Transcript:
This is Maureen Farrell and Heather ONeal and this is The Milk Minute. We’re midwives and lactation professionals bringing you the most up-to-date evidence for all things lactation. So you can feel more confident about feeding your baby, body positivity, relationships, and mental health. Plus we laugh a little or a lot along the way.
So join us for another episode. Welcome. Welcome to The Milk Minute Podcast everybody. Today I wanted to give you a short, How-To episode on starting solids because we’ve had this one requested a lot. We have. We were actually squeezing this one in today because so many of you have been asking. All these people that started with us and started out maybe like a year ago, they finally hit this point all at the same time where they’re starting solids or something.
I don’t know what’s happening, but there’s a huge wave of people that need help with this. We decided earlier today we are not going to do like a hard hitting, evidence-based, how we got to where we are, history of. I make no promises, but I’m going to really try not to just like get into the controversy, right?
We’re going to try to just dip a toe in and keep it as a simple, How To, so we can drop this as a resource for y’all whenever you ask your questions. So hopefully this is more like a conversation where we present you with the options and a little bit of information about them and you guys make the best choices.
Yeah. So let me tell you though this morning a couple of things that Heidi Mae is doing now, that is super cute. I was in the shower getting ready and anytime I’m in the shower, she wants to see me in there. It’s like, sure. It’s like seeing your second-grade teacher at the grocery store. We were like, whoa, what’s she doing here?
What’s happening? And she, I was facing the wall, you know, putting all my hair that is falling out again for no reason on the wall so it doesn’t clog the drain. And I feel the shower curtain open behind me. And I said who’s there? Who is it? She said, it’s me. I said, who’s me? And she goes, it’s me, Heidi Mae. And I turned around and I said, oh Heidi, I didn’t see you there.
She goes, mommy, you have hair on your pew, pew, gina. Why? Why indeed. And I said, because I’m an adult. She said why? And I said, cause I grew up. She said why? And I was like I don’t know! Dude, when children ask you these questions, like, I have never understood how little I know. Right. Then when children are like, why is it five o’clock? Why is there a clock?
And you’re like, dude, like, don’t ask me what time is cause I don’t fucking know. Or the classic, what is this called? What is this called? And my son points to a door jam but could not remember the name of it. Like it’s wood. I was like, it’s a thing. It’s, I don’t know Theo. It’s been a long day at work and I don’t want to name things all day long.
Go eat your hummus. Well the exciting thing that happened this week in my house is that Lyra has learned to clap. Oh, and it’s really cute. And she claps when I take my shirt off. The clap on clap off shirt. And she claps when she wakes up in the morning and sees me, or basically when I walk into a room and she kind of is trying to make the yay sound.
Cause I taught her by clapping and going, yay Lyra. Oh cute. I love it. When babies clap for the boobie and it’s so cute, it’s the best. It’s kind of like sign language. They’re like when I clap, I get booby. I have been trying to teach her some simple signs and she has so far refused to use them. But clapping.
I mean, she will though in the next two, when, wait a minute, how old is she now? She’s nine months. That’s around when Griffin started using them. She just, I, she just doesn’t care. Yeah. She’s like, I’m getting all my needs met. So I’m not that into figuring out how to get more. I think she’s just going to start speaking before she really uses them, frankly.
But it’s fine. I’m still trying. Anyway, the time that I try the most though, is around food, right. More and food and milk. And that’s what we’re talking about today. Okay. But first, before we get into that, I would love to do a question. Our question today is from Crystal H and she asks for tips to deal with an overactive let down.
She says that her two-week-old is choking at almost every single feeding and it scares the crap out of her. Yeah, no joke. She’s tried every feeding position, letting her drink a little and then taking the nipple out to catch her breath and start again. But any other tips would be.
You know, I really like to do the scissor hold for this one, where you take your finger, your forefinger and your middle finger, like a scissor, and you put it around your areola and you kind of pinch a little and push back towards the chest wall. Straight back.
Yeah. You push straight back and it kind of collapses the duct in on itself to slow it down just during your let down phase. Tamp that flow a little bit until you’re let down is over and then you need to release it. Right? It’s like the opposite of what you’re doing with hand expression. With hand expression, you kind of squeeze and pull forward.
You’re going to kind of squeeze a little and push back instead. Yup. Scissor hold is classic. Make sure that your fingers are not getting in the way of their lips. So you’re, you might have to, depending on the size of your breast tissue, you might have to really squeeze to try to get that back there far enough where it’s not touching the baby’s lips and that’s okay.
And if you can’t do forefinger and middle finger, you can use your thumb and forefinger. If you have a larger breast tissue area going on. Right. You can also try to express a little bit of milk. If baby isn’t super fussy, you can just pop them off, pop on a haakaa or, you know, a hand pump and get a little bit of milk out and put them back on.
If they’re real fussy though, so I like to put a haakaa on the opposite breast to catch that let down. Then when the one they’re on is overwhelming you switch. And so you’re kind of trying to play the time between letdowns.
And also might want to just follow the path of questioning, do you have an oversupply? Right? Some people don’t, some people just have a really, really fast milk ejection reflex, but sometimes it’s because you have a lot more milk than you need, and your body is doing something with it. Right?
Alternately, does your baby have issues with oral functioning? Because if we’re having trouble coordinating the suck swallow, any let down is going to be overwhelming. Right. I hope that helps you. Good luck. Many of us have been there with the firehose titties and it kinda sucks.
Hey everybody, Heather here with some good news for you. If you’ve been wanting a lactation consult with me, but you’re not really sure how to go about it, I finally can take some insurance. So if you have Blue Cross Blue Shield, Anthem, or Cigna PPO, there’s a very good chance that you can get your visits a hundred percent approved with me.
So if you fill out the short form, it’ll take less than two minutes, in the show notes, with your insurance information. We’ll know in as little as five hours if you’re approved and then we’ll throw you right on my calendar. And then we get to hang out. And guess what? It’s not just one visit. I can see you prenatally.
I can see you before you go back to work. I can see you when you start solid foods. I can see you through weaning. I mean, we got this whole journey covered. So shout out to those insurance companies for valuing this as work and I’m here for you every step of the way. So click the link in the show notes to learn more about my private consults and make sure that we can get you what you need.
I look forward to working with you. Bye.
Today this episode is for all of you who are like, okay, we get the milk thing. What next? Okay. So we are not starting at four months. Right? So I will note that the American Academy of Pediatrics notes a range of when to start, they say four to six months.
Up to date, which is another website we use for some really good medical recommendations, they site like specific markers that tell us that baby is ready. And generally more and more health organizations are coming together to say six months is a good starting time. And some of them are conflicting because they can say you can start solids at four to six months, but then simultaneously say that they promote exclusive breastfeeding until six months of age.
So exclusive breastfeeding means only breast milk, no solids at all. Right. And it appears that the evidence is pointing toward starting at six months is the best choice that we have. If you’re going to start before then you really need to have a good conversation with your healthcare provider about that and we’re not going to get into it right now.
And also, let me just say, you don’t have to start at six months, right? So there’s other markers that can indicate that your baby might be ready to start solids. And if your baby has none of those markers, it doesn’t mean your baby is behind. It just means your baby is your baby.
And maybe three weeks from now, we’re going to be more ready. It’s not like, time is such an arbitrary thing. It’s such a black hole, you know, it’s like, okay, happy six-month birthday. What is time? What is baby? All of our children are going to ask us at one point or another. God, I don’t know. Okay. So yeah, if you feel like your baby’s not ready, then you don’t have to start at six months.
Let’s give an idea of what those readiness signs are. Okay. So number one. Is your baby still tongue thrusting like crazy? Right. If you put your finger in front of their lips, like you’re going, shh. Do they immediately stick their tongue out to touch it? Right.
Because if you put a spoon there with food on it, they’re just going to go *babbling sounds* and all the food is going to tongue thrust off the spoon. It’s going to be a royal mess. Right. And that’s a protective reflex for them so they don’t choke. Right. Smart, very smart little babies. Another one is the pincer grasp, right? Are they a crab yet? Are, do you have wounds all over your breasts from them pinching you?
And that’s a good marker. Can they identify something about a foot away and want to pick it up with their forefinger and thumb and do this little crab, like motion with those fingers? When my daughter was working on that. So if I had to go to the bathroom and like, couldn’t leave her alone, I would sit her down and drop Q-tips in front of her and she would practice her pincer grasp to pick them up.
That’s so smart. Yeah. And then when she did that, I was like, oh, we’re ready. We’re ready. And then she started cleaning out her own ears and you’re like, wait, you’re advanced. Another one is, can they sit unassisted? And I am a really strict stickler about this because it is a huge choking hazard to feed solids to a baby who can’t hold up their trunk.
Right. If you feel like you have to hold them up to shove food down their throat, wait. Please wait. Yeah. It’s just not worth it. Hand-in-hand with this are those reclined highchairs that I like literally want to burn to the ground. Oh, I’ve never actually thought of that. There’s so many highchairs that are slightly reclined, which basically support younger babies eating and it just.
I, okay. I said we weren’t going to do it today. So you’re telling me when my mom would fix up a little bottle for my brother, recline his highchair back and put him in front of Baby Einstein for 30 minutes, that wasn’t recommended? That’s not now. It was probably fine then. He graduated high school or almost he’s a senior.
Anyway, sitting unassisted is very important. And it also like just developing those trunk muscles also tells us something about the muscles that they’re developing in their gut with peristalsis. And as we learned from Michelle Emmanuel in our oral restrictions episode, everything is connected to the tongue. So if your baby’s muscles are too weak to hold themselves upright, their tongue is probably not mature enough to handle solid foods.
Yeah. So those are the big ones. Some people also cite an interest in food, but frankly, here’s how I feel about that. If you put food in front of your baby, they’re probably going to want to play with it. Just like if I put car keys in front of my baby, they’re going to want to play with it, but it does not mean they’re ready to.
And even a baby that appears uninterested in food is probably going to develop some interest when you start to craft behaviors and time around eating with them. So let’s say you’re in a scenario where your baby’s like around six months old and you’ve seen all of these readiness signs. Well, what next? Not cereal.
Yay. So I will just first state that we are very big supporters of baby led weaning here. However, it’s not your only option. A lot of people feed what’s called quote, traditional weaning, which I have opinions about. But anyway which is just feeding pureed foods only. Whereas baby led weaning is feeding size and texture, appropriate finger foods.
And that’s the real key because when we look at choking numbers for infants, if we’re feeding appropriate finger foods versus appropriate purees, this statistics are pretty equal. So it’s not a greater choking risk to feed appropriate finger foods. Also, if you count the risk of developing the right sensory profile, like, what am I trying to say?
A broader spectrum of what they will accept into their mouth texture wise. It’s important. And here’s why. Because when we introduce food, we need to give baby the opportunity to learn how to chew and swallow in an entirely new way. We’re essentially saying, okay, suck swallow, breathe has worked for you so far.
Now we have to learn how to accept something new in your mouth, move it to the side with your tongue, which they don’t know how to do yet. Chew. And then actually move it back to the center of the mouth and swallow. And when we introduce purees first, we’re basically giving them a food that they can still use the suck swallow to eat and not giving them the opportunity to then learn those new mechanics.
And also, it kind of tells them this is how food should be, right. This is how all food should be. So you’re giving them all these different flavors of purees and the only thing that’s consistent is the texture. And then when you go to add something, that’s completely like maybe cooked broccoli and it’s a completely different texture, they freak out. They don’t know what to do with it sometimes.
And I don’t want to say that you can’t do purees, but it’s something to consider that it might be more developmentally appropriate to offer finger foods. If you want to learn more about which foods and which textures are appropriate, there are so many resources online for that.
Right. And then also really our big thing is, what’s going to be easiest for you? You know, purees are a pain in the ass. If you’re making them yourself, it’s tough. It’s just a lot of work and it’s not impossible. And if you’ve got the time, God bless you, but I didn’t. Right. And if you’re buying them, it’s more money.
And then you have to really have some serious concerns about quality, frankly, right. Especially with all of the like recalls and warnings about heavy metals that have been coming out and other, I mean, honestly, frankly, I think just going to the grocery store scares the shit out of me these days, many reasons. The whole, I mean, last year I kept getting all of these articles and I’d send them to Maureen and I’d be like, is this real?
Like, are they actually finding heavy metals in these baby foods? Which was true. Which one’s concerning? All of them. Right. So it might remove some of that stress as well, which we are all about. And if you’ve already fed your baby those jarred baby foods, I’m with ya. It’s okay. I did it, you know, I honestly did not.
With Theo, for sure, I just did the little jars. And the recommendation back then eight years ago was to start with meat, which is so I’m like, oh, and I could never bring myself to get the canned jars of meat. I just couldn’t. No one ever recommended that to me. It’s just a thing.
But I did baby led weaning with both of my kids, but I also did purees like in the pouches if we were just like out somewhere and I knew that I might not have appropriate food available. I did make my own purees with Heidi for on the go.
And I use the Kiinde system for pumping. And so the Kiinde system actually comes with a little spoon attachment onto the bags and a funnel. So you get the bag that you would normally put your breast milk in. It has a funnel. You make your puree, you jam it down in the bag, it’s a spoon screws onto it and you squirt it out onto the spoon and baby eats it.
And it was honestly great for a couple of months. Yeah. And it’s just like, I think there is room for a lot of in-between here. But I do want to caution that if you’ve been feeding purees and you want to move to baby led weaning, you’re going to have to be more careful about choking because baby is used to using the suck swallow mechanism for solids, and then we’re going to introduce something that is then not appropriate for that, you know, so just consider that.
And if you’re doing baby led weaning, but you want to use some purees or something like yogurt, the pouches are good or just dipping a spoon and handing it to your baby works really well. But here’s the thing. The big flaw for many people with baby led weaning, is it as messy as fuck. Well guess what? Your kid ain’t getting any cleaner between now and kindergarten.
So I just like, and I have some anxiety around that, so it’s good that I have dogs. But also sometimes I’m just like, okay, we’re just getting naked. And then we’re just going to take a sink bath right after. Yeah. We have a whole routine. Heidi is so cute. Messiest human being I’ve ever met in my life for eating. The messiest.
I mean, but she’s so happy when she does it I almost don’t care. And we have, we got rid of the carpet, you know, unfortunately I bought a table that has like channel cracks in it, like purposeful ones for decor. You need to put some wood filler in there. No doubt. So do not buy a table that has cracks in it.
That’s my little mom tip for you. Oh yeah. If you’re picking your highchair, get the one with the least amount of crevices, preferably one that doesn’t have any cloth on it either. No. Yeah, no cushions. Oh, a note on that is that I highly recommend something where you can support baby’s feet while they are eating, ah, to improve oral function.
Exactly. And you will probably see that if you have a baby who actually doesn’t like eating a lot, that that changes it. Now, I want to set your expectations for this. Cause I think a lot of people begin feeding solids in whatever method you choose and expect their baby to actually eat, like eat a meal, right.
That may not happen for months. Yeah, months and months, and that’s okay. Because actually our goal is not calories because their guts are not mature enough for that anyway. Like if you had never eaten a certain food in your life, you’re probably not going to start out by having a feast, like a meal of just that.
Right. You’re going to be like, let me try it and we’ll see how it goes. We’ll see if I like it. So that’s kind of the entire introduction of solids is that. And socialization, and they’re learning how your family likes to eat. You know, what are your family’s values around food? That’s where they start to really learn it.
When they sit in their highchair, unassisted up at the table with the rest of your family and a meal appears, and they get a little bit, they get to participate. They get to watch how you interact with each other. And if it’s at my house, everyone talks at the same exact time and food is flying everywhere and that’s what we do.
It’s fine. You know, other people don’t do that. They eat in shifts. They eat in front of the TV. Yeah we actually eat in shifts. Like Ivan and Griffin eat somewhere else. I eat with the baby, like, and she eats while we’re cooking and it’s fine. And that’s fine. I just always tell people when you start introducing solids, keep that in mind.
Is this something that you want to continue doing for the rest of their childhood? Because they do get stuck in patterns and they really enjoy having their time with mommy. If that’s how you eat, if you to eat together, that’s the expectation now. And actually you can start this before you give them actual solids.
So, you know, if your baby is sitting pretty well, you know, you get that highchair out and sit them when you’re having dinner and hand them a spoon, you know, hand them a bowl, maybe, maybe dip the spoon in some sauce, you know? So it tastes like something. And just let them explore, because that is the whole point of this.
We are exploring and learning, we’re getting new tastes, new textures and we are slowly introducing the gut to new things that it has to then figure out how to break down and use. That’s right. We’re also exploring new poop textures and smells and sorry. So sorry. And I usually recommend people start with a low carb vegetable, like green beans, like boil some green beans.
The whole one to suck on. Do you do that for the sweet preference? Yeah. So here’s the thing about that though, actually. I had always thought that too, like, oh, start with the vegetables so they don’t develop a sweet tooth. And then I read this really interesting article where I was like, oh, I see why that might be bullshit.
Breastmilk is the sweetest thing ever. It is so sweet and your baby, therefore, already has a sweet preference. Well, but isn’t it true that when they’re first born, they don’t actually have very distinctive pallets? So that’s why if you introduce formula really early, they don’t care. But if you introduce it at six months, they’re like, oh, what the heck?
Right. But that’s the, so I don’t know. I was reading this article from; I think it was a dietitian. And I was like, I, but like I kind of see it where she was kind of like don’t, you know, it’s not really that big of a deal. Just focus on healthy foods because breast milk is already super sweet. And our species just in general is always going to prefer sweet foods because biologically, like, those are the most available energy wise. We’re monkeys.
Right. So we’re going to look for sweetness. And actually that’s one of the reasons we like alcohol. And that some species of primates can actually like process alcohols because it’s a marker that we have a ripe fruit. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. I think we’ve mentioned that before, but I don’t know.
I think that personally for me, between my two children, I started Theo on what he would like. But then again, I realized now that a lot of what I did for him was to appease him and I kind of built his environment around what he would tolerate. So as we were starting solids, he would just throw the spoon of green beans across the room, but I did, I was doing the jars, you know, and it was just disasters.
Also throwing the spoon is totally developmentally appropriate. And if I had known that I would’ve felt a lot better about it. So I was like, okay, well, if I give him a sweet potato, he’ll actually finish the meal. And then he’s like had a meal. And my thinking about that was just not, and that’s okay. And that is okay.
Yeah, but I mean, it could have been, my perspective was just, it could’ve been so much easier emotionally. Cause I felt like my baby wasn’t tolerating a wide range of food. Well, it wasn’t like, you know, a TV show you watch where somebody is like calmly feeding a cute baby and they just eat every spoonful.
Like that’s kind of an unrealistic expectation, really. Like regardless of what food we’re feeding. My big thing is that I just need to make sure it’s foods that I’m actually going to cook and eat too. So, you know, if I’m having avocado toast, great. Baby gets avocado. You know, maybe a little bit of bread, you know, if I’m going to make a root vegetable roast. Awesome. That’s what baby eats. If I’m eating pizza. All right, baby. You get some pizza.
And this changes by age. So you’re kind of getting the vibe now that we’re like, give your baby whatever. Like whatever’s going to serve you in your family, do it in a way that fits within your family. But if your baby is six months, they’re not eating a meal, they’re exploring.
If your baby is seven months, they might actually be hungry enough and interested enough to eat a meal, which is four ounces of food or less. Or maybe they’ll take two bites and just play with it. Right. Typically we see the tide really start to turn for most babies by nine months, where by that point, most of them are actually chewing and swallowing some food.
And I think the recommendation by the AAP is by nine months, they’re having three solid meals a day. Right. And then at a year of age is when the scale starts to tip. We’re kind of 50 50 at that point on solids and breast milk. Well, they, they say your majority is moving towards solids as opposed to breast milk.
So it’s like the scale slightly tips. But for a lot of people, it doesn’t. Like, just give it another month or so. And it’s fine. Yeah. I think with these recommendations, they obviously cannot really work exactly right for every baby. So take them as always with guidelines as an estimation, as a recommendation, but not something that you know has to fit your baby exactly, perfectly.
And as far as the, when do you feed breast milk as opposed to solids? The younger they are, the more likely I am to say, do breast milk first and the solid is the supplement. So definitely when we’re at that six-month mark, that’s what I say. Like, make sure your baby has a full feed, then sit them down and offer literally like two pieces of food.
You know, let them play with it, let them try it, but they’re going to be full. So also they’re not like they’re still learning that that is food. It’s a, it’s a whole thing. But again now, right, like I said, around nine months, sometimes that starts to change. Around a year old, if you can possibly get your baby to sit down before a meal that they absolutely know is coming and nurse, great.
But if you can’t, do not worry. Yeah at that point in time when you’re moving closer to that one-year mark, you’re basically breastfeeding in the morning, maybe when you get home from work and before bed. And if you’re still co-sleeping sometimes you’ll have a middle of the night booby snack, maybe all night.
Some one-year-olds nurse all the time, too, you know, but it is okay as we progress and are eating more solids to be a little bit more lax about when you’re breastfeeding.
And then also just a quick note about allergen foods. We do not avoid high allergen foods at this point. The recommendation is earlier initiation is better. Right? And I think that’s actually where a lot of the confusion about when to start solids comes from, because a lot of that research around allergens states four months.
And that’s really tricky then when everything else says six months and you’re like, what do I do? Give them a taste of peanut butter at four months? I don’t have the answer, but we are definitely looking for an expert to interview about that. I actually have emailed a world class pediatric immunologist to see if he would come on the podcast and talk about that with us.
So we are actively trying to find someone to ask very hard questions to. And so stay tuned for that one, please. But as far as introducing them, earlier is better. It’s a good idea not to introduce more than one new allergen in a day, or even every few days, because if your baby has a reaction, you want to be able to say, oh, well, today was peanut butter, right?
Not, oh shit. We did shrimp and peanut butter and eggs. Oh no. And that was all the first time for all of those, you know, and really like when we’re introducing new foods, simpler is going to be better for their gut to understand how to break it down. I have a good anecdote for this. Okay. So, you know, when I was introducing food to Lyra, I was like here, a piece of avocado, a plain whole food, you know, here, a piece of sweet potato, a plain whole food.
My husband gave her a fucking pickle. Oh, which yes, it is a vegetable, so many spices. So much vinegar and salt and sugar, has like 20 ingredients, pickling spice and garlic. She’s like, wow. Mouth explosion. I mean, she enjoyed it and sucked on that pickle for like an hour and then was gassy and had the weirdest poops for like four days after that.
So, you know, expect sometimes that with new foods, but also in the beginning using just those whole foods with less spices, don’t add a lot of salt.
Don’t add a lot of sugar, you know, if you’re doing baby led weaning and cooking for the family, usually what I do is I cook at least one part of that meal, texture appropriate. So I’m like eh, I’ll over steam, the broccoli a little bit cause I like it crunchy. And then I don’t know, not like really crunchy. Don’t give me that look, I like it.
Like al dente. You know, anyway, I’ll, I’ll do something texture appropriate and wait to spice it until the end so I can take out a few pieces for the baby. You know, and then introduce spices slowly, but I’m not going to be like, well, I dumped a whole thing of cumin on here, so have fun, good luck.
But you know, if you’re doing something like tomato sauce or tomatoes or strawberries or anything that’s got a more acidic profile, you might see that their face has a little red rash on it. It’s fine. Just wipe it off. It’s topical. It’s like a topical irritant because it is more acidic. Baby skin is very sensitive.
So just wipe that off. And if it’s gone in an hour, then you know. It doesn’t mean you have to stay away from it. Actually more exposure to it is going to probably be better. But when you have a reaction to something, it is like a systemic reaction where like, they’re, they they’ve got rashes on the full body.
Yeah. Like, especially those trunk rashes when you’re sure they didn’t just dribble juice all over themselves. Another one that pretty commonly causes the topical rash is mango. Oh yeah. It’s actually related to poison Ivy and the mango skins contain the same irritant that poison Ivy does, but the cultivated mangoes contain very little of it.
But that’s one of the reasons a lot of people tend to have a reaction to mango. No shit. Hmm, the more, you know. Why Kiwi? It’s just really acidic. Oh yeah. Lots of people, and then also like even the skin of the kiwi is sometimes irritating. Not that you give them the kiwi skin cause it’s so hairy and gross.
I actually, with fruits like that, that are slippery, I actually do leave the skin on sometimes so they can hold it. Like avocado. How do you pick that up with your fingers? It’s like a bar soap. I can’t. Right. So, but the skin is like a choking hazard, so it has to be carefully monitored to make sure they don’t bite a piece off. Right. Again, I mean, all of this interaction should be carefully monitored FYI.
At what point do I admit to everyone that I used to chew up bits of food and give them to my daughter like she was a baby bird? Right now. I’m fine with that. I mean, she’s older, she’s medically well, and when we’d be out at restaurants and stuff, and frankly, I didn’t have time to make purees. Guess how you used to make purees when you were a cave woman?
I mean, that’s the thing. You know, we had, ancient humans had two methods of doing this right. One was to chew it up and give it to their children and the other was to use very primitive tools, like a mortar and pestle to grind things up. Either way is fine. We have blenders now. Hooray.
But I think the takeaway from this that I want you guys to end this episode with is that you need to be looking for readiness markers in your babies before you start solids. And when you start them, set the expectation that it is about experimentation and learning and not actually ingesting food for a couple of months. And that when you begin, we’re always going to begin by feeding a full milk meal before the solid foods.
And that over time, and everybody is going to follow a different journey, as far as when your baby begins to actually eat food, when they actually eat significant amounts of foods, but you have a full six months of time where you can be very flexible. Right. And remember all roads lead to a giant five guys burger eventually when they’re in college. I mean, yes, they, your children will all be scavenging goldfish out of their car seat in three years.
I mean, it’s, it’s going to be okay. And, you know, as much as we appreciate consistency at the same time, we, I do not want you to beat yourself up about this. I realized last week we were on the go so much traveling, there were like three full days my nine-month-old did not actually get food. She just had milk. It’s okay.
And then when I left today and I was like, honey, I’m pumping like nothing. So don’t overfeed the milk. He was like, is it okay if I do a lot of food? I was like, sure. Why not? Do extra food today. It’s fine. And this is actually.
To talk about we had a question, I think in another episode about distracted nursing out in public for older babies, maybe you just save the nursing for when you’re at home and you do, you know, solid foods and foods that you can socialize with when you’re out in public.
If that’s something that you’re more comfortable with, of course, depending on how long you’re going to be out and the location. But I definitely used to do that. I mean, I don’t really remember. I remember nursing at a restaurant, maybe a couple of times, but for the most part, when Heidi was older, we just did food when we were at restaurants and then at home, we do boob.
Well, and since I nursed Griffin until he was almost four, you know, there were years where it’s not like I didn’t want to nurse in public, but seriously like a three-year-old are you kidding? No, you can have some French fries and we will nurse later. Right. Boundaries are fine. Yeah. And if you do want to nurse in public when your kid is three also fine.
It’s just kind of like, whatever, at that point, it’s not like do or die. Breast milk is the only thing keeping your kid alive. You know, we gotta quiet down that part of our brain. Yeah. The less pressure, which is something that y’all have to look forward to if your baby is just brand new.
Do you know what just popped into my head? No. Pressure like a drip, drip, drip then, and never stops a whoa. If you haven’t seen Encanto yet, maybe you should, but maybe not. Prepare the tears. TikTok is exploding with Encanto right now. I mean it’s the first time a Disney movie was made where we’re like, there is no villain except intergenerational drama.
Oh my God. That just gave me chills. Thanks, Lin Manuel Miranda. By the way, my son loves Hamilton. And he said to me the other day, mom did you know that actually like in Hamilton real times none of those people were actually black? And I said yeah, and he goes, I’m pretty sure that’s what made the whole thing so famous. Oh, I was like, good job.
You know, when your kids say things like that and you want to be like, yes, that was very obvious. But also for your age, that was a huge, yeah, but this is why representation matters in creative projects because eight-year-olds are noticing. Absolutely. Anyway, anyway, that’s an aside.
So take off the pressure. You know, we all have way too much of it coming from every single angle. Just, you know, take small steps, introduce foods, and eventually we will all get there. Yes, absolutely. And you’re not getting out of here without an award. Oh yeah. So many to give.
Do you have a baby that struggles with excessive gas, fussiness, colic and general sleep problems? Well I did, but then I used Evivo probiotics. Evivo is a pediatrician approved probiotic for babies that’s even used in NICUs on the gentlest tummies all over the United States. It is an amazing, unique product that contains a specific strain of B infantis that we need to digest human milk oligosaccharides.
That’s actually 15% of breast milk that your baby will then be able to utilize, whereas if you don’t have the bacteria, there’s so much extra in the gut, which is why American babies poop like 10 times a day more than babies that are colonized with B infantis.
I have personally seen this probiotic help my baby and the babies of many of my clients. And frankly, if we’re dealing with any of these symptoms, it is the first thing I go to. And the best part is it’s not like any other probiotic that we would take when we’re sick or taking antibiotics, where you take it every time you go through antibiotics for the rest of your life.
If you give your baby Evivo in the first hundred days of life, it actually colonizes in their gut and becomes a part of their immune system, which then they can pass to the next generation. And this is how we make change. Evivo was amazing because it’s going to safeguard your baby’s health today and give you peace of mind in the future.
Check out Evivo probiotics through the link in our show notes and enter code MILKMINUTE for $10 off.
Okay. We are giving an award to an unsuspecting listener. His name is Cody Cotton and he posted the most gorgeous photo of his wife breastfeeding their brand-new baby in the hospital. And the description in his photo says, “Grateful for our son. Extremely grateful to create with someone who makes labor look beautiful.”
And I just could not stop being proud that he was proud of his partner breastfeeding and put it out there in the universe. And not only that, but he actually reached out to us on Instagram to ask some questions, to help support her through what she was going through and was like, Hey, what episode can I find this?
And that’s wonderful. So get y’all a partner who’s going to do that for you. In my breastfeeding classes, I always give partners jobs. And one of them is you be the person that finds the resources when things go awry. Please don’t put that responsibility completely on your partner who just birthed an entire human and feels like they got hit by a Mack truck.
Like you can pick up the phone, you can call a lactation consultant. You can call the midwife. You can call the doula. You can call the on-call OB if you need to. That can be you and you don’t even have to do a perfect job. You might miss some of the details, but the providers on the phone know the questions to ask when you’re calling. All you have to do is pick up the phone and take that first step into.
Cody, thank you so much for being the ideal supportive partner. We wish every partner was like this and was doing the legwork to support their, you know, that person who just had a baby. Who’s feeding that baby with their body.
It’s big stuff. It’s huge. So Cody, thank you so much. We greatly appreciate you. And thank you for listening to the podcast. Cody, we’re going to give you the Breastfeeding Defender Award, and we really appreciate what you’re doing for your partner. She is of course, such an amazing, amazing person to have birthed your child.
And it’s wonderful that you acknowledge that. And for everybody else, you can check out that picture and his post on our Instagram. All right. Well, thank you for listening to another episode of The Milk Minute. The way we change this giant system that is not set up for lactating families is by educating ourselves, our children and our friends.
If you found some value in our content today, or in any other episode, consider supporting us with the donation to our Patreon. And if you can’t do that right now, we totally understand. But the best way you can help us is by telling a friend or leaving us a review on whatever platform you listen. And by the way, Spotify lets you rate us now. Rate us on Spotify. Yeah. Why not? I don’t know what they’re doing with algorithms these days, but I don’t know. Maybe, maybe it’ll help us or something. Okay. Well guys, we will see you next time. Bye bye.
