Picky Eater Siblings & BLW Babies feat. Molly Ferraro

Molly Ferraro (1s):

Hi I'm Molly. And I'm here with my mom today to talk about how you do baby led weaning. If you have an older kid who is kind of picky, I hope you like this episode.

Katie Ferraro (12s):

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, I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leading you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning. Hey guys, welcome back now, I've been getting a lot of different types of episode requests, and I love that. Thank you guys for the ideas because you guys have the best ideas for future episodes and increasingly a lot of questions about picky eating and in particular, how do you handle doing baby led weaning with your baby?

Katie Ferraro (55s):

If you also have an older child, who's a picky eater. And that's a very interesting question because it's definitely doable. And when you're feeding a younger baby, it's actually a great excuse to start incorporating more new foods for your toddler, especially if your toddler's repertoire of foods has shrunk. So I'm going to be sharing some tips today on getting your picky eater, siblings involved. If you have a baby, who's also starting solid foods, and I'm a little hard up for guests on this one. So I'm actually kidding, but I'm going to be bringing on my own selective daughter. My oldest, our six-year-old miss Molly, who herself, Molly has six younger siblings. We did baby led weaning with all of them, but not with Molly.

Katie Ferraro (1m 36s):

She's kind of a pro on this topic and I want you to hang tight because at the end of the episode, I'm also going to be sharing a few easy ways that you can incorporate your bigger kids in the kitchen and at the table. When you start baby led weaning with your baby. So let's dive in talking about picky eaters, siblings and BLW babies, featuring Molly Ferraro.

Molly Ferraro (1m 57s):

Hi guys. My name is Molly Ferraro I'm six years old and I am in first grade. I'm the oldest in my family. We have some kids total, so I am a singleton. And then we have five-year-old quadruplets. The quadruplets are three boys and one girl, her names are in order they were born Charlie, Claire, Henry and Dylan. So my mom did baby led weaning with the quadruplets. And that's when I first learned stuff about feeding babies. The quadruplets ate 100 foods before they turn one. And my mom is a dietitian, so she concept sort of stuff. She actually started working in baby led weaning when the quads were babies, because we all saw how cool it was when the babies learn to feed themselves.

Molly Ferraro (2m 47s):

Then when the quads were two, we had two more babies. They are the twins and that's my brother and sister Gus and Hannah. They're almost three years old now. And they also did one hundred foods in baby led weaning. So yeah, I have six little brothers and sisters who eat a lot of foods, but here's a fun fact. My mom did not do baby led weaning with me. We're going to talk a little bit about that today and how I helped when I was a big sister to the babies who were learning how to eat, because I know a lot of you have a baby or babies, but you may be interested in baby led weaning because you have an older child who is kind of picky and you want to avoid that with your baby

Katie Ferraro (3m 36s):

That's right Molly. And there's nothing wrong with being picky. You might, in some circles be referred to as a picky eater. We don't love to identify our children by their eating habits. So I try to avoid the term picky eating in teaching, but I get it that a lot of you are concerned about picky eating and here's the deal with baby led, weaning and picky eating. There is a good, incredible body of research that shows us that babies who are exposed to the greatest number of foods and flavors and tastes and textures early and often, those are the babies who are more likely to be independent eaters and less likely to be picky eaters. And if you think about picky eating, there's some degree of picky eating that's going to set in for your child. It generally happens in about the second year of life. Like I don't care how great of a parent you are or how well you did baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (4m 18s):

Your kid is going to get kind of picky and that's okay, but here's the deal. Your typical child who does traditional spoon-feeding by the time they get to one, they might only have like 10 or 15 foods under their belt. And if you lose those 10 or 15 foods to picky eating, that becomes a really challenging child to feed. But if your baby has a hundred different foods that they know and like how to eat and you lose 10 or 15 of them to picky eating in the second year, it's not a big deal because you're still at 85 or 90 foods left that your baby will eat. So if you're wondering what the link between picky eating and baby led weaning is no one's claiming that baby led weaning prevents picky eating, but it helps make the picky eating less severe. And to be honest, less annoying, because for those of you that have more selective eaters, you know, it can be a real challenge.

Katie Ferraro (5m 2s):

And I think baby led weaning is so fascinating because it's one of the few things that does appeal to a second time parent. Think about it, you can sell a first-time parent, anything like we were all there, right? Like your first baby registry, like yeah, I'll buy anything. And then you realize that when babies don't eat really much, any of that stuff to stay alive, but if your first baby turned out to be picky, a lot of times parents will come back the second time around and be like, okay, on looking for an alternative or a solution or a different way to start solids to help reduce the picky eating. That's when they find baby led weaning. So we do have a lot of second time or subsequent baby parents out there who are like, okay, I'm here to learn a little bit more about picky eating. And that's what we're going to talk about today with Molly is how does it work when you have the older sibling?

Katie Ferraro (5m 42s):

So Molly. I don't, you don't remember this, but when you were four months old, we started solid foods the way our pediatrician told us how to, which was give her some iron-fortified rice cereal. And you did not like it, sister, like you did not want to be fed. You were crying. I remember being so sad. You definitely weren't ready. I know that now. And definitely didn't need me to put stuff on a spoon and put it in your mouth. And I actually disliked feeding you so much and I was so sad at that time that I used to make your dad do all the feeding for you. So I didn't get a very good start in solid foods, but when the quads were born and I learned about baby led weaning, and we started doing that, it was really fun because you could kind of help me in the kitchen. So do you remember when the quadruplets started solid food?

Molly Ferraro (6m 19s):

I remember when they sat in the quadruplet seats, when they ate a lot of food

Katie Ferraro (6m 26s):

Like, what kind of foods do you start with for baby led weaning? Do you know what are some good foods for babies?

Molly Ferraro (6m 30s):

You should start with some sweet potato and yogurt and avocado.

Katie Ferraro (6m 36s):

Ok and then after they did a hundred foods, one thing I remember is that you didn't like a lot of different foods and you still maybe don't eat as many foods as a lot of other kids. But one thing that was super helpful was you could help me in the kitchen. So we have a tower and I have, I remember we used to stand up in the tower and you could help me do stuff like eggs. So eggs are an easy food for babies to eat. You could help me crack the eggs. Even when you were two years old, you learned how to crack an egg and you used to stand up next to me and help me cook, which kids who help their parents cook are more inclined to eat the foods.

Molly Ferraro (7m 7s):

And I still remember. And we still stand in that tower because it's really fun. And we help mom cook

Katie Ferraro (7m 13s):

So an easy way to get your toddler involved is to have them cooking, even if they can't do, and I know cooking with toddlers can be like the most aggravating thing in the world, but if there's any kitchen tasks that you can get them involved with. And one thing I love is having a tower, like just a safe space for the baby to kind of get pulled up to the counter. The one we have, and this is not sponsored by any means, and I don't even work with the brand, but I just love their tower. It's called the learning tower. And it's from a company called little partners. And I liked that one because then when the quads got a little bit bigger, like I could literally put like four toddlers in there at one time. I mean they fight and push, but it's a bigger tower on the flip side, it's like a little bit clunky and kind of hard and heavy to carry around, but it's a safe place for the kids to get up and be able to help you cooking early on, just giving them little tasks, because again, they are more inclined to eat the foods that they help prepare.

Katie Ferraro (7m 59s):

And I think those of you with older kids can vouch for that as well. So after the quads, Molly, we did the twins baby led weaning. And you helped a lot with that because we were documenting the a hundred first foods for Instagram, every single day, lots of videos. There was always crying kids in the background, but that's real life when you're trying new foods. And so my next tip for sibling stuff is about trying to minimize distraction when your baby or babies are eating. So when it comes to minimizing distraction, one of the beautiful things about baby led weaning is that ideally you can be eating at the table with the rest of your family, but sometimes if you have an older child that can actually be distracting. So you have to figure out what works for your family.

Katie Ferraro (8m 40s):

I know when we were doing baby led weaning with the twins, I would do their new food of the day. So if I was feeding them two or three times a day, at least the first part of, of one of those feeds, I would try to just have me and the twins by myself. And that meant probably putting five other kids in front of a show, or I mean them screaming in room, but it really does help the infant. Who's learning how to eat if at all possible to maintain a distraction-free feeding environment. So trying to keep the other screaming kids away, if you can trying to avoid, you know, loud music or lots of talking from other adults or the iPad, these things can all be distracting to your baby who's learning how to eat.

Molly Ferraro (9m 14s):

And dogs can also be distracting, even though they're cute, you should keep them out of the kitchen when the baby's eating. Another thing you can do with your toddler is make try new foods, a fun challenge. Let's say you're trying broccoli for the baby. Ask the big kid. What color is the new food the baby is trying more? Can you tell me what it feels like in your mouth? Or do you want to be brave and show your little sister how to eat broccoli?

Katie Ferraro (9m 49s):

So another fun thing you can do when you're starting solids, if you have an older child is to kind of make a game out of the new foods that the baby is trying. So if you do my hundred first foods approach to starting solid foods every day or five days a week, we try a new food with the babies. So when Gus and Hannah were starting solids and I was doing the a hundred first foods on Instagram with you guys for them every day, Molly and I would talk about the food that it was. So each of the five days in the five-step feeding framework on Monday, we would do a new fruit on Tuesday, a new vegetable on Wednesday, a new starch, Thursday, a new protein food. And then on Friday we would do an allergenic food. She would help me cross them off the list. So we would use it as a way to talk about foods.

Katie Ferraro (10m 29s):

We would also color the foods in, she would learn a little bit about numbers and it was just kind of a way to engage her more in the foods that she ate and then also giving her the opportunity to try them and kind of be in charge if she was with us when they were eating. So, okay. So Molly, do you remember what the hundredth food was that Gus and Hannah had? It was the one that I let you do the video for it. When we were celebrating their a hundred foods, what was the hundredth food?

Molly Ferraro (10m 52s):

Lemon

Katie Ferraro (10m 52s):

It was lemon. Do you remember what we made to celebrate lemon?

Molly Ferraro (10m 55s):

Greek lemon chicken soup.

Katie Ferraro (10m 56s):

Greek lemon chicken soup. One of my favorite baby led weaning recipes. I'm going to share that with you guys. Molly, do you still like greek lemon chicken soup ?

Molly Ferraro (11m 3s):

Kind of

Katie Ferraro (11m 4s):

Kind of. Most foods with Molly is kind of, and that's okay. And another resource for you guys, if you are struggling with picky eating or you want to learn more about it. I have a podcast episode I did called preventing picky eating from baby's first bites with Dr. Katja Rowell. That was episode number 36 and Dr. Rowell was on she's a family doctor turned childhood feeding specialist. She's the author of the book, helping your child with extreme picky eating. It's a step-by-step guide to overcoming selective eating food aversions and feeding disorders. A lot more great info inside of that episode, that's at BLWpodcast.com forward slash 36. And that book, the helping your child with extreme picky eating. She co authored that with the speech language pathologist and feeding therapist, Jenny McGlothlin, and Jenny was also on the podcast in a separate episode as well.

Katie Ferraro (11m 49s):

So more resources for you on picky eating at blwpodcast.com forward slash 36. And if you guys want to grab the full hundred first foods list to try these new foods with your baby, and also be working the back into your toddler's eating routine, you can grab my full hundred first foods list on the free baby led weaning workshop that I teach every week. It's called baby led weaning for beginners. It's all about how to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning one without you having to spoon feed purees or buy pouches. You can sign up for this week's workshop times and grab your copy of the a hundred first foods list. I'll link everything up for the workshop at the show notes for this episode, which you can find at blwpodcast.com forward slash 90 and a few other resources if you guys are interested in ways, you can get your older children more involved in food, engaged in food, interested in food, and just easy ways to teach about food.

Katie Ferraro (12m 43s):

Cause I know sometimes last on the list of all the things we need to do as parents is like, oh, I should teach that child. What a rutabaga is. You don't need to do it. Other people have done it for us. I want to mention two resources. First, the dietitian, Katelynn Sasaki, who works with me, who was also a free hand illustrator. She made you guys an incredibly adorable free download. It has a food-based coloring sheet and then a second sheet. That's an really easy activity sheet free download. I'm gonna link up for you at blwpodcast.com forward slash 90. That's on the show notes page for this episode, just an easy way to keep that older child a little bit occupied while you're maybe making food for the baby or just another teaching opportunity to talk about new foods. Katelynn, thank you so much for making those coloring and activity sheets for our listeners.

Katie Ferraro (13m 26s):

And then I also wanted to mention another dietitian. Her name is Danny Leibovitz. She is on instagram @kids dot food dot explorers. Danny is an incredibly talented children's book author. She works with an illustrator. They make these amazing books. I have all of her books. One of my favorite ones is called, where does broccoli come from? It's a book of vegetables that's followed by where do bananas come from? A book of fruits, really great books, beautifully done. Lots of color explaining like the botanical properties of some of these different foods, but also just like the basics. If you're like, oh, I don't know what a rutabaga is, great resources. Danny's come out with some new books. I'm going to link to them and her Instagram again on the show notes for this episode where you can also get Katelynn's coloring and activity sheet, download that's all going to be hooked up at blwpodcast.com forward slash 90.

Katie Ferraro (14m 15s):

So few guys are just starting baby led weaning with your babies and you're also dealing with an older sibling Who's a little more on the selective side or picky eaters, whatever you want to call it. I want to wish you good luck. I hope you found some of those tips in this episode with me and Molly helpful when you've got a picky eater, older sibling, and you're still doing baby led weaning.

Molly Ferraro (14m 33s):

Thanks guys, see you next time.