Starting Solids

If you have decided to go the baby led weaning route, you may be wondering which utensils you should choose for your baby. There are a lot of options, but not all of them are appropriate for a baby who is self feeding. Utensils for baby led weaning are going to be different than utensils for spoon feeding, because babies don’t have very much motor control when they are first starting out, so they will need all the help that they can get.

You may have heard the phrase “food before one is just for fun.” It’s a really cute rhyme and has good intentions, but is a bit misleading. While it is true that most of your baby’s nutrition should still be coming from breastmilk or formula until around age 1, there is still a reason we focus a lot on the first foods we introduce to our kids.

One of the most confusing things for many parents is figuring out when exactly to start solids. You may receive the ok from your pediatrician at 4 months, but you may also hear to wait until 6 months. There’s also information about introducing allergens between 4-6 months, so which is right? For the most part, we look for signs of readiness more than a certain age.
As with all things parenting, there are exceptions to every rule. These are the general guidelines we use to assess whether or not a child is ready to start solids, but there are reasons that certain children may need to start solids earlier or later. If you are ever concerned, you can work with a pediatric dietitian or feeding therapist who can familiarize themselves with your individual situation.

Bread is by far one of my favorite ways to introduce wheat to babies when I’m focusing on the top 9 allergens. But there are a few things you need to keep in mind when purchasing and serving bread to your baby.

First, check ingredients and avoid honey (for babies under one) and any bread with nuts or seeds. Second, make sure you serve it appropriately. In general, babies do better with crusty breads or lightly toasted breads. The very soft breads can get gummed up in their mouths and increase their risk of choking.

Creating a registry for your baby can be both fun and extremely overwhelming. There are a million different products targeting new parents and it can be really difficult to figure out what’s actually important (and what’s just trying to make a buck). Picking out a high chair for BLW or purees can be challenging with so many options on the market. A high chair is actually one of only a handful of feeding tools I recommend investing in (if it makes sense for you financially).
Now, if you already have a high chair for whatever reason, it’s probably fine to use it, but if you’re shopping around for the best one on the market, this post will help you figure out what you need.