How Long Should My Baby's Meal Be?

Katie Ferraro (1s):

How are you feeling about your baby's transition to solid foods? I was just talking to a mom of nine month old twins and she said she's terrified to let them eat anything except purees. And I know how frustrating it can feel when your baby is ready, but you are not. And if this is you, I wanna invite you to my one hour online video workshop training called Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners. I think this training is gonna ease a lot of anxiety for you about starting solid foods safely, and I just redid this training. It's packed with videos and visuals on how to prep foods for your baby, what the food should look like, and what's happening for the first few days, how to reduce choking risk. And then everybody on this free training gets a copy of my 100 First Foods List, so you'll never run out of ideas of foods your baby can eat.

Katie Ferraro (44s):

Next you can get signed up for this week's video workshop times at baby led weaning dot co. If you've got an hour to dedicate to learning about starting solid foods, come take this free online training. Grab your copy of the 100 First Foods List while you're there, sign up at https://babyledweaning.co. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. I know you have a lot of options when it comes to parenting content and it means so much to me that you're here to learn about starting solid foods safely. I do have a request and I wanted to ask if you'd please leave me a written review of this show on Apple Podcasts. Your honest Reviews are so important for helping The show Get found by other parents and caregivers, and it just takes about 30 seconds to complete. if you have any future episode ideas, drop 'em in the review too.

Katie Ferraro (1m 26s):

I read every single review and I really appreciate you. Thanks so much. And I know you're a busy parent and you've got a lot of things going on and the thought of like adding something new to the routine, which is sitting in the highchair and trying solid foods and having to do this too and three times a day, the thought of that can be overwhelming. So if you can't make it to 15 or 20 minutes per mealtime right off the bat, please know that that is perfectly okay. We're gonna get your baby to the point where they get there, but practice makes progress and I would really encourage you not to skip days when it comes to starting solid foods. Consistency is key and practice makes progress, but we can't skip days in the highchair. Hey There, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning Here on the Baby-Led weaning Made Easy podcast.

Katie Ferraro (2m 16s):

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. Well, hello and welcome back. Today we're going to be talking about how long meal times can or should be. We have parents who are like, wait a minute, do I really need to be sitting here for a whole hour that's gonna take my baby to finish the amount of food that I put on this plate? Or on the other end of the spectrum, parents are like, oh my gosh, my baby will only sit in the chair for like five minutes before they start absolutely flipping out. We're never gonna have enough time to get proficient at learning how to eat food, so don't stress out.

Katie Ferraro (2m 58s):

We're gonna get there. Today's kind of a conversational mini training and I love to start these little mini training episodes with a baby led weaning tip of the day. And my tip for you today, so might sound weird, but use a timer at mealtime. I know it can feel determinable sometimes when you're doing a task with your children. Okay, like cooking with toddlers is another one. Like this is taking forever when it comes to eating food with Babies, sometimes parents are like, oh my gosh, we've been sitting here for so long. When in reality I'm like, you know, it's only been like six minutes, right? So when we're gonna talk about some time goals today, I have a poor relationship with time. if you are like me and you sometimes need the external reminder of how long it's actually been.

Katie Ferraro (3m 42s):

Right now it's we're doing a lot of summer reading in my house with my older kids and they're just like supposed to be reading for 30 minutes a day. Every minute they ask me like, how long has it been? How many more minutes? And I'm like, you know, I have to keep adding time to the timer if you guys won't stop asking me how long it's gonna be taking. But the point is, we sometimes don't have the greatest relationship with time and having the timer at the meal. Okay, just on your phone. You don't have to have like an external timer, but it can help you realize like, oh wait a minute, my baby or my baby's getting better. Oh, yesterday we can only do 10 minutes, but now we're doing 12 minutes, or whatever the case may be. And just a quick story, there was this baby baby Jacob that we were working with last year a little while ago. At this point, my friend Arlene's baby, it's her fourth baby, and you guys might remember this baby from Instagram and we always tell a lot of stories about the different babies we work with.

Katie Ferraro (4m 22s):

But this one in particular is her fourth baby. Her oldest three children were incredibly picky like like feeding therapy picky. And she shared a lot openly about that. And this fourth baby, she was so excited about doing baby-led weaning. I remember the first few days that he came over and was helping her with her first 10 days of baby-led weaning 'cause she lives close by. This baby was not eating. Like he would literally sit in the chair and one day I did time it, it was 18 minutes until he touched the food, I think on like the third day. Okay. Now a lot of parents would've already given up by that point, but we had a goal set of let's try to keep Jacob in the highchair for 20 minutes if we can. And if he does absolutely nothing, that's fine. And if he freaks out and wants to get out earlier, and that happened in days one and two, that's totally fine as well.

Katie Ferraro (5m 4s):

but it was, I remember 18 minutes before he even touched the food. So I'm not encouraging you to sit there all day long, but also sometimes having a timer can really help and you're like, oh, it hasn't even been 20 minutes. Now what's the deal with the 20 minute mark? My general rule of thumb is ideally your baby can be sitting in their highchair for somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes at a mealtime. That's about how long, especially our earlier eaters, the ones in phase one of babyled weeding, that's the first eight weeks in my program. We don't have any expectations of them really even going beyond 20 minutes. Occasionally there is a baby or two who will be totally fine sitting in the highchair for longer, and parents are like, do I need to sit here until they start flipping out?

Katie Ferraro (5m 45s):

Like, is that the only fullness cue? And the reality is, is that early on when you're starting solid foods, your baby is not eating in response to hunger. They do not know how to use food to help that feeling of hunger go away. That will come later in phase two and phase three early on in that first eight weeks. We're just trying to get your baby acclimated to this new situation of sitting in the highchair and having food in front of them and touching it and smelling it and sniffing it and eventually bringing it to their mouth and chewing and swallowing it. So don't expect miracles in the first few days and weeks after you start solid foods. Sometimes the wind will just be, huh, we sat in the highchair for 10 minutes today. We're working our way towards somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes per meal.

Katie Ferraro (6m 29s):

Now how often do we wanna do that? My general rule of thumb is that when you start out solid foods at six to seven months of age, we wanna see baby trying to eat solid foods one to two times a day at eight to nine months of age, bump that up to two to three times per day, and then by 10 months of age, we love to see our Babies eating three times a day, three meals a day in their highchair, generally sitting there for somewhere between 15 to 20 minutes. Okay? As your baby gets older and more proficient, you will also be more comfortable in recognizing and responding to their hunger and fullness views. And some days they're gonna wanna stay in that chair longer and some days they're gonna show you all the signs that they want more food. And other days you're gonna be like, oh, you are definitely done. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (8m 13s):

Now for babies who flip out in the highchair, okay, the for the earlier eaters, these tend to be the Babies who don't like being in their stroller and don't like being in their car seat. And if that's your baby and you know that about your baby, you might consider practicing just sitting in the highchair and getting comfortable there even before you start solid foods, right? If your baby's not sitting up on their own relatively independently, you can't be starting solid foods yet, but you can put your baby in the highchair, you can prop the baby up if they're kind of swimming around in their highchair by rolling up some dish towels and putting them behind and on the sides, okay? We're not offering anything except infant milk. You can do breast milk or formula out of the open cup. You can put some of the oral development tools out there and have them practice with those. You can put an empty cup or a baby spoon to have them practice just experiencing sitting in that highchair.

Katie Ferraro (8m 59s):

But if they're actively flipping out, freaking out, throwing a tantrum, whatever you want to call it, we can't be offering food. 'cause of course, if they are throwing their head back and opening their airway, that dramatically increases the risk of choking. So we have to get to that point where the baby's comfortable sitting in a highchair and some Babies are totally chill right from the beginning, and they can sit and do it for 20 minutes. And other Babies, they're gonna get so tired, right? Because this is a new skill. They've just learned how to sit on their own. if you think about all of the muscle mechanics required to sit relatively on your own when you've never done that before, right? They're just starting to exhibit that trunk strength and that head and neck control required to facilitate a safe swallow. And now we're asking them to sit and breathe and swallow and coordinate all of those things at the same time.

Katie Ferraro (9m 45s):

It is exhausting. And you will see your baby get tuckered out and pooped out and like, wow, they really got tired. And I know from having fed so many different Babies that you can just almost see the point at which they turn the corner and they're like, I'm done. And so when we're, we're working with babies and we're, we're helping them learn to eat new foods, and a lot of times we're also filming content at the same time. I know that there's that really short window where the baby is gonna be alert and interested in the food and you need to strike while the iron's hot. Okay? And that means putting the food down, clearing the distractions, making sure they're seated properly, and then allowing them the time to explore that food. If You can get it to a point of 15 to 20 minutes, that's great. If you're not there yet, don't stress out. Have a timer just to keep track of it. For a lot of parents, I know they just kind of make little notes.

Katie Ferraro (10m 28s):

They're tracking the a hundred foods that their baby's eating. They're also taking notes about the meals, especially if the baby is prone or at high risk for food allergies. We want you guys taking notes of, you know, what the allergenic reaction look like and taking pictures if that's the case. but it doesn't hurt to take notes of how long are we able to sit in the highchair ultimately working your goal to the point where your baby will be comfortable sitting there for 15 or 20 minutes, two to three times a day, okay, by 12 months of age, what are we working towards? The goal of your baby sitting at the table eating modified versions of the same foods that the rest of the family eats. Okay? You can get there, but it's not going to happen overnight. And I know you are a busy parent, you have a lot of things going on, but sometimes we have parents who are like, I don't have time to do solid foods every day.

Katie Ferraro (11m 10s):

And if anything, I would really, really encourage you not to skip days. Your baby needs that consistency and that routine and that schedule of being seated in the highchair, being strapped in. If that's the case, I generally will not do the straps early on in baby-led weaning. A lot of the moms in my program know that because early on, when you start solid foods, your baby's risk of choking certainly is higher. Can we always remind parents there's no higher risk of choking when you start solid foods with a babyled approach compared to conventional adult-led spoon feeding. But that's only provided that the parents are educated about lowering choking risk. And at the beginning, you know, your six month old babies aren't going anywhere. Okay? if you have a highchair that has a baby guard like the Nomi highchair or the trip trap chair, they don't need the straps.

Katie Ferraro (11m 53s):

Okay? I don't wanna be fumbling with the straps in the event my baby had a choking incident and trying to get them out of the chair, okay? Early on in, in those chairs that are set up to hold the baby in without the straps, I'll go without the straps until the baby starts popping up trying to climb. Then obviously we need to put the straps on. And for most babies, that's not gonna happen around the until the eight or the nine month mark. Okay? So just getting comfortable in the highchair and you getting comfortable, you getting comfortable with the straps, you getting comfortable to this, you know, new routine. And if you're stressing out about the routine, because I know a lot of you have gotten to a really good point with your nap schedule and your milk schedule, my suggestion is in phase one of our program, we don't even alter the milk schedule or the nap schedule, okay? Because the baby's not actually eating very much.

Katie Ferraro (12m 36s):

if you wanna learn more about how to transition your baby to solid foods using this approach, my program is called Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro. if you go to https://babyledweaning.co, you can learn more. That's where I show you the whole, I have a whole hundred first foods content library and how to prepare all the foods on my hundred first foods list. We also have a hundred day meal plan. if you just like tell me what foods to feed my baby on which day, and then a lot of additional video training on how to do this safely, I'd love to help you get your baby to a position where you can do 15 to 20 minutes inside of each mealtime and you're not stressing about it. Okay? 'cause you got a lot going on. But I always remind parents, you need to feed this baby for the next 17 and a half years of its life. You might as well do the hard work now to get your baby comfortable learning how to feed themselves and how to like and accept a wide variety of foods.

Katie Ferraro (13m 23s):

'cause it's gonna make your life easier. And it's certainly much more gratifying when all of these wholesome foods that you're taking the time to make for your family, let the kids actually eat them. So check it out, https://babyledweaning.co. If you'd like to learn more, The show notes for this episode will be linked up for you at https://blwpodcast.com/357. Thanks so much for listening and I'll see you guys next time.