How to Get Your Baby to Start Eating

Today, I'm going to share with you my six-part feeding framework. I'm going to show you how to get your baby ready to start eating and do it on their terms. My name is Lindsay, and welcome to the Little Foundations Channel, where I help parents and caregivers create healthy habits for their babies from the very start.

The purpose of these six steps is to make sure that we are following your baby's lead and that you and your baby think that feeding is a happy and positive experience. I'm going to show you step by step what we can do, and every baby will go at their own pace. So, some babies might fly through these steps, and other babies may take their time. Your baby is the boss, and they will lead us.

I also want you to know that these steps will work for you no matter what. If you're set on baby-led weaning or purees and mashed, or you're not sure yet, this will work for you. The purpose is to give your babies a healthy relationship with food, and right now is a great time to start.

One more thing before we begin: it's important that you and any caregiver are trained and certified in CPR and first aid. Not only because we're talking about feeding, but because anything can happen at any moment, and you want to make sure that your caregivers know how to respond in the case of an emergency.

One other important thing to note is that only you and your medical team make the decisions for your baby. So, trust yourself. You will know when it's time for your baby to start eating. If your baby has had a lot of reflux, eczema, or problems with formula and breast milk, let's be sure to speak to our doctor before we even begin this step.

Alright, so let's get into it. Step number one: Is your baby: "Safe, Practicing, and Interested".

What does that mean? Firstly, is your baby safe? First, we're going to look at is your baby at least four months old? And if your baby was a premature baby, we're going to make sure their adjusted age is at least four months old.

Next, we're going to make sure that they can sit up with some support, and they haven't ever had any problems swallowing breast milk or formula or any breathing concerns.

The next part is practicing, and what does that mean? It means is your baby practicing getting ready to start eating. And this will look like maybe they're putting their hands in their mouth or teethers or toys or biting down on things. That's a great sign that they're getting ready to start putting more things in their mouth.

And are they interested? What that means is, are they starting to look at you while you eat or even start to look at your food or even grab it? That is a good sign that they are getting ready to build this foundation to start eating.

Alright, we're on to step number two, and step number two is a step that a lot of families forget, and I want to make sure that you don't. I call this step "Setting the Scene." And what that means is we are going to give our baby the opportunity to practice being in the high chair before we ever introduce food. We want to make sure your baby is comfortable in the high chair, that they feel safe, and that they know that this is a happy place.

And what we can do is give them some dry bowls and spoons and cups and things I call "feeding accessories". We're not going to put any food in it yet, but we are helping them to build this connection that this is the place where you start to eat. Sometimes, if we try to put them in the high chair for the first time and give them food for the first time, there are too many new experiences at once, and your baby might feel overwhelmed. We want to let them get comfortable first before we start introducing food.

Alright, great! Now we're on to number three. I call this one "Exposure and Permission", and this one comes with a warning. This one can be a little bit messy, and for some families, I know that's not what you want to hear. And if you don't love a mess, that's okay. We can work together and come up with a compromise, even if you only do it once a week. Let's make sure to give yourself time to get your baby messy.

You can put them in the high chair, take off all their clothes, and let them get messy. You can do it right before bath time or when you have a little bit more time and you don't have to rush out the door. Now, why are we getting messy, you might ask? So, this is about exposure.

Exposure means we are exposing our babies to new foods. So, whether that's that baby-led weaning that we talked about, those more solid foods, or the purees or mashed, or somewhere in the middle, we're going to give our baby more experience touching, feeling, looking at food without having any pressure that they need to eat it. We're going to let them put their hands in it and explore.

It's really important that they can feel the food on their hands and on their face and that they get comfortable with it. This exposure piece is so important. The more that we expose our babies to food, actually, the less picky they may be later on. So, it's important that we make sure that there are pockets of time where we can let them get messy.

And the other part of this is permission. And the permission is, you are looking for your baby to give you permission to offer them some food here while we're exploring and checking out the foods. Your baby might try to put something in their mouth. They might be a little bit uncoordinated, but they might try. And as long as they're giving us the green light to help them, we can help them to bring it to their mouth or to have more experiences tasting the food. But for right now, in this step, we are exposing them and getting them comfortable with food, whether that's putting some yogurt on their tray or giving them some food that they can hang on to.

Alright, and that takes us to step number four. I call this "Happy Tastings", and this is just a tasting because we are not looking for our baby to start eating a ton of food yet. But now that we're building this beautiful pyramid and that they're giving us that permission, they're getting more comfortable, now we can start to offer them some more food. We can help them to bring it to their mouth and let them have a different experience.

Sometimes at this time, while they're still getting coordinated, they might push out a lot of food, or they might have a hard time getting it to their mouth. And it's okay if it looks like more goes out than goes in. But it's about the tasting and the experience. Your baby is still getting all of their calories from formula or breast milk, and they don't need to eat this just yet. This is still for exploration. We're having fun. We're letting them lead us, and we're seeing what they do.

Alright, you're doing great. Our next step is called "Big Kid Eating". Now that we've gone through all these steps and they're really into it, we're going to give them more food. This is a great time to zoom out and step back. At this time, I ask families, let's look at what is in your cabinet, what is in your refrigerator, and what is on your shopping list. Those are the foods that we want to adapt to safely offer them to our babies.

There are so many great companies that make amazing food for babies and toddlers. It's great for convenience and when you're in a rush, and that I will say, always keep it handy, that's great. But when we have a little bit more time, we want to make sure that we are introducing foods that we have in our house. We want to make sure that we are offering foods that we normally have in our house, foods that eventually they will grow up to eat with us. This is a really great time to step back and reflect. We don't want to create habits that we're going to have to undo later.

Babies don't need baby food, they don't need special meals, they don't need kids' meals. We can make it safe and adapt it for them to be able to have more flavors and textures and different kinds of food that we normally have, that eventually they'll grow up to eat with us. So take a second when you get to this step and think about what foods do you normally have and how we can introduce that to your baby.

Alright, our last step, step number six, we did it! This is so exciting. This is always the goal for me: "One Family Meal". This is the goal that we're working towards. It might take a while, but we want to keep that in the back of our mind that we want our baby to eat one meal with us.

We want them to eat our same food, and we want them to eat with us. We want them to be comfortable and have a great relationship with food. We want them to know that they can be assertive and decide what they're going to eat and how much they're going to put in their mouth or if they're going to allow us to help them.

Again, keep it in the back of your mind that eventually, if you have a dream of sitting together and you cook one meal for your whole family, this is the time to start. We don't want to have to undo any habits later. So let's start with real food, let's make it safe, and let's keep it positive.

You did it! That was so great! Again, babies will go at their own pace, and they will lead us. Like I always say, your baby is the boss. So let's see how they react, and we'll know when we're ready for the next step.

If this still feels like a lot, I want to invite you to the Little Foundations Feeding Academy. This is my online course and community where I help parents and caregivers from birth into toddler years with everything about feeding and celebrate their wins and help them when they're struggling. I'd love to have you in the Academy so that I can hold your hand and be with you every step of the way.

You can find more information here or you can check it out at www.LittleFoundations.org or at Little Foundations on Instagram. I'd love to be there for you and your family to build a happy, healthy relationship with food from the very start.

Alright, you did it! You did an amazing job. I am so grateful that you're here, and the fact that you're here reading this shows me that you really want to be thoughtful and intentional about how you start to introduce feeding to your baby.

Your hard work will pay off, and I am here for you. Please reach out if you have any questions, if you have any concerns, or if you just want to celebrate your wins. I'm here for you.You're doing a great job.

To know when to start and which foods to try, check out my Essential Guide to Starting Baby Food

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