as promised today we are diving into first foods for baby and some very important foods to avoid
early on yeah and in case you've not met us before i'm kurt i'm a board certified pediatrician and
new dad i'm sarah i am a board-certified ob gyn and new mom and we are the doctors the yorkman
welcome back you may have followed us through our own journeys of getting pregnant week by
week through pregnancy postpartum and even our process of starting to work on baby number two yes
but this week we're continuing our focus on starting solid foods and feeding your baby so to
do that we are going to share 10 great first foods for baby how to serve them um and most importantly
13 foods that you really should avoid early on um for early eaters um and then we're going to go
wrap up with some quick reminders and tips about key things to remember when starting
solids safely as we start to jump into these great first foods and some of our favorites um
the keys here are things that are easy for baby to hold on to again with baby lead weeding the goal
is that baby is able to feed themselves um even if it takes a lot of time and it's really messy
and the other thing is that the food that they're putting in their mouth is safe so
it should be something that they're able to mush and it kind of mushes into their mouth and then
it is easy for them to swallow something that isn't a risk of being kind of a chunk
that could get caught either in their esophagus feeding tube or their trachea the breathing tube
so uh number one i think the first food we gave cecilia um was avocado
so again you want a nice ripe avocado cutting it kind of in big long strips that she can hold on
to and feed herself yeah pro tip for avocado um it actually is very very slippery and so something we
would do is roll it in breadcrumbs or you can roll it in you know other things um to give it some
texture and make it easier for that little one to hang on to yeah i didn't realize how slippery
they were until watching her try to cheat herself first time yes yes uh another great early food for
babies is a banana so you can offer this um in a variety of ways you could mash it up and preload a
spoon for baby to grab or you can kind of serve it in thirds little strips of yeah this was something
that i didn't realize until you know we had a six month old that we were feeding but if you peel
a banana and then you actually kind of like push your finger down the end of it it naturally splits
into thirds lengthwise which are great nice chunks for baby to be able to hold on to
and feed themselves and a nice ripe banana for them to eat that is not a choking risk
next on our list was sweet potato strips yams acorn squash butternut squash and the squash
family things that you've cooked to be again soft and mushable but then cut in nice longer strips
it's easy for them to hang on to feed themselves then once it's in the mouth it's going to be easy
for them to kind of mush and swallow yes and again it's okay you know to add a little olive
oil to this when you cook it in the oven or some spices that you like on it um to taste totally
fine to introduce those flavors to baby early yeah ideally not adding a lot of extra salt salt
but other than that kind of the normal flavors of your kitchen yeah um number four great early food
um it would be scrambled eggs or kind of omelette strips now the thing to keep in mind here is egg
is one of those big allergens so this is one you know to introduce alone and then not introduce
new things for a couple of days um but eggs are a great source of protein and those omelette
strips are easy thing for baby to pick up and eat and work on new textures and flavors yeah
and we were just cooking omelette cutting in a little strip that she could hold on to and feed
herself next on our list and kind of the first of our many very messy options for this would be
hummus or mashed chickpeas again these are also a potential allergen so again something that's
nice to just add by itself on a day but was great the other thing that we found with this and some
other things is these are great things to kind of load up on a baby spoon um for her and then she
could it was amazing to me like the ability of our six month old to be able to take that spoon
to their mouth um i don't know that this brand of spoon um it says num num on it i'll find it and
link it below it's like a stage zero and stage one spoon it kind of has a hole in it so things
just stay on the spoon it isn't rounded one way or the other so it's just kind of a flat thing
that they bring to their mouth and it's easy for a learner but they work it's just they're working
on the mechanics like there is something yummy on this spoon i bring it to my mouth
again you are not feeding baby this is you load up their spoon and let them feed themselves at
the pace they want yup it is going to be slow and messy that is okay yes um while we're on the messy
train another food that we loved was yogurt we usually would pick kind of a full fat yogurt um
and cease really loved that again it's super messy but very much not a choking risk it's a smooth
um you know dairy product and load up that spoon set it there on her little plate and let her bring
it all over her face yeah i'm a good time to mention the importance of having a great bib
i think this was our favorites these were by tiny twinkle um just something that i covered her kind
of covered her shoulders and also like covered most of the chair made most of our cleanup a
little bit easier yeah because the thing again with this whole baby lead weaning process
is making sure they have things they're not distracted by um so not like a heavy
bib around their neck or something that they're aware of so this is kind of like a little shirt
um that she would just put on to eat in and so it wasn't a distractor or anything heavy or in her
face so again just remembering not distracted good posture we're just practicing eating yeah
next on our list was tomato so we actually these are we would give big tomato wedges
something she could hang on to and just really kind of suck the juice out of the middle of
the tomato but it was big enough where the big kind of meaty part of the tomato wasn't
gonna be a choking risk wasn't going to be something she was going to break off
yep some other awesome great first foods are going to be cooked really well cooked veggies so
broccoli cauliflower bell peppers steam them bake them whatever so that they are nice and soft and
mushy and just you know you give baby that piece of broccoli they can bring it to their mouth and
chew on it and it is a perfect healthy nutritious food for baby yeah starting to think about some
other protein options um meat family things cooked fish nice flake flaky fish like salmon
trout things like that that they can again have a chunk of but when they bring it into their mouth
it's gonna fight nice and be easy for them to swallow rich in omega-3s dha great healthy
nutritious things for babe uh the final kind of thing to think about that's counterintuitive is
big pieces of meat um so i'm talking like a deck of card size piece of meat um for baby to chew
on so a big piece of steak or a chicken drumstick that you know doesn't really have meat left on it
or a rib bone you know just with a little bit of meat on it that you know isn't falling off
um things for them to chew on and feel that texture and get some of that juice in their mouth
and again these are all kind of before 12 months these preparation guidelines
um change in terms of sizes of pieces to give to baby you know when they hit that kind of
9 to 12 months and beyond range as your baby comes becomes more of an advanced eater so these are
tips for very very early eaters when you are just starting out now we just want to talk about 13
foods to be very very careful with or completely avoid in these early eaters um the first on our
list is honey and so honey like oh this should be easy for them to swallow nice and sweet
um the issue with honey is that it potentially carries a toxin that for older people and even
older children is not a risk but the botulism and botulinum toxin can cause this paralysis that can
be life-threatening to infants less than one year of age in this category of honey is also like home
canned foods can potentially have this toxin as well so if they're less than 12 months of age
avoid honey home canned foods number two things to avoid are round fruits so these are things
like grape blueberries cherry tomatoes these are little chokers if you want to serve blueberries
you know you're going to cut them in half you're going to mash them cherry tomatoes same thing
you're going to cut them into quarters but those when we get to that stage we are a little further
down the road in terms of more advanced eaters round fruits kind of just a good idea to avoid
in those very early stages of learning to eat yeah um speaking of other like really common
chokers things like hot dogs sausage links things that like hold their structure and
like don't break up easily um hot dogs cause many many instances of choking every year in the u.s
best to just avoid them in children under one year of age also super high in nitrates which are not
great for little babies um back kind of following this choking hazards um whole nuts and seeds
super hard firm little round um seeds and nuts baby can't make them smaller um and they are
just the size of that little windpipe so those are ones you want to avoid yeah and next on our
list of common chokers raw veggies things like carrots are really common choking hazards and
then also something that maybe you wouldn't think about would be raw apple um many many instances
of choking from raw apple again just holds its structure so well baby's able to break off just a
little piece that's just big enough to fit into their windpipe or esophagus that gets the lodge
there can cause some issues so best to avoid raw apple you can cook apple to be soft yeah without
their skin but slice them super super thin when they get a little bit older but we just forget
learn eating is a skill you aren't born knowing how to do it and they need to practice and so we
want to avoid some of these trouble foods another one another choking hazard is uncooked dried fruit
again they just hold their shape sometimes they're a little chewy you know they don't break up well
so skip those in the beginning yeah next on our list thick gobs of nut butter peanut butter almond
butter again so this these are potential allergens which there's a role for introducing those early
if you're doing that you should really kind of dilute it in a slurry with water
on the challenge with the big gob you can imagine baby doesn't have enough saliva in their mouth
to dissolve it and then get that big gob of nut butter stuck in the back of their throat yeah and
can easily cause issues yeah um other things that you want to avoid are going to be kind of chunks
of meat or cheese um it seems counterintuitive but we kind of talked about before you want to give
big strips or card size you know pieces of meat to baby you don't want to be cutting it up into
little chunks or chunks of cheese because again that's something they can choke on so as they
babies get older again we talk about cutting it into little pieces when they have a pincer grasp
um but we're not there yet so avoid um kind of chunks for now yeah next on our list so we put
kind of nice flaky fish on our great early foods but then here is avoiding fish with bones kind of
goes without saying and you don't want the bones to get in there and cause issues with their airway
popcorn is a no-go for little ones along with other kind of crunchy hard snacks so chips granola
bars these things again they cannot break down they can't chew them up in their mouth and they
are at a high risk of getting stuck yeah and then some other like good categories of things to be
very careful with limited with or just avoid altogether would be very salty things things
like soy sauce store-bought mac and cheese instant ramen noodles processed cheeses meats smoked fish
things that are really high in salt babies kidneys are still developing and just that high salt load
can be not challenging for them for many reasons and so best to try to limit their sodium salt
intake as much as possible also wanna avoid really really sugary things so juice soda instant pudding
candy chocolate um always want to kind of wait on those really sugary things for little ones
and then we just want to wrap this up with a nice review of some good kind of safety things to think
about when starting solids with your baby and the first one is just to always supervise your baby
again they're just learning how to eat even if it's a food they did really well with yesterday
they may have new issues with it today it's prepared slightly different um don't leave
your baby alone with food in front of them yeah so again posture is really important make sure they
are sitting upright in their high chair their back is supported their feet are on the ground
um that they're learning to eat they we don't want them worried about their balance or unsteady
again you never want to be feeding baby when they're crawling or playing or
you know reclining in their stroller or in a car seat because they're just not advanced
eaters so it just changes all of the mechanics you want them just focusing on practicing eating
yeah and then the final kind of safety piece or just fyi for you from one parent to another your
baby is going to have some degree of gagging and so it's important to know the difference between
a little bit of gagging and what choking actually is something that we recommend and was glad for us
in this experience is that like if something were happening if there was a true choking
experience that we had the first steps to help get rid of that some things that means if you
can't see what's in their mouth do not do a blind sweep because you may actually push whatever that
is further into their throat of course if it's in the front you can just easily get it out okay
but then also kind of being comfortable with the process of giving back blows we're actually going
to link a video that we think is good for infant cpr choking things should that happen hopefully
this is something you never have to deal with but a little bit of preparation goes a long way
so you do keep in mind that a little bit of gagging is
normal and so i definitely we watched some videos on youtube about the difference between gagging
and choking um and one of the things that kind of stuck with me is if you think your baby is
gagging or choking not to freak out not to go or something like that because then that's gonna
freak baby out and they're gonna go themselves and then they are more likely at that point to choke
so kind of remembering that if you find yourself in a gagging or choking situation remain calm
assess the situation have in your back pocket that you know how to do backflows um and have that plan
and we found that really helpful one other thing that i thought was helpful when we were starting
this baby lead weaning process was we would kind of plan out what we were going to introduce and
when um one because we wanted to introduce a variety of foods and we sometimes tend to
eat the same thing over and over um and so by planning that a little bit ahead of time
a we'd have a meal plan for a week and then b i would look up online or on the solid starts
app which was something we used a lot how to prepare that food and what was appropriate for a
six-month-old baby in terms of how to prepare that food and so it just made us feel i think confident
and comfortable when we were offering these new foods um because we you know done a little bit
of prep for that dinner and how to offer it to her so that's just a tip when you're getting started
with this yeah and it's also just like remove the pressure from yourself like worst case scenario in
this six to nine month period like babies still getting all of their nutrition they need on a
daily basis from formula breast milk and so if you like don't have a solid to offer them safely like
that's okay they have their milk and the day goes on yeah and if they don't like it
it doesn't matter this isn't for their calories or anything like that this is to help them learn
how to eat how to do different flavors and textures it's supposed to be fun no pressure
learn how to eat little babe yeah so that's going to be it for us this week we'll see you
guys next week hopefully you guys are subscribed as you're following along with our journey about
feeding our growing baby and trying for baby number two we'll see you next week bye guys
we're doctors but not your doctors anything we've said in this video
is for education or entertainment purposes only it is not medical
advice any specific medical questions you have should be directed to your provider