Katie Ferraro (0s):
If your baby's ready to start solid foods, I know you've told yourself, oh, I'm gonna figure out this solid food thing soon, right? You're gonna Google it. You'll ask ai, you'll probably already save some videos on Instagram and then somehow weeks go by and you don't actually have a plan. So here's what I'd love for you to do. Instead, give me one hour. I want you to clear everything off your desktop, close those tabs, put your phone away, and come to my free baby led Weaning for Beginner's Masterclass. I know an hour's a long time, but If you register and you show up, this is actually one of the best hours that You can spend preparing Your Baby for this really important next phase of their life. I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian. I'm a mom of seven and hundreds of thousands of parents have taken this training.

Katie Ferraro (43s):
I'm constantly updating the masterclass. I've got the latest research and all the tips and tricks that you're gonna need to get Your Baby move into solid foods safely so you don't have to waste your limited free time figuring it out. And everyone who comes to the masterclass walks away with a copy of my original 100 First Foods list. This is Analog guys. You're gonna print it out, you're gonna put it on your fridge, and you have to physically start marking off the foods Your Baby is going to be eating and they're gonna be loving real food. So stop telling yourself, you'll figure this out later. Give me one hour and I'll show you how to get started. Register for the free baby LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS masterclass. Go to baby led weaning dot co slash masterclass or click the link right in the description where you're watching or listening to this and I will see you there.

Once Upon a Dance (1m 29s):
This episode is sponsored by Once Upon A Dance. As the days get busier but shorter and we spend more time indoors, I'm always looking for simple ways to help kids move their bodies, use their imaginations, and for us to connect as a family. And that's what makes Once Upon a Dance such a fun idea. So Once Upon a Dance creates interactive children's books that combine stories with movement. So these are not just books that your child listens to, they're stories your kid can move through. Think twirling and leaping, imagining, pretending and getting off the couch while still enjoying the benefits of reading. So I didn't grow up doing dance myself. I think anyone who knows me knows that. But I love dance and watching all my girls do dance, it was, it was such a formative experience for them. Dance helped them build confidence and creativity. It taught them the value of practice, perseverance and showing up. And I love that Once Upon a Dance brings those same ideas into a story time format that families can enjoy at home. So the books feature Ballerina Kay as a Gentle Guide and a Positive Role Model, and they're created by a former dance teacher. The stories include themes like friendship, family, empathy, kindness, self acceptance and courage, all wrapped into whimsical adventures that kids can move along with. So if you're looking for something screen free, active and imaginative for your toddler, preschooler, or older child, Once Upon a Dance is a really sweet option. Swap screen time for a connection. Get your kids off the couch and into a story. Jump twirl and leap over to Once Upon a Dance dot com or find Once Upon a Dance books wherever you buy books online. That's Once Upon a Dance.com.

Katie Ferraro (3m 9s):
And that tongue thrust reflex that can be challenging for parents to think, oh my gosh, is my baby, is it disappeared? Is it still there? But truthfully, if you're waiting until the six month mark and Your Baby is sitting relatively on their own, you don't need to stress out about the tongue thrust or the extrusion reflex because almost certainly it's already disappeared. Okay? So it's not actually even really something we kind of assess for on the signs of readiness to eat anymore, the checklist because we're waiting until the six month mark. 'cause breast smoker formula is sufficient to meet your baby's needs before that. So don't stress out 'cause we're not doing any of this before six months of age. That's when the tongue thrust stuff comes into effect after the six month mark. It's not an issue. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning here on the baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro podcast.

Katie Ferraro (3m 57s):
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. If Your Baby is getting close to six months of age, you might be wondering, how do I know if they're actually ready to start solid foods? Because I get it, there's a ton of conflicting information out there, right? Maybe you've got your doctor breathing down your neck, you gotta try peanuts at four months of age. Or your mom or your mother-in-law's telling you your five month old should start some white rice cereal. And meanwhile, you're looking at Your Baby and you're thinking like, are we supposed to be doing this already today?

Katie Ferraro (4m 39s):
I wanna make this much simpler for you. We are gonna talk about the signs that really matter when it comes to determining if Your Baby is ready to eat, as well as what you don't need to stress about and why readiness looks different from baby two baby. 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 not all babies are ready to start solid foods right at the six month mark. Okay? Readiness is not a race, okay? Babies even born on the same exact day aren't developing skills exactly on the same timeline. So your job is not to get Your Baby to start solid foods as quickly as possible.

Katie Ferraro (5m 19s):
Your job is to give them the space to learn how to eat real food when they're ready. And be sure to stick around till the end because I'm gonna give you a really simple, quick win that You can do today to help determine whether Your Baby is ready to start solid foods so You can block out all that noise around you. Now, lemme tell you a quick story. I learned firsthand how readiness can look different from one baby to another. When I was getting ready to start solid foods with my quadruplets. So I had already struggled tremendously spoonfeeding my oldest daughter, and when it came time to start solid foods with the quadruplets, I knew I wanted to take a different approach. So I waited till they were six month adjusted age.

Katie Ferraro (6m 0s):
So that was their seven and a half month real age. 'cause they were six weeks premature. And we'll talk about that today. But I know you might think like, oh, four babies born on the same day, they're raising the same house, doing stuff at the same time, sitting at the same table. They're gonna be ready to eat solid foods on the same schedule. Absolutely not. Okay? Three of the babies were really interested in what was going on. And then there was Henry, okay, God bless Henry. For the first six weeks after we started Solid Foods, Henry just put his head down on the table like he did not want to participate. The other quads were touching their food, tasting it. He was like, no, thank you. Wake me up when this is over. But I didn't pressure him. I kept giving him the opportunity to eat and participate on his own terms.

Katie Ferraro (6m 40s):
And eventually he woke up, picked his head up, picked the food up, and started participating. And that experience was a good reminder for me. That readiness doesn't mean like because me, mom, I'm ready or other babies are ready, that all babies are gonna be ready. So there's really two different things here. Okay? There's being developmentally ready to start learning how to eat, and then there's actually learning how to eat. And these are not the same thing. So let's talk about what you are looking for before we start solid foods. The first thing that we are going to look at is age for most babies, when we talk about starting solid foods, we're looking at the six month mark, okay? That's when the other developmental signs of readiness to eat are present.

Katie Ferraro (7m 22s):
And I wanna stress that word around, okay, your baby's six month birthday. It's not like an expiration date, okay? You do not need to wake up on that morning and think, oh my gosh, we have to start solid foods today, okay? Because six months is a helpful developmental landmark. It's not an appointment, okay? Your Baby is remember still getting all of the nutrition they need from breast milk or infant formula at this stage, okay? And every major health body at this point promotes and recommends exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life. So I don't want you to think that you need to do something other than breast milk or formula until Your Baby is six months of age. And even then, after you start solid foods, spoiler alert, there's not a lot of eating that's actually gonna be happening.

Katie Ferraro (8m 3s):
And breast milk and formula will continue to be your baby's primary source of nutrition, okay? It's like that insurance policy. So like it's not like we just flip a switch and then all of a sudden food becomes a primary source of nutrition. Okay? You've got this six month weaning period from six months until 12 months to help Your Baby learn how to eat solid foods, okay? So don't stress about that six month mark. And there's no prize for being the first, you know, in your playgroup to have Your Baby eat food if Your Baby was born prematurely. We're generally talking about the adjusted age when assessing developmental readiness. So I mentioned the quadruplets. They were born at 34 weeks gestation, so they were six weeks premature. So I wasn't looking at their chronological six month birthday, even though everybody else around me was like, oh, those babies are six months old.

Katie Ferraro (8m 46s):
They need to eat solid foods. I was looking at where they were developmentally using their adjusted age, assessing their individual readiness. So if Your Baby was born prematurely or has developmental or medical considerations that may affect their feeding, that's a situation where you're gonna want to individualize the guidance and talk to your own healthcare team. Okay? So first takeaway around the six month mark or six month adjusted age, if we're talking about prematurity next, the next sign of readiness is one that matters enormously for safe swallowing. And it is, can Your Baby sit relatively on their own? So can they sit relatively unassisted on their own? Okay? And this is an indicator that Your Baby has good head and neck control and they've got the trunk strength to support a safe swallow.

Katie Ferraro (9m 33s):
And then parents always want an exact answer. Okay, KATIE, tell me exactly how many seconds does my baby need to sit? Five seconds, 30 seconds, two minutes. There is not some evidence-based stopwatch test, okay? Where Your Baby has to hit a particular number of seconds and then suddenly qualifies to eat solid foods. Okay? But what we're looking for is stability, right? Can Your Baby maintain an upright position that's important for say swallowing, right? With that good control of their head and their neck? Or are they collapsing forward? Are they slumping sideways? Do they need substantial support just to remain upright? Okay? Think about what Your Baby is getting ready to learn. Okay? Up until now, swallowing has just been breast milk or formula and now we're gonna introduce this like all the new textures and have Your Baby be manipulating food inside their mouth and coordinating that with sucking and swallowing and all the sitting stuff at the same time.

Katie Ferraro (10m 21s):
We want them to be able to do that from a stable, upright position. Okay? And this is one reason why the positioning and the height chair matters so much too. So Your Baby should be sitting upright, so not recline backwards. That opens our airway. You want them in the right chair. You don't want them in their stroller or in their car seat eating, okay? We want their babies back flat with their feet resting flat on a solid foot plate that is safe high chair positioning. And there are exercises You can do with Your Baby, right? They're gonna get stronger day by day, check in day by day. You might notice that like in a couple of days, Your Baby looks a lot more stable in control than it did even just a week ago. Okay? But you don't need to force this timeline. Most babies can't sit on their own right at six months and it might be six months plus one week or six months plus two weeks, or even six months plus three weeks until Your Baby is sitting relatively on their own.

Katie Ferraro (11m 8s):
It's unusual to see a full term typically developing baby go past the seven month mark without sitting. And definitely we don't anticipate that happening. You know, by the eight month mark. If your baby's still not sitting, you definitely wanna talk to your doctor. But don't stress out if they're not sitting right at that six month mark.

KiwiCo (11m 26s):
Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. This episode is sponsored by Kiwi Co. I'm the oldest of six kids, and when we were little, my siblings and I would spend our Christmas break building forts outta the boxes that our S came in. And you know how it goes, right? Kids always have more fun with the boxes than with the actual toys. We build something, knock it down, make it bigger, turn it into something completely different. And now that I'm a mom of seven kids, I totally get why those are the gifts and the memories that stick with you. Kids don't always need another new toy to play with. They want something they can actually do. And that's why I love KiwiCo for holiday gifts. Their crates give kids a project, they get to build themselves. And I love watching that moment when my kids have been working on something and they can't quite figure it out. They try it again and then it actually works. That little I did it look on their face is the best part. And these aren't projects that they build and immediately forget about. They're making things that launch and light up and move and actually work. So the fun continues long after they open the box. KiwiCo has eight different crate lines for all different ages and interests from the panda crate for babies to science and engineering projects, art, geography and more. So instead of another plastic toy this year, you're giving kids the tools to create their own fun. And I love that KiwiCo crates a ship right to their door. So it's an easy, thoughtful gift even for kids that you will not get to see in person this holiday season. So unwrap fun this holiday with KiwiCo, get up to 50% off your first crate at KiwiCo dot com promo code weaning. That's up to 50% off your first crate at KiwiCo.com promo code weaning.

Katie Ferraro (13m 11s):
All right, next up I wanna talk about something that's like a little bit more old school and used to see this a lot more in the past. And that's the tongue thrust reflex. So parents used to ask a lot about the tongue thrust reflex and sometimes they get hung up on it. It's also called the extrusion reflex, okay? And this is one of the areas like I don't want to see you conducting experiments on Your Baby trying to determine like, oh, do they have a, this reflux has officially disappeared. If you're waiting until six months and Your Baby is sitting on their own, trust me, the tongue thrust reflux has disappeared. Okay? As Your Baby matures, their oral motor skills change. Okay? But here's the thing. When babies first start out eating food comes back outta their mouth a lot, right? They're gonna lick it, they're gonna suck on it, they're gonna push that solid food around and then they're gonna spit some of it out, okay?

Katie Ferraro (13m 55s):
They're protecting their airway, they're learning what to do. They're figuring out that some of it's gonna fall outta my mouth, okay? And it doesn't mean Your Baby is not ready to try solid foods, okay? Your Baby is learning an entirely new skill. If you were doing this at three months though, that pushing the food forward, that would definitely be them protecting their airway. 'cause they're not ready to swallow anything except breast smoker formula. But by the six month mark, that tongue thrust reflux has disappeared. If they're sitting up on their own, You can trust that it's safe for them. It's actually developmentally appropriate for babies to start experimenting with finger foods around the six month mark. So are they six months? Do they have good head and neck control? Can they sit upright with relatively, you know, no assistance? Are they starting to interact with their environment in ways that support self-feeding these observations?

Katie Ferraro (14m 40s):
These are much more useful than like trying to determine if your baby's tongue thrust reflux has disappeared. Now what about the parents say, my baby is obsessed with my food. You will notice your baby's interest in food increases. But we sometimes deal with like I have parents of four month old babies and they're like, ah, the baby is stalking me, watching me every time I'm eating. Does that mean they're ready to start solid foods? And I want you to know that you know you are bringing that fork towards your mouth, okay? And your baby's eyes are gonna be following it, okay? And they do this even before they're actually ready to eat solid foods. But when all those other factors converge the six month mark to sitting up on their own, that tongue thrust reflux is disappeared and they're really interested in your food and they're grabbing for your food.

Katie Ferraro (15m 23s):
That's just another reminder. Ah, the baby's interested in food, okay? And it's part of the developmental picture, but interest in food by itself is not enough, okay? Because your younger baby's gonna be interested like by your keys too, okay? But that doesn't mean that they're developmentally ready to drive your car, right? We want to look at the whole baby, not just one behavior in isolation. Okay? So Your Baby might appear interested in food before they have that postural stability and the other developmental skills that they need to start safe eating, okay? No need to rush the solid food thing just 'cause Your Baby watches you eat. I wanna encourage you to not wait for perfection. Sometimes parents learn about all these signs of readiness to eat and then they become so worried about getting everything right that they're scared to start, right?

Katie Ferraro (16m 5s):
They're waiting for like some unmistakable moment when their baby suddenly looks like, oh my gosh, now this baby is ready to go. It's not gonna happen, right? Your Baby has never done this before. They can't demonstrate that they're good at eating solid food until you actually give them those opportunities to learn how to eat real food. So we're not gonna wait for perfection, right? We're gonna look for developmental readiness and then we're gonna give Your Baby lots of opportunities to practice. Because starting solid foods, it's a transition, right? You get this nice long runway, it's like a six month period from six months to 12 months, not a switch that flips overnight in the beginning. Your Baby doesn't eat very much. They might touch it, they might barely taste it, and that's okay. Okay? They're gonna spend more time like smashing that avocado in their hair than they put it in their mouth.

Katie Ferraro (16m 48s):
And that is typical and what we would expect. Alright? I want you to remember something. If you start comparing Your Baby with other babies, okay? Readiness to start solid foods does not mean that Your Baby is ready to be good at eating. Okay? When we say a baby's ready to start solid foods, we're saying like developmentally, they're ready to make this transition to the next stage. But their job is not to clear the plate. Their job is to explore and practice and gradually develop eating skills. Your job as the parent, you've gotta provide a safe feeding environment and safe foods and lots of opportunities to practice. And if you're thinking, okay, KATIE, I get it. I've got the readiness stuff down, but I still have absolutely no idea what food I'm supposed to offer my baby first or how I'm supposed to cut it, that's totally separate from Your Baby being ready to start solid foods, okay?

Katie Ferraro (17m 38s):
You don't have to solve the entire puzzle of what your baby's going to eat every single day from day one, first step, determine whether the baby is ready and then we can work together on what your baby's actually going to eat. Alright? So I, here is your quick win for today. I want you to put Your Baby in the highchair and just observe them. Don't worry about the food. Look at Your Baby from the front and from the side. Can they hold their head steady? Are they sitting upright? Can they maintain that upright position? Are they relatively stable? Are they slumping? Are they swimming all over the place? Do we need to do some adjustments with the high chair? Are their feet resting flat on the solid footplate? 'cause that's really important for supporting a safe swallow.

Katie Ferraro (18m 19s):
Okay? We don't need to fix everything today, but we want to get Your Baby acclimated to and accustomed to sitting in the high chair. And I'll tell you one thing, babies who don't like their stroller or don't like the car seat, they tend to not love the high chair. So practice a little bit in the high chair even before you're getting ready to do day one of starting solid foods. And again, if your baby's around six months of age has good head and neck control and can man maintain that stable upright position, you're getting really close. Or maybe you're already started this next stage. And remember, we're not looking for a perfect eater, right? We're just looking for the baby who's developmentally ready to learn how to eat. And if you're just figuring out this starting solid food things, I think the best place to learn,

Baby-led Weaning Made Easy (19m 2s):
If you wanna learn more about baby led weaning, is my free masterclass. It's called Baby LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. It's an online video training where I'm gonna show you visually, okay, how to start solid foods. Everybody on this free masterclass gets a copy of my original hundred First Foods list, okay? So you'll never run out of ideas of foods Your Baby can eat. You can sign up at baby led weaning dot co slash masterclass or just click the link wherever you're listening to or watching this and get on the masterclass If you really want to learn. And if you're ready, like I'm ready to get started right now and I'm down to do this baby led weaning thing, check out my signature program, baby led weaning with Katie Ferraro. It has everything You need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods. When you join, you get my original hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan. That's 20 weeks of done for you menus. Okay? If you've been waiting for someone to show you exactly which food to feed on which day and how to make it safe, this is the program for you. Listeners to this podcast can take $50 off the program When you use the code that's located in the description where you're listening to or watching this, head to baby led weaning dot co slash program to learn more.

Katie Ferraro (20m 10s):
Thank you so much for listening and watching. I'll see you next time. And if your baby's ready to start solid foods, go for it. One new food a day, You can do this. And if they're not ready yet, don't stress out, keep doing those pre feeding activities together. Your Baby will let you know when they are ready. A special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, check out some of the podcasts from AirWave Media. We're online@blwpodcast.com. The show notes for this episode are@blwpodcast.com/114. Thanks again for being here. I'll catch you next time. Bye now.

Katie Ferraro (20m 54s):
Are you tired of hunting and pecking all over the internet trying to figure out how to safely start solid foods with Your Baby? You look up how to make chicken and then you need a recipe for lentils and then you don't know how to do the allergens. And suddenly like feeding Your Baby has become another part-time job. If you're thinking or have ever thought, can somebody just do this for me? Yes I can. Inside my baby led we dig with Katie Ferraro program. You're gonna get 20 weeks of done for you meal plans that tell you exactly which foods to offer with videos, recipes, and step-by-step instructions on how to make each food safe for your baby's age and stage. I've organized the what, the when, the how, so You can stop researching and just start offering Your Baby Real Food. Podcast listeners can save $50 When you join using the code B LW POD 50, head to baby led weaning dot co slash program.

Katie Ferraro (21m 41s):
Enter the code BLW50. I'm into saving you time, so You can also just click the link wherever you're listening to or watching this. Literally, I wanna take this task off of your plate. Join the program today using the code BLWPOD50 to save $50.