BLW Holiday Homework

Katie Ferraro (1s):

And it can be so overwhelming when you're trying to figure out starting solid foods, cuz there's a lot of misinformation out there. And I know personally I've created so much real information, nearly 300 podcast episodes now, so many other digital resources that sometimes parents get lost. So I'm kind of condensing it down for you. Just a few actionable items you can do in order to get yourself ready to start solid foods if you've got a little bit of time with your baby at home over the holidays. 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 Made Easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (52s):

Hey guys, welcome back. I know some of you are gonna be taking a little break hopefully from work and the busyness of life in order to enjoy the holidays. And if you have a baby who's getting ready to start solid food soon, I've got a little bit of baby led weaning holiday homework for you in case you're ramping up to start solid foods with your baby. Now I like to start each of these mini baby led weaning training episodes with a BLW tip of the day. And today's tip is, especially during the holidays, don't give into the pressure or don't feel like you need to try a new food. Whenever you have new family members or friends around, maybe people who are not familiar with baby led weaning, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable and having to explain yourself left and right as you're trying new foods when there's lots of new people around.

Katie Ferraro (1m 39s):

I suggest doing familiar foods for your baby when those other new people are around and you keep doing the new foods as the primary caregiver when it's just you and the baby and you've created that peaceful eating environment to do so. That hang tight because in this episode I'm going to be sharing some tips for those of you who are just new to this and trying to figure out, oh my gosh, how do I get started with baby led weenie and I wanna do it safely and I wanna cram some prep work into the holiday break. I have a few suggested action items and some other quick episodes that I think you should listen to in order to help you get up to speed real quick. Now, quick story. I remember when I was starting out with baby lead weaning with my quadruple babies, I had struggled a ton with traditional spoon feeding with my older daughter and then I was like had four babies at woods getting ready to start solid foods and I was like, I've got to figure out baby led weenie.

Katie Ferraro (2m 27s):

And I remember there were no real resources on how to do BLW. Lots of stuff about what it is and why it's a safer and more developmentally appropriate alternative to traditional spoon feeding, but really like the how do I actually prep the foods and how do I sequence the foods? None of that was around. So once I figured it out after doing baby led weaning with six more of my own kids, that's exactly why I decided to switch the entire focus of my nutrition career and focus on baby led weaning and make all of these resources for you. So sometimes parents come into my ecosystem and they're like, I love, love your stuff, Katie, but it's a lot and I don't know where to start. So if you are just getting started with baby led weaning or your baby will be starting solid food shortly and you're trying to figure out, gosh, what can I do?

Katie Ferraro (3m 11s):

Or maybe you're making the switch from purées and you wanna know, Hmm, how can I do that safely? I've got four main tips for you. All right, first tip is regarding a high chair, get your baby a safe seat to eat. Hands down, this is gonna be the biggest investment that you'll make during the second half of infancy, but please keep in mind your baby is going to be eating out of this high chair that you select now three times a day for the foreseeable future. Okay? It's really important that when you're looking for a highchair, choose one that has an adjustable footrest and an adjustable seat so it grows with your baby. And that footrest is news to a lot of parents, but it ends up stabilizing your baby's core and supporting a safe swallow, thus lowering the risk of choking.

Katie Ferraro (3m 54s):

So the two chairs that I like and use for baby led weaning are the Stokke tripp trapp and the Nomi High chair, both were designed by Peter obs. They are similar in that they have adjustable foot plates and seats and were designed to bring your baby right up to the table so the baby can eat with the family. I've done a lot of high chair content on the podcast in the past. I'm gonna reference two of my favorite episodes that you might want to listen to. Before you decide on that high chair, be sure to check out episode 92. It's How to Choose a Safe Seat for Your Baby to Eat. And that's an interview with Kirsti Vandrass. She's an ergonomist who works with Peter Opsvik who designed both of those chairs that I like. So she kind of explains a lot of the design principles and safety considerations that we're looking for when choosing a high chair.

Katie Ferraro (4m 37s):

Episode 172 is another good one. I did high chair positioning, reduced choking risk using this one Simple move and that's with Jeff Durkee of Nomi high chair. If you are considering buying the Nomi High chair, I have a very limited time, 25% off offer Nomi's currently changing distributors in the US So this is like a very rare opportunity in that you can get Nomi at the cheapest price ever using this affiliate discount code. You have to use the particular link to get there though. I'm gonna put it in the show notes where you're listening to this episode. And I love that Nomi high chair cuz it grows with your child through to adolescence. I'm convinced it's the safest high chair on the market. Again, you're gonna be using this chair three times a day for the next decade. Plus sometimes parents are like they bought this super fancy stroller system or expensive bassinet, neither of which they're using very frequently after the baby starts eating, sell those if you have to and invest in a safe high chair.

Katie Ferraro (5m 28s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back. I like the tripp trapp cuz you can buy it on the used market.

Katie Ferraro (6m 44s):

Okay, you can get it very affordably. This chairs from 1972, there's tons of 'em out there. The Nomi is newer and definitely newer for approval in the US so you're not as likely to find used versions of them, but I'm hoping you can take advantage of that 25% off Nome discount code if you are shopping that chair. All right. Second piece of homework is be sure to take an infant refresher CPR course. Okay. CPR is so important and CPR can save your baby's life in the very rare event that your baby did have a choking incident. I like to remind parents that choking is a rare but real event. And we know from research that babies who start solid foods with a baby lead approach are at no higher risk of choking than our babies who start with traditional spoon feeding, but that only holds true provided parents are educated about reducing choking risks.

Katie Ferraro (7m 28s):

We've got tons of info for you on how to do that, but I do recommend taking an infant refresher CPR course. The course that I take each quarter is fabulous. It's online, it's taught by a wonderful gentleman Brandon, him and his wife run this company called Thrive Training Institute. I have an affiliate link for you in the show notes. If you use the code KD 10, you can get $10 off this already really affordable CPR course. And I also teach a choking prevention and response course with Brandon and a speech language pathologist that you can get. It's already discounted. I never know how much they are, but I do know the code. Katie 10 works for another $10 off of that. If you're really freaked out about choking, take my choking prevention and response course and definitely be sure to take the CPR course.

Katie Ferraro (8m 11s):

Brandon and Caitlin are always bundling the classes in different ways to make it more affordable for their students. And again, I'll link all of that up in the show notes for this episode@bblwpodcast.com slash 2 8 8. Next piece of advice since you're a podcast listener, here are a couple of other podcast episodes to listen to now some people when they're starting baby led weening, go all the way back to the beginning of our podcast, which you're welcome to do. This is episode 288. So we've coming up on 300 episodes and yet the first 20 are the most listened to. Those are the episodes that we dropped with when I launched the podcast. So I think the first 20 are really good as far as like getting up to speed. But three other ones I wanna mention just cuz we've done so many episodes since then and sometimes parents get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of episodes.

Katie Ferraro (8m 54s):

Check out episode 237, getting Grandparents on Board BLW across generations. So this was a super fun episode just brainstorming some ways in case you have grandparents who maybe aren't totally sold on baby led weenie yet. I share some success stories of families who have gotten their grandparents do love and brag about those BLW babies and it's all in that episode 237. Another one too just for like kind of setting the stage for what the feeding environment is going to be like in your family, especially if you maybe don't have the best relationship with food yourself. I interviewed leading eating disorder dietitian and a good friend of mine Jessica set back in episode 72 and it was called How to Create a Pressure Free Feeding Environment.

Katie Ferraro (9m 37s):

Lots of actionable tips in there for you to kind of get like your mindset straight as you're starting baby led weaning. And then if the gagging stuff is really holding you back or you're scared or you don't know how you're gonna react when your baby gags on food, be sure to check out episode 221. It's called gagging. What do I do if my baby gags on food? Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (11m 5s):

Now, a final piece of homework for you here in the holidays, if you're getting up to speed with baby led weaning, if you haven't already taken my free one hour video workshop called Baby led Weaning for beginners, this is a really great way to visually assess this is what it's gonna look like. This is where you might get stuck, this is what the food should look like. This is how you do the allergenic foods. I kind of wrap it all up in that free one hour video workshop and everybody on that workshop gets a copy of my 101st foods list. So you'll never run out of ideas for foods that your baby can eat. Cuz learning about baby-led weaning is one thing, but once you get there, you're gonna want to know how to prep the foods. The hundred first Foods list tells you what foods to eat, and then I share more about my programs where I can teach you exactly how to prep those foods and sequence them so you guys have success when you go to start baby led weaning, that's all net free workshop if you head to babyledweaning.co.

Katie Ferraro (11m 59s):

So babyledweaning.co is where you can sign up for this week's workshop times, bring your pencil and your paper. I talk super fast. Actually, do email a workbook for that workshop. But I love, sometimes parents will post pictures of their workbook like notes and stuff from the workshop and they're taking a lot of great notes, which is great. And if you did take the course or the workshop a while ago and you wanna brush up head to baby ledweaning.co, you can sign up for workshop times. We just redid the workshop. I'm really, really excited about it and I wanna make sure that every parent who's starting Solid Foods with their baby has a copy of that hundred First Foods list because diet diversity really is the key to succeeding with baby led weaning and my hope is that you'll be able to get your baby to eat 100 different foods before turning one.

Katie Ferraro (12m 42s):

So I'll see you on the workshop, baby led weaning.co if you haven't already taken it. Very happy holidays to all of those of you who are celebrating. And everything from today's episode is linked up on the show notes at BLWpodcast.com/288. And a special thanks to our partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain, all the things that I love, they're all on AirWave Media. I love their podcast and we're so excited to be a part of their network. You can find out more about the baby led weaning made easy podcast@blwpodcast.com. And thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time.