of that week. And then the following week was when we went with you and we did the meat together and that's when I had actually just thought about it that weekend as well. And I actually had my first piece of meat again that weekend. So that's when we decided to reintroduce it to me and then also introduce it to Sophia.

Katie Ferraro (11m 19s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (12m 29s):

We did beef brisket together right when she came. So I was just, we were making some content about how to make beef safe for babies because we don't offer solid pieces of meat like steak or pork chops, but it's perfectly fine to do different cuts of beef and pork. And so with you we did the beef brisket Yesenia and she did great with it. I mean she was sucking on it and bringing it up to her mouth and we tried some of the pureed beef out of an open cup and off of the preloaded spoon and then after that point did you continue to follow the hundred First Foods daily meal plan? Did you end up making more meats?

Yesenia Jacobo (12m 59s):

Yes we did! We did the chicken adobo and we did the carnitas and she went wild for the carnitas, let me tell you, she loved it so much but yeah, we just kept following it and so far she has been introduced to, do you wanna hear it?

Katie Ferraro (13m 15s):

I wanna hear it! I wanna hear it!

Yesenia Jacobo (13m 19s):

60!

Katie Ferraro (13m 19s):

60 foods so far oh my gosh, congratulations! 'cause when we chatted, obviously it was 20 days ago or a month ago when we were talking about she was right around the 40 food mark, and then you had said listen, I'm starting to feel more confident, I think I'm gonna start sending some foods to daycare. And I was like okay, I really wanna interview you because what was it at in the first 40 foods that you were like, I'm just not comfortable and I'm not to diss your daycare like this is just for other parents who are like, when do I start sending food to daycare? Why in your own personal situation did you decide not to send foods to daycare from the very beginning and what changed that you were like, ah, I'm ready to do this. Like around what number food was it that you were down to send food to daycare?

Yesenia Jacobo (13m 58s):

I didn't feel comfortable. One because you know we had a provider, our own highchair and stuff like that. I also believe that it's like a trusting the process situation. Like you have to trust your baby, you have to trust yourself and trust others. 'cause most of the time you're the one, you're the only one feeding your baby. So for someone else to be watching them as you're gonna watch them, you know, it's kinda like, oh I don't know, I'm a little anxious about it. However, after a while I would just send like mashed up food 'cause I just felt comfortable like that. And at home I would give her all of the baby-led weaning food and everything. But recently in the past two and a half weeks we've been sending her her own like meals for lunchtime.

Katie Ferraro (14m 43s):

So you make the food, pack it, you're sending finger foods then no purees

Yesenia Jacobo (14m 48s):

All finger foods and I'm sending her what I, what I give her in the morning. Just so I know I feel comfortable that she's eating that and I know what like what she's eating exactly.

Katie Ferraro (14m 58s):

Do you send the new food of the day or are you doing the new food of the day after when she comes home from daycares

Yesenia Jacobo (15m 3s):

I usually do the new food of the day, but it just kind of depends what it is. So for example, like she had buckwheat pancakes, So I sent some of those. She had the ricotta cheese and then today she had raspberries.

Katie Ferraro (15m 17s):

Okay and so you are doing that first food by yourself in the morning, is that correct? You'll do the new food of the day. So the way our program works, you do the first 10 minutes of the meal is that new food on its own. The second 10 minutes mom makes a plate or whoever's feeding the baby with the new food of the day with two familiar foods from previous days and then the second 10 minutes they eat that meal. So are you just duplicating that meal then and sending that to daycare?

Yesenia Jacobo (15m 39s):

Yes.

Katie Ferraro (15m 39s):

Okay. And I remember when we were talking about daycare, gosh I remember my heart like breaking for you because when she was about seven and a half, between seven and a half and eight months of age, she hadn't really gotten the hang of eating everything yet, 'cause that's very typical. It can take some babies, you know, upwards of eight weeks and she was about six weeks in. She wasn't eating super great at daycare. You didn't want them to be spoonfeeding her purees, you're pumping and doing as much as you can but daycare is calling you and saying she's hungry, she's hungry, can you send more milk? And I remember just like seeing tears in your eyes and I was like oh my gosh this is the that messy middle that's so hard before they get the hang of eating and you're doing everything you can but, but you can't make more milk than you can make. How did you handle that? What was your, your coping mechanism there when they're calling you and saying like, your baby's hungry at daycare?

Yesenia Jacobo (16m 20s):

Yeah, I had to figure out like what am I gonna do because if they're telling me she's hungry I have to provide more milk. We had to supplement with formula as well because I was in my internship I was very stressed and I am very stressed so my milk supply, you know has kind of went up and down. So, we did supplement with formula and then we, that's when we kind of like started providing her with more meals to give to her.

Katie Ferraro (16m 44s):

Okay, awesome. And then have you been able at this point, 'cause how old is she right now Yesenia?

Yesenia Jacobo (16m 50s):

She is nine months and I believe a week or two.

Katie Ferraro (16m 54s):

Okay, so now that you're 60 foods in, you kind of crossed the halfway mark still working on five new foods a week. Have you noticed her milk intake starting to decline?

Yesenia Jacobo (17m 3s):

Yes, as of the last couple weeks I feel like I've noticed it a lot more.

Katie Ferraro (17m 7s):

And have you made any changes to your schedule as far as when you nurse or give bottles now that she's eating more FOODS?

Yesenia Jacobo (17m 15s):

Not necessarily. I feel like maybe at daycare she eats less or she drinks less milk. So when she's with me I think we still kind of eat the same.

Katie Ferraro (17m 24s):

How did you solve the problem at daycare? I remember you saying that they didn't have a highchair. What'd you end up doing there?

Yesenia Jacobo (17m 31s):

We ended up, so we actually had bought a highchair previously to starting the program and then we ended up buying a highchair, a trip trap.

Katie Ferraro (17m 39s):

To tell everybody how much you paid for it. 'cause it's my favorite part.

Yesenia Jacobo (17m 43s):

I paid $75 for my trip trap. I am very happy about it and I absolutely do love it a lot.

Katie Ferraro (17m 50s):

And then you ended up buying the baby set separately or the tray separately? What'd you end up doing?

Yesenia Jacobo (17m 54s):

We ended up buying the baby set for $15.

Katie Ferraro (17m 58s):

Okay, so for $90 you guys, she got a trip trap, a used trip trap. So that's the chair that we love for baby-led weaning that I love. It's been around since 1972. So there's a ton of them on the used marketplace new. They're very expensive. That's certainly true and it's a, a splurge. However, your child is going to sit in that seat three times a day for the next, they hold up to 300 pounds rather. So a lot of people will keep their kids in them through adolescence, right? Like it's working out to pennies a day. And I know we did an Instagram reel for trip trap that was actually sponsored by them but just showing how you put the chair together and stuff and we mentioned that you had gotten one for $90. And then people were kind of going off in the comments like Oh my gosh, that's so much. And it's like no actually that's very, very affordable for this chair that you're using three times a day.

Katie Ferraro (18m 40s):

Not to mention you got it used, you got the baby set used. So for less than a hundred dollars you were able to put together the height, again, that your child is going to use this three times a day for the next 12 plus years. So I think that was amazing. Did you just take the old highchair and then take it to daycare?

Yesenia Jacobo (18m 55s):

Yes, so, we originally were gonna get the booster ones that you put on the chair, the summer boosters. But then we ended up, you know, taking it to daycare, we set it up for her. We also, what we did is how I felt more comfortable sending her to daycare. I had a lot of conversations about baby-led weaning. My daycare person is a Spanish speaking only person. I also speak Spanish myself. So of course that's how we communicate but this is like a new thing for her. So she's never experienced this before. She's only like fed babies purees and I used to send her videos of me, you know, giving food to Sophia so she can see what it looks like to also, you know, see her eating food.

Yesenia Jacobo (19m 37s):

And I even actually showed her the most recent video that you posted about the gagging versus choking because I wanted her to know the difference and to look out for what she needs to look out for if something were to happen like that. Because that was my biggest fear. If something were to like that happen, what would she do? Would she know what to do?

Katie Ferraro (19m 55s):

How is she doing with it now? Like what is your daycare providers take on baby-led weaning now that you're 60 foods in?

Yesenia Jacobo (20m 3s):

She is doing well although she just started with her you know a couple weeks ago with actually giving her the solid foods. She is doing great. She sends me pictures of her eating and everything so it makes me feel more comfortable as well.

Katie Ferraro (20m 18s):

Oh I'm so excited. I'm so happy for you. 'cause I know my heart was breaking for you at one point, which it has helped me a lot too though when other moms are asking, I was like I wanna record this so that they could hear like you hit that turning point you guys usually about eight weeks after starting solid foods, it all starts to click with your baby. Their milk intake starts to go down a little bit, which helps take that pressure off of you. I mean I'm glad you guys decided formula is our solution to kind of bridge this gap right now you're continuing to breastfeed. Tell me what your breastfeeding goals are if.you don't mind sharing

Yesenia Jacobo (20m 48s):

So, so my breastfeeding goals first was to go to six months and we passed that mark and now it is to go to a year. So I'm thinking that's probably where we might stop our journey but we'll see.

Katie Ferraro (21m 1s):

Has she had any food allergies or allergenic reactions to food so far?

Yesenia Jacobo (21m 5s):

She has not had any food allergen reactions and she's had quite a lot of a, been exposed to a lot of allergens.

Katie Ferraro (21m 12s):

I think at by food 60 she would've gotten through all of the nine allergenic foods. So you guys are just now reintroducing those foods to keep them in her system, which is great.

Yesenia Jacobo (21m 22s):

Yeah, yeah, she, we've been exposing her to the foods all over again at least a couple times.

Katie Ferraro (21m 28s):

Have you gone to any restaurants with her yet?

Yesenia Jacobo (21m 31s):

We have! So, we went to the Cheesecake Factory and we went for my mom's birthday and we sat her down in the high chair there and she had some pasta with my mom. She actually had my mom's pasta.

Katie Ferraro (21m 46s):

Oh I love that. That's awesome. And then tell me how your husband is doing with all of this solid food stuff now 'cause I know he was a little reticent at first and you were like, we were kind of practicing and I, that's my suggestion is like, listen, the person who's the primary caregiver should be the one offering the new foods and if the other parent is stressed, let's wait till we get more comfortable. Now that you and Sophia are more comfortable, where's your husband at with this?

Yesenia Jacobo (22m 6s):

Okay, So I feel like the same concept goes with your partner, right? You educate them, you show them the videos, you show them how it goes, they're with you while they're eating. And we did the same thing with him. I, I was like hey I gotta go to work in the morning. You gotta feed her in the morning. This is what you're gonna do. I kind of showed him how to go about it and how to cut certain foods and smash the berries and everything. And he's doing really well. So, he is been feeding her on the weekends when I'm at work and he feeds her the breakfast and the lunch and then we come home and we eat dinner together.

Katie Ferraro (22m 37s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (23m 50s):

I love that. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. I just hearing you like in the moment and knowing how stressful it was at the beginning and seeing it and really just a short period of time, like you're actually enjoying it and she's enjoying eating and now ife you daycare provider can enjoy being part of the process and your partner. I think it's just like this is exactly what should be happening. What has been the most challenging food for you to either make or offer like the hardest food so far?

Yesenia Jacobo (24m 15s):

I think the hardest food for me so far has been the grains just because I have to go look for them to go buy them and stuff. But I recently went to Sprouts and I like loaded up on all the grains that I need and she loves all the grains.

Katie Ferraro (24m 29s):

That's awesome. 'cause then you don't have to just default to pasta, rice and potatoes. Like when they have a lot of different whole grains that they can eat, there's the iron and the plant protein, the fiber. Has she had her iron or hemoglobin levels checked at nine month well check or any doctor's appointment recently?

Yesenia Jacobo (24m 44s):

Not yet, no. We had to unfortunately skip our doctor's appointment 'cause I've just been so busy.

Katie Ferraro (24m 49s):

Oh. my gosh. Okay, well it'll make you feel better when they do it and you're like, Oh, my gosh, your iron levels are great too because you're offering her a variety of foods and she's learning how to eat those protein foods, including the animal ones, which I, I can't believe you decided to do the meat, but that's, that's great if, and it's not for every family, but I love that, that you are doing it. Did you actually like the taste of meat when you tried it again after so many years of not having it?

Yesenia Jacobo (25m 11s):

Yes, honestly it just felt like, oh my god, this is the way it used to taste. I remember it.

Katie Ferraro (25m 16s):

Yea exactly. Did she like meat so far?

Yesenia Jacobo (25m 19s):

She loves it. She loves the chicken, she loves the carnitas.

Katie Ferraro (25m 23s):

Last question before we go. What do you wanna do when you're a dietitian and how much more time of your internship do you have?

Yesenia Jacobo (25m 28s):

Oh my God. Katie. I have 12 more weeks left and I'm so excited to finish and finally become an RD and I hope to get my ICBLC and help other mothers like myself with breastfeeding and also introduce them to the baby-led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (25m 45s):

I love it. Awesome. Well thank you so much Yesenia. It's great chatting with you and good to see you too, baby sophia, we liked hearing you on the podcast. Thank you.

Yesenia Jacobo (25m 54s):

Thank you Katie for everything.

Katie Ferraro (25m 57s):

Oh, I loved getting to talk to Yesenia and to hear Sophia. She was kind of breaking it down at the end there. So, we wrapped it up pretty quickly, but I hope you guys found some of the strategies and just her experience with having turned the corner of being so fearful to send foods to daycare and now being able to do it confidently. I hope they can help you if you are struggling with this. Don't forget, you can grab that free feeding guide called Daycare Plus Baby-Led Weaning How To Be A Baby-Led Weaning Advocate At Daycare. That's on my website at babyledweaning.co/resources and the hundred First Foods daily meal plan that Yesenia is doing with Baby Sophia. That's inside of my program called Baby-led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. That's all also on the website baby ed weaning.co/program. I'll put links to the other daycare episodes in the shownotes, which you can find at BLWpodcast.com/381.

Katie Ferraro (26m 44s):

And I wanna say 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 that AirWave has. We're online at BLWpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I'll see you next time.