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We had 7 kids in 3.5 years and I have made a LOT of mistakes in my brief parenting journey. Before I changed my dietitian career to specialize in infant feeding and baby-led weaning I was a super stressed out mom trying to figure BLW out on my own to feed my quadruplet babies.

It was hard for me to narrow the list of BLW mistakes I made when I was starting out down to just 7. I went through my phone, back to the first week that the quads started BLW and I am just cringing because I made SO MANY MISTAKES. My quads are fine, they lived through it...but if I can save you some heartache or stress or help you reverse an unsafe feeding practice early on in your BLW journey, well that’s my intention with this episode.

Join me as I walk you through 7 BABY-LED WEANING MISTAKES I MADE SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO! I’m getting kind of personal in this episode, but looking back I wish I had a resource like this when I was starting solids as a new mom and I hope you find it helpful (...but also a reminder that we’re all human, we all mistakes and we can all learn from each other and OUR collective mistakes!)

SHOW NOTES

SUMMARY of episode

In this episode I’m walking through 7 mistakes I made when I started baby-led weaning with my quadruplets. This was almost 5 years ago but I outlined this episode by going back in my phone and looking at photos and videos from the first week of BLW and I’m cringing now, I made so many mistakes. Here are the ones I’m covering in this episode

• Dangling feet in feeding table - we had a SUPER COOL LOOKING quadruplet feeding table...that was also totally dangerous because it didn’t have a footrest and the babies’ feet were dangling. I’m sharing how I would DIY that feeding table to make it safer for babies to eat in.

• Feeding directly on the table - seemed to me like putting plates or bowls out was just making more dishes. But actually putting the food directly on the tray or the table can really frustrate babies early on in feeding. I’m sharing how a plate or bowl suctioned to the table helps facilitate independent eating.

• Wiping baby’s face - neat freak, big time. I thought if I “cleaned as I go” the post-BLW mess would be less. But constantly wiping your baby during a meal is a really negative sensory experience. Babies NEED to experience what it feels like when food or liquid drips out of their mouth.

• Not practicing with an open cup - did NOT know that the progression wasn’t breast/bottle to sippy cup to baby eventually learns how to drink out of an open cup. I never did an open cup early on with my quadruplets, but I’m sharing the totally opposite experience I had when I did do open cup training early on with my twins after that.

• Comparing my baby to other babies - we all do. But what they say is true, “Compare and despair”. I’m sharing how 1 of my quadruplets would NOT participate in eating during the first 6 weeks of BLW and it stressed me out to no end because I was comparing him to other babies namely his 3 quadruplet siblings instead of respecting his individuality.

• Passing on purees - big misconception about BLW is that it means no purees. Um….wrong. Purees are an important texture for babies to learn how to eat...they’re just not the ONLY texture babies can eat. And I’m sharing how you can offer baby a pre-loaded spoon and they learn to self-feed purees early on, which is completely compatible with the self-feeding approach of BLW.

• Stressing when my baby didn’t eat - If you don’t have Ellyn Satter’s “Division of Responsibility in Feeding Theory” burned to the inside of your brain, I hope this episode will help you do it. I didn’t KNOW that it’s not my JOB to make my baby eat or to eat a certain amount. If we can stick to our jobs in feeding, stayin our lane in feeding, we realize that babies are ultimately in charge of how much they eat or even whether they eat.

LINKS from episode

• Episode 40 6 Reasons to Skip the Sippy Cup with Dawn Winkelmann, MS, CCC-SLP.

• Episode 64 How to Pre-Load A BLW Spoon Self-Feeding Technique with Dawn Winkelmann, MS, CCC-SLP.

• Register for my free online workshop BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches. Everyone on the workshop gets a copy of my 100 FIRST FOODS list plus tons more feeding tips so you can avoid making the most common feeding mistakes too! Register for this week’s workshop times.

TRANSCRIPT of episode

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• DOWNLOAD my BABY-LED WEANING NUTRIENT DEEP DIVE e-book...it’s a 16-page e-book jam packed with everything you need to get a safe start to solid foods. Download the e-book.

• REGISTER for my free online workshop BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches. Everyone on the workshop gets a copy of my 100 FIRST FOODS list plus tons more feeding tips so you can avoid making the most common feeding mistakes too! Register for this week’s workshop times.