Forget the Salad: 5 Safe Ways to Offer Spinach for Baby-Led Weaning

Hungry Root (0s):

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Katie Ferraro (2m 4s):

And I know when those parents buy that pouch and it says kale or spinach on it, they're like, oh my gosh, I'm so amazing in my baby's eating spinach, but oh, I hate to rain on their parade. It's not spinach. Look at the ingredient list. The first thing is always gonna be apple sauce or pear puree. And then if you go way down to the bottom of the ingredient list, there's gonna be like a tinge of kale that gives it like a grain tint. But for the most part, it's like this whole idea like, oh, babies can't learn to eat vegetables, so let's just mask it or bathe it in this super sweet flavor of fruit that we know they like and love. You don't need to do that. It's perfectly acceptable to offer your baby some of these bitter flavor compounds like you would find in spinach or kale. We just don't do raw or crunchy or crispy foods.

Katie Ferraro (2m 45s):

You don't do kale chips for a six month old despite what you may see on TikTok. There are really easy ways though to make spinach safe for an early eater. 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 with Katie Ferraro podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning. So I saw a baby food pouch at the store the other day and the front of the package made it look like it was pure kale, okay?

Katie Ferraro (3m 27s):

Like it was, ugh. I know the parents that were buying this were probably like, oh, if I give this to my baby there, my baby's gonna be eating kale. And it reminds me of this super snarky article headline, I think it was from like 2016. It was some Buzzfeed article and it was, it was called Your Kale Eating Baby Does not impress Me. I tried to find the article that has been removed from the internet, but I remember seeing it and it was like, your kale eating baby does not impress me. And let me be honest, what's in that pouch? It's not really kale you guys. 'cause here's the deal with those pouches. Okay? The first ingredient, if you read the ingredient listing your kale pouch is gonna be applesauce or pear puree. Okay? These manufacturers are literally just taking a naturally sweet fruit puree that we know your baby's gonna love, and then putting a tinge of kale in it so that you feel like a good parent, right?

Katie Ferraro (4m 14s):

This is performative parenting at its finest and they mark the price up and you're like, oh my gosh, my baby's eating dark green leafy vegetables and I'm an amazing parent. So you are an amazing parent. However, we do not do raw leafy greens like kale or spinach or lettuce for babies 'cause those are a huge choking hazard, okay? And you can't just fry up kale chips for your six month old. They will definitely choke on those regardless of what you see on TikTok. So you can however, make leafy greens safe for your baby to eat. And that is exactly what we are going to cover in this episode. Hello, I'm Katie Ferraro. I'm a registered dietitian mom of seven college nutrition professor, and I specialize in Baby-Led Weaning. And today I've got five safe ways for you to offer spinach for Baby Led Weaning.

Katie Ferraro (4m 57s):

So we're not gonna pick on kale, we're gonna focus on spinach, and I'll tell you why in a second. But I like to start off each of these solo episodes with a Baby-Led Weaning tip of the day. And so today's tip is about Iron. So I don't know how old you are, but you probably know who Popeye is. Okay? Popeye's like high on spinach because all of the nutrition that it has, right? So he's always like guzzling cans of spinach. And I am not here to discuss Iron because I love dark green leafy vegetables as much as any other dietitian. But a lot of people think like, oh, Popeye's so strong because of all the Iron in the spinach. And even though greens like spinach do contain Iron, here's the breakdown. Okay? The actual Iron absorption from spinach is quite low because spinach contains oxalates.

Katie Ferraro (5m 41s):

So oxalates are compounds that block Iron absorption in our bodies. And on top of that, the type of Iron that's found in spinach is called non-heme Iron. So that Iron is less bioavailable from Iron than the type of Iron that we find in animal foods. Okay? Not to mention that you would need like two cups of raw spinach to get one milligram of Iron. Can we talk a lot in the podcast about how like if you find a food that has one milligram of Iron, that's what we call a good Iron food for a baby. Now, not all the foods you need to offer have one milligram of Iron, but when you put a variety of foods together and you get a couple of these with one milligram, wow, cool. You are teaching your baby how to eat naturally containing sources of Iron. And we don't have to rely on Iron fortified baby cereals to get our baby's Iron, right?

Katie Ferraro (6m 22s):

So if you think back, okay, two cups of raw spin and oh my gosh, I'm gonna get that into my baby. And then how much of that Iron is even absorbed by the human body? That varies pretty significantly. It's hard to determine, but sorry, you're six month old is not eating two cups of raw spinach. 'cause as I mentioned, raw leafy greens are a choking hazard. So I just wanna point out that there are much easier ways to offer Iron to your baby than spinach. But because I know we wanna talk about spinach today, we're gonna talk about the safe ways to do spinach. I'm gonna talk about the benefits of spinach from a taste and a texture and a nutrition standpoint for babies. But I just don't want you to forget that those other protein foods and those whole grain foods that I hope you're offering to your baby at least one new protein food a week, at least one new whole grain of food a week on top of the new fruit and the new vegetable that you're offering.

Katie Ferraro (7m 8s):

Okay? The whole grains in the proteins, those are going to cover your baby's bases when it comes to Iron and the fruits and the vegetables that you're doing. Those provide the Vitamin C that in turn helps your baby's body absorb the Iron that they're getting from all the other new foods, right? So there's no one food that's like superior to or the best food. So if you go to the store and you see the pouch, you're like, kale, that's the best food for my baby. Eh? Take it with a grain of salt. Okay? There's not even really kale on that pouch. As you learned, if you need some ideas on lots of different types of foods that your baby can eat, you are in luck because I have a list of a hundred foods that your baby can eat. That's right. Back in 2016, I created the original a 100 First Foods approach to starting solid foods with Baby-Led Weaning.

Katie Ferraro (7m 51s):

I have a whole 100 First Foods list that has 20 different fruits, 20 vegetables, 20 starchy foods, 20 protein foods, and 20 allergenic foods. I give that a hundred First Foods list away to everybody on my free online workshop called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. This is hands down the best place to go. If you're just starting to learn about Baby-Led Weaning, I want you to print out that 100 First Foods list, put it on your fridge and start knocking those foods out for your baby. Everybody on that free workshop gets a copy of the original 100 FIRST FOODS list and you can sign up for the workshop at Baby-Led Weaning.co/workshop and get started knocking out both the plant as well as the animal sources of Iron if your family eats animal foods.

Katie Ferraro (8m 32s):

So let's dive in looking at five easy ways to offer your baby spinach. 'cause we don't do it with salad and we're also not doing kale chips for your baby either. So why would you want to offer your baby greens? Alright, Iron, as I mentioned, there is some Iron, although it's not the best kind in spinach. So spinach contains non-heme Iron that's really important for brain development and growth, but it's not super bioavailable due to those oxalates that I mentioned, as well as these other compounds called phytates that inhibit the babies or the Iron absorption from those foods. Now, spinach and all Iron containing foods, especially the non-heme ones, really great when you're absorbed or paired with a Vitamin C foods. So all fruits and vegetables, okay, contain some Vitamin C food.

Katie Ferraro (9m 15s):

So that's why we teach parents how to make safe versions of fruits and vegetables. But I know that fruits and vegetables are pretty easy to make safe for your baby. What a lot of parents struggle with is how to make the proteins and how to make the whole grain safe. But the reason why we continue to do those fruits and vegetables is 'cause that vitamin C helps your baby absorb the Iron from those Iron and whole grain foods that you're offering. Now, the spinach, the greens, they also contain vitamin A, okay? In the form of what's called beta carotene. Vitamin A supports vision, supports your baby's immune function also plays an important role in their skin health. So betacarotene is what gives cooked spinach, for example. It's really like dark green color and it converts it to vitamin A inside of the body. Okay?

Katie Ferraro (9m 55s):

Spinach, also important Because it contains folate. You probably know all about folate because remember when you were pregnant you were taking that prenatal vitamin. 'cause folate is really important for cell growth, brain development, red blood cell formation, your baby needs all that and they're gonna get some of that from their greens too. Really important for babies 'cause they're still growing so rapidly in that first year of life. The spinach also contains Vitamin K that's important for blood clotting and bone health and spinach is a great source of Vitamin K. Your baby, however, got a shot of Vitamin K at birth to help any deficiency related bleeding. So not super important, but I just wanna point out, there's not like, we don't just do spinach because of the Iron. There's lots of other reasons why you would offer it Contains fiber, okay? Like all fruits and vegetables helps with digestion, helps your baby have healthy poops.

Katie Ferraro (10m 39s):

Spinach, along with other, you know, fiber containing foods helps prevent constipation, okay? Especially when you cook it properly and you introduce it gradually, which I'll tell you how to do in this episode.

OSEA (10m 48s):

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Katie Ferraro (13m 20s):

So we steer clear of raw green as a reminder because those can be a choking hazard for early eaters. Okay? Think about yourself. Even if you were trying to eat, you know, some crunchy raw iceberg lettuce, okay? You would require some pretty significant jaw and muscle strength in your mouth to chomp that which your baby probably doesn't even have teeth when they start solid foods. And that's perfectly fine, right? Because babies do not require teeth to learn how to eat solid foods. But we want foods to be soft and pass what we call the squish test. Meaning if you smash the food between your forefinger and your thumb, there should be some give there, okay? I generally say if you can smash the food between your fingers and your thumb, then it's safe for your baby to eat with their gums. Okay? We can't do that with the raw foods and we certainly don't want any crunchy or crispy or hard foods, which those like kale chip type of foods are.

Katie Ferraro (14m 4s):

Oftentimes those are have a lot of added salt and they're pretty processed. So we want to just stick with some safer ways for your baby to start spinach and I can get to those as well. So five different ways that you can do spinach for your baby. Now if you think about like the quintessential disgusting baby food, like pureed spinach kind of comes to mind, right? You could go to the store and you could buy a jar of pureed baby food and maybe your mom or your mother-in-law or whoever, the older person in your family says this like, you know, I spoonfed you and you turned out fine. And we hear that pushback a lot from grandparents who maybe don't understand Baby-Led Weaning or that it's a safe and effective alternative to conventional adult-led spoon feeding. And that's fine. They'll think about the pureed spin that they used to put on a spoon and shove in your mouth.

Katie Ferraro (14m 47s):

And while you certainly, you know, could shove a spoon of food down the throat of a four month old, that doesn't necessarily mean that you should. So I would suggest a more elevated or evolved way to do period spinach and why not try a spinach pop? So one of my favorite things to do with period foods for babies who are six months of age or older and showing the reliable signs of readiness to eat is to do a spinach pop. And I do that using the ezpz tiny pops. So this is a small Popsicle mold that is designed for babies six to 12 months of age. You can puree that spinach however you would like to. You pop it in the little mold, you put it in the freezer, you pop it out and you hand it to your baby. Especially for babies who are teething, they really, really enjoy that cold sensation on their mouth.

Katie Ferraro (15m 32s):

Takes quite a lot of time for them to work their way through a Popsicle too. So it keeps them occupied at the table. It's a great way for them to experience the cold sensation, a kind of a different texture. They're also getting a little bit of that Iron and nutrient transfer. So why not try it in a Popsicle? Okay? Nobody says you have to limit your Popsicle intake to fruits only. Spinach pops are very popular around my house, at least with the babies who come over for parent coaching sessions. You can also try a spinach pancake. Now let's say your baby has already passed egg. So egg is one of the potentially allergenic foods we do in our hundred First Foods Daily Meal Plan. We do egg within the first three weeks. We actually do one new allergenic food every week so that by week nine of the program your baby's had all of the top nine allergenic foods.

Katie Ferraro (16m 12s):

Kind of clears it up. Makes it a lot more fun for us to try some different recipes. 'cause we know your baby's not allergic to all of these allergenic foods. But if you took a cup of fresh spinach and egg, a half a cup of rolled oats, a quarter cup of yogurt, okay? And so we also have to ensure that the baby's not allergic to cow's milk. Okay? And then a half of a ripe banana. And then sometimes I do a little bit of a cinnamon in there, like a quarter of a teaspoon. And I steam the spinach or wilt it, just kind of get it, you know, you can do it in the microwave, you can do it on your stove top just till it's nice and cooked and bright green so nutritious, squeeze out the extra water, blend everything together in a food processor or a blender or a food processor. And then cook it like you would with a regular pancake. Now I use a an electric pancake maker A because I'm lazy and they make perfect pancakes.

Katie Ferraro (16m 56s):

But, I bought an electric waffle maker when I got like right after I got married to make waffles and it came with pancake inserts. And I remember being like, who is so lazy that they would not make their own pancakes on the stove top. And then when I started cooking for babies, I was like, oh my gosh, this electric pancake or maker is my jam. 'cause you never burn the pancakes. And they're make perfect pancakes and I just use my pizza cutter to cut 'em in. Little pieces about the size of your adult pinky finger. They make beautiful little finger foods that you could feed to your baby. So try a spinach pancake if you want. Cool it. Cut 'em into pieces about the size of your adult pinky finger and offer that spinach pancake to your baby. Now one of my absolute favorite ways, however, to offer spinach to early eaters is in our program.

Katie Ferraro (17m 39s):

So my program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. And what I do is I show you for all the 100 foods on my 100 First Foods list, I show you all the recipes and instructions and videos on how to make those foods safe. Top five favorite recipes in the program. There's over 300 recipes in the program, which I personally make all of them. And I'm constantly revising them. So very familiar with them. Our Pollock Pier recipe. So I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal for two and a half years after college. And I lived in the eastern side of Nepal. Anyway, I don't wanna tell you too long of a story, but long story short, I lived with a Nepalese family. And so we made like traditional Nepalese food, but we traveled a lot down to the border region and we ate a lot of Indian food. And I fell in love with Pollock paneer, which is just like I described it as very salty puree spinach dish, which is amazing.

Katie Ferraro (18m 22s):

Made with paneer, which is kinda like Indian cottage cheese. We actually use a lot of paneer in our program 'cause you could make it without salt and it's really an easy way to introduce your baby to cow's milk protein. But the Pollock part, the spinach part that's highly seasoned, so it has some amazing flavor compounds in it. It's such a nice texture for your baby to practice dipping and scooping with their spoon. So Baby-Led Weaning does not mean just skipping purees, right? That there you can honor the self-feeding principles of baby Led Weaning and still offer your baby a pureed food like poly pier. We just do it using the preloaded spoon approach. This recipe is one that a lot of families in our program are like, Ooh, that's one we make regularly for our whole family. Now I make it all the time for babies and then I just take a portion of it for myself and add some salt and a little bit more spice.

Katie Ferraro (19m 5s):

But it has so much seasoning and it's so much flavor in it. It's one of my favorite recipes. And this is in phase one of our program. So phase one are the first eight weeks of Baby-Led Weaning. And so these are recipes that are a little bit more on the simple side. When I say simple, I just mean they don't contain combination foods. So they're not multi textured foods that your baby can't handle right at the beginning. But if you're in the program and you go to the hundred First Foods content library, go to the vegetables, go to spinach, scroll down to S for spinach, and if you go to the recipe section for phase one, you will find the Pollock Pier recipe there. If you wanna check out the program, go to baby led weenie.co/program. I would love to have you join us inside of the program. We've got lots of different recipes for every phase for all a 100 foods.

Katie Ferraro (19m 45s):

So the ones we have in phase two and three, this is after your baby's been eating for eight weeks or more. And when they have their pincer grasp, then we move into the really fun like multi textured foods. That's when we start doing the smaller pieces of food. We've got a really great spinach omelet strip recipe. Again, a way to further reintroduce the potentially allergenic food egg. We also have a great spinach puffs recipe, so kind of do a lot of stuff with egg and spinach. Personally, one of my favorite combination. But the spinach puffs is cool because it's another way to reintroduce your baby to wheat. I know you don't have all day to be cooking all these foods from scratch, but I love this particular recipe Because it uses already prepared pie crust. So you might be like, you know, oh my grandma used to make pie crust from scratch.

Katie Ferraro (20m 26s):

That's great if your grandma had that kind of time. I do not have that kind of time. Pie crust is my jam Because it doesn't have any added sugar or any added salt. So I use pie crust whenever possible as a base for a lot of my recipes. So I like to cut corners when it makes sense. But I'm not gonna put junky foods into recipes inside of this program that have a lot of stuff that you wouldn't want going into your baby. But there are some really great brands of already prepared pie crust out there. And we use those in the Spinach Puffs recipe. So check that one out if you're in the program. Again, that's at baby Led Weaning Do co slash program. So there you have it. Five different ways that you can do spinach, depending upon your baby's age and stage. Try out a pureed spinach pop.

Katie Ferraro (21m 8s):

You can do the ezpz tiny pops if you wanna check those out. The code BABYLED always works for 15% off@ezpzfun.com. So if you go to ezpzfun.com/babyled, it's got all of my favorite Baby-Led Weaning products up there. That tiny pops are there. And again, that affiliate discount code BABYLED works for 15% off. And then secondly, you can do that spinach pancake. I love pancakes. I'll put a link to my electric pancake maker too, because I just bought a second one. I have seven kids and we make pancakes every Saturday morning. They eat a lot of pancakes because they eat a lot of the leftovers from when I'm making work pancakes in the week. But on the weekend, I make them like really good pancakes with sugar and salt in them.

Katie Ferraro (21m 50s):

But all week long they eat sugar free, salt free pancakes. But I needed a second one even though my first one wasn't broken and I've had it for 13 years. This is a good waffle/pancake maker. It's from Cuisinart, but I'll link the exact one for you in the description so you can get it if you need it. And hopefully you'll have it for 13 years. And then the third way that you can do this, the Pollock Panier recipe, that's from phase one of our program. When you get to phase two or phase three, check out some spinach omelet strips or the spinach Puffs recipe. That's one of my personal favorites. We do a couple different things with that and I'd love to see any pictures if you have them, of your baby trying any of these recipes. Don't be shy to do spinach. It's a really great food for your baby, but you know you don't need to suck it outta the pouch and you certainly don't wanna offer any raw or crunchy versions of these foods to your baby.

Katie Ferraro (22m 35s):

So there you have it. I'm gonna put this show notes for this episode on the internet so that you can get all this stuff if you're not able to get it wherever you're listening or watching this. And that's gonna be @blwpodcast.com/61. And I wanna say 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 that AirWave puts out. Some of my favorite podcasts are on that network. That's why I joined the network. I love them. We're online @blwpodcast.com. If you wanna take that free online workshop, BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS, and get my 100 FIRST FOODS list 'cause you're just starting out.

Katie Ferraro (23m 16s):

That's at Baby-Led Weaning.co/workshop. If you're ready to get down to the nitty gritty and start making all these recipes for your baby, that's all inside of the program with all the videos and recipes and instructions on how to actually make these foods safe for your baby because I know you do not have time to hunt and peck all over the internet and figure out how to make these foods safe. I created the exact program that I wished I had when I was starting baby led weaning with my seven little babies. I made it for you. It's all online at Baby-Led Weaning.co/program. Thanks again for listening, watching, joining in, and for helping your babies learn to like and eat real food, including spinach. Now you can circle spinach off of the 100 First Foods list.

Katie Ferraro (23m 57s):

Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you next time. Bye.

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