Speaker 1: Hi everybody, and welcome back to Katie's crib. In this episode,
Speaker 1: I'm very excited because we're talking about food, which was
Speaker 1: a very crazily and weirdly stressful thing to me. Transitioning
Speaker 1: to solid foods for Albie and for me was super stressful.
Speaker 1: And I feel like parents and moms, obviously they want
Speaker 1: to give their child the best, the tastiest, the most
Speaker 1: nutritious meals, and I was so overwhelmed. I didn't know
Speaker 1: where to start. Do you go with prepackaged baby food?
Speaker 1: Do you go the d I Y route and you
Speaker 1: make it yourself. I have this wonderful friend named Talia
Speaker 1: Moore who is sitting here with me, and we actually
Speaker 1: first met because you taught my baby class. Yes, childbirth education. Yes,
Speaker 1: Talia taught me child birth education at Beanie Birth, which
Speaker 1: is this awesome. I don't even know how you would explain.
Speaker 1: I say it's a BITH center or center of BITH
Speaker 1: because selectation consultant, there's midwives, there's mommy and made classes.
Speaker 1: And you are also a dueler, right yes? Whoa Okay,
Speaker 1: So Talia is very knowledgeable on babies. You're also a
Speaker 1: mom yourself. I am how old is your daughter. She's
Speaker 1: three And if you notice, guys, Talia has a very
Speaker 1: sexy accent. Where are you from, Dahlia, very far down
Speaker 1: South Australia. Where in Australia Melbourne? Amazing? And does your
Speaker 1: daughter have like the coolest Australian name ever? What is it? No,
Speaker 1: it's Miami, It's it's Hebrew and hinder what the Hebrew
Speaker 1: is made? The Hindu is my husband? What say the
Speaker 1: name again? Miyami Mayani? That is freaking beautiful. Um, you
Speaker 1: guys should all know that. On top of Tally Moore
Speaker 1: being a very fancy teacher and doula at beany birth,
Speaker 1: she also is the owner of Tummy Time, which is
Speaker 1: spelled t h y n e. We're going to put
Speaker 1: a link to it on cribs notes, where she makes
Speaker 1: and crafted baby food delivered to families and guys, let
Speaker 1: me tell you, Talia has a stand at the Studio
Speaker 1: City farmers Market every Sunday and the line is around
Speaker 1: the corner for this baby food that you make. And
Speaker 1: I was like, God, I've always wanted to do an
Speaker 1: episode about food because it was such a stressful thing
Speaker 1: for me. And you are just the first person that
Speaker 1: came to my mind to talk to you about this.
Speaker 1: So let's get back. Let's get into your personal life.
Speaker 1: What was your relationship with food like before you were
Speaker 1: when you were a kid, Like, were you raised on
Speaker 1: d I y food? Like? Did your mom make food?
Speaker 1: My mom actually owned a catering company at some point um,
Speaker 1: and she had a focus on Australian bush cuisine, super
Speaker 1: random spices and herbs like um quandong lily pilli um,
Speaker 1: not like household spices and herbs. So she very quirky
Speaker 1: sense of cooking my mom has. So I grew up
Speaker 1: eating really um interesting food. But also the area that
Speaker 1: we live in Melbourne is very multicultural and so yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't even actually people ask me what did you
Speaker 1: grow up eating in Australia. I'm like, foe, you know,
Speaker 1: Thai food, Middle Eastern I don't even know exactly. I mean,
Speaker 1: other than my mom's the food that my mom was
Speaker 1: cooking for her catering company. It was very cultural. Yes,
Speaker 1: oh that's so very yeah. So my question to you
Speaker 1: is when do you switch a baby to solid foods?
Speaker 1: This is very like controversial, right, what is your advice
Speaker 1: on that? Well? I mean I think I think what's
Speaker 1: most important. There's there's so many myths. I don't even
Speaker 1: know where to start. It's a huge question. And like
Speaker 1: I said, guys, and this was this is a huge episode.
Speaker 1: This was super freaking stressful to me. Like once I
Speaker 1: got the breastfeeding down and I was doing that, I
Speaker 1: was like a weak ship. Now we're going to solid foods,
Speaker 1: Like how do you do that? And choking and like
Speaker 1: diarrhea and like what's going to happen? Like I just
Speaker 1: got a handle on breastfeeding or formula, whatever you're doing,
Speaker 1: So when is the time? So what I would say is,
Speaker 1: first of all, it depends where you live in the world.
Speaker 1: So for us in the US, you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: somewhere between sort of the four to seven month mark
Speaker 1: is what pediatricians will say. Um, here's the number one myth.
Speaker 1: The introduction of solids is actually a developmental milestone. It's
Speaker 1: not a weight milestone. It's developmental. So for each baby
Speaker 1: that's going to be slightly different. There's these myths like, oh,
Speaker 1: I've got a larger baby, he must be hungry, he
Speaker 1: needs more food. But actually larger babies often are a
Speaker 1: little bit slower with those cues that say they're ready,
Speaker 1: like they find it harder to hold their head up, so,
Speaker 1: which is one of the really important cues you know,
Speaker 1: to begin to begin food. So, um, it's a developmental milestone.
Speaker 1: So things that you're looking out for include a baby
Speaker 1: that can hold their head up, a baby that can
Speaker 1: sit unassisted, a baby that's reaching for food showing an
Speaker 1: interest in food. A baby that's using has the ability
Speaker 1: to grasp an object and bring it to their hand,
Speaker 1: which is called the palmer grasp, m palmer grasp. So
Speaker 1: that's the baby can pick up food. And like the
Speaker 1: exactly a big developmental miles that is needed for eating definitely, Um,
Speaker 1: the loss of the thrust reflex where they push food
Speaker 1: out of their mouth, so they need to be able
Speaker 1: to swallow the food. Um. So yeah, so these these
Speaker 1: are very important miles. It's crazy about this whole food
Speaker 1: thing is like it's a mother sort of instinctual thing
Speaker 1: where it's like if you're seeing your baby obviously sitting up,
Speaker 1: you're drinking a glass of water, and the babies like
Speaker 1: pawing at your glass like crazy and really wants to
Speaker 1: try it or you know, something like that, and like
Speaker 1: you said, they keep putting toys in their mouth. They
Speaker 1: obviously have that palmer grasp situation. And it's also, you know,
Speaker 1: we we get so many questions about, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: my baby is not sleeping through the night, he must
Speaker 1: be hungry. You know. This is around like the four
Speaker 1: to six months, or let's say around four months, which
Speaker 1: is actually there's often sleep. There's a little regression, but
Speaker 1: that's due to a different milestone. But often people will
Speaker 1: associate that with my baby needs solids. But actually you
Speaker 1: should wait until your baby is showing all of these
Speaker 1: cues because it's not to do with sleep. The interruption
Speaker 1: of sleep or a baby waking and not being able
Speaker 1: to go back to sleep is actually a baby's inability
Speaker 1: to soothe themselves. It's not about food about food. Yes see,
Speaker 1: I've heard a lot of this from friends around this,
Speaker 1: that four month sleep aggression. Whether they're like, well, clear
Speaker 1: clearly they're waking up in the night because of not
Speaker 1: getting enough calories in the day. So there, let's feed them,
Speaker 1: let's feed them, let's feed them. I personally waited till
Speaker 1: six months to even try food again because I was
Speaker 1: so fucking stressed out that I just kept pushing it off.
Speaker 1: Like I was, like, I don't want to, and then
Speaker 1: by six months I was it was much more of
Speaker 1: an experimentation than it was eating food by any way,
Speaker 1: shape form I kept and do you think that that's okay? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I mean the the like the initial the initial um
Speaker 1: introduction is the focus really should be on exploration and play.
Speaker 1: Right Having said that, though, um, what do they say
Speaker 1: before one is just for fun, you know, which is
Speaker 1: somewhat true. But also from about six months of age,
Speaker 1: a baby's iron levels drop, and so you want babies
Speaker 1: at that point, even if they're just smearing the food
Speaker 1: all over their face and getting the tiniest bit in
Speaker 1: their mouth, great opportunity to get some of that iron
Speaker 1: in there, you know, by using an iron rich food
Speaker 1: like meat or leafy greens or b exactly exactly. So
Speaker 1: um no, but yeah, it should be on fun and play.
Speaker 1: And I think that, you know from my conversations going
Speaker 1: around mommy and Me groups and chatting with parents about
Speaker 1: how stressful this period of time can be. When really,
Speaker 1: if you're following your baby's natural cues, it's very straightforward
Speaker 1: and it should be easy, you know, But if if
Speaker 1: you're feeling anxiety or stressed, your baby picks up on that,
Speaker 1: and remember these first couple of years, you're really shaping
Speaker 1: your child's relationship with food for life and that little
Speaker 1: bit of pressure. I'm so stressed out. People keep sucking
Speaker 1: telling me that, Like I mean, I literally just have
Speaker 1: a peanut butter and jelly bread eating monster like this
Speaker 1: kid is like like me. I eat peanut butter and
Speaker 1: jelly sandwiches for ten years, every single day. But we'll
Speaker 1: get to there because basically, again I use Katie's crib
Speaker 1: as my way to figure out how to best parent Alva. Okay,
Speaker 1: you guys, So I know we've been talking about transitioning
Speaker 1: babies to solid foods, but really quick, I want to
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Speaker 1: has helped me save so much money while I shop
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Speaker 1: Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, Target, etcetera, etcetera, and you get
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Speaker 1: from all my coffee runs at Starbucks for example, all
Speaker 1: my ubers to friends, houses, diapers, formula, I get a target,
Speaker 1: and then later I redeem for gift cards at all
Speaker 1: my favorite places. So it is seriously, it is my
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Speaker 1: and I'm giving you guys, all my listeners, a five
Speaker 1: dollar Starbucks gift card immediately when you sign up. It's
Speaker 1: all you gotta do is sign up and you get
Speaker 1: a five dollar Starbucks gift card and you link your
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Speaker 1: T I E S c R I B. Make sure
Speaker 1: you check it out. You guys, you will love it.
Speaker 1: You're welcome, go get your Starbucks on. Okay, let's get
Speaker 1: back to Katie's Crib. What kind of foods do you
Speaker 1: recommend people try first? So this is interesting because even
Speaker 1: when I started feeding my daughter two and a half
Speaker 1: years ago, when she was six months, so much has
Speaker 1: changed in the information, even just in these last couple
Speaker 1: of years. UM, and that's based on particularly in the US.
Speaker 1: UM pediatricians and pediatric nutritionists have said, like, what's going
Speaker 1: on here in America? We have such high rate of allergies,
Speaker 1: we have basicity, we have of you know, um, all
Speaker 1: of this going on, and yet in other parts of
Speaker 1: the world exactly like WHOA. So initially, you know, you
Speaker 1: were supposed to or a few years ago, you were
Speaker 1: not supposed to introduce the allergens until much later. Now
Speaker 1: they're saying, actually, that's one of the first things that
Speaker 1: you should be doing, is introducing these allergens. Um, you know, repetitively,
Speaker 1: you should be introducing them. So things that research has
Speaker 1: changed now. The pediatric nutritions that we work with for
Speaker 1: tummy time was just saying to me, you know, really
Speaker 1: tell your parents variety, variety of variety, you know, keep
Speaker 1: trying different things. It doesn't matter what you start with
Speaker 1: within reason, you know, um, and start with like Y,
Speaker 1: well yeah, but what did you start with? Well I
Speaker 1: started with so with with my daughter. I actually initially
Speaker 1: the first few weeks was pretty I'm pretty anxious by nature,
Speaker 1: so so initially I was doing the and our pediatrician
Speaker 1: had said, do the three one ingredient weight three days.
Speaker 1: So and I love list. Explain what that is? Because
Speaker 1: I did not do this. This did nothing but stress
Speaker 1: me out. But so I was told by our pediatrician,
Speaker 1: UM to introduce one singular ingredient for three days in
Speaker 1: a row and then to introduce a new one for
Speaker 1: three days in a row an allergic reaction to it. Correct. However,
Speaker 1: I have since learned learned that, UM, a lot of
Speaker 1: pediatricians don't recommend doing that anymore, and that that's not
Speaker 1: the way. I didn't do that, and actually that's not
Speaker 1: the way in which the rest of the world introduce
Speaker 1: the solids, you know. So for me, I was just saying,
Speaker 1: I love lists, so I like I every three days
Speaker 1: I would add a new vegetable or fruit to the list.
Speaker 1: So I had this long list of the order of
Speaker 1: which I introduced food to Miami. For god knows what
Speaker 1: reason I have this list, um. And I remember face
Speaker 1: timing my sister in Australia who had a baby a
Speaker 1: week after me. And you know, she my nephew same
Speaker 1: age as my daughter. UM was she was holding a
Speaker 1: lamb shank and he was sucking on it. Meanwhile, I'm
Speaker 1: on like the third day of plain zucchini, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's like sucking on this delicious you know, lamb
Speaker 1: shack so um. And that just got me thinking like, okay,
Speaker 1: so that it doesn't have to be this way. And
Speaker 1: my family lists like peach, peach, peach, exactly, let's add
Speaker 1: in peach, avocado, peach, avocado, peach avocado. Okay, let's add
Speaker 1: I had friends doing that, and I was like, this
Speaker 1: is so fucking stressful to me, Like I cannot, Like
Speaker 1: I would give him avocado for a few meals and
Speaker 1: I'm like the same. He seems happy. Okay, We're good.
Speaker 1: Moving on then, like I just didn't. I was like,
Speaker 1: he'll let me know if something to it. And with
Speaker 1: severe allergies, you don't need to wait three days to
Speaker 1: know if your child has a severe allergy, it's it's straightaway. Um. So, yes,
Speaker 1: there are some pediatricians that are still quite conservative, but
Speaker 1: a lot of pediatricians in our saying variety doesn't matter
Speaker 1: what order um goes people try. What about the people
Speaker 1: who are like, do vegetables first, because as soon as
Speaker 1: you do, fruity sugar as your kids going to be
Speaker 1: sugar addicted? Is that true? Well no, because a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons. First of all, carrots have almost the same
Speaker 1: amount of sugar as apple, so okay. But also babies
Speaker 1: are naturally sweet lovers, so they're always going to go
Speaker 1: towards right. So yes, So I think that that's a
Speaker 1: little bit of falsity, falsehood, whatever it is, I'll take it,
Speaker 1: because good lord, I'm like, I do have some good
Speaker 1: friends who are like, you know, well, I don't think
Speaker 1: it's about but you know, they don't take out the
Speaker 1: apple sauce or something like that until the kid has
Speaker 1: gotten through, you know, started the meal with some vegetables
Speaker 1: and maybe like a protein of some sort, and then
Speaker 1: have a because as soon as they even see the
Speaker 1: apple come out, it's like everything else goes on the floor,
Speaker 1: which is like, hey, I get it. I rather the
Speaker 1: apple too. Um can you tell us about tummy time? Yes,
Speaker 1: Tommy time is delicious. I warn you all that adults
Speaker 1: will like it as well, thank you. Um So, So
Speaker 1: Tommy Time sort of happened by chance. I was I
Speaker 1: was in a mummy and me group, um which around
Speaker 1: six months of age, and each week the woman that
Speaker 1: was laid in the class would ask us all to
Speaker 1: share what we were feeding our kids, because we were
Speaker 1: all at that sort of introduction of solid stage and
Speaker 1: wake after wake would go around and parents were like,
Speaker 1: you know, the moms were like, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 1: doing avocado again. There was one mom who was so
Speaker 1: anxious about um nitrates and so anxious about um what
Speaker 1: to feed her kid that was appropriate that she was
Speaker 1: just buying prepackaged jars of like carrot, pre package jars
Speaker 1: of like beans and stuff like that. UM. And then
Speaker 1: I would share what I was making. And I was
Speaker 1: making I was like roasting plums with ginger and like
Speaker 1: there was it was at the time it was I
Speaker 1: think there were cherries and I was. I was, yeah,
Speaker 1: I was roasting chairs. I was. It was just so
Speaker 1: yum what I was making. And I think as as
Speaker 1: we would go around the circle and I was sharing
Speaker 1: these delicious meals, she would have one bite, I would
Speaker 1: have one bite, and it was this shared experience. UM.
Speaker 1: So one of the moms shout out to Ginger actually
Speaker 1: said to me, UM begged me if if I would
Speaker 1: double batch what I was making, because she wasn't into
Speaker 1: cooking and didn't have time she was working. So I
Speaker 1: so I started, after a couple of weeks of sort
Speaker 1: of encouragement from the other moms, I started sending out
Speaker 1: an email of what I was planning on making for
Speaker 1: Miami that week, that I'd gotten the product I had
Speaker 1: gotten from the farmer's market, um, and they would send
Speaker 1: back their orders. So I would cook during the week.
Speaker 1: And my way of cooking enough food for everybody and
Speaker 1: having it still you know, um, fresh and good was
Speaker 1: to freeze it so that they could come pick up
Speaker 1: their little bags of cubes um and take it home.
Speaker 1: And my husband, you know, also Australian loves his liquor,
Speaker 1: had a lot of whiskey ice cube trays, so I
Speaker 1: was so I was freezing in whiskey ice cube trays um,
Speaker 1: and then on a Sunday all these families would come
Speaker 1: and collect their food for the week. Um. And then
Speaker 1: within a few months I was feeding multiple mummy and
Speaker 1: me groups and I got too much. We actually my
Speaker 1: husband said to me, I'm pulling the park. I'm going
Speaker 1: to start dropping the food off because I don't want
Speaker 1: all that. It was too many people, people, families coming
Speaker 1: and it was lovely. It was very community and beautiful.
Speaker 1: But they got a point that it was like we
Speaker 1: wanted to go do something and we had people waiting
Speaker 1: for people to come and cuck their food. So so
Speaker 1: Timmy time really began that way. Um, And really the
Speaker 1: whole concept of it is that baby food should be delicious.
Speaker 1: You know, babies are exposed. This is so cool. Babies
Speaker 1: are exposed to their first tastes whilst in utero. So
Speaker 1: what a mum's eating, The spices and herbs that she's
Speaker 1: eating are actually flavoring her amniotic fluid. So in India,
Speaker 1: these babies are experiencing curry and tumeric and ginger and
Speaker 1: asad fotida and like all these some spices. Um, and
Speaker 1: then they're born, they go to mom's breast and mom's
Speaker 1: breast milk is then flavored with what she's eating. They're getting,
Speaker 1: you know, notes of garlic and all of this stuff.
Speaker 1: So we go from flavor flavor flavor to you get
Speaker 1: carrots steamed for three days carrot. You know it's it's
Speaker 1: it's like these babies have taste buds, you know. So Um,
Speaker 1: when we when we decided to really make this a business,
Speaker 1: we went and tried some of the really highly processed
Speaker 1: jars and I couldn't even like, no offense, but I
Speaker 1: don't want to eat some of that stuff. It just
Speaker 1: wasn't palatable to me. So if I'm not going to
Speaker 1: eat it myself, how can I, in good conscious conscience
Speaker 1: give it to my child? And I'm not even talking
Speaker 1: about the fact that these are highly processed, you know,
Speaker 1: and that you're you're you're raising your child or you're
Speaker 1: you're teaching your child that highly processed food is the norm,
Speaker 1: which you know, it's there for a reason, but it shouldn't.
Speaker 1: It's not the gold standard because not only is it
Speaker 1: culturally bland, there's no asafatida or ginger in baby food
Speaker 1: jars that are sitting on a power to sitting on
Speaker 1: a shelter for a few years. Um, there's no texture transition.
Speaker 1: So you know, um, this is going to take me
Speaker 1: off on a whole other other route. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: babies have to transition into different into into chunkier textures
Speaker 1: to the smoothest you guys know, they start with the
Speaker 1: smoothest baby food that's almost like a liquid still, and
Speaker 1: then gradually you get chunkier and chunkier and chunk here
Speaker 1: until they're learning how to swallow a truly solid not blended.
Speaker 1: That's if you're doing spoon feeding. But if you're doing
Speaker 1: baby lead wedding, they yeah, so bait so they know.
Speaker 1: I don't mean to say they, but I mean in
Speaker 1: baby lead weaning, Um so baby letters, I'm saying food
Speaker 1: is the biggest fucking overwhelming thing. This almost killed me.
Speaker 1: I read the baby lead waning book. I was scared, petrified,
Speaker 1: but it's what I did, Thank God. Well, if you
Speaker 1: if you're going to do the baby lead waning route,
Speaker 1: you need to educate yourself on the difference between choking
Speaker 1: and gagging, because it's actually very normal for babies to gag.
Speaker 1: And it's good because then they learned next time, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to be more careful. Baby lead weaning is
Speaker 1: essentially like instead of going up in baby jar, okay,
Speaker 1: so baby jars, the ones that are on shelves are
Speaker 1: leveled in numbers one, two, three, four, five, six as
Speaker 1: far as their level of chunky is concerned, so that
Speaker 1: the baby is slowly learning how to swell. I had
Speaker 1: a lot of mom friends have to do that because
Speaker 1: they were completely They loved the idea of baby lead waning,
Speaker 1: which essentially means you give the baby adult food and
Speaker 1: they like kind of non it and teach themselves. I mean,
Speaker 1: I gave him a broccoli that's a certain you can
Speaker 1: read the book. We'll put a link to it baby leaning,
Speaker 1: but they hold a broccoli head and they sort of
Speaker 1: learn how to chew it. And And my mom flipped out
Speaker 1: that I was doing this, like so upset when I
Speaker 1: give them a banana to just eat himself. Like she
Speaker 1: was like, he's going to choke, He's going to die.
Speaker 1: This is a nightmare. Now. The first couple of times
Speaker 1: he coughed something up, I was like shaking, so scared.
Speaker 1: But you're right, it was probably only three or four
Speaker 1: times he ever did that, and then he learned how
Speaker 1: to like never choke. He learned what he could do.
Speaker 1: Is that I mean, I mean no I did. I
Speaker 1: didn't do baby led weaning the first time. Well I've
Speaker 1: only had one time, so I asked me after the second.
Speaker 1: But but because I'm anxious, you know, by nature, with
Speaker 1: a lot of my friends, and you know, I mean
Speaker 1: my sister was doing that, That's why exactly. But so
Speaker 1: here's the thing, and it's the same with when I
Speaker 1: teach child with education classes and we talk about labor.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing with you know, solids, do what
Speaker 1: is going to make you feel most at ase, because
Speaker 1: that's going to create the most positive outcome. And ultimately,
Speaker 1: who cares if you did pure as your cares, if
Speaker 1: you did baby lead waning. Your kid's not going to remember,
Speaker 1: but your kid will remember the energy that was around
Speaker 1: that meal, and they will remember your face. You know,
Speaker 1: if you're sitting there looking petrified, your child is taking
Speaker 1: that on, you know. But if you're totally at ease,
Speaker 1: no matter what method or approach you take, your child
Speaker 1: is absorbing that and taking that on. And ultimately, what
Speaker 1: what is the end goal here? The end goal here
Speaker 1: is we're raising a human being that loves food relationship
Speaker 1: and has yeah and has a wonderful relationship with food.
Speaker 1: And that begins from the start, you know, And it's
Speaker 1: a very important legacy as a parent, you know, to
Speaker 1: to get your child off on the right foot. Now,
Speaker 1: I've definitely been in this situation which we talked touched on,
Speaker 1: like you know, the prepackaged processed foods at the grocery store.
Speaker 1: I mean, we have one ent relied on that many
Speaker 1: a time. Like, you know, even though he was on
Speaker 1: solid foods, there were days where his teeth were all
Speaker 1: coming in and he was like literally would bite down
Speaker 1: and scream his head off, And so I would grab
Speaker 1: one of those packets, you know what I mean, And
Speaker 1: he would eat vegetables that way because I definitely was
Speaker 1: not someone that was going to grind up a zuoki.
Speaker 1: I don't cook. Let's let's just let that be known
Speaker 1: Katie's crib listeners. I do not look I do not
Speaker 1: know how, um, but I am definitely a lying at
Speaker 1: tummy time at Studio City Formers Market. But so, what
Speaker 1: are some of the red flags for people to look
Speaker 1: out for? Like if if those sort of packets or
Speaker 1: jars are the way that you're deciding to go, that's
Speaker 1: the least amount of anxiety for you, or you're in
Speaker 1: a bind and it's not a staple, but you do
Speaker 1: use them once in a while. What what are the
Speaker 1: red lakes? What are the red flags? So before I
Speaker 1: answer that question, I just want to say, like I
Speaker 1: also use them, absolutely no shame in using them. Please. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, I have people coming up to the Famber's
Speaker 1: ark and they're like, oh, I feel terrible. You know,
Speaker 1: all my kid eight this week was processed stuff, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, you've fed your child. Good for you. You're
Speaker 1: fucking awesome. Like, go to be proud of yourself. You know,
Speaker 1: they're there for a reason, and they're awesome in a pinch,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, yes, I do think that they're not
Speaker 1: the gold standard, but absolutely we all use them in
Speaker 1: a pinch and that's what they're They're great. Forum. I
Speaker 1: would say it comes down to information and education. In
Speaker 1: order for a carrot from the farmer's market to survive
Speaker 1: two years on a shelf, something had to happen to
Speaker 1: that carrot. Okay. So so even if it says organic
Speaker 1: on that pouch or whatever, if that if it's not
Speaker 1: in a refrigerator and it's two plus years old, something
Speaker 1: happened to that sweet little carrot. Okay. So it's just
Speaker 1: understanding that the further or a a food is from
Speaker 1: its original form, the more present, the more processed it is,
Speaker 1: the more processed, the less amount of nutrients. Okay. So
Speaker 1: at this very young age, when babies have such small tummies,
Speaker 1: it is really important that they are getting a good
Speaker 1: quality or or enough of those key nutrients. So, coming
Speaker 1: back to your question red flags what to look out for.
Speaker 1: My suggestion is, you know, um, choose choose pouches that
Speaker 1: are not just fruit and vegetables. Choose ones that have
Speaker 1: an animal protein in it, or a grain or a legume,
Speaker 1: something that's a little bit more um wholesome. You know,
Speaker 1: there's more nutrients in there for the baby. Um, have
Speaker 1: a look at the ingredients lists. This is something that like,
Speaker 1: totally honestly, working in food manufacturing, now I am fairly
Speaker 1: horror f you are seeing behind the curtain. It is. Well,
Speaker 1: it's just amazing how you can hide information, you know,
Speaker 1: or or not even just hide. It's kind of in
Speaker 1: pure in plain sight, but you don't realize. You know,
Speaker 1: some of the pouchers and jars they have, like their
Speaker 1: ingredients will say, you know, apple pure a rather than
Speaker 1: just apple. So what that tells me is that was
Speaker 1: probably purchased from another country or elsewhere in big vats
Speaker 1: of premate pure a, and they've just repackaged it and
Speaker 1: mixed it into their own container. So now again we're
Speaker 1: talking about how far away this apple is from its
Speaker 1: original form so far so you know, um, so yeah,
Speaker 1: coming back to no shame. I certainly have used them
Speaker 1: in a pinch, but um, you know, not the gold standard.
Speaker 1: If you do have to use them, try and find
Speaker 1: one that has a variety of flavors and has something,
Speaker 1: you know, either a protein leg being yeah something. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's really good to know what. The other thing I
Speaker 1: just want to throw out is the puffs. We see
Speaker 1: a lot of babies eating the puffs. Choose those parts
Speaker 1: and they're great, you know, particularly teating babies that want
Speaker 1: to like gum something that they're great when you're buying them.
Speaker 1: Choose one that is not just a rice or a carbohydrate.
Speaker 1: You can get ones that have peanut butter or you know,
Speaker 1: like a Bumba. We go through bumbas like it's a problem.
Speaker 1: Bumbas are a traitor Joe's. They're incredibly affordable. They're a
Speaker 1: peanut butter flavored cheeto, sourly processed. Yes, but if you're
Speaker 1: going to do it, at least it's protein and you're
Speaker 1: you're that's our plane. Go to every plane we're on, Like,
Speaker 1: you know, I bring them if we have like a
Speaker 1: restaurant out situation where he's in a high chair and
Speaker 1: I know it's going to be a minute until that
Speaker 1: food comes. I will break those bombas into like four
Speaker 1: pieces to just really keep him occupied until the fucking
Speaker 1: food gets there. But like, yeah, they're great. Yeah. Um,
Speaker 1: that's good to know because it's peanut butter not just cool. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Obviously if you have if your kid has an allergy
Speaker 1: or your high a high risk of analogy, then bumbas
Speaker 1: is not for you. But just look at the ingredients
Speaker 1: and try and choose one that has more than just
Speaker 1: a carbohydrant listed as the ingredient. Can you tell me
Speaker 1: what real time is like in your family? Yes? What
Speaker 1: is it like? Do you fit together? Do you eat
Speaker 1: on like a schedule? Tell me, well, goodness, life has changed.
Speaker 1: Um wait, try and eat at the same time as
Speaker 1: our daughter, which often means if we eat out where
Speaker 1: the first people in the restaurants here where they're like
Speaker 1: four three, yeah, where they're waiting for the door start.
Speaker 1: So I'm so I mean, this is this is when
Speaker 1: you talk about like educating yourself. I'm so grateful for
Speaker 1: this business for myself because meal I think had I
Speaker 1: taken if I didn't have this information, there would be
Speaker 1: a lot of power struggles going on at this age
Speaker 1: that I don't have, which I'm very grateful for. So um,
Speaker 1: we do try and eat together as a family. It's
Speaker 1: not always possible, we do, we do it when we
Speaker 1: can do it. We eat the same food. Yes see,
Speaker 1: this is fucking huge, you guys. I've just read who
Speaker 1: just told me there's this documentary now that it's basically
Speaker 1: like the kid's menu on the restaurants is the greatest
Speaker 1: downfall of America. That like the fact that you give
Speaker 1: your child if you go out the choices for that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Because really, what you're trying to teach
Speaker 1: my mom, for example, when she comes when I bring
Speaker 1: Albie to go visit my mom, She'll be like, what
Speaker 1: should I buy for the kid? And I'm like, just
Speaker 1: what ever we're all eating because I'm trying to hopefully
Speaker 1: teach him that, like we're all going to sit down
Speaker 1: and have this dinner that's been planned like for the
Speaker 1: whole family. I don't want to make something extra special
Speaker 1: or different for you because you don't eat X, Y
Speaker 1: or Z. I'm hoping that we can all just like
Speaker 1: eat dinner whatever that is for all of us, and
Speaker 1: that it's just healthy and whole for all of us. Um,
Speaker 1: that will probably end because I was also a child
Speaker 1: that like only a peanut butter and jelly macaroni cheese.
Speaker 1: But okay, so you are doing the same thing. So
Speaker 1: so yeah, I mean this is so Something that I
Speaker 1: read which has really changed my approach is that, first
Speaker 1: of all, don't be a short auto cook. If you're
Speaker 1: a short auto cook, meaning if your child wanted what
Speaker 1: you've put in front of them, you're going to go
Speaker 1: back to the kitchen and make something else. This is
Speaker 1: what then, please explain, So how can you then really
Speaker 1: expect that your child is going to go out of
Speaker 1: that if that become habitual, you know, like, oh, I
Speaker 1: don't have to eat this because she's just going to
Speaker 1: go get me the thing that I want. So I'm
Speaker 1: just sort mocking order. So so you want to avoid that.
Speaker 1: So here here is some So this is what we do.
Speaker 1: So I love those plates that have little compartments because
Speaker 1: it forces me to fill them all with different things.
Speaker 1: So I every meal I feel each compartment or even
Speaker 1: on a plate like just put lots of little things
Speaker 1: out of what we're eating. So one compartment might be broccoli,
Speaker 1: one might be for having bolonaise some bolonnaise. One might
Speaker 1: be chopped up carrots, chopped up tomato, avocado, some cheese, whatever.
Speaker 1: So I put that in front of her. She ates
Speaker 1: what she ates, she doesn't ate what she doesn't eat.
Speaker 1: I don't make a comment. She gets no praise, she
Speaker 1: gets no criticism. She eats what she wants to eat.
Speaker 1: Fucking ship tell you, guys, no praise. So here's the thing. Also,
Speaker 1: having given any response to what they eat, positive or negative,
Speaker 1: is not helpful. You want to stay neutral because what
Speaker 1: you're really trying to do is raise a child that
Speaker 1: can monitor their own likes and dislikes, and can also
Speaker 1: monitor their own sense of fullness and hunger. So the
Speaker 1: important thing here is to have a neutral response because
Speaker 1: then the baby themselves independently, we'll figure out what they like,
Speaker 1: what they don't like, and when they're hungry and when
Speaker 1: they're full. Correct. So by for example, I read this,
Speaker 1: I think it's from and I highly recommend guys this website.
Speaker 1: You should put it up. Will you send me? I
Speaker 1: will send you the link. It's the Ellen satur Institute.
Speaker 1: She has such amazing tips on their um Now I've
Speaker 1: gotten the tip. It's a great website. But you know
Speaker 1: what you were telling me before, which was people who
Speaker 1: grow up and can't remember meal time are the kids
Speaker 1: that are most likely to not have any sort of
Speaker 1: eating problems. You guys, what's so overwhelming. I think what
Speaker 1: was so stressful to me about the food stuff and
Speaker 1: why it's setting up their relationship with food for the
Speaker 1: rest of their life is because there's so much connected
Speaker 1: with food in this country about like you didn't finish
Speaker 1: your plate, or one more bite, or you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to leave the table until you're finished, or moms being
Speaker 1: constantly talk to me about I'm on a diet, I'm
Speaker 1: not eating this, I'm eating that, and giving their having
Speaker 1: their children really understand that sort of thing. You were
Speaker 1: telling me that there's a like people who grow up
Speaker 1: and just don't even really remember meal time or no.
Speaker 1: You were telling me that story about there was a
Speaker 1: family who always bickered around the dinner table and it
Speaker 1: was a big place for fighting, and that can relate
Speaker 1: the field. Also. See, you guys are so stressful. So
Speaker 1: I wanted to go back to what you said, which
Speaker 1: is which is so important, which is that you know
Speaker 1: the whole just have one bite, just one more bite
Speaker 1: or um, if you have one bite I'll reward you
Speaker 1: with this. So here's a lot of that in my house.
Speaker 1: So here's the problem with the just have one more
Speaker 1: bite thing. As you and I have days when we're
Speaker 1: ravenous and days when we're just not hungry, so do babies.
Speaker 1: They have days when they're going through major growth spirts
Speaker 1: and days when they're just not really very hungry, or
Speaker 1: they're teating or they feel sick. Um by you saying
Speaker 1: to your child, you need to have one more bite,
Speaker 1: what you're teaching them is external factors such as your
Speaker 1: mother know more about your sense of hunger and fullness
Speaker 1: than you do. And what you want to do is
Speaker 1: you want to teach your child to monitor their own sensations.
Speaker 1: You know, you want to empower them to say, I'm
Speaker 1: really not hungry today, so I'm not going to eat.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to force feed myself to make somebody
Speaker 1: else happy, you know. So that whole one more bite
Speaker 1: thing or praise or the praise yes you eat a bite,
Speaker 1: which I totally do. So here's the thing with that
Speaker 1: is that what you're also want to avoid as you
Speaker 1: go into the sort of picky eating phase, which you
Speaker 1: should know is actually a developmental milestone. Can you explain
Speaker 1: that to us? So, so sort of like six months
Speaker 1: to two years is the honeymoon period fit for food
Speaker 1: because babies are going through such massive growth and then
Speaker 1: from about two years it slows down. Um. And that's
Speaker 1: typically when picky eating sort of or selective eating sort
Speaker 1: of peaks. So so like your vocabulary change, we're not
Speaker 1: saying picky eating, We're saying selective eating. I know. I say,
Speaker 1: do not label your child. I mean, I try and
Speaker 1: not be judgmental, and I try and be really open.
Speaker 1: But when pairs actually this and yesterday at the farmer's market,
Speaker 1: I had a parents say in front of his kids,
Speaker 1: she's so picky, she won't need anything, um, And I
Speaker 1: was like, no, she's not p I c k y.
Speaker 1: She is selective and she you know, because that the
Speaker 1: developmental milestone is that that toddlers become neophobic, which is
Speaker 1: they have a distrust of the new. So coming back
Speaker 1: to why it's so important to give your child variety
Speaker 1: in the beginning, is that you want them to be
Speaker 1: exposed to a variety of cuisines, spices, herbs, food textures,
Speaker 1: everything so that it becomes familiar. So when they go
Speaker 1: into this neophobic stage, distrust of the new. These foods
Speaker 1: aren't new, they're familiar. So when you know, when parents
Speaker 1: say to me, I'm about to get some curry up
Speaker 1: in this house right now, because I feel like he
Speaker 1: hasn't had You were saying it, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh God, they used to eat so much that when
Speaker 1: I was pregnant, but I really haven't given him any
Speaker 1: what the hell? So yeah, when parents well in food
Speaker 1: and Adam doesn't, so it's like, oh, we never posemate that.
Speaker 1: But like, guess what today is a new day? Oh
Speaker 1: this was a question I was dying to ask. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I love this compartment plate idea. Here's what my
Speaker 1: son does. He doesn't like it, flings it on the floor.
Speaker 1: Guess what happens. The dog eats it, The dog gets diarrhea.
Speaker 1: It's a whole. My kid is a big flinger of food.
Speaker 1: He's a big arm thrower. He loves to throw stuff, balls, dolls, toys, food.
Speaker 1: I'll put the food down. If he's into it, he
Speaker 1: will eat it. If he's not into it, he's flinging
Speaker 1: it on the floor. So our problem with the compartment
Speaker 1: plate is that it's just ends up being a lot
Speaker 1: of shipped to clean up and you know kids like
Speaker 1: he eats. Oh that's another question I wanted to ask
Speaker 1: you is how many meals a day are you doing? One?
Speaker 1: But also what do you think about my husband, which
Speaker 1: is he literally puts one thing on his blade? Is
Speaker 1: that just like insane? What complex and future problem? So
Speaker 1: coming back to those plates that I was talking about,
Speaker 1: he may be too young for that. You may. I
Speaker 1: mean at this point even just putting a few things
Speaker 1: out on that tray is perfect. Okay, great, I mean
Speaker 1: I'm just talking about as a parent, like forcing yourself
Speaker 1: to keep the variety there and you know the color
Speaker 1: of the three or four things down so that he
Speaker 1: only flings three or four so quick. So if does
Speaker 1: this happen at every meal? Okay? So when are you
Speaker 1: feeding him? Are you feeding him at the same time
Speaker 1: every day you're feeding him? Because if he's ravenous, does
Speaker 1: he still do that? No? So basically what will happen
Speaker 1: is breakfast always a dream? So great, not that much
Speaker 1: food flinging At the end. There might be food flinging,
Speaker 1: which is like when he's done, which is really not
Speaker 1: probably great that I know he's done when he's food
Speaker 1: flinging um. Breakfast will always go off a lot of times.
Speaker 1: I give him most days three meals and two snacks,
Speaker 1: because what I'll do is like he'll have breakfast and
Speaker 1: then he'll go down for a nap. When he wakes
Speaker 1: up from a nap, he'll have a little snack of
Speaker 1: like some grapes or half of clementine or you know,
Speaker 1: some of that that he'll always cruit, crush, crush anything fruit.
Speaker 1: He's never gonna flame that on the floor. Lunch, he
Speaker 1: might fling some of that snack after his second nap,
Speaker 1: he probably won't. And then later as we go in
Speaker 1: the day, it's dinner. It's it's usually the witching hour,
Speaker 1: five thirty ish five o'clock dinner. That like some of
Speaker 1: that that's being flung. He's tired, he's piste. It's witching hour.
Speaker 1: And so it's a lot of things I think is
Speaker 1: temperament or whatever. But what time does he go down
Speaker 1: for the night? Seven? So that's good. I mean that
Speaker 1: you could have you have you tried bringing the meal
Speaker 1: earlier in the day. I know I should do that well,
Speaker 1: because the other thing is that's knack and and really
Speaker 1: what I could do isn't. So if he wakes up
Speaker 1: from a second up at four o'clock, give him a
Speaker 1: bigger snap, then it's like a dinner, you know, with
Speaker 1: a proteinser like that. And then the five thirty is
Speaker 1: more like a dessert, not dessert, but in my mind
Speaker 1: it's like a smaller snack of like, well, it's so
Speaker 1: interesting because a lot of parents will give their their
Speaker 1: babies dinner right before bedtime, you know, like five thirty six,
Speaker 1: and then they do the bedtime return and put their
Speaker 1: bed kid. And I'm like, I don't really want to
Speaker 1: eat dinner and then immediately go to bed like you
Speaker 1: should be should be kind of like a few hours before. No,
Speaker 1: you know, so maybe bringing up earlier. I'm going to
Speaker 1: try that, dude, I'm going to try that, try it
Speaker 1: and say because I think I mean, obviously, when he's
Speaker 1: the most hungry is when he does well, um, well,
Speaker 1: but see this is the other thing. It's like, wow,
Speaker 1: food is so it's so wrapped up with you're a
Speaker 1: good boy, you're a bad boy type of stuff. And
Speaker 1: I think it's also like, for example, I'm going on, um,
Speaker 1: I'm going to see my family over the holidays, um,
Speaker 1: and I'm cool with him not eating everything on the plate.
Speaker 1: I'm cool with when he's experimenting and flinging food across
Speaker 1: the thing. I'm like, he's one. Whatever. Some of the
Speaker 1: older school people in my family think that that is
Speaker 1: a very bad way to mother, and so it's very interesting,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like they think that I
Speaker 1: don't have control over my kid, or that's really bad manners,
Speaker 1: or you know, that's waste. You know, that's wasting money,
Speaker 1: that's wasting food. There are people starving in the world,
Speaker 1: things like that. So I really have to like put
Speaker 1: on my like mommy muscle t shirt and just like
Speaker 1: to stick to my well, this is what we do,
Speaker 1: do you know what I mean? Because I want him
Speaker 1: to have like a really healthy relationship with food, and
Speaker 1: I don't want him to ever think I'm forcing him
Speaker 1: or oh that was something I want to talk about.
Speaker 1: Two is I think it's also really hard with partners.
Speaker 1: You know that, Like I could my husband would get
Speaker 1: really stressed out when he would flings food on the
Speaker 1: floor and like would try to put stuff in his mouth,
Speaker 1: not forcefully at all, but like put stuff in his mouth.
Speaker 1: And I had to really have like a sort of
Speaker 1: you know, you pick your battles in a relationship. But
Speaker 1: it was big for me and I had to really
Speaker 1: sit down with my husband and say, I don't ever
Speaker 1: want you to put food in his mouth if he's
Speaker 1: making it very clear that he doesn't want it, I
Speaker 1: don't want that. But I bet that that's really hard
Speaker 1: for some people. I think I think it comes down
Speaker 1: and it gets frustrating. I mean, I've gotten you know,
Speaker 1: when you're down on the floor picking up your six
Speaker 1: fucking meal of the day and you're exhausted, You're like,
Speaker 1: you know, we're done. I also think people probably get
Speaker 1: really stressed out that if you don't eat, then you're
Speaker 1: going to be hungry and then you're not going to sleep. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: is that true because that's me talking. Yeah. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: the smallest dinner ever, and like now he's going to
Speaker 1: be up at four o'clock in the morning because his
Speaker 1: stomach is gonna wake him up, like what I mean. So, So,
Speaker 1: I actually had this conversation yesterday with a moment at
Speaker 1: the market and she was saying, Oh, my kids so
Speaker 1: picky at the moment, and I just keep giving him
Speaker 1: the same thing that he wants, and then at least
Speaker 1: till eat, and I know that he's not going to
Speaker 1: wake up, And in my head, I'm thinking, you know,
Speaker 1: how is that going to change the situation you're in.
Speaker 1: I mean, you're reinforcing you know, this this difficult time
Speaker 1: and picky eating. As I said, it's a developmental milestone.
Speaker 1: But the duration and the strength of that pickiness is
Speaker 1: really going to depend on how you react to it,
Speaker 1: you know. So um, it can be pretty short lived,
Speaker 1: um and pretty easy if you just take a backseat
Speaker 1: kind of approach rather than labeling catering too, you know,
Speaker 1: and becoming a short order cook, um calling them good
Speaker 1: bad like you're a good eater or he was a
Speaker 1: bad eater today, things like that. This then becomes identity shaping.
Speaker 1: I already feel in myself and admitting my own problems.
Speaker 1: My son is small on the charts, you know, like
Speaker 1: you know, third percentile and height and sent tile and weight.
Speaker 1: So I'm always like, oh, yeah, it's fine, give him
Speaker 1: more of that crap, like fill them up, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like he's little, he's a little he's
Speaker 1: a little guy. He's a little dude. So like, yeah,
Speaker 1: more dairy more, you know what I mean, Like I
Speaker 1: already feel that in my um my subconscious like I'm
Speaker 1: doing that. It's wild. And then I have friends who
Speaker 1: have really big babies who you know, they cut them on.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's really. I mean food is like I'm saying,
Speaker 1: it's really it's an interesting thing. So here's the thing
Speaker 1: on that, Um, even as a baby, even right from
Speaker 1: the start, babies can monitor their own sense of hunger
Speaker 1: and fullness. Like I was saying, Um, if a baby
Speaker 1: doesn't open their mouth to receive a spoon of food
Speaker 1: from you, your baby is saying no yah. Um. So
Speaker 1: you know, don't shove that spoon in your baby's mouth,
Speaker 1: you know, because like I said, like this is about
Speaker 1: creating a healthy relationship with food. Nobody enjoys being force
Speaker 1: fed not you know, So can we talk about the
Speaker 1: idea of food as rewards. This was big on my
Speaker 1: husband and I growing up and I and we fight
Speaker 1: it to this day. And I know this is a
Speaker 1: real thing because my husband and I similarly like you
Speaker 1: got an a, get in the car, we're going for
Speaker 1: ice cream. You know what, you didn't get into that school.
Speaker 1: The whole family is going out for like you know,
Speaker 1: t G I Friday's mozorel sticks of your favorite food.
Speaker 1: I mean this is literally like memories we have and
Speaker 1: when you're an actor, every day is like you booked it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thirty seven drinks. Let's have like ice cream and go
Speaker 1: out to a movie and bull and then it's like, crap,
Speaker 1: you didn't get it. You didn't get the part. Well,
Speaker 1: let's just like drink and eat some garbage like whatever.
Speaker 1: My husband and I are very reward based. We were
Speaker 1: raised that way and we are like always having conversations
Speaker 1: that we don't want that. For Albie, I am people
Speaker 1: must tempt with food, Like if you go peepy on
Speaker 1: the party, you're going to get an emine. So like
Speaker 1: that one's a really good one for me to just
Speaker 1: come out and say, like, please don't do that. Don't
Speaker 1: use food as a reward. I'm trying to remember. I
Speaker 1: think it's um Cynthia Epps another great resource, and I'll
Speaker 1: send you her website and I think it's her. Forgive
Speaker 1: me if it's not. She's awesome anyway. But um, what
Speaker 1: I read about is how you know when you put
Speaker 1: snacks out one day, you'll put out you know, crew
Speaker 1: to tey, like you know, chopped up carrots and cumbers
Speaker 1: and such. The next day a bowl of cookies, chop
Speaker 1: chip cookies the next day fruit make it so that
Speaker 1: it's not hands off, you know, to make something hands
Speaker 1: off or only special occasion. Food makes it special, makes
Speaker 1: it unattainable, like make puts this like gold light around it.
Speaker 1: Whereas if it's accessible and it's just something else that
Speaker 1: you can have on occasion, you're creating a much more
Speaker 1: even playing field when it comes with your your child's
Speaker 1: relationship with different kinds of food. So coming back to
Speaker 1: what is the job of a parent. The job of
Speaker 1: a parent is not to feed your child. It is
Speaker 1: not to make your child eat. Sorry, I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: that again. The job of a parent is not to
Speaker 1: make your child eat. The job your job as a
Speaker 1: parent is to offer healthy options. So you're deciding the
Speaker 1: when and the where. Your child is deciding the weather
Speaker 1: and how much. That's the differentiation of losing control. So
Speaker 1: I know, my job is just to make sure that
Speaker 1: my child has the options, and I'm going to asked
Speaker 1: my child to decide whether they eat and how much
Speaker 1: of it um and so with rewards food, you know,
Speaker 1: if like we where I'm very health conscious and I
Speaker 1: love healthy food. I love it. It's not just I
Speaker 1: don't just do it because for a functional reasons. I
Speaker 1: really love healthy food. Um. So, mostly my child like
Speaker 1: her sweets, things like dried fruit, um, you know, things
Speaker 1: like that. Um. But when we're out in the world
Speaker 1: and occasionally at home, when there's food that other children
Speaker 1: are eating that is like chocolate, cake, ice cream, stuff
Speaker 1: like that, I always say yes because I don't want
Speaker 1: her to feel like other people can have something that's
Speaker 1: off limits to her. So yeah, I inside, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you know, I prefer she a family that was like vegan,
Speaker 1: the kids were vegan and no sugar in the household,
Speaker 1: things like that. And when the birthday started, the birthday
Speaker 1: party started rolling out, I mean, holy sh it, I
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. I mean, like the kids
Speaker 1: are like screaming for hot dogs and like and the
Speaker 1: birthday cake and they're showing up at home like smeared
Speaker 1: with icing all over their face. And it's my fault.
Speaker 1: But it's like, what was I going to do? I mean,
Speaker 1: it's really hard, but the kids were never given it,
Speaker 1: and it's they became obsessed and you have to see
Speaker 1: it from their perspective, like what emotionally is going on
Speaker 1: with their minds when they see other children having fun,
Speaker 1: eating and enjoying something and they themselves are not allowed it.
Speaker 1: It's it's even though we we think in our minds
Speaker 1: were doing it for the right reasons, it's healthy, where
Speaker 1: we don't want them to have cavities or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: They're not reading it that way. They're saying, why this
Speaker 1: is unfair, like why can't I? And then later in
Speaker 1: life it's the switch flip, you know, They're like, suddenly
Speaker 1: I can have all these food I'm out in the world,
Speaker 1: and then they don't have these skills to monitor, you know,
Speaker 1: the amount they eat and they's off limit food. You know. Um,
Speaker 1: do you ever find like, since I'm about to be
Speaker 1: with all family and things like that, how you talk
Speaker 1: about your family's food choices with others, Like like, I
Speaker 1: think it's going to be really interesting, like how you
Speaker 1: stay strong in your goals and your relationship with food
Speaker 1: with your kids, or like you said, you're out at
Speaker 1: a birthday party and other people have other things that
Speaker 1: feel other ways than you do. That's an interesting one.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're we're about to go and baby family
Speaker 1: as well. Um, I think you know, for me personally,
Speaker 1: that shift of sort of speaking up for myself, um,
Speaker 1: for my daughter really became very strong when I gave
Speaker 1: birth to her. Because your preferences are your preferences, and ultimately,
Speaker 1: who gives a ship it if other people agree or disagree,
Speaker 1: what's most important is that you're doing what's right by
Speaker 1: you and your child. Um. So you know, I really try.
Speaker 1: I mean my family is pretty health conscious and pretty
Speaker 1: cool that way. So I mean they, no, that's very sweet,
Speaker 1: keep the compliments coming. Um No. But I mean my
Speaker 1: nephews eat way more, um, processed food than my daughter does.
Speaker 1: My sisters like really hands off, like whatever goes, Um,
Speaker 1: we're going away, and I just I'm going to take
Speaker 1: deep breaths and let her in those moments have a
Speaker 1: really great time because ultimately, I feel like, you know,
Speaker 1: if food brings if food is so much more than
Speaker 1: just like for nutrition, it like brings people together, it's joy,
Speaker 1: it's memories. Um, And so I feel like that freaking
Speaker 1: every single photo we took over Thanksgiving with my son,
Speaker 1: he's holding what's called a grandma cookie, which is in
Speaker 1: my husband's side of the family. It's a recipe that's
Speaker 1: been handed down by four grandma's. It's her great great
Speaker 1: great grandma Lena's cookie recipe. It's a short bread cookie
Speaker 1: and it means so much to his grandma's that he
Speaker 1: loves the cookie. And it's like he had to not
Speaker 1: cry in all these photos. And so I gat giving
Speaker 1: him grandma cookies and they loved that he was eating
Speaker 1: the grandma cookies in the photos. And I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I think you've had five cookies today and now you're
Speaker 1: not going to eat anything of value. But whatever, it
Speaker 1: brought joy to everyone, including him, So it's like, what
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? At least it was homemade with
Speaker 1: like whole ingredients. And that's what I knew when I
Speaker 1: actually studied nutrition in Australia, and I remember one of
Speaker 1: my teachers talking about and she was like vegan, super clean,
Speaker 1: all of that stuff. And I remember her saying that
Speaker 1: on her birthday, her kids, her two kids, who had
Speaker 1: saved up their pocket money, had gone to buy her
Speaker 1: a box of um Burger rings. Do you have them here?
Speaker 1: They know what they're rings? No? No, they're they're I
Speaker 1: think they're Australian. They're kind of like Cheetos, but that
Speaker 1: you can fit them on your finger and eat them.
Speaker 1: Do you have that? Okay? Burger rings anyway? Um? So
Speaker 1: she said it was her birthday. Her kids ran into
Speaker 1: her room with this wrapped up gift, glowing like so excited.
Speaker 1: They've been saving up for this present on her birthday.
Speaker 1: So she opens it up and there is this big
Speaker 1: box of burger rings, which not in her life, which
Speaker 1: she usually eat. You ever, and she said, she looked
Speaker 1: at the box of burger rings, and she looked at
Speaker 1: her children's face, and she said, this is soul food.
Speaker 1: I'm going to sit here, I'm going to open it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to enjoy it for breakfast with my children,
Speaker 1: and it's going to fill my soul and it's going
Speaker 1: to make them feel happy, and it's going to make
Speaker 1: me feel happy. And I think, ultimately, if we remember
Speaker 1: that food plays such an important part in our social
Speaker 1: lives and in our family lives, that you know, and
Speaker 1: it is so much more than just having a function. Um.
Speaker 1: I think if we can keep that in at the
Speaker 1: forefront of our minds, I love that. UM. What is
Speaker 1: your advice for parents who are starting on their food
Speaker 1: journey with their child? If you had to say anything,
Speaker 1: I guess to you're younger, you're you're transitioning into solid
Speaker 1: food mom self, I would say, um that the most
Speaker 1: important thing to remember is that between the ages of
Speaker 1: six months and twelve months of age, there is a
Speaker 1: time called the flavor window, and that is that a
Speaker 1: baby is more open than at any other stage in
Speaker 1: their life of trying new things. So taste textures, spices, herbs, sweets, um, sour.
Speaker 1: So have fun, you know, use this time, within reason,
Speaker 1: of course, to expose your child two foods that you
Speaker 1: yourself wouldn't necessarily cook in your home. Um, so that
Speaker 1: you are really opening and beginning your child's journey culinary
Speaker 1: journey through life. You know, I think about it like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so have fun. It's if you feel good about it,
Speaker 1: they're going to feel good about it. Um. Yeah, herbs
Speaker 1: and spices and spices. I love that you are. This
Speaker 1: is so informative. I learned so much, so did Roger.
Speaker 1: You can hear embarking. Roger says, I love Albie's food
Speaker 1: just as much as Albie does when he flings it
Speaker 1: on the floor. Tolly, thank you so much. We're going
Speaker 1: to put links to the books you said um and
Speaker 1: links to Tummy Time. You guys, this is so helpful
Speaker 1: and eye opening and I wish I had spoken to
Speaker 1: you a year ago, but hey, better late than never.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you, Katie's Crib. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for listening to Katie's Crib. And be sure to
Speaker 1: check out Shonda land dot com where you can find
Speaker 1: every episode of Katie's Crib. And we've got crib notes
Speaker 1: for each episode where you can find out more about
Speaker 1: our guests and links to some of the resources we
Speaker 1: talked about on the podcast. And last, but not least, subscribe.
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