Feeding in Small Spaces: Baby-Led Weaning on a Boat with Genieva Davidson

Genieva Davidson (1s):

Sometimes she's just like taking the food and like looking at it in her fingers or even I see her like kind of scooping and playing with a, but it's not going to her mouth at all. So I feel like in general, she's just like checking it out there.

Katie Ferraro (15s):

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 competence and knowledge. You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. Hey guys, welcome back. I'm so sorry. I heard about today's guests interview because she is my real life friend, Geneva Davidson. I have a lot of virtual friends because of the nature of, of, you know, running an online business. But Geneva, I get to see her in person. She lived in San Diego.

Katie Ferraro (56s):

She is a brand new mom and her and her husband live on a boat. They live on a boat in San Diego, and I have had the great fortune to work with her daughter Genieva, who is six months plus two weeks old to do her first week of baby led weaning. So we're doing a whole series for Instagram. Baby Led Weaning on a Boat, showcasing her first 10 days of baby led weaning with ideas on how families who live in small spaces can make foods is safe for baby led weaning. And so it's been so fun seeing them all week long. And I wanted to interview her right in the middle of the two weeks. So we do five new foods a week with my five step of feeding framework. And so we just finished week one and I wanted to like, get her take on like how its been going on as a new mom, as someone who knows a little bit about baby led weaning because she also works with us.

Katie Ferraro (1m 39s):

So Genieva is husband. Jeremie is a photographer and a videographer. And he generally does high-end real estate. But when my kids were little and I was selling my house and he came over to videotape our house to sell it, I was feeding the baby. He's like, what's going on in that you found out he was the videographer. And he actually had it as a degree in nutrition. And I'm like, I'm just starting this business. Can you help me? And he is actually did my very first baby led weaning video shoot and photo-shoot and has done them all ever since. And then now he's filming his own baby eating is so cool. So he helps us as video editing and as is Geneva and all things video related. So I get to work with our, but then I got to also work with her baby, which was so cool. So they live on a boat, small space. She's going to tell you a little bit about the boat and the foods that we did.

Katie Ferraro (2m 19s):

The 10 foods that we picked for this baby Led Weaning on a Boat series are from my hundred first foods list it. You guys want to grab a copy of the a hundred first foods list. I give it away to everybody on my free online workshop, which is called baby LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. It's all about how to get your baby to eat 100 foods before turning one, without you having to spoonfeed periods or buy pouches. So if you head to the show notes page for this episode, I'll link up all where you can sign up for this week's. Workshop times you get your a hundred first foods list and you can start knocking out all these new foods with your baby. Whether you live in a nice, big, fancy kitchen or a very small space, like a boat head to blwpodcast.com/159. And with no further due, we're going to dive in to talking about Feeding in Small Spaces.

Katie Ferraro (3m 3s):

Baby Led Weaning on a Boat with Genieva Davidson. Well, hi Genieva. Thanks so much for being here.

Genieva Davidson (3m 10s):

Hello. I'm glad to be here.

Katie Ferraro (3m 11s):

All right, Genieva, take us back to the last week. If you can, before you started baby led weaning, what were you concerned or worried about regarding this transition with Skylar?

Genieva Davidson (3m 23s):

Yeah, well, I was really worried about breastfeeding, to be honest, I thought it was coming like our last days of it. And she was in the NICU for a few weeks, with a little bit early and she was only bottle fed with breast milk, but we worked really hard to finally get the full breastfeeding thing down and I just felt like it was done. And I was so I was really worried. And so I kept asking you like, is this okay? Is it gonna be like that? And so that was kinda of my main concern. I thought I was losing her.

Katie Ferraro (3m 50s):

We actually were out to you just finished feeding Skylar before we did the podcast episode. It was asking you like about a week into it. I have you noticed any changes in her feeding schedule as far as breastfeeding?

Genieva Davidson (3m 60s):

Not at all. Yeah. It's the same

Katie Ferraro (4m 2s):

Perfect. That's the right answer you guys, because there's like very minimal eating going on, right? The first few weeks, it can take some babies for six, eight weeks to like get to the point where they're actually bringing enough food to their mouth that is taken up some room in their stomach and they're starting to eat less. I usually tell them moms don't even think about adjusting your milk feeding schedule for the first six, then the seventh month of life. If you're starting baby led weaning at six months of age, because everything will pretty much stay the same. You can anticipate that. Okay. So now your one week in with baby led weaning, what's something that has surprised you with regards to Skylar starting solid foods.

Genieva Davidson (4m 36s):

It's really surprising to see how like she knew right away kind of how to pick it up. I mean, not perfectly, but like she, the way she was able to grasp it, it was just a little bit surprising that they do have some skills there, but also I didn't expect her to kind of be over it so fast. So, you know, she is like interested in things that's fun and excited, but I didn't expect that, that, that like over it, you know, kind of thing. And I know that's normal. And so it was just funny to see.

Katie Ferraro (5m 4s):

Yeah, I've spent a lot of time with your family this week. I could say like, it's so nice to do that. Like there's days where she wants to eat your meals, where she wants to it and there's other ones where she wants nothing to do with it. And that's totally typical. I think it's so hard when, especially when you learn a lot from social media, as parents we do is we were working on a lot of reels with Schuyler and like you take 20 minute feet and boil it down to a 30 seconf reel, it looks like all of that baby is doing is eating. But like the reality is there's a lot of stuff happening in between. So when she's not bringing food to her mouth, like a perfect baby led weaning model of what she had been doing. Cause you've been sitting in that chair of 15 to 20 minutes, one or two times a day, like, what else has she been doing besides eating Geneva?

Genieva Davidson (5m 41s):

Sometimes she's just like taking the food and like looking at it in her fingers and, you know, seeing, or sometimes she's kind of, you know, playing with it there. Or she loves the spoon a lot that easy-peasy spoon. So she's kind of playing with that. Or even when I see her like kind of scooping and playing it, but it's not going to her mouth at all. So I feel like in general, she's just like checking it out. Yeah.

Katie Ferraro (6m 4s):

She definitely loves that spoon and she's getting her first tooth, like, and she's not going on that spoon handle and that's fine. Right. It's food grade, silicone. It's not dangerous, but it's all part of the learning process. She smelling and sniffing it and like occasionally a little bit of it gets in her mouth.

Genieva Davidson (6m 18s):

Definitely. I tried the pudding a little bit in the cup to, and I didn't think she knew it was in there. So she was like chewing on the cup and, but it just kinda got in and she was like making this silly face. Like, what is that? And so that's pretty funny.

Katie Ferraro (6m 30s):

Can we talk a little bit about living on the boat? I know you and your husband, Jeremy, but on a vote for about three years, but the last six months have obviously been different because now you have a baby. Can you tell our audience, like, what is your food prep and kitchen situation like on the boat. And then how do you guys normally eat and cook and shop like before baby led weaning kind of paint the picture for us? Like what your home like, she was like, so

Genieva Davidson (6m 48s):

We are on a 34 foot catamaran is called a Gemini and yeah, so we have 34 feet. It is three bedrooms, a bathroom. So it's like a home. And then we do have a full kitchen and everything. We are on solar power. So that's a little bit different when it comes to using a microwave or not. We have one, but we don't really use it. We actually didn't even before we were on the boat, but we don't really use it because it would take a lot of our solar power or something like a pressure cooker, things like that. We have a two burner stove and an oven and we cook most of our food that way. That's on propane. And then we have a two sink seeing like normal. And then we have a 60 gallon water tank that we refill every two weeks.

Genieva Davidson (7m 31s):

So that kind of affects how we eat and different things we cook. And we have to keep that in mind too, when we're washing dishes and all those things, that's our kitchen situation. If you can visualize that storage is, you know, less. So you don't have all of the kitchen appliances kind of the basic big and small pot, big and small pan, that kind of thing. And then yeah, the way we normally eat cook and shop. So we shop typically pretty much with what we need for about five to seven days and we don't really do a ton of leftovers. So we've really mastered like how much to cook for that specific meal because our fridge is smaller and it's also really moist. So food can go bad, easily, those kinds of things.

Genieva Davidson (8m 11s):

So yeah, we pretty much do that. My big concern, which you've been really helpful about was we're not vegetarian, but we don't cook a lot of meat on the boat. And I wasn't quite sure kind of how to do that. So that was something that, you know, I want to learn more about for baby led weaning so that we can be able to offer her those textures and different things. But that's kind of our one different eating idea.

Katie Ferraro (8m 35s):

I have to add that. Okay. When I first saw the kitchen, she is like, we have a full kitchen. I would not describe it as a full kitchen, but when do you describe it? That way, it really is. It's just super duper small and there's nowhere to store food. And when you said that you buy food for five to seven days, like having just spent a week with you guys, I can't believe that. I just assumed you guys went to the grocery store every day, because literally it's like a dorm size fridge that your working out of. And then you also said that that's bigger compared to your old fridge. So how small is your old fridge? Cause your current Fridge is pretty small.

Genieva Davidson (9m 4s):

So our current fridge is like double the size of a dorm fridge. Our other one was legitimately a dorm fridge, like the tiny thing. So the freezer is this drawer still on this one, you know that little flash you lived up, but for food that doesn't look like a lot in the fridge, but we eat a lot of fresh produce and stuff. So on a boat, not all of it's going in the fridge, but you learn how like apples and onions can't be together. Onions can't be near anything else. Cause it'll make it go bad. So we have like dark drawers and then we have drawers with holes and them cause some of them. So you kinda learn how to store more like dry goods and things like that and not use all of the fridge, the fridge, we try to save for it.

Genieva Davidson (9m 44s):

You know, the things that are like dairy and some of the other meats that we eat that we really don't want to go back.

Katie Ferraro (9m 51s):

So, and if we can talk a little bit about me, so we plan the menu like falling a five-step feeding framework. I was going to do 10 foods over two weeks, a new fruit on Monday vegetable on Tuesday, start you on Wednesday of protein food on Thursday and then an allergenic foods. So over this 10 day course of doing the baby Led Weaning on a Boat series with Genieva and her husband, Jeremy and there a baby Skylar, they picked 10 foods from the a hundred first foods list. And I always like to do kind of a wacky meet early on like, I mean ground beef chicken, that those are fine, but like people want to see like, how do you eat lamb? How do you eat pork? And I was just like to share or like that. I have learned a lot from this experience because I totally failed you guys on lamb. My husband used to live on a boat before he was my husband and I remember cooking on a boat, but it was a fun thing to do, but I didn't have to do it every day.

Katie Ferraro (10m 34s):

And I forgot some of the limitation. So I get there or you guys I'm like, okay, so here's how we do the lamb. Like it's an, a pressure cooker engineer is like, oh, I can't do a pressure cooker because they like pulls too much battery and we're on solar and we can't do that. Like, okay, all right, fine switch gears. Let's do the lamb. Let's do as a roast in is slow cooker. And they're like, we can't do is slow cooker. We're not going to cook something on the stove for 10 hours and waste all that propane or whatever it is. And then I was like, oh, so Lam chickenb is probably not going to work. Now we can do ground lamb and we can work it into a burger Patty. And I mean that there's definitely work around, but I learned so much from you guys because it's not just like pull out every appliance, like you can in a regular sized kitchen, but you mentioned some of the things you do have a pot with a lid, a big pot, a little pot, you have some water.

Katie Ferraro (11m 19s):

These are really the implements that you need to make most foods softer for baby led weaning. And I always die. Like sometimes baby food companies will approach me and they make baby food makers. And like when you promote our baby food maker and it's like, no, and then why 'cause because you're a baby food maker can do nothing more than my pot with the lid. And some water could do, which is like a poacher and makes them of the foods soft. So we are going to have to work a little bit more on the meat stuff. I agree. And I'm sorry that I made all these recommendations that you guys are like, no, I'm never going to do that. But back to the meat we were talking about sometimes, you know, just purchasing the meat already prepared might actually be an option for you when I was sharing. I know you guys don't shop at whole foods a lot, but if you have a whole foods near you, and I know you guys go to trader Joe's, but that whole foods you can get an unsalted rotisserie chicken.

Katie Ferraro (12m 4s):

So the problem with rotisserie chicken is that it tends to be really, really salty. The whole foods does tell a naked one that has no salt in it. So that might be an option for you guys just to buy the whole chicken and shred it up and then offer it to her with a lot of broth. Awesome.

Genieva Davidson (12m 17s):

Yeah, that'd be a good idea of making a nice and simple because I have no idea how to even cook chicken.

Katie Ferraro (12m 22s):

Like a lot of it just hearing and families go way. And another thing she was like, I don't want you guys to be stressed out about like, oh my gosh, I have to go buy all this meat, make this meet that that's not how you normally eat. Like thinking about, you know, vegetarian source of iron tofu is fabulous. Like you can fry it or cook it. However you guys want you for dinner, but just cut her off a few slices about the size of your adult pinky finger. It's a very easy way to introduce your baby to soy, which is one of the potential allergenic foods. It's not sexy. It's not fancy, but it's like, who cares? She needs to experience these foods, the individual foods for the first few weeks. And that's a super easy one. It's a good source of iron. It's a plant-based food it's compatible with your vegetarian lifestyle. So don't stress yourself out too much about the meat. Do you guys eat at restaurants and have you taken her to a restaurant yet?

Katie Ferraro (13m 5s):

I mean, I know it's only been a week, like, so

Genieva Davidson (13m 7s):

We do eat at restaurants a lot of time, just with a six month old. It's really easy to take the food and then go to like the grass, let her play a little bit. So that's kind of mostly of what we've been doing. And sometimes when we're at a restaurant, we will eat meat. So it's not like a hard vegetarian thing is just, I don't like cooking it out here, but yeah, so we haven't done it with her. We were eating some açai bowls and I thought about it, you know, giving her some strawberries. And this is, I think, where I'm getting a little bit stuck because I'm like, oh, can I just give her like a half strawberry? How do I prepare for it? I think that's kind of the hard part of where I'm stuck right now. Sometimes it's what is the proper way to prepare it? So I just need to learn more about that.

Katie Ferraro (13m 48s):

And I think that's really important because a lot of parents learn about baby led weaning and they hear that okay, with baby led weaning, your baby will end up eating modified versions of the same foods. The rest of the family eats. And they're like, alright, right out of the gate from day one, baby's got to be eating what I'm eating and that's not true. We have to give the baby time to learn how to eat. I would not do strawberries in the first week of baby led weaning. Now, if there was, and also açai bowl probably is added sugar, and if it's yogurt, she has had cows milk. But at that point, maybe she hadn't like, you are smart to take it slow. And I think doing foods at home, especially the first few weeks is so important for her, but she seated safely in her high chair. She had got a Nomi high chair with the adjustable foot plate.

Katie Ferraro (14m 29s):

Her feet are resting flat on that foot plate, which is supporting her in facilitating a safe swallow. You've got that suction, easy peasy, tiny bowl on the table. So she can rake and scooped the foods that you're offering. The longer strips of food. Like we did poach papaya strips for the first day cause of Avaya. Wasn't right. You put it in a pot with a little bit of water about the size of her adult pinky fingers. She picked those right up and brought to her mouth. We do need to start with those single isolated foods and parents want, they want recipes and want to make this then that like, no you're baby needs to try this single isolated foods prepared safely. They need ample time to experience those flavors and don't stress yourself out about, well, they should be eating exactly what I'm eating right now, because that's not how it works because they don't know how to eat yet.

Katie Ferraro (15m 11s):

So you guys are smart to take it slow. I know you're doing one new food a day, which is a great mission. And if you shop or, you know, five to seven days in advance, I usually tell most parents like just, you know, lay out what are the five foods from the a hundred first foods list that you want to feed your baby this week, make sure that you have them on hand and then we'll work on how to make them see for babies to eat. But you don't need to have like a hundred different ingredients to make these foods save for your baby to you. The less it is actually more early on in baby led weaning.

Genieva Davidson (15m 38s):

No, that was just doing this morning because we're going to go grocery shopping. And you know, I was choosing her five from the different one, you know, one for each category and he was like apple. And I was like, oh, okay, that's easy. And then I'm like, do I approach that like kind of stripped, like, as I was like, oh, she was, you need

Katie Ferraro (15m 53s):

To necessarily, apples are super easy. I see. I just learned from you that you don't store that apples by onions. Like that's amazing onions, make things go bad, faster.

Genieva Davidson (16m 0s):

Yeah. So onions with anything I needed to have to go alone. and even bananas. They will make everything just rotten apples. You can put in the same cupboard, but we put them on a different shelf and then like your Pepper's and your garlic and your zucchini, like all of the others can go together, but there in a dark cupboard kind of thing. And that's what keeps them fresh.

Katie Ferraro (16m 20s):

Well, I know we were talking about avocado's and we didn't start with the traditional foods and you can start with avocado bananas. We can say that we're trying to show different foods that you can easily start with. And we didn't do avocado. We were just talking about avocados, not getting ripe. But if you were saying some ways to ripen and avocado is if you store an avocado in a brown paper bag with a banana, the ethylene gas from the ripening banana expedites, the ripening process of the avocado, and you were like, or just leave it on the boat because everything gets ripe faster. Is that for you? Exactly.

Genieva Davidson (16m 46s):

Yeah. So when you're saying that, I was like, oh yeah, duh banana. And that's what I'll do sometimes because I like to make like a tuna salad, but with avocado base instead. And so if my avocados aren't ripe, I just put them on the counter the night before I'm, you know, I want to make it next to the bananas or with the onions,

Katie Ferraro (17m 2s):

The tuna avocado. Like that's a perfect example of like food that you're already going to be needing. You're probably going to eat it on a sandwich. We would give your baby bread. Cause there's too much salt. And the bread can definitely be a choking hazard early on, but your BB can have strips have that avocado. And when she has gotten through that, you can introduce tuna as a Canned tuna is a great way to introduce babies to fish, which is one of the allergenic foods. So like I oftentimes tell parents, like, if your thinking about what foods to pick your, you wanna eat for your baby, like look at the a hundred first foods list and how would you make that food for yourself? And then how could we slightly modify that to make it safe for your baby? If you're going to make a tuna sandwich with avocado, your Baby can have the tuna, they can have the avocado, they just can't have the bread. And you could do the bread when she's a little bit older, it just is very salty.

Katie Ferraro (17m 42s):

And early on the middle part of the bread, that's really starchy. It can kind of ball up and form this bullet on the roof of her mouth. That can be challenging to clear. So just stay away from the bread for right now. And then we'll do the avocado and the tuna separately, you know, so foods you're already eating you, you don't have to go buy a bunch of weird stuff and sometimes you will end up buying maybe some different wholegrains. And we're gonna have to kind of brainstorm about whole grains because they do sometimes take a little bit longer to cook, but there are great products where they were already cooked often-times without added salt or that you might just short-cut. And I was going to ask you, are there like some shortcut foods that you guys buy cause your like it's a hassle to cook or prepare like that that are kind of halfway done for you?

Genieva Davidson (18m 21s):

Yeah, so we do, well, one thing is like rice. We do a lot of rice based meals, but we find if we buy the long grain, Jasmine is seriously takes like 10 minutes to cook versus the normal longer amount on the stove top. So that's kind of when kind of trigger things that we've learned. Another thing would be, I've been trying out and you know, I got to find the right brand and stuff, but so that when I am making some salads or things for lunch, having some of those pre cooked a little bit fresher trader Joe's still like healthy, but chicken that's pre-seasoned and pre cooked into strips that I can throw on top of a salad or whatever.

Genieva Davidson (19m 1s):

So those sometimes we do get, but that's really kind of it

Katie Ferraro (19m 6s):

I'm thinking too, like things I didn't like personally, I hate pealing and cutting butternut squash. So if I can find it like already peeled and cut, I use that a little bit more. And then did you guys don't shop at Costco to, you

Genieva Davidson (19m 18s):

Know, we definitely,

Katie Ferraro (19m 20s):

When we had a Costco, he makes fun of people that go for two people.

Genieva Davidson (19m 24s):

I just think it's, I just picture buying like there toilet paper and I would not even know where to store. They were all of those ros. That

Katie Ferraro (19m 31s):

Seriously. One thing that I love that goes on in your house is just how little stuff they're is there like, oh, I'm so sorry is such a mess. I'm like, are you serious? Like you should see my house. Like there's so much junk everywhere. And I was going to ask you, is there anything that you miss about just being at a land-based kitchen or food prep situation? Like I know you guys love living on the boat, but are there is some days we were like, oh, I just wish I had a pressure cooker or whatever it is.

Genieva Davidson (19m 52s):

I would say they may be not the cooking. To be honest, Jeremy does most of our cooking. He's a way better cook than me. So maybe he'd have a good answer about that. But the other part is I do all the planning and the grocery shopping. And I do miss just going from your car to your front door, like we had to drive the car up to the dinghy dock, load it down onto the dinghy, all the groceries, then go take the car, put it back in the lot, come back to the dinghy, bring it to the boat, load them up on the boat, then bring them too. Like there was like such a process. So as far as cooking and eating, I do miss just being able to, you know, take it right there and straight to your door and into your house.

Genieva Davidson (20m 32s):

Every

Katie Ferraro (20m 32s):

Time I unload groceries from my car, I'm like Geneva has to get in about, and even having gone to your house for a week and trying to like minimize the amount of stuff that I bring. So I was thinking of things for like minimizing, taking out a lot of space and the high chair we chose as an only high chair. And I love the Noami high chair, but like there it is relatively big footprint. So that is a chair is going to grow with your daughter. They are certainly smaller ones that I love that because of the adjustable foot plate. Another good option. If you're on a boat is the Stoka tripp trap chair is when that kinda looks like a ladder is the same designer as the Noemi high chair, which is Peter off. Sick also has an adjustable foot rest, probably a little bit of a smaller footprint, but you actually have the space at the end of the table to have that share there. And we were putting the splash mat underneath the high chair. Cause the house like you take your shoes off before you come in, like it's really clean and you don't, you're going to baby led.

Katie Ferraro (21m 17s):

Weaning can be messy. So having that splash mat, the vaper and baby splash mats are the ones that we were using. And they full down really small. She was trying to like, not bring in stuff. Cause there are some splash then that's out there that are massive and there heavy. And you don't want that. You want the smallest of possible. I was bringing you those paper and a baby bibs to, because those you could just print out in the sink really quickly. You have limited amount of water or you just hang it up next to your sink. And then it dries before her next meal. So there are some little kind of tips and tricks you can do to minimize the amount of stuff. Cause you guys just do not have a lot of stuff. It's like, it's really admirable. I want you to know that

Genieva Davidson (21m 51s):

I was making a little area. She has got like a toy Ben. And then like I grabbed another Ben just like it. And its kind of her baby LED WEANING been so that the plates fit the Bowles, the splash match and the bibs as well. And so I was like this, this little area and I was like, oh this is the perfect amount of stuff. So you did really well.

Katie Ferraro (22m 10s):

I've literally been stuck playing and stuff since I've found out that you were pregnant, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with stuff. Also one tip, if you guys use the easy-peasy products like M if you buy the tiny bowl or that mini bowl or the mini-map, they come in a bag, that's actually a wet bag. So save that bag because it's vented at the bottom with holes to help aerate and dry and you can put the bowls and stuff back in that bag and store them that way. There also great if you're just taking it to a restaurant or you're going out in about like you guys go to the park or you know, you want to bring your stuff with you, that you can take it in that travel bag. And it doesn't take up a lot of space and also all of the easy-peasy product stack, which I love. And they now come with lids. So you can kind of prep a few meals, even though you don't have a ton of space and put her plates or bowls in the fridge in case Jeremy's watching her you're outworking or something that your meals could already be ready and not take up a lot of space.

Genieva Davidson (22m 56s):

Yeah. They're really good in the fridge as well, especially with those lids. So you were able to, they just fit really nicely, even under the freezer, which is really nice.

Katie Ferraro (23m 4s):

And I know you guys don't like love using your microwave. I'm actually proud to say is the first person to use the microwave on their boat. They are like, I don't know if it works, but cause that was bringing me out and stuff that have been refrigerated, especially with me, you do want to reheat meat. We don't really serve meat at cold temperatures or refrigerated temperature's for babies because they can be very challenging texture. And when you heat the meet, you liquefy the fat and the fat provides moisture in that helps the baby swallow. So the microwave does heat unevenly those. So you have to be careful a little hotspot. So we were like hating her food, sitting out on the counter with a lid on like just letting it sit for, you know, 15 or 20 minutes still came back to room temperature. So you don't burn her mouth while we were getting other stuff ready. And that might be something that you guys use maybe a little bit more. I know it pulls a lot of power, but it's like you're using it for 15 or 20 seconds just to get it back to room temperature.

Katie Ferraro (23m 46s):

So that is safe

Genieva Davidson (23m 47s):

If we were to be doing baby led weaning, let's say in the evening when we don't have more sun to refill our batteries after the microwave. So the microwave's kind of like, oh, we shouldn't use that right now. Do you think it would be better to reheat? Let's say that lamb in the oven and kind of big gets them in a pot and what would be your suggested model that would

Katie Ferraro (24m 6s):

Try it out. Great question. So the lamb, there is a roast lamb and there was a lot of juice with it. I would probably do it cause I'm always like trying to save time. I would maybe even do it in a frying pan on the stove top. You could do the oven, but I like to heat the whole of enough to heat up. One portion of lamps. Sounds like a lot of that. You could just like pop it in the frying pan, heated up and then add that extra broth. Like that's the key is having them moisture so that it doesn't get dried out. Cause every time we reheat it, we do try it out a little bit more. But if you add the moisture back to it so that she has some lubrication there, it will be safe. So that might be an option. But any of those would work. I just don't know which one is less taxing on your resources there. I was hoping you would say pan,

3 (24m 44s):

But I don't know about it for it or whatever,

Katie Ferraro (24m 46s):

But I, you too, the point too, where you get a few, when she gets a little bit older, we generally move into combination foods after like eight months. So after doing eight weeks of individual foods, you'll have like kinda of some of those same recipes, you'll go back too, like oatmeal or that you might all eat. And then you maybe do, you know, a can of canned pumpkin as a way to introduce her to pumpkin in the oatmeal that she's already had or you know, you can do any other, anything into oatmeal is a wonderful medium or pancakes. I know it is over there on Saturday and you guys had friends over, you made pancakes will, there's so many different ways you can incorporate new foods into pancakes for baby led weaning. So I think as you go through the a hundred first foods list can seem overwhelming at first, but one new food a day. If you're picking out five foods like, okay, I'm going to get a can of pumpkin.

Katie Ferraro (25m 27s):

It's unsweetened, pumpkin, not the pumpkin pie mix. What can I do with this? Yeah, you could like bake muffins, but you might not do that. But you might get to a point too, where you have one recipe that you liked like a breakfast bar or that you guys bake that you all eat. She can have some of them or you can incorporate it into things like pancakes or oatmeal that are easy for you to make on the boat in that, you know, you can make without, you know, using all those resources.

Genieva Davidson (25m 50s):

Perfect. Yeah. I see. As possibly using how they are learning, which canned foods do not have a lot of sodium. I see that, you know, and we're looking at artichoke who is one of them when I was like, I don't know how to cook an artichoke. And I was like, well, I know they of canned artichoke, but is it like

Katie Ferraro (26m 4s):

Of canned artichokes? Yes. Then you can buy them without a lot of salts in them that actually have a whole episode. All about canned foods that can work for baby led. Weaning is episode number is 75. If you go to BLW podcast.com/ 75, there is tips there for using canned foods. Because again, you have a limited amount of refrigerator space and it's not like you have to, by like again, a Costco sized flat have black beans when she is ready for it, you could buy one Kan. And also just so you know, any time you rent a canned goods underneath the faucet, I knew you guys are really careful about your water, but it does reduce the sodium by about one-third. And an a really good rule of thumb is when you're reading labels. If you look for sodium looked for less than one milligrams of sodium per serving, that's generally a good rule of thumb for babies because of course they don't eat a full adult serving and that's generally a lower sodium option.

Katie Ferraro (26m 52s):

So that 100 milligram is kind of a good barometer to have in your head. As you're starting to look at some new foods that may be you guys didn't it traditionally eat Genieva, any tips for other parents who are also starting baby led weaning. I know you don't like you've been doing this for a week and you're like, oh, I'm new to it. But like, you know, a lot more now than you did this time, last week, parents in small spaces, what should they keep in mind when they're preparing foods for there, baby? Yeah,

Genieva Davidson (27m 14s):

I would say one thing that you taught me was I think in a small space, it's especially important to clean well, pretty much right after to wash the bowls and like, you know, they don't let them really sit and things like that. That was one thing that I think we're going to really have to do being in a small space. Another thing I would say is learning more about there's a lot more out there that you showed me even. And just this first week of storage devices that are more useful than I thought we've tried a lot of different food storage things and they don't work well. For example, those stasher bags. I was like, these are incredible. We need these

Katie Ferraro (27m 52s):

Because they had a sale yesterday and I just sent you a whole starter pack because I'm like, they need stashed your bags because they are like these silicone bags that zipped shut and you, they pack flat on each other. And it doesn't matter if the food gets smashed cause of the baby's going smash it up. But anyway, exactly,

Genieva Davidson (28m 4s):

We didn't buy any, but it was like all of my list. So that's cool. But the other thing was those Tupperwares, what brand is that? Those were incredible. There

Katie Ferraro (28m 13s):

It is just Rubbermaid. So it's, don't laugh at me. I have seven kids. So I do shop at Costco, but it's like a variety pack from Costco. And they're like the snap tops with the really small one is great for baby led weaning. And you can actually buy that small size. So I'll find the exact size of, and link to it on the show notes. But again, I think too, one thing I notice this week is like, baby's, don't eat that much. And so the portion size is really small. And so even though you're adding a new person to the mix, who's eating with your family, it's like not actually that much for you. Exactly.

Genieva Davidson (28m 39s):

And I think knowing that it was okay to change our rhythm a little bit, like I said, we don't really do leftovers is very much because we just, you know how to eat. But with her, like you've just mentioned, she is not eating a ton of stuff. And now that I've found these brands that actually work with our set up of food storage, I feel a little bit less like, oh, we can't have leftovers. And I'm like, oh yeah, we could, you know, make a little bit extra, which makes you know, that baby led weaning feel less like it's a huge task. And then they store really well. And yeah, and I think finding the right equipment was really helpful to make you not feel like every day I'm going to have to poach peaches or like cook and this, you know, like a lamb, all this stuff out, seeing all the

Katie Ferraro (29m 23s):

Familiar foods and it's important that we're, you know, moving through new foods, but that we're continuing to introduce her to familiar foods. And so this rotation of where, okay, we're doing a 20 minute meal that first 10 minutes, you, you explored with the new food of the day out of a bowl by itself. So she's just got that food prepared safely. The second 10 minutes swap in a plate with three foods on it, too familiar foods from previous days that you hopefully just grabbed right out of the fridge. Cause you made them yesterday or the day before. And then the new food of the day. Again, she's got that new food exposure again. Plus she's being exposed to the familiar foods in that way. You're pushing her forward with trying new foods, but you're also helping her revisit the past by revisiting the familiar foods from previous days because you know, a baby may need to see a food 10 or 15 times before they like or accept it.

Katie Ferraro (30m 6s):

And I know like with the second lamb day, when I came back with the good lamb that she did, like she was tired. It was just a different type of day. And she wasn't into it. You don't want to push her. It's not your job to make her eat or to make her eat more. But then you sent me videos later in the day, which she went for an app, she got back up, you guys try it again. And she was totally jamming on the land where a lot of parents would just give up me like, oh, she doesn't like lamp. Cause you didn't eat at one time, but you inherently new. Like, no, she's got to keep trying it. Plus we have it here. So when you use

Genieva Davidson (30m 31s):

It, definitely that's exciting for me to see too. I was selling you Katy, how I was a really picky kid. And I just think it's fun to show her all these different types of food. And you know, if she spent a year or not, that's up to her, but to just be able to provide her these different types of things and stuff, I would've never eat them. Lamb is a kid.

Katie Ferraro (30m 50s):

It feels like a lock. She's like, oh my gosh. Like again, we were like poaching papaya strips, which to be honest, if you had a papaya and it wasn't ripe enough, you would wait until it got riper was you could do. Or you could just put you in a little bit of water and then two minutes it's soft enough. But this whole period in everyone says this about every phase of parenting, but it goes so fast. Like this period where you have to be doing a little bit of extra prep for her to make sure it's safe in a few months, she is going to literally be eating the modified versions of the same thing as you guys do. So I keep that in there the other day. And you guys had a sandwich like she's close to being able to eat all of the components of that sandwich out again, hold off on the bread. Just because of the salt early on until she gets more competent. But like by the time she's one, you're not going to be doing anything different from what you guys do. So it's really worth it.

Katie Ferraro (31m 30s):

I think of what the work in for this six months of baby led weaning to help your baby be exposed to all of these different foods so that when they do turn one, you're not dealing with that picky eating and she's going to be eating literally exactly what you guys do very soon. We awesome. All right, Geneva, where can our audience go to learn more about your family and your adventures living on the boat? Yeah.

Genieva Davidson (31m 49s):

We have our YouTube channel where we talk about some of our cruising and just things we do on the boat, which is like a big trip to Catalina. So we have that there. So our channels, just the adventure sins and B who can also find the link to the channel on our Instagram, which is the adventure Simmons as well. So you can check this out

Katie Ferraro (32m 7s):

There. Geneva, thank you so much for your time. It's been such a pleasure speaking with you and I can't wait to see Skylar trying all of our new foods. Yeah, me neither. Thank you. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Geneva Davidson. She is a new mom. She is the boat mom. She is now a baby LED WEANING mom. I didn't really appreciate her sharing her experience. Starting solid foods with her daughter, Skylar, the highs, the lows, the challenges, the things that are enjoying. We went through a lot of different spaces on that interview. Talking about gear, talking about foods. I'm going to link everything up in the show page for this episode, but you guys definitely have to check out there, Instagram in there, YouTube. And I'm gonna put a bunch of pictures of like just the feeding situation there. Its kind of hard on a podcast to describe it.

Katie Ferraro (32m 47s):

A picture of her as a thousand words, head of the show notes, BLWpodcast.com/159. How does that links to all of the different gear that we're using as well? Some discount codes for those. And thank you so much for listening. If you guys are Feeding in a small space, I hope you found some of that helpful and I'd love to see pictures of where you're feeding your baby. You can catch up with me on Instagram at baby led weaning team. And again, everything linked up from this episode@blwpodcast.com/159. Thanks for listening. And I'll see you next time.