Podcast

The Making of a Documentary About Starting Solid Foods with @asolid6months Paulina Lagudi

  • How Paulina took a much different approach to starting solid foods with her 2nd baby vs #1
  • Why she is making a film about starting solid foods and how that process actually works
  • Which new foods her baby has tried and the ones she’s a little skittish to start just yet

LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE

Episode Description

Why do we make starting solid foods SO complicated? Documentary filmmaker and mom of 2 Paulina Lagudi is here to talk about the new film project she is making about starting solid foods called A Solid 6 Months. She’s following her own son’s journey with baby-led weaning, interviewing experts and exploring parents’ + babies’ relationship with learning to eat real food.

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About the Guest

  • Paulina Lagudi is a filmmaker and mom of 2
  • She’s currently making a documentary about starting solid foods and feeding babies

Links from Episode

  • Follow Paulina & her film on Instagram @asolid6months
  • Support the creation of aulina’s film A Solid 6 MOnths by contributing here 
  • Paulina’s website is here
  • Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program with the 100 First Foods™ Daily Meal Plan, join here: https://babyledweaning.co/program 

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Click Here for Episode Transcript Toggle answer visibility

Factor (1s):

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Online CPR Course (1m 25s):

Checking in on your infant refresher CPR core status. Have you taken CPR recently? Actually everybody who helps feed your baby should know CPR because while there's no higher risk of choking with Baby-Led Weaning compared to conventional spoon feeding CPR can save your baby's life. The course I take every quarter is available online. It's incredibly thorough but it's also concise. You can get $10 off your online CPR course registration with my affiliate discount code Katie 0. The website you sign up at is bit.ly/onlineCPRcourse.

Paulina Lagudi (1m 55s):

It's not about like what's in our baby food. It's not about one of those like food ink type things. This is about how will we show up as parents for our children when they start eating food outside of our body for the first time or outside of a formula for the first time.

Katie Ferraro (2m 12s):

Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning. Here on the bBaby-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. I know you don't have a ton of time these days to be lounging around and watching TV or movies like you used to because you have a baby, but have you ever just been cruising through your streaming services or you're on an airplane and you click on a documentary and when it's over you say to yourself, wow, I never knew that insert topic of said documentary here could be so interesting.

Katie Ferraro (2m 60s):

Well that is what my guest today is going to accomplish with her new film about feeding babies. It's called a solid six months. Her name is Paulina Lagudi and she's a filmmaker and a mom of two. And right now Paulina is smack dab in the middle of creating a documentary film all about starting solid foods. It's part journey about her second baby Enzo and all the new foods he's trying. But then there's lots of interviews with experts and kind of a deep dive into the philosophy and the conversation about why we as a modern society have made the transition to solid foods for babies just so dang complicated. So I've had the pleasure of working with Paulina a little bit on this project and I've gotten to help with Baby Enzo in both the pre feeding phase and now that he's started solid foods, I personally and professionally am just so excited to watch this project come to life.

Katie Ferraro (3m 50s):

I think it's going to be so helpful to help parents as a resource 'cause they're out there also feeling overwhelmed and confused about their babies starting solid foods. But it's also gonna be a great resource for doctors and other healthcare professionals who, to be frank are just not getting adequate training with evidence-based guidelines and recommendations about giving babies a safe start to solid foods. So again, the film is called A Solid Six Months. It is at the time of this recording a work in progress, but Paulina does have a crowdfunding page to support the creation of this project. If you like what she's about and you want to contribute, I'll link that in the show notes below where you are listening. If you're on Instagram you can follow along with the creation of this film and watch all of Baby Enzo's new foods on their Instagram, which is at a solid six months.

Katie Ferraro (4m 35s):

And that's with the number six. And so with no further ado, I wanna introduce Paulina Lauti who will be talking about the making of a documentary, all about starting solid foods

Paulina Lagudi (4m 49s):

With Enzo. He was technically ready for solids, I would say about like a week and a half before we actually gave him his first bite of food. But what happened was we knew we had to film the First Bite because that's the whole thing for this documentary is like leading up to that. And we got, we booked all these jobs and Cooper was out of town and so it just like kept getting pushed more and more and more. And Enzo got to a point where he was like eating his hand. I took him to the beach at one point. He picked up some sand, ate it and I was like, oh no, does this count right? I'm like, Ugh. Well I mean he then he like had really bad sand poops for a little bit. So that was like not super great, but pretty much the whole thing was that like even though he started solids two weeks after or about a week and a half after then when I'd wanna start him on solids, I would say that it actually taught me so much about true readiness for starting solids because by the time he actually got to the point of eating that first bite of food on camera, he was like all the fears and anxieties I had about my first son starting solids.

Paulina Lagudi (5m 54s):

Like I didn't have that with him. He was so ready. 'cause I'd been seeing him practice with different toys and tools. Like he was sitting at the table with us just not eating food yet, you know? And so I, he had done the motions before so many times that it was just like now we just put food in there and he was ready to go and it taught me a lot. Yeah, it just taught me a lot about what true readiness really looks like.

Katie Ferraro (6m 17s):

I love that you waited 'cause parents sometimes are so eager to start early. We've talked so much about the importance of waiting to start solid foods and how that's changed over the decades. And I kind of wanna start at the beginning 'cause I remember just being so excited. I got, my assistant forwarded me an email, we get a bunch of like weird random emails and she's like, this one actually sounds legit and it was from you and you had sent it to like our website or something and eventually came across and I was like, oh my gosh, this woman is making a documentary about starting solid foods. Nothing like this has ever been done before. And then I deep stalked you a little bit, did some LinkedIn research. I'm like, wait a minute. She's like, from two towns away from where I live in San Diego. So we got together, I got to meet you. It was just so wonderful getting to meet you and Enzo and then watching this progression in his pre feeding phase of you guys getting geared up to start solid foods and then also learning about this process of making a documentary 'cause for the baby feeding stuff.

Katie Ferraro (7m 9s):

Like for me, I mean I do this day in and day out, but this is what I live for. I wanna know more about why you decided to tackle this topic of starting solid foods as a filmmaker and a second time mom.

Paulina Lagudi (7m 23s):

So the idea of it actually being a documentary started before I was even pregnant with Enzo. So it was after my first son had like he's a toddler at this point, you know about one and a half, almost two. And we had this, I had this idea to start a, a documentary about solid foods because, or just baby food, right? Because of the fact that I had been noticing with other mom friends out there that I had, we were all getting different information from our pediatricians about food. And what I found really frustrating is I'd go to, you know, my doctor's appointments for my son and they'd ask how he's eating and I'm like, he eats really well. Like he eats all these things and they're like, but how much milk is he drinking? And I'm like, well he doesn't really like milk bottles anymore, but he is like eating a really very, you know, this is, he's about one and a half, he's eating a super wide variety of foods, you know?

Katie Ferraro (8m 11s):

Yeah, you're doing everything right.

Paulina Lagudi (8m 13s):

He's enjoying everything, right? Like he doesn't snack a ton but he eats his meals and then they just kind of been like, okay, well make sure he gets his milk and like didn't really care so much about what he was eating. I'm like, this is very odd. These are the same people that were pushing, you know, infant cereals on me at four months old, which I would have done if I had not, you know, been introduced to all the different types of, I mean I was introduced to Baby-Led Weaning by my sister who funnily enough doesn't even have kids but she found it on Instagram and then I went down this rabbit hole, just all these different ways that are out there to feed our babies. And I'm like, none of this information is being taught to our pediatricians in a way that actually matters in a way that's consistent.

Paulina Lagudi (8m 54s):

And they are the first source, the first resource parents get when it comes to starting our baby on solid foods. And so I, I had all these parent friends that had all this anxiety, all these crazy experiences, you know, some of them are so afraid of choking, some of them have allergies, some of them have, you know now extremely picky eater toddlers. And so I just started to ask these questions, you know about like why is it that in 2024 when we have all this information, there's all this medical research like why is it that baby food and infant feeding is kind of so there's so much polarizing information out there. Why are parents having to seek out so much other information outside of their doctor's offices?

Paulina Lagudi (9m 36s):

Then I researched, is there a documentary about this? 'cause I'm a filmmaker and there wasn't. And the fact that there wasn't, I was like, oh this is terrible 'cause that means now I have to make this film because I know how to do this. And obviously no one's asking this question.

Katie Ferraro (9m 48s):

It was terrible slash awesome, but you really hit the nail on the head there, Paulina that again. And I love and respect the work that pediatricians do. They're my colleagues, they're parents in our own program who are like, wait a minute, I never knew about Baby-Led Weaning and now I have a kid and I'm like oh my gosh, having them eat real food is way more effective, safer, and certainly easier for me than force feeding them by spoon. But the truth of the matter is, is what you nailed right there, which is the vast majority of physicians in this country have never taken a dedicated nutrition class. So even after parents take like my free one hour Baby-Led Weaning workshop, I tell them you've had more dedicated infant feeding education from a credentialed professional in this space than your own doctor has.

Katie Ferraro (10m 29s):

Not discounting the other things that your doctor's do and pediatricians have so much to do in those very short appointments. But they'll be the first ones to tell you, I have no idea how to counsel patients and effectively on starting solid foods for their babies. And they're still saying a lot of outdated information, which I know you're gonna cover in the film.

Paulina Lagudi (10m 46s):

Absolutely. And as I, you know, we had a conversation offline about a phone call that I had with a pediatrician that I was potentially going to have, you know, speak on this documentary 'cause I'm trying to find some different pediatricians that I can speak to, you know, and I straight up asked her like, hey, what? She had been a pediatrician for decades. So you know, she had been I think in her mid to late sixties at this point. She had been retired for four years and she told me like, oh I've had no nu we we got no nutrition information essentially like we had one day of it. And pediatricians, if they want to stay, get more education on baby food, infant feeding, you know, pediatric nutrition

Katie Ferraro (11m 24s):

And it's all sponsored by the formula companies.

Paulina Lagudi (11m 27s):

Yes they have to go to conferences and most of those conferences, pretty much all of them are sponsored by formula companies. Which those formula companies are often the same companies that sell babies own the baby food companies umbrellas.

Katie Ferraro (11m 38s):

And the presenters are doctors who aren't actually out there feeding babies every day like the dietitians are. It's, it's kind of ridiculous,

Paulina Lagudi (11m 45s):

Right? And this pediatrician was like, I did not like it when parents fed, when parents waited past four months, she wanted parents to be starting at four months with rice cereal. 'cause she goes, babies will get quote unquote scrawny. And I was like, that is, I mean mind blowing to me

Katie Ferraro (11m 60s):

That's an anti breastfeeding message because you on the other side of your mouth, you know the World Health Organization A A P guidelines about breastfeeding exclusively until six months of age. And I wanna ask you about that too. 'cause I know you were exclusively breastfeeding Enzo and with your second baby, did you feel like oh my gosh, maybe my breast milk's not enough until six months. Like honestly, despite all the research that you did, did you have those same concerns that other parents have because that's why they start early.

Paulina Lagudi (12m 22s):

Yeah, I had it with my first, not, not with Enzo because with Enzo, I mean the second time I felt much more confident with breastfeeding. You know, breastfeeding, especially for first time moms, like it is a whirlwind, right? You are just because you're having to trust your body and so much of this experience of childbirth, we're not always taught to trust our bodies. Especially if you're, you know, you're going to these doctor's offices, you're relying on your doctors a lot, right? So with my first, I definitely had those fears and I think that's why I started him on solid so much sooner. But what's funny is I was just at a mom walk yesterday, you know, in San Diego a bunch of us moms are together, all of our kids are like five to six months, five, five to seven months all of our babies.

Paulina Lagudi (13m 3s):

And these moms have some big babies. I mean they're chunky babies, you know, some of are breast breastfed, some of them are on formula and we're talking and one of them, you know, baby's almost six months, she's a big baby and they're like, yeah, our doctor's really pushing solid food. She goes, but she's not really interested. I was thinking about maybe pureing some avocado and putting it in a formula bottle for her. And I was like, no, thank you

Katie Ferraro (13m 26s):

For being an advocate for safe feeding practices. Paulina.

Paulina Lagudi (13m 28s):

Yeah. I was like, let's not, I was like, it's okay. I said clearly she's, I mean for the first year it's all of their nutrition really is coming from breast milk and formula and clearly she's gained great weight. So it kind of is bothersome that this pediatrician was telling me she doesn't like babies to get quote unquote scrawny when that's not a medical term and you're basing it off of like these charts where there's nothing about what she's saying that is like, oh this baby is failing to thrive. Like that's not existing. It's purely,

Katie Ferraro (13m 55s):

Yes, scrawny is not a medical diagnosis, sorry, that's just gonna instill fear in these moms hearts and minds.

Paulina Lagudi (14m 2s):

Yes. It's the fear this happened to, so one of my, my cousin, you know that happened to her, there was a lot of like a doctor, you know, we have 10 minute appointments often by the time we actually see the P pediatrician and you see the nurse and all this stuff. So they'll make an offhand comment, you know, or something like that about the baby's size or whatever or the charts, you know, and we're all anxious, especially with the first kid. And I was just noticing a lot of unnecessary fear when it came to feeding. And you know, I think a lot of, and this may be a generalization, but I think a lot of adults, especially women, you know, we sometimes can have a tumultuous relationship with food as adults and that can inadvertently be passed on to our children.

Paulina Lagudi (14m 42s):

And that's not what we want. We wanna, we wanna have children that are just like totally okay with food, but it can be, we have to figure out our own relationship with food too. So sometimes when doctors say these kind of, I would say quote unquote triggering messages or say things that can up our anxiety levels about our kids' size, that is then what puts us into a states to start worrying about quantity of food measurements. Not the things about hey let's teach them to be ultimately a self-feeding, autonomous being that can enjoy a variety of foods throughout their life, which is what we're setting the stage for.

Katie Ferraro (15m 20s):

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

Ritual (15m 26s):

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Katie Ferraro (16m 55s):

And Paulina, it's been so nice being able to connect with you and communicate with you throughout the making of this film. I've loved learning more about how these projects come to fruition through you. I was wondering if you could share a little bit more about how you came up with like the idea and the layout for the film. Who you pitch it to, how, who's paying for it? Like what kind of behind the scenes stuff do we, like me a typical mom who's not in your space, what do I never realize is happening behind the scenes that's helping you bring a project like this to life?

Paulina Lagudi (17m 23s):

Oh absolutely. I'm happy to share. So my husband and I, we own a production company and we do commercials and we've done narrative films as well. We've done a narrative feature film, I write films, you know, we've done short. So we come from the narrative space where you're typically dealing with a script, an idea and then you know you have a schedule and you shoot it. This is our first documentary. Now granted we've done short documentaries and we've done kind of very like interview based real life stuff before, but this is our first time embarking on a documentary. So before I got pregnant with Enzo, so my second I had this idea and so we were setting it up where it was gonna be a bunch of different families that we would find, right? And we would follow them. And the idea is that maybe we would take like a whole year and a half and like follow these families and then also film different companies and different experts.

Paulina Lagudi (18m 8s):

That was always a part of it and we would fund it through, ideally we were gonna maybe get some distribution on board ahead of time and maybe it was something that'd be backed by a streamer. And so we were always putting together this deck. Anyone who's knows anything about the film industry, if you've got a big idea but you haven't like won an Oscar already, it's very difficult to get anyone to take your idea seriously. So we're like, okay well we own all this stuff. Oftentimes you have to show people that you are doing it or that it's already made before they take interest. And also too, it kind of got me thinking about the fact that it's like this is a documentary like for the people, like it's for us moms, you know what I mean? It's not for the film industry, right?

Paulina Lagudi (18m 50s):

So let's just start. And so then I got, so we filmed our teaser and then I got pregnant and then I was like, ugh,

Katie Ferraro (18m 56s):

Wait you got pregnant after the teaser was filmed after

Paulina Lagudi (18m 60s):

The teaser?

Katie Ferraro (19m 0s):

Well then how did you know you were, oh because you thought you were gonna follow other families, babies so you didn't at that point mean to follow your own baby. Got it.

Paulina Lagudi (19m 7s):

Right. And granted too, like with this subject as you know when you're talking about I'm tackling baby food and feeding, it's like man, it's a big topic. So like how do we, how do I structure this film and like it shouldn't just be a bunch of information that I'm spewing out there because then I'm just like a YouTube video, right? So what's the heart of this story? What's gonna connect people? And that takes a lot of time. So I'm really happy we embarked on this before I got pregnant, you know, so I got this teaser, I'm, I'm doing these interviews and I, as I'm listening to these interviews of parents and I'm listening to these interviews of experts, I'm starting to learn more about this topic and and noticing some common patterns, right? So I'm finding the through line of the story, right?

Paulina Lagudi (19m 49s):

It's not about like what's in our baby food, it's not about one of those like food ink type things. It's way more philosophical than that so to speak. This is about how will we show up as parents for our children when they start eating food outside of our body for the first time or outside of a formula for the first time. And that's a really big deal. I was introduced to Amy Bentley's book The History of Baby Food and or oh not History of Baby Food Inventing Baby Food, which is essentially a giant history on baby food. And that was an incredible resource. So then I get pregnant and I look at my husband and we essentially say like we have to follow his journey.

Paulina Lagudi (20m 29s):

Like that's the only way one we're gonna be able to get consistent footage. So to kind of bring this all back, we got fiscal sponsorship, I just decided we're gonna make this ourselves through it got fiscal sponsorship. So that allowed us to receive donations fully tax deductible donations through the nonprofit that came down to us. We started a crowdfunding campaign. So that way just kind of builds awareness and builds up an email list. We also are doing outreach to we what are called strategic partners now this has become a really interesting bit of insight that I've learned is finding strategic partners that are gonna wanna back a film about baby food that isn't subsidized by a formula company

Katie Ferraro (21m 11s):

Exactly. You you have to say at the outright no formula, no baby food or no one's gonna take your movie seriously. And I'm of course you recognize that but there's a lot of other people that maybe wouldn't even with professional credentials and it's insane, right?

Paulina Lagudi (21m 23s):

Right. So it's like, you know, and 'cause people are, you know, they're, they get wary. So finding the right institutions to be able to reach out to. And then also we have some private equity partners that are coming in as well. But you know, and I wanna, I wanna say too like this film is not about baby food because to be honest, like it's really just about if we understand the history of what what baby food served when it came onto market was actually not bad, right? It, it supplied a demand that was there based on the changing landscape of society at the time. And current baby food isn't bad, it's just hasn't evolved with the current recommendations. Like the fact that we've got like liquified purees being offered stage one to four month olds.

Paulina Lagudi (22m 7s):

It's like you guys like stay up to date if you're gonna offer it. And also two, if you are a parent that's using baby food or purees or whatever, it's again, it's kind of one of those things where we are, it's all about like baby led approach, right? Responsive feeding approach is something that is a newer concept for the masses. I will say it's been something that's like obviously been out there and talked about for a long time by some top experts that I'm so thankful to have on this and you're definitely one of them Katie. But it's a big thing that I wanna make sure that like even though I take a Baby-Led Weaning approach with my son and when you see on camera you'll definitely see why because it's like, I always say my house is like chopped championships before like dinner time because I got my toddler who like needs to eat now I've got my baby needs to eat now I've got my husband who needs to eat now.

Paulina Lagudi (22m 58s):

So I'm like quickly cooking in the kitchen. I got everyone at my feet and it's just so much easier to be able to like give my baby a modified version of what we're eating.

Katie Ferraro (23m 6s):

And I love that. I feel like we connected so much at the beginning because you made an excellent point that like this doesn't happen overnight and that's kind of the premise of Baby-Led Weaning. That it's not even about what the baby's eating. I mean yeah we don't want your baby eating flaming hot Cheetos and regular Dr. Pepper as a regular source of sustenance but we get so focused on what they're eating and how much and how many milligrams and grams. It's like that's not actually what matters. 'cause right now this baby needs about six months of time to learn how to eat. And so that kind of being the through line of your project is like listen moms and dads in this TikTok instant gratification era, this doesn't happen overnight. It's gonna take your baby about six months but by the time they turn 12 months of age, most of your baby's nutrition can be coming from food. Even if your pediatrician doesn't even ask you those questions.

Katie Ferraro (23m 50s):

Like that's developmentally what's supposed to happen. But they don't wake up on their first birthday magically knowing how to eat a 1oo foods. And I think showing the slow tedious side of it is something you can do in a documentary. Sorry, like I can't do that on social media. No one's gonna pay attention for longer than six seconds. So I'm, I'm so excited for this project for so many different reasons and you've been interviewing all these experts and thought leaders in the feeding space and what's been the biggest surprise about feeding babies that you've learned from them about starting solid foods that you think most parents probably don't know about?

Paulina Lagudi (24m 19s):

Surprising factors I never knew about oral care. Like that's a big thing that I learned about that I never knew about. Again, true readiness was something that I kind of had an idea about but didn't really know about until I spoke to these, to different experts. Also what it means to 'cause this, it's something that starts so little like in small ways when they're babies but then it's like it, it kind of can become an avalanche or it can grow by the time they're toddlers is really being intentional about they know their bodies, right? Don't be like pushing food that they don't need or want. Because oftentimes if they don't want to eat they might not be feeling well and when a baby's ready, they're ready.

Paulina Lagudi (25m 3s):

So it's like don't let my own expectations get in the way of like where they're at developmentally. We wouldn't do that in other areas of child development. So why do we still do that with food? Yeah,

Katie Ferraro (25m 17s):

It's like your baby learning how to to walk when they fall down and they bump into stuff you don't rush over and stop the process of them learning how to walk. Like it's gonna be ugly along the way. There's gonna be some gagging, there's gonna be a little bit of vomiting, there's gonna be some mess. But that's part of the process of learning how to eat. And I think making that analogy to other parts of child development, parents are like, oh yeah you're right. Like why am I micromanaging the heck out of

Paulina Lagudi (25m 38s):

This? Yeah, that's been a big thing is like understanding that baby feeding is not its own separate phase that lives lives in a vacuum. This is a stepping stone to what it, like the relationship you're, you can develop with your child throughout their entire life as a parent. Like it is a stepping stone to so much of your parenting journey and the conversation and relationship that you have with your child as they grow. So you want that foundational first brick of like the first time you're giving them like this level of independence to be one that's full of love and positivity and trust. And so that's really interesting. But on a like a diet, dietary note that I found I didn't know about was like how the landscape of nutritional information or like diet fads that are out there for adults and how that's kind of sifting into what parents are feeding their babies and toddlers is really interesting to me.

Katie Ferraro (26m 25s):

The big protein talk to you bone broth.

Paulina Lagudi (26m 28s):

Yes the bone broth. I know the bone broth.

Katie Ferraro (26m 30s):

I mean I heard about bone broth, the leaky gut syndrome. You text me about all these things and I'm like red flag, red flag, red flag. Like so much of it is obscure adult diet culture. I had a literally parent on the workshop the other day email me about they wanna put their baby on a keto diet and I was like, oh does your baby have like pediatric epilepsy because that would really be the only medical condition for which a ketogenic diet would be required and you should be working with a dietitian. No, our family's keto. It's like oh well I can't work with you 'cause that's not safe for babies.

Paulina Lagudi (26m 57s):

No. So that's like a big thing that I really have been very thankful that there are enough pediatric dietitians out there that are trying to get that message where it's like listen, like we need to not be pushing that kind of diet. We don't need to be pushing diet fads. We don't need to be pushing like certain macronutrients over the other. Like we don't have to get super obsessive about micronutrients either. Like again, if we take it back to basics your baby like and if they're, as long as they're being breasted and getting formula, especially for that first year, like a lot of those things will be covered. So just like take a chill pill, right? Let's focus on that first brick of like a good relationship in feeding your child. Hey,

Katie Ferraro (27m 33s):

We're gonna take a quick break but I'll be right back.

What Should I Read Next? (27m 40s):

Hello listeners, this is Ann Bogle, author, blogger, and creator of the podcast. What should I read next? Since 2016 I've been helping readers bring more joy and delight into their reading lives. Every week I check all things books and reading with a guest and guide them in discovering their next read. They share three books they love, one book they don't and what they've been reading lately. And I recommend three titles they may enjoy reading next. Guests have said our conversations are like therapy, troubleshooting issues that have plagued their reading lives for years and possibly the rest of their lives as well. And of course recommending books that meet the moment whether they're looking for deep introspection to spur or encourage a life change or a frothy page-Turner to help them escape the stresses of work, school, everything. You'll learn something about yourself as a reader and you'll definitely walk away confident to choose your next read with a whole list of new books and authors to try. So join us each Tuesday for what should I read next? Subscribe now wherever you're listening to this podcast and visit our website. What should I read next podcast.com to find out more.

Katie Ferraro (28m 44s):

Can you tell us how is Enzo doing so far with solid foods? You guys are a couple of weeks into this. I know I've been getting updates. I'm curious like how many foods he's done, if you guys are counting, what's your goal for him with this whole process of transitioning him to solid foods? Like not that you can control it but if you were to stand back hands off, like what do you hope happens throughout this weaning period that you can capture and then share with other families as a part of this project?

Paulina Lagudi (29m 8s):

I've been like making this joke that like since I fed started feeding Enzo solids, he's been progressing so much in other ways that I said by the time he's like at his first birthday, he's gonna be eating a steak with like a fork and a knife and looking

Katie Ferraro (29m 18s):

At us. Yeah because he's crawling you guys. Before six months I did a pre feeding assessment with them to assess readiness to eat. He wasn't sitting up yet but he was definitely scooching starting to crowd surf. I'm like, oh my gosh you poor thing Paulina. But this baby's gonna be walking by like eight, nine months.

Paulina Lagudi (29m 32s):

Oh yes, he wants to keep up with his brother. He's standing. So we've done 13 foods already and we've done three allergens. Oh no, four allergens.

Katie Ferraro (29m 39s):

Okay, which ones have you done?

Paulina Lagudi (29m 41s):

Egg wheat. So we did bread, my husband baked bread so we did his sourdough. We've done peanut butter and almond butter.

Katie Ferraro (29m 48s):

Okay, so no dairy yet?

Paulina Lagudi (29m 49s):

No dairy yet.

Katie Ferraro (29m 50s):

Cows milk protein. Are you gonna do

Paulina Lagudi (29m 51s):

It? I'm going to do dairy. Okay. The only reason I haven't done dairy yet is 'cause I just simply haven't purchased full fat yogurt or Rico ricotta yet. 'cause I have like non-fat and I was like I don't wanna feed him non-fat. Yeah,

Katie Ferraro (30m 3s):

Especially on film. Again, there's nothing wrong with it but you don't wanna give the message that babies need lower fat

Paulina Lagudi (30m 8s):

Products. I'm just like, you know. Also too, I just, you know, sometimes it can maybe affect their body a little differently. I don't know.

Katie Ferraro (30m 13s):

And for your baby, because your baby was exclusively breastfed For our families where the baby's formula fed the first yogurt doesn't really matter because the basis of the commercial infant formula is cow's meal protein. So we know your baby's good, but for yours, yogurt especially gonna be very good on film. 'cause as you know, yogurt is like the most fun food to watch a baby eat, but also the least fun food to clean up after. So my suggestion is always to kind of correlate yogurt day with bath day so that you can minimize the mess. But like definitely get that on camera 'cause that's just a baby having so much fun eating yogurt.

Paulina Lagudi (30m 44s):

Oh yeah, we've got, I mean the cleanup is hilarious. We even like we took him to the beach so Enzo's been to kind of back up a little bit, Enzo's doing so well with solids but because he loves eating so much, we've realized we all can't ever eat a meal without giving him something. Like he can't just sit there,

Katie Ferraro (31m 0s):

He can't call and that's

Paulina Lagudi (31m 2s):

Fine. Yes. Oh it's totally fine. But I remember, you know, there's always so many questions when you look at different blogs, Instagram, you know that's out there where people are always like, how many times a day should I feed my baby solids when I start? And it's like I've realized, listen my first, I did it two times a day. I started one time a day, I did two times a day. My second, he's like, every time you're eating, which is three times a day, like I better

Katie Ferraro (31m 22s):

Have somebody and it's a reminder to you Paulina to sit down and eat. 'cause we have a lot of parents that are like, well I don't eat all day. It's like, well sorry, that's not gonna work for the baby. Like small, the baby does need multiple opportunities. But I love your approach because, and I'm not saying you're missing this is, we've talked about other people's relationships with food and like if you do have an unhealthy relationship with food and then you're projecting that on your baby, but like we have a lot of parents who are like, I'm not eating it all throughout the day, I'm trying to lose weight. It's like, okay, all of that is fine but like for your baby's biology, like they do need, you know, practice makes progress. So I love that. I think what's gonna come through in this film is like your family's just sitting down and eating. It's not always perfect. It's not always whole grains and you know, unsaturated fats or whatever. It's like what you're eating is what you're eating and Enzo's gonna be a part of that and that's a huge part of learning how to eat so much more than exactly what he's eating

Paulina Lagudi (32m 7s):

And the way he interacts and the way my toddler interacts with him. So like the way the two of them interact is really interesting. Yo, he's learning so much being at this family table and we're just, you know, we're just a family that always sits down to eat. Like my, my husband is, he always says he's a bit of a slower eater and he like, he has to sit down and eat and he's,

Katie Ferraro (32m 23s):

But he does the dishes. I watched him at your house. I'm like, this man can like clean the counter. Like he come over to my house please.

Paulina Lagudi (32m 28s):

Yeah, he's, I'm the cook. He is like a hardcore cleaner in the kitchen. But so with Enzo, you know like every time we sit down and eat, like he has a little bit of something. But we were at the beach over the weekend and I had some fruit for dean. I had some cantaloupe and I knew Enzo's gonna want something but I had some beets and I wanted him to start eating beets. But I was like, oh well beets are really messy. Super, maybe we do some beets at the beach because then I can just like put 'em in the water and clean them up. Oh

Katie Ferraro (32m 54s):

My god though the beet plus the sand poop is gonna be so bad, Paulina.

Paulina Lagudi (32m 60s):

It was gnarly. I definitely saw it the next day and I was like, wow, that I don't think I should show, show hey. But it was great. He was all up in it. He, I mean it was beautiful. The sun's on him and he made a mess on everything but it was all like beach stuff that was just gonna get thrown in the wash. And then I put him in the, in the water in the ocean and he gets cleaned up and it was, it was all good. And I was like, oh man, this is so funny that it's just like I can, and also too because I'm starting him at this age of readiness but also early enough where I know, you know, choking wise, like his gag reflex is more forward and I how like I was always working with my first son about like spitting out stuff that's too big.

Paulina Lagudi (33m 40s):

Like he's also naturally doing that. So when it came to like the fear of choking, which is a big thing, you know Enzo doesn't gag as much as my first, which I found kind of interesting. But like he'll naturally just spit out bits that are too small or you know, it just kind of, I, I noticed this kind of natural way of just taking care of himself and his body and I'm always

Katie Ferraro (34m 0s):

But under your supervision, like he's not at the beach by himself. Macking beads. But also one thing about the gagging, just so other parents know too is that a lot of times early on the first few weeks, I call it phase one of Baby-Led Weaning, that's the first eight weeks and we're working through the first 40 foods. Not all babies are as into food as Enzo and that's totally fine. They might not actually be moving that food to the back of their mouth yet. And again that's fine. So you'll actually notice, oh this baby doesn't gag that much. Well it's because they're not really getting anything towards the back of their mouth but wait a few more weeks and they get a little bit more comfortable and a little bit more proficient and they're moving some of that food to the back of their mouth. That's when the gagging will start. And again, gagging is not a sign that your child cannot tolerate the food. In fact quite the opposite. It's a sign that your baby is learning how to eat.

Katie Ferraro (34m 42s):

So as he starts actually, you know, developing that chew and swallowing more of it, you might see more gagging but the tendency's like, oh this baby gags less or more than my other baby. It's like your first baby you thought gagging was choking. You now know so much more about child development and starting solid foods that you know what a gag is and you know that it's different than choking. So your anxiety level is certainly a lot lower than it probably was the first time around with Dean.

Paulina Lagudi (35m 7s):

Absolutely. And the types of foods I'm also feeding Enzo are a little bit different. Like I'm feeding him more like single ingredient whole foods or Dean right off the bat I was kind of, I was feeding him like oatmeals or you know like yeah the yogurt or the ricotta mix with stuff. So stuff that I knew like that's gonna be a lot easier for your baby to ingest because it's just so mashed down. And then I would give him some bigger foods to kind of like teeth on and things like that. It will be very interesting because I, Enzo has gagged when he took his first bite of food, like he definitely had a gagging moment. Did

Katie Ferraro (35m 34s):

You get it on film?

Paulina Lagudi (35m 35s):

We did get it on film.

Katie Ferraro (35m 36s):

Heck yeah that's the best because that's so helpful to other other parents like this is what gagging looks like. And notice I didn't jump in, I didn't lunge, I didn't slam him on the back. All of those things cause a baby to suck in air at which point they can cause that totally harmless gag to turn into potentially harmful choke parents need to see that. That's why we do so many videos on gagging audible with the sound. We used to put the reels to music and people are like, could you call it with the music? Like I wanna actually hear the baby gagging. It's like, oh my gosh, you're right with gagging the baby turns red or pink and there's sputtering and there's noise. But that's good because that means there's air passing through. You've gotta show that to parents 'cause they think it's choking without the right context. And

Paulina Lagudi (36m 12s):

What's so interesting about this, right, it's like you and I are having this conversation and it's like yes I have this knowledge a about you know what gagging looks like. Yes it's natural. And I keep coming back to the fact that I'm like, why isn't that talked about when you start solids with your pediatrician

Katie Ferraro (36m 28s):

Because they spend one minute telling you to do rice cereal four months of age and to wait three to five days between foods. Like it's just five seconds of misinformation and that's your infant feeding knowledge.

Paulina Lagudi (36m 37s):

Exactly. And then a parent has fear of choking and they're gonna look up about how many babies choke, you know, a year and die one

Katie Ferraro (36m 44s):

Maybe every five minutes or whatever. It's so scary. Exactly when you turn to the internet for that info.

Paulina Lagudi (36m 50s):

And so my thought is, you know, like how I'm so lucky, right? I've got this kid that loves food, right? And and he's gonna have his challenges. Like I notice if he, he does get frustrated when he's kind of like kind of gotten to a point where I think he wants to ingest for the food a bit more but he doesn't quite have that skill and so then he'll start to cry and like go like this And I'm like, okay, we're done. Right? We don't want this to become again because I'm not really worried about the quantity of what he's eating. Like we're gonna clean you up and get you done now, right? Yeah it does. You don't have to finish your meal so to speak. But I really want to like, the goal here is to film this stuff on camera And also too, we're filming experts, we're filming, you know, different families. We're filming recreating like the Clara Davis experiment so, which is gonna be super fun.

Katie Ferraro (37m 31s):

Who gets to play Clara? This is my real question. I know.

Paulina Lagudi (37m 35s):

Well my thought is that we won't see Clara but it's like we're gonna have the nurses like what it would've been like in the lab, right? These

Katie Ferraro (37m 40s):

Food can, I just can just be like an extra, this is my dream. Oh this is literally my dream. I've like been dying. What did it look like in Clara Davis? The kitchen and you're gonna have to watch the film to know the whole history of Claire Davis experiment that can never be recreated except in Paulina's fantastic film. I wanted to ask you about your husband Cooper, he's the director of photography on this project. You guys, you literally have more camera equipment in your house. I remember when walked into your house through your garage, I was like whoa dude, I hope no one ever breaks into this garage. 'cause it's like so much money of fancy equipment. I'm also blown away by the fact that anytime I see a husband and a wife team working together, like that's just so amazing to me. How has it been working on this project together? I mean with your own children involved because most moms, they're totally down when their baby starts.

Katie Ferraro (38m 20s):

solid foods, it's the dad. If he's involved or paying attention, usually the one freaking out about whether or not the baby can eat this or if they're gonna choke. But Cooper seems like a pretty chill dad. Like how's the work life balance stuff going in the making of this project since he's so intimately involved in both the professional and the personal side?

Paulina Lagudi (38m 38s):

Yeah, I'm really happy you asked that question. I mean, Cooper and I are really.

Katie Ferraro (38m 42s):

You're like, we're getting divorced. It's terrible.

Paulina Lagudi (38m 44s):

You imagine We constantly, we always make a joke that this film should actually be called like why are we doing this? Because we constantly are asking ourselves like why are we doing this? Like it's so stressful. 'cause it's stressful, right? You know, he's behind the camera and we're, we're capturing real life and as anyone knows, like a life with two young children, it's, you know, it's not like super easy all time.

Katie Ferraro (39m 3s):

Borderline dangerous sometimes. Right? Exactly. Although Cooper has everything in your house nailed down. I remember one another, he's like giving me a tour. He's like, and this is nailed to the wall and this is nailed to the wall and I, I like really appreciate his attention to detail and safety. So I feel like your kids are in good hands with both of you.

Paulina Lagudi (39m 15s):

He's in great, he's awesome, we're in great hands. But it's like, it's the balance of, so Cooper one as like a parent, he has learned a lot about baby eating through me. Obviously he definitely loves to let me take the reins in the beginning 'cause he is very afraid of choking And that was a big thing with Dean is like, he never wanted to feed him because he got too afraid. But he's learned a lot and he's kind of, he understands like what it really looks like for that to happen and, and he trusts it all so much more now he's, what it looks like is it's a lot of us having a camera actually always ready and set up on our counter and the microphone. And so whenever it's like a moment with Enzo that we're about to feed him or something, we grab it and we get set up.

Paulina Lagudi (39m 58s):

Although there have been times we're like, listen, we can't right now because at the same time we're also working, you know, we're working on commercials and we're prepping and all of this. So it's been a really interesting balancing act. We're having to structure our time of what we're filming so much more, you know, and I get to look at the footage immediately 'cause I go upstairs and edit. I get to look at the footage after we shoot and so I'm able to then see, 'cause I, I, you know, because I'm in it, I can't as a director have a monitor and like direct things. I have to do it after the fact and say okay, this is what we need for the next time. So we try to capture as much as possible in our house. But I want to like let people know this is not gonna be a boring film of just watching us feeding un.

Katie Ferraro (40m 33s):

I can tell by the people you're interviewing, I've been really impressed that you're doing a good job. I think of getting lots of different voices because so often it's like Baby-Led Weaning versus purees, which ones better? And it's like, and at first I was like, oh God, please don't do a project like that. But then after meeting I'm like, oh my gosh, she totally gets it. And you're talking to all the right people. So I think that's awesome. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Sleepcove (41m 0s):

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Katie Ferraro (41m 43s):

Just curious, Paulina, how long does it usually take to make a film of this nature and what's the timeline for your project?

Paulina Lagudi (41m 50s):

Yeah, docs take a really long time, thankfully because it's called a solid six months and Enzo, you know, has a six months. He goes from six months to one year. That's like the, the timeline that we're following his, you know, the filming his journey. So within that time, this project, as far as actually filming goes, I'm hoping from when we started in like middle of June won't go till past like February or March. It'll just be a dependent on certain things that like we can't control but like, you know, certain conferences we maybe wanna go to as well as we really wanna get into interviewing different baby food companies that are out there. So it's gonna be certain extra footage that we'll need. I

Katie Ferraro (42m 28s):

Really hope you can do that because I think that's, I will, we're all talking around that. But like that's really the elephant in the room.

Paulina Lagudi (42m 34s):

I wanna get their voice. Like again, this is not a documentary like bagging baby food companies at all. I think, you know, I was talking to an expert the other day and I was like, it's not about bagging baby food, it's just like obviously baby food companies like Lost, I mean not lost their way because they know exactly what they're doing, but it's very clear with the different products.

Katie Ferraro (42m 52s):

Oh, have you seen the pouches aisle? They're doing fine.

Paulina Lagudi (42m 54s):

Oh, pouches and the but also too, it's like why is there a baby food that's like, looks like a chips bag, you know? And you look at the ingredient.

Katie Ferraro (43m 1s):

Yeah the puffs with lead in them now like for God's sakes.

Paulina Lagudi (43m 4s):

Like exactly. And it's like what they're those same companies also, you know, feed teens and adults and they're just sending them up for a standard American diet.

Katie Ferraro (43m 12s):

Brand loyalty and they're starting it at four months if they can. 'cause that's two more months of you buying their liquified piece. So I think the fact that someone as talented as yourself is taking the time and the effort to make a film. I know you guys are calling it like why are we doing this? Anytime you feel down, you call me. I'll be your hype girl 'cause I'm so excited. I think this is just the fact that you're undertaking this project for me as a dietitian. This is like my life's work and everyone's like, what do you do? And like, wow, someone's actually gonna make a documentary to explain that there's so much more about babies learning to eat than just what they're eating. That's a huge win for our field as credentialed infant feeding experts. But I'm interested to know from your perspective, what would you like to see this film achieve? Like what would make it a success in your eyes?

Katie Ferraro (43m 55s):

Besides winning an Oscar?

Paulina Lagudi (43m 57s):

Yeah. Right. A major success would be a conversation with the American Academy of Pediatrics. A major success would be pediatricians like writing the film or like saying, Hey, I watched this and it like completely got me motivated to learn more about nutrition. It'd be cha, it'd be closing the gap between what we know from pediatric dietitians, from SLPs that are doing this work. You know, people like yourself, Katie, closing the gap between what you're teaching and what people are receiving in their doctor's offices. Like that's what I think is doing the biggest disservice to parents right now. And so if this film can at least provide the first don Don't know, just like lift the veil a little bit to start that conversation, to close that gap, that would be the biggest win.

Katie Ferraro (44m 44s):

That's so interesting. That is not what I thought you were gonna say, but I know we've talked a little bit about the food as medicine movement and that pediatricians later in the lifespan are finally paying attention to food and they're learning how to cook and talk to families about food and giving nutrition and exercise prescriptions instead of just medicine. But like, hey, you could nip so much of this in the bud if babies just learned how to eat real food and the parents need support along the way too. And I know you know that that's what we do as experts, SLPs and dietitians and OTs in this space is like, we're here to help the parents, many of whom don't have great relationships with food or, or don't know how to make pork safe for Baby-Led Weaning if that's a food their family eats. But if the doctors are into the idea of, Hmm, maybe we could fix a lot of these problems if we actually learn how to eat real food.

Katie Ferraro (45m 25s):

You can't deny the fact that it starts with the baby's first bites. And I love that's what you're sharing here is like you're not bagging baby food. Like if you're gonna go on an airplane, yeah. Pouches are a great convenience or travel food or a once in a while food or if you've been nervous to make foods that are naturally containing sources of iron and you wanna do a little bit of fortified cereal at the right time. It's not the end of the world. But also we totally don't need those. And this, you know, Amy Bentley is the one who says it best in her book Inventing Baby Food. It's like this idea of commercial baby food. It's really only been around since the earlier part of the 20th century. Like what do you think? Cave mama fed cave baby before there was a whole aisle of pouches and bags that looked like chips at target for you to buy and feed your baby. They've always fed modified versions of the same foods that the rest of the family has eaten.

Katie Ferraro (46m 8s):

And I know we've talked about this too, but after this project what I wanna do with you is go around the world and I wanna just examine the way other cultures start solid foods with their babies. It doesn't involve force feeding by spoon. It doesn't involve pouches, it doesn't involve pureed foods, it involves modified versions of the same foods the rest of the family eats. And like a lot of things in parenting, we just make stuff so much harder here and we're, we spend all our time undoing these problems and pediatricians spend a lot of time dealing with chronic disease that's driven by food choices to be quite honest. So I love that you're tackling this earlier phase of life and I work with a lot of people, parents who are starting solid foods. You're in the minority that you're very laid back. I think listeners can tell just from your approach, you're very confident in Enzo's ability to eat real food from his first bites.

Katie Ferraro (46m 52s):

Were you like that with Dean? Like can you put yourself back in time and like the interviews and the work that you've done on this film, I can tell they've changed your outlook about solid foods the second time around. But are you able to get in the mind of the first time parent because you're so laid back, maybe parents just seeing that will be helpful. But like can you remember what it felt like when you were starting with your oldest and how nervous and scared you were and are you trying to help that come across in this project too?

Paulina Lagudi (47m 20s):

Yeah, it's hilarious that you think I'm laid back because anyone that knows me would be like she's not laid back at all. I'm laid back I think with Enzo. So this is the thing, I think it just comes down to like the power of knowledge, right? I wasn't as laid back with Dean because I didn't have the knowledge, right? And when we don't have knowledge we get where what takes its place anxiety, right? Because it's that fear, that worry, all that stuff. And so I had to do more research. I was definitely way more involved. I was a bit more nervous. I started him a little too early. I was actually looking at a bunch of photos and videos of Dean eating, you know, that I had kept on my phone. And I'll probably share those in the documentary as well. But I didn't have the right chair set up. I mean I was doing like, dude.

Katie Ferraro (48m 0s):

Don't you love your new high chair? I did not wanna dish your old chair and don't say it by brand but that chair is not great and the one you have now is fantastic. So I love seeing him all set up in his new chair.

Paulina Lagudi (48m 9s):

I will say I think that makes a big difference too because he can feel comfortable in how he's eating. But like I was that parent that, you know, I remember that feeling before I gave Dean like his first bite of food and I think I was right there to like catch him in case something happened and he started to gag and I had to like actively breathe and be like, okay, it's all right. It's okay. I think at one point I did stick my finger in his mouth and pull something out, which you're not supposed to do. And then like we kind of got past it and you know he got better as he got older, right? Because they get better as they get older. I remember just like I, I think I fed him, you know, oatmeal and stuff and then like changing his diaper after a couple days and he had like little bumps over all over him and they weren't hives but they were just like little bumps. And I was like, oh, I wonder what that is And I'm looking it up and my pediatrician doesn't know and da da da.

Paulina Lagudi (48m 56s):

And there were all these questions and not really solid answers. You know, a lot of different resources. And thankfully Dean was born, you know, in 2021 where there was a lot more about Baby-Led Weaning. There was a lot more about different, different approaches or just like, you know, better recommendations for baby food that were out there if you knew where to look for them. Not coming from my doctor's office, obviously

Katie Ferraro (49m 20s):

That's only five years after my quads were born and there was stuff out there about what Baby-Led Weaning was, but absolutely nothing on how to do it safely. And that was a huge impetus for me to create my program. And the whole 100 First Foods approach is like, yeah, I agree with you. This is a great philosophy parents. And some of them are like, can you just tell me exactly how to make the food safe and what order I should feed it in? Like well it doesn't really matter. Like can you just tell me 'cause no one else is telling me. So I would say that things have changed dramatically even in five years, even though, you know, Jill Rowley's book has been around for over 20 years at this point. The actual implementation of it, like we're finally starting to see it and it like being in a film in a documentary, I, I just think it's gonna do, it's gonna help so many parents who are like, I've heard about this but like I've never actually seen it work. And that's, we've talked about this a lot together too, but that's the power of video.

Katie Ferraro (50m 2s):

Like don't tell me that a six and a half month old can't eat soft solid strips of lamb. 'cause here it is, in real life are they eating three ounces and getting 11 milligrams of iron? No, not yet. 'cause he's still learning how to eat but he's not gonna wake up on his first birthday and magically know how to eat a 100 foods if I don't use this solid six months of practice time with him. So I, I love everything you're doing. Tell us where we can go to learn more about your work and to support the making of this film.

Paulina Lagudi (50m 27s):

Right now we have our Instagram a solid six months with the number six. We have our website being currently built. But at a solid six months you'll see a link to our crowdfunding page and that's where for anyone that wants to donate, it's a fully tax deductible donation. We have also amazing perks from like all of our great experts where you can get money off to their website, to their programs for their courses. We have some really cool people involved. So a solid six months go to there on Instagram you'll see the link for our all donation page but also our Instagram's like I'm the one running it.

Katie Ferraro (50m 57s):

I love it, I love it. I'm like watching every day like what Enzo eating today.

Paulina Lagudi (51m 1s):

And also too, it's like, it's a place where, you know, I'm learning from what's out there about what like filling in the gap of what really is this film needs to be about. And like I said, this is about how baby food and currently where it's at has set us up for like the standard American diet. You know, talking about when you go around to different countries, like their baby feeding practices are different 'cause they're setting up those babies to eat like the culture of adults today, right? Or in their, in their culture. And so that's why we're seeing this kind of, I think shift in, in the way parents are wanting to feed their babies. 'cause a lot of parents don't wanna eat the standard American diet anymore and have all of the health consequences that come with that. So I on Instagram things are gonna start shifting to more of like the history of things and also really about what this documentary is about.

Paulina Lagudi (51m 48s):

Which is it's not just a mom blog, right? It's about parents learning to trust their baby and to not underestimate their ability no matter where they're at. It doesn't matter if they're on a feeding tube, doesn't matter if they've got some sort of neurodivergency, it doesn't matter if they've got a cleft palate, it doesn't matter if they've down syndrome. We're looking at all different types of children and just a parent being able to come to the table with less anxiety and more trust. A little bit of fun, you know, and obviously definitely some like wipes around to for the cleanup afterwards because absolutely it really will get messy because

Katie Ferraro (52m 22s):

All babies deserve the right to learn how to eat real food.

Paulina Lagudi (52m 26s):

They do.

Katie Ferraro (52m 26s):

Well, thank you so much. I tell parents, listen you gotta feed this small person for the next 17 and a half years of its life. So you might as well do the hard work now when they'll actually like and accept a wide variety of foods. 'cause it's, you know, it's hard to give a three-year-old beets and sardines if they've only ever had soft, refined white carbohydrates in their mouth. So good for you for taking advantage of that flavor window and I'm so excited to see the whole project unfold. Thank you so much for covering this topic. I know it is a lot of work, but I think you're doing a huge service for parents around the world and practitioners. 'cause there's a lot of doctors that need to see this too.

Paulina Lagudi (52m 58s):

Yay. Well thank you always for having me and this is gonna be a lot of fun to get this out there and, and hopefully people can come visit and give me a little message on or DM me on Instagram so I can, I wanna learn about where people are at and what their fears are as well.

Katie Ferraro (53m 12s):

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed that interview with Paulina Lagudi. Again, her film is called A Solid Six Months. They're on Instagram at A Solid Six Months with a number six. They also have a crowdfunding page if you want to support the project. That'll be linked in the show notes, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/460. Or just look right below wherever you're listening to this podcast episode. Sorry that that ran a little bit longer than maybe a lot of other interviews. But I just think her project is so fascinating and I'd love to talk to creators when they're in the middle of it. Like it's so easy to do an interview after your book is published or your movie is donor, whatever, and they're all saying the same stuff. This is like, she's actually in the thick of it. Like you guys going through introducing solid foods.

Katie Ferraro (53m 53s):

She just happens to be interviewing tons of experts and making a film about it, which I can't wait to see. So a special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If you guys like other podcasts about food and science and using your brain, check out some of the options from AirWave. We are online at plwpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time.

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