Podcast

paula’s story

Solids is a funny story for me. At Maya's 6-month pediatrician appointment, her doctor told me it was time to start solids! She gave me a paper with all the allergens and instructions on how to serve the food to her. Looking at this paper, I thought, wow, this is the BLW (Baby Led Weaning) approach that is being imposed on me. If the pediatrician tells me to do it this way, it must be the best way.

At home, I give her these chicken legs, huge pieces of bread and fruit to gnaw on. My mom, on the other hand, who didn't know anything about BLW, started making her purees of osso-buco with veggies and chicken goulash blended with carrots, all the nutrients she needed. I wanted to follow what my pediatrician recommended and see if Maya could eat what I called “grown-up food” on her own. The pieces kept getting stuck in her throat, and she choked one too many times for me. It was so stressful; every meal would give me anxiety that I just gave up, and she ate soft foods and blended meats until she was about one. At her second doctor’s appointment, the pediatrician couldn't believe I was telling her that Maya still wasn’t eating whole pieces of food; by then, she firmly told me it was time to relax and bite the bullet.

With Maddie, it was a whole different ball game. I was way more comfortable and much less anxious. I trusted my instinct that she would cough out anything she couldn’t get down. In retrospect, I religiously followed an app called Solid Starts, which showed me how to cut and serve every food I could think of. I’m pretty sure this changed the game for me because it showed me how to serve the food depending on the age of my infant, with explanations and what to look out for. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.

francesca’s story

Francesca starts by sharing how she introduced solid foods to her daughter Tessa when she was six months old. Prefacing that, Tessa was combination-fed as an infant, meaning the bottle fed her a mix of breast milk and formula. Francesca would mix in some infant rice cereal with her milk to satisfy her daughter at bedtime, which was advice she got from her mother. Like many of us, through the advice of our pediatricians, we start by introducing this iron-fortified cereal to our infants so they can get accustomed to eating on their own and get the extra iron needed. Admitting she is not a prominent researcher, Francesca followed the general baby feeding guidelines and started with cereal and purres; she preferred to buy them in jars and pouches at the grocery store.

When we started talking about toddlerhood, and our kids were eating solids comfortably, the question was, are their diets balanced enough? Francesca didn’t really worry about it; she knew that if Tessa had eaten three bits of pasta for dinner one night, it was because, at daycare, she had eaten two bowls of rice with tofu, broccoli, and yogurt. What Tessa eats doesn’t worry her as long, but she is aware of her intake and tries to ensure she eats balanced meals.

“the box says it’s for six months; the box wouldn’t lie to me…”

Francesca mentions that she would mix the rice pablum with homemade chicken broth or soup to give those extra nutrients instead of water when feeding her kids. She admits that it was a pretty stress-free experience for her with both of her children. Of course, she would have questions like if she cut the grape small enough, but she says she would always have a cup of distilled water handy before each meal. If they choke on something, they could wash it with water.

Bianca’s story

On the other hand, Bianca did the BLW (Baby Led Weaning) approach with her two kids and thrived. She believes that as humans, we are meant to eat solid food, and prehistorically, although we must have crushed our food, making purees was not an option. She felt it the most natural to give her kids solid pieces of food from the get-go, and so she did. She says that she can’t remember a time that her kids choked or had a violent reaction to any of the allergens. She remembers them being curious about food, playing with it and gagging occasionally, but she doesn’t have a specific recollection of anything traumatic happening by giving them solid foods.

One of the reasons Bianca followed the BLW approach was because, as a family, they already eat pretty balanced meals, and by giving her kids the same meals she would prepare, she knew her kids were getting the nutrients they needed just in the form conducive to them.

melissa’s story

Melissa, having four children, only really remembers her experience with her first because, after that, she says it’s all kind of a blur. She read and researched before starting solids and decided that she wanted to try the BLW route. She would cut up small pieces of food on his tray and feed him purres simultaneously so he could play and experience but also get the needed intake. She admits to not really paying attention to the allergens, except for peanuts. Her pediatrician recommended that she apply some peanut butter on her infant’s pallet as early as two months old to see if there was a reaction. In Melissa’s opinion, eating is just a form of play and learning for children before one year old. It is an experience for them to figure out what textures are, what taste is, and what their gag reflex is. It’s an introduction to food not only in the nourishing sense but also in the experimental sense. And what comes with that experience? The MESS!

“we started just feeding our children naked…”

Melissa is a big advocate for smoothies, pancakes, and muffins because she can put anything in them: spinach, quinoa, tofu and hide the nutrients there. She tries to be careful with sugar intake, so my kids live for store-bought yogurt. For example, Melissa will premake her yogurt and mix Greek yogurt with cooked berries, maple syrup, and Tadda!!

moral of the story: feel solid in feeding solid foods.