10: Starting Solids with Baby Led Weaning: Tips for Success with Hilary McMahon, RD

Hilary McMahon is a Registered Dietitian specializing in baby-led weaning and toddler nutrition. When her daughter was born, she became more aware of the true challenges that parents face when it comes to starting solids, navigating mealtime daily, and providing proper nutrition for their little ones. She founded her programs First Foods Academy and Toddler Foods Academy, as a way to help families find success in this area, and to also have the proper support they need to navigate what can be such a challenging and ever-changing journey. Hilary is a mom to 2, dog mom to a sweet goldendoodle, and lives with her family in Pennsylvania. 

• The short- and long-term benefits of baby-led weaning
• How BLW supports the development of oral motor skills
• The ideal time to start BLW and signs your baby is ready
• Why BLW can actually reduce the risk of choking
• Understanding your baby’s gag reflex (and how to respond calmly!)
• The best first foods and how to get texture just right
• How and why to introduce allergens early
• The power of play at the table and how it builds positive mealtime experiences

👶 If you're feeling overwhelmed by starting solids, this episode is packed with reassurance, practical tips, and encouragement to make feeding a fun and safe journey for your little one.

Download your FREE Table talk scripts: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1do37uiY7vShzxVLbmZ7yWs-MU7Hac3HJ/view?usp=drive_link

Transcript

Sarah Schlichter (00:02.807)
Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today we have Hillary McMahon joining us and I will let her go ahead and introduce herself and then we'll get started.

Hilary McMahon (00:12.974)
Yeah, hi Sarah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to have a conversation about this topic. So as you said, I'm Hillary McMahon. I am a registered dietitian. I've been a dietitian now for 10 and a half years, I think. I forget, and a half, something like that. Easy to forget. But I...

got into the space of baby lead weaning and toddler nutrition because I will not now I have two kids. My daughter was born in April 2020. you know, going into the world of solids, when we got close to six months, I really just was like, as a dietician, like, I'll know what to do. It's not that hard. It's, I know I'm gonna do baby lead weaning, right? But I'm a dietician. So I should know these things, right? And

having the expertise in nutrition does not tell you how to feed a baby. It's just not the way it works. We don't learn this in school and we don't, you know, have anyone teaching us that, you know, as part of our education. So I did a lot of work on the back end to teach myself and I recognize the need that there is in people who aren't experts in nutrition, right? So it kind of just really got me

down the path of what I'm doing. But yeah, I have an almost five-year-old at the time of our recording, almost five-month-old, and just starting to gear up and get excited to start feeding him as well. That'll be super fun, because it's been a minute since I've done it myself.

Sarah Schlichter (01:55.125)
Yeah, yeah, it goes by fast and each kid is different. So there's always, you know, there's always learning experiences as we continue to go through. And to your point about school, I think I took a class nutrition through the life cycle. And that might've been really the only thing about, you know, pediatric baby nutrition, unless you're seeing some of it in the hospital. But again, you're not feeding them solids or anything like that.

Hilary McMahon (01:58.722)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (02:08.824)
Exactly.

Yep. Yep.

Hilary McMahon (02:18.888)
Right, right. you know, truthfully, if you look at, you know, American Academy of Pediatrics, Health Organization recommendations, there are new updates stating, you know, it used to be four to six months start solids, right? I just took my son to his four month appointment two weeks ago and they handed me the solids packet. But, you know, the newer information does say six months, right? But that's not to say that

what you read in those, that information is exactly what you want to do, right? Baby-led weaning, which is what I teach is, is a little bit more out there, but it's still very, very safe and becoming more widely accepted by practitioners. So yeah, that's not something we learned even in, yeah, like you're saying, the nutrition to the life cycle class, I don't think we even talked about baby-led weaning or maybe it wasn't even a thing. I mean, it was, but not that well, well known.

Sarah Schlichter (03:13.883)
Yeah, yeah, so let's delve right in. I am a big fan of baby lead weaning as well, but for our followers, listeners who might not know exactly the name or what the term means, could you kind of describe baby lead weaning and maybe how it differs from traditional methods of introducing solids?

Hilary McMahon (03:32.27)
Absolutely, yes. So baby-led weaning is, I always say like it's exactly as it sounds, right? It's baby-led and the weaning concept, you know, we think of weaning as like weaning off of milk onto solid foods or from breast milk to cow's milk. But weaning is also the process of teaching your little one how to eat so they eventually don't need to survive solely on milk. And baby-led is basically giving your baby the power and the autonomy to

to take part in that process, right? So traditionally, you know, the way you and I were probably fed when we were babies was put the spoon in baby's mouth, scoop this little bits of rice cereal off their chin and, you know, making sure everything is neat and tidy and fitting in their mouth. Not necessarily knowing when baby's full, but finishing the little bowl of rice cereal you have. Whereas baby-led weaning gives all of that to the child.

So parents are providing foods that are either mashed down, you can also do some purees in there, but also finger foods that are safe textures and basically giving that to baby and allowing them to feed themselves. So it's a whole different approach that basically skips over that spoon feeding.

Sarah Schlichter (04:48.769)
Right, you know, I just, and even now today, even in doctor's offices, you see some of those pictures like spoon feeding baby from, you know, a glass jar. And I think some parents are starting to make some of their own purees. So maybe they're inching closer to baby lead weaning, but still doing that spoon feeding.

Hilary McMahon (04:57.059)
Yes.

Sarah Schlichter (05:06.509)
Whereas what you're saying, like baby lead weaning, you're giving baby that autonomy to learn and trust their hunger, fullness, explore the food on their own. And what sort of benefits does that provide, you know, throughout the feeding process and as they get used to eating more.

Hilary McMahon (05:15.608)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (05:22.124)
Yeah. Well, I mean, I think kind of just when you're saying, you know, the hunger fullness thing kind of to jump off of that quickly, big picture. Babies are born intuitive eaters, right? When a baby cries when they're hungry, they're going to eat. And then when they're full, they stop eating. They don't always finish a bottle unless the parent is forcing it. When they're breastfeeding, they're taking in with their body needs. So what can happen is when we start solids, if we're not letting them decide that,

we are retraining their brain to say, I need to finish my food or I'm still hungry, but I don't get anymore. So allowing them to do this baby led process is allowing them to tell their body and continue that intuitive process of I know when I'm hungry and I know when I'm full. So it helps them as they grow, right? know, as adults have a lot of, I don't know, for lack of better words, issues with understanding the hunger fullness cues because of what we were trained, right?

clean plate clubs and all those things of like, I'm gonna, have to finish my food. But we're allowing baby to continue to understand that for themselves, which is huge. So that in one essence, I could talk about this all day. That in, one second, can you hear my dog barking? Are you sure?

Sarah Schlichter (06:39.007)
Yeah, but that's okay. Yeah, I can try to mute parts of it and it's not loud.

Hilary McMahon (06:45.336)
Okay, because my mother-in-law just arrived, so my dog's probably gonna bark more. I might pause. Okay. She's gonna go crazy here for a minute. Sorry. Okay.

Sarah Schlichter (06:49.421)
That's okay. I have a bike.

Sarah Schlichter (06:58.051)
We can pause. We'll gather our thoughts. I'll try to order my question after for what you're going to say too. So no worries.

Hilary McMahon (07:03.456)
Okay, yeah, I have a couple more things to say on that, I'm gonna wait just a second because she's going to go nuts. The blinds are closed, but she can still know the hybrid car. She knows what it sounds like.

Sarah Schlichter (07:15.435)
Yeah, she hears it. Yeah, our dogs don't have lines, so as soon as a car or someone blocking a dog walks by, it's game over.

Hilary McMahon (07:22.986)
Exactly, exactly. I can try to keep going. Okay, so I was saying about, yeah, the autonomy with hunger fullness. Some other benefits you might see with baby-led weaning are not just in being able to feed themselves, but also development of hand-eye coordination is huge, right? know, we babies are really good at taking something and putting it to their mouth.

So giving them the autonomy to continue practicing that through feeding themselves is huge. It develops a lot in their neurodevelopment too that way. They're building those pathways to teach them all these different processes of how to use those motor skills. And I think too, it's also providing earlier opportunity for oral motor skills, chewing, gnawing, biting.

Whereas when we're swallowing purees, we're just swallowing. We're not doing anything else in our mouth to build those muscle structures. But getting that started earlier is, you know, in the long run, it actually helps to reduce the risk of choking because we're better at well enough to handle textures in our mouth.

Sarah Schlichter (08:40.033)
Yes, all of that makes so much sense. And I think just echoing what you're saying is we actually have a lot of research about baby lead weaning. Like it's still not considered mainstream, but it's not something that there's no research on. But to your point about choking, I think this is probably a big hangup, a big challenge for a lot of parents, a big fear. So what do you say to parents that you're working with or...

Hilary McMahon (09:00.909)
Yes.

Sarah Schlichter (09:04.781)
kind of what are some of the key points to think about or educate them when it comes to choking risk.

Hilary McMahon (09:10.71)
Yeah, yeah, no, that's very true. So a couple things with a baby who is six months old, their gag reflex is in the center of their tongue. Whereas as they get closer to a year, that gag reflex moves backwards to their throat, where yours and mine are as adults. So if you think about a baby putting a teether in their mouth and gagging themselves, that teether did not necessarily hit the back of their throat. It may have just

touch the middle of their tongue and they gagged. And that reflex is super helpful at this age to teach them, that's too far back. I need to keep something in my mouth close to the front of my oral cavity. Maybe they don't have teeth yet, but by where my gums are. That's where I chew because if it goes back farther than that, I'm gonna gag. So we need to lean in on that being an early part of development and utilize that so our...

our babies are learning to keep food in the front, right? Like I said before with primarily or that kind of mainstream traditional approach of purees, we're putting purees in and swallowing. There's really no, there was a big piece of food there, so I gagged. And as we get closer to that year mark, when parents start offering those little tiny bits of food, it has a higher chance of sliding back and causing choking.

because they didn't have the gag reflex in the middle of their tongue anymore to reduce that risk, if that makes sense.

Sarah Schlichter (10:40.717)
That makes a lot of sense. That's really interesting. I actually didn't realize about where the gag reflex was. So it almost sounds like you're providing them that learning experience at a younger age, thereby reducing the risk later because they've had some practice. spoon feeding them and not really testing that gag reflex or what that feels like. Then you start feeding them solids later when they haven't had that experience to build upon.

Hilary McMahon (11:08.864)
Absolutely. And the part of that too that is worth noting is the fear aspect, right? So when a baby is six months old and they gag on food, most oftentimes it might startle them the first time or two, but then they don't care and they literally pick the food up and put it back in their mouth versus a 12 month old that has that sense of fear developed is more likely to be scared of that and then develop aversions to certain foods because they gagged on it.

Whereas, you know, a baby gagging on a piece of banana or a piece of chicken when they're six, seven months old, they're not going to have a fear of eating those foods when they're 12, 14 months old because they don't have fear at this early age.

Sarah Schlichter (11:52.691)
Right, right. They're developing that competency. Now, I've heard a lot about sometimes it's the parents reactions that can actually scare the baby. So maybe they're, you know, they're handling it on their own. They're like, this is different, but let's gag and fix this. And then you have a parent face full of fear that might project onto the baby. Is that something that you see in here often?

Hilary McMahon (12:01.856)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (12:17.206)
Yes, yes. you know, allowing a baby to work through a gag and understanding the difference between gagging and choking is something I 100 % work on, like with all my work, 100 % work with my clients on because a baby gagging on food, their face is red, their eyes are watering maybe, and they're kind of like working it out. They might not be making a ton of noise, but you can hear it coming out.

And if we startle them by going, she's choking, gasping, that's gonna scare baby and that can cause them to choke. So one of the strategies I work with parents on is if they see that happening, maybe you don't know what's happening right away. Maybe you don't know, are you gagging or choking? But before you gasp, try to work on talking to them going, it's okay, you've got it, you're gonna get it out.

push your tongue out, blah, and showing them even if they're not looking at you, right? It helps us as parents to process and distract ourselves. And from personal experience, I can say when my daughter started Salads, I used to sit on my hands for the first couple of weeks because I was afraid if she did that, I was going to reach for her and try to help. Just that parental instinct, right? So just sat on my hands and just watched and talked to her.

Sarah Schlichter (13:32.291)
And I can relate to the parents because it can be scary to see that those things happening and obviously like you want to be prepared so we definitely encourage take that CPR class. I had to retake it before each of my kids but watching babies eat is like one of my absolute favorite things in the world. It's just amazing to watch them explore food and have that opportunity.

Hilary McMahon (13:56.706)
Yes.

Sarah Schlichter (13:56.707)
to do it themselves. to your point, sitting on your hands, whatever it takes, be prepared and again know the differences between gagging, choking. I'm sure you might have some resources on your site or things that we can link to about that.

Hilary McMahon (14:10.242)
Yep, Yeah, I am not certified to teach CPR and choking prevention, but I make sure, I can't make people take a class, but I highly encourage all my clients to take a course. I'm about to gear up to do it again since I have a little one about to start. And I do it once a year just because I work with clients and I wanna make sure I'm up to date on all the correct information. But that I think also,

you know, in my program I do have videos of gacking so people can see what it looks like. I also encourage people to even just like Google or YouTube like babies gacking and see what it looks like because watch it exactly. But you truly I don't think are going to be super comfortable until you see your own child succeed with it. So that first time is always the scariest. And then you're like, OK, I watched him. He did fine. He's not scared.

Sarah Schlichter (14:49.431)
I'm comfortable with it.

Hilary McMahon (15:06.658)
He's okay, you know, and we can do it again.

Sarah Schlichter (15:10.083)
Yeah, so I would say for parents who are maybe interested in learning more starting this approach definitely do your research take the CPR class. So let's move on to actually starting. So are there foods that you recommend starting with? You know the internet might say avocado is always a great one. But as a dietitian, what are some of the top foods you recommend starting with when doing solid introduction?

Hilary McMahon (15:14.86)
Thank

Hilary McMahon (15:36.726)
Yeah, yeah. The biggest thing is if you're going with the finger food route, you want to make sure the texture is safe. So I always say like push your index finger and your thumb together. And if you can provide that pressure, that's the pressure that your baby's gums roughly can do strength wise. So you want that food to be soft enough to be mashable or shredded in your two fingers. And I think that's one of the biggest things is safety.

but also then variety, right? So we might tend to do a lot of veggies first or a lot of fruits first because, you know, from a puree perspective, they're easy to puree down or mash. But it's also important from a baby lead weaning perspective to incorporate other things like your animal proteins, if you eat animal proteins and, you know, grains. So like a pasta.

eggs, incorporating the top nine allergens and doing those as early as you can as well, which are peanut, tree nut, egg, soy, dairy, sesame, fish, shellfish, and my gosh, I said them out of my normal order, so I'm blanking on the last one.

Sarah Schlichter (16:52.259)
Is there two fish? Did you say tree nuts?

Hilary McMahon (16:57.602)
Fish and shellfish, yeah. Peanut, tree nut, soy, dairy, egg, wheat is the other one. Yeah, wheat. But yeah, so getting all those incorporated, and I think that's the biggest thing is where's the variety, right? Not cornering yourself by only introducing fruits or only introducing vegetables and making sure the texture is safe. But from there, anything is fair game.

Sarah Schlichter (17:21.345)
Yeah, and on that allergen point, I know research has changed a lot and we still have doctors saying, you know, wait until XYZ, but can you tell us about why we want to introduce allergens and kind of what the latest research shows about that for parents who may have a history of family allergens or just be scared about that.

Hilary McMahon (17:42.945)
Yeah, yep, so generally speaking, we wanna start introducing those top nine allergens around the six month mark. It doesn't have to happen all at once, right? In fact, some of these products out there that are like the mix-ins for bottles, I don't really recommend, because you're doing like three allergens at once, and then you don't know which one it was, and then you still gotta do all these trials. So with baby lead weaning, I always suggest doing once a week. One allergen each week just to kind of

get the rotation started when you start solids. But the benefit of doing that is we're reducing, by that early exposure, we're reducing the risk of developing an allergy down the road. On the flip side, again, some of these ready-set foods and these mix-ins, if we're starting them too early, our baby's digestive system has also had less time to mature, so it's also not super safe.

I think if I understand correctly, the only one that is recommended to potentially introduce around four months would be a peanut introduction if you have a family history or a higher risk of developing that peanut allergy. The rest of them, you know, is better to wait till around the six month mark. And if you have that family history, it's important to definitely discuss with your child's clinician and

know where you can reach to for a pediatric allergist or an allergy specialist, specializing in food allergies, so that you have that resource when that time comes if there were to be an issue.

Sarah Schlichter (19:23.957)
And just a mom tip, I would always try to do it during the week. So if you did have an allergen or needed to go to the pediatrician that was accessible, so try not to introduce an allergen food on the weekend or maybe when it won't be possible if, you know, something did happen or there was a reaction.

Hilary McMahon (19:32.792)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (19:42.026)
Yes, yes. you know, I 100 % agree with that. I will say from working with families that, you know, maybe mom's home or dad's working or both parents are home or not, or both parents are working. I do have a lot of families that do it on Saturdays, but I recommend Saturday for lunch. So that way, if something happens, you're not up against time of like an urgent care closing or your pediatrician not being open. A lot of pediatricians are open on Saturdays. So if

something were to happen, you can get a hold of someone on Saturday instead of, know, Saturday night, you do it at 5 p.m., baby's about to go to sleep, and then there's a reaction two hours later. Urgent care is closed, then you end up in the ER, right? So if you're gonna have to do it on the weekend, try to do it midday, yep.

Sarah Schlichter (20:27.843)
Yes, great tip. Now having gone through baby lead weaning once with your older daughter, is there anything that you plan on doing differently with your son as you prepare to start? Because I know every experience can be a little bit different.

Hilary McMahon (20:43.308)
That's a great question.

I don't think I'm gonna know until I start because I am a big believer in that whole baby led concept, right? So, my daughter took to solids pretty quickly. I have a feeling my son will as well. He's already staring at me when I eat and wanting to, we have him sitting in his little bouncer while we eat dinner. So he watches us eat all the time. And I think he's gonna take well to it.

But if he doesn't, I might have to go a little bit slower. know, with my daughter, I try to do three to four new food introductions a week, but depending on the baby, sometimes that's not gonna work. I think just different phase of life, you know, it's gonna look a little bit different. We're a little bit busier now with an older child as well. So it might look a little bit different, but I'm not really sure what that looks like yet. What it looks like yet, yeah.

Sarah Schlichter (21:36.225)
Yeah, fair enough. That makes sense. Again, if it is baby led, you can't really have too much of an agenda because you don't know which baby is going to prefer, what foods they're going to prefer, how they're going to handle it all. So, and again, some babies are more into it. Some babies are less interested in solids and more into milk. So again, kind of letting them guide the way.

Hilary McMahon (21:50.018)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (21:58.092)
Yep. And you know, I will say when I have a client who experiences the disinterest side of things, there's a lot of things we can do to sort of, you know, help them with that by maybe increasing the frequency of, you know, starting with two meals a day a little bit sooner or something like that to help them become more interested. But that's kind of where it's all individualized. Right. So everyone's path is going to look a little bit different depending on how baby responds. So, yeah.

I will say the thing I'm the most excited about difference wise is my daughter's is an April birthday. So she started salads in like late October. So we've got all on the Pennsylvania. like winter months, not a lot of great fresh produce right now. My son is starting salads in April because he's an October baby. So I am like.

So excited to have all the central Pennsylvania local farm, you know, fresh stuff for him this time. Just very excited about that.

Sarah Schlichter (23:00.377)
yeah, no, that is exciting. That is exciting. Look forward to hearing how that goes. Before I kind of like transition to toddler stuff, is there anything else you'd like to share about baby stuff or resources or anything else?

Hilary McMahon (23:02.732)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Hilary McMahon (23:15.938)
Honestly, I think my biggest recommendation for parents is do your research, but also lean in on your intuitions, right? So, you know, I'm a big believer in finding support or support resources. So maybe you can afford a baby-led weaning coach like myself, but maybe what's important to you is knowing that your baby has safe options to eat.

know where those resources are coming from. I think that's the most important thing. am just for the sake of learning what the trends are. I am in a lot of baby-led weaning Facebook groups and I will say a lot of the advice in there is coming from parents who, for lack of better words, don't know what they're talking about and they're offering really unsafe things. And then people are like, well this person did that and know, seven other people agreed, so that's safe. No.

might not be. And so when you're doing something like this with your child, it can be 100 % safe, but you want to make sure you know you're getting your information from a professional that has the background, has the knowledge, so that you're taking care of your child in the same token and not just, you know, listening to, you know, a random mom on Facebook. So, yeah.

Sarah Schlichter (24:34.669)
That's a great point because there are a lot of resources out there. There's almost like too many and kind of what you're saying, being able to filter through to know what's evidence-based, who's a good recommendation resource to listen to because just because someone has done it does not make them an expert. We know that through nutrition, even though people will insist that they are experts. So that's a great point. List for parents to remember.

Hilary McMahon (24:56.266)
Uh-huh.

Yeah.

Sarah Schlichter (25:01.281)
Okay, so as we know, like the baby-led weaning, we've talked about kind of the process, introduction, sticking with it. It goes quickly. Before you know it, can tether on your hands. So I'm sure things start to look differently once they start to have their own opinions or become a little more selective. I just remember going through each phase with each kid. So I know it is...

Hilary McMahon (25:09.55)
does.

Sarah Schlichter (25:25.123)
developmentally normal what they used to eat everything and then they become more selective and they won't eat their favorite foods anymore. So this can throw parents for a curve, a loop. How do they start to handle when things like this come up?

Hilary McMahon (25:32.523)
Yes.

Hilary McMahon (25:37.141)
Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah, and I think, well, sometimes that becomes a misconception of baby-led weaning is like, my child won't be picky because they did baby-led weaning. Well, no, they know how to eat a lot more foods, but they're still a child and they still are going to develop personal preferences. So to your point, yes, you see this, you know, maybe wonderfully eating infant.

And all of sudden you have, they're eating less foods, they're choosing what they want more, they're vocalizing it more because they can. And I had a lot of clients starting to hit that toddler age and parents were like, Hillary, can you make a toddler bootcamp week on First Foods Academy, which is my program? And I was like, yeah, sure, I'll do that.

sat down to write the outline and I was like, my gosh, this is like actually a whole course because it is a whole new ball game when you introduce all these new behaviors and developments in their growth. So I went off on a tangent. I forget what your initial question was with that.

Sarah Schlichter (26:49.895)
Yeah, just dealing with it. think this kind of eases into our next about pressure really well because as a parent, maybe you are getting used to your baby, 12 month old, whatever, eating everything you served. And then there comes a point where that might change. You know, it might not, but if that changes and you still want to support them and give them the autonomy to choose what eat and tune into how they're feeling.

Hilary McMahon (26:53.185)
Yeah.

Sarah Schlichter (27:15.873)
but maybe you're inadvertently applying pressure. So what does pressure look like at the table and how does that affect the eating experience?

Hilary McMahon (27:24.47)
Yeah, So pressure is, it looks a lot of different ways. Some types of pressure we put on at the table is kind of like your typical, like you telling your child you have to eat this to get this, or you've got to finish everything on your plate, or nope, you've had enough, we're not having any more, and your child still has that innate desire because they're so hungry.

And it can lead to a lot of different things, right? So sometimes pressure at the table leads to a new dislike for sitting at the table, right? It comes out in your child in things like picky eating, overstimulation, right? They're like, I'm overwhelmed by this. Mom thinks I'm gonna eat all this food that I used to eat when I was eight months and now my appetite's less because I'm not growing as fast.

I don't want to eat all this, so I'm just not going to eat. They get overwhelmed. They start throwing their food. There's power struggles because mom's saying, oh, you need to finish your food. Why aren't you eating? You need to eat. You used to love this. And then all of a sudden, they just get overwhelmed. They don't want to sit there. They throw tantrums at the table. This is kind of just, you know, very... It doesn't happen in every family, right? But these are just kind of those things that can happen.

if we're not being careful with how we continue to approach the meal times. And that can lead to anxiety around eating, lack of desire to eat, frustration around sitting at the table, lots of different things. So I hear parents say, my child's so picky now. Well, yeah, they might have some foods, like less foods than they ate before, but are they really picky or are they developing new preferences and we're labeling them as picky and then

catering to that, right? So it can go a lot of different directions.

Sarah Schlichter (29:24.193)
Yeah, yeah, and it sounds like, you know, as babies are evolving, we sort of have to evolve too, to continue to promote that independence. the food throwing, I hear that a lot. I hear that's a major challenge. And I think the threats, again, we have good intentions as parents, we just want them to get their nutrition. But when they hear it, it probably sounds a little different. So what are some things we should be doing instead?

guide us for some solutions for handling some of those tricky situations as we navigate babies turning into toddlers.

Hilary McMahon (29:59.414)
Yeah, so you know as a dietitian I'm sure you're aware of the division of responsibility on feeding. But it's I think something important to bring up. So there's a practitioner named Ellen Satter. She's a counselor and a dietitian and she has created what's called this division of responsibility in feeding. And basically what she says is that parents decide what their child's having, when they're having it, and where they have it. And the child is responsible for deciding

how much they eat and if they're eating at all. So I think the biggest thing we can do is as parents know, how do I provide a balanced meal for my child, right? Can I make sure there's a fruit or vegetable on their plate? Do they have some protein? Do they have some good fiber? they have a good fat source? Are there some carbohydrates there to provide them with energy, right? Can I give them a well-balanced meal? And then if they choose to eat those things, great. And if they don't,

I at least know that I provided it. And I think it's also, once we hit the toddler age is when this can really start happening because they're understanding more language, but providing the opportunity for curiosity is huge. I think, you know, when we are saying, eat your broccoli, eat your broccoli, take one more bite of chicken and then you can have a cookie, all of those types of things are creating pressure.

Whereas if we create more curiosity and instead say, I use this example all the time, but I'll use it again, you know, that's a red pepper. Is it soft when you bite it or is it crunchy? And creating this question in their mind where they're like, ooh, I don't know. Almost creating play and curiosity at the table is going to help them to want to eat more and allowing them that opportunity without you providing the pressure and just kind of letting whatever happens happen.

Sarah Schlichter (31:57.027)
because they will want to find out for themselves, you know? And I'm thinking, you know, as an adult, when someone poses a question, what do think this tastes like? I'm like, oh, I'm kind of curious now. Let me tell you.

Hilary McMahon (31:59.406)
Mm-hmm.

Hilary McMahon (32:06.946)
Yes, exactly. And I think too, know, growing up we were always told, don't play with your food, don't play with your food. But play at the table is 100 % okay. And you know, a toddler still doesn't have full ability to use their utensils and it's okay if they use their hands. You know, I mean, they should know how to use utensils, but hands are much more efficient and they know that because they're part of their body and they use them all the time. you my daughter even...

I'm pretty sure she ate oatmeal with her hands until she was like two. And I was like, that's fine. Now she uses a spoon. She knows how to do it. But it was helpful for her to just be able to understand like, I'm allowed to touch these things, right? So it's okay to ask your kid, you have little cubes of like, or little coins of banana. How many do think you can stack before they fall over? let me help you. We can do it together. And just creating that curiosity so they want to be at the table. And they're not forced to eat those things, but

You know, you're doing it together and making that a fun environment.

Sarah Schlichter (33:07.787)
I think that's so powerful and we'll definitely link to Ellen Satter's work. She has a website that I've linked to a lot and I think there's a visual representation or anyway, it's kind of one of the intuitive eating principles too that we talk about a lot, but it is very powerful because when you realize that you've served the balanced meal.

your job is kind of done. It's up to them if they're going to eat it or not. And when you do kind of override those principles and provide that pressure or give those threats, we're almost going against this natural instinct that we want them to handle in the long run. So love that you brought that up. And I think for listeners or people new to

Hilary McMahon (33:30.819)
Mm-hmm.

Sarah Schlichter (33:51.184)
baby-led weaning, feeding toddlers, we'll definitely link to that because it's something that may just help you feel a little more confident in the process and understand how things change.

Hilary McMahon (34:01.996)
Yes, absolutely. Yeah, and you know, I mean, I could talk about this all day, but I think also making sure you're not labeling foods, right? So, eat this because it's healthy for you. Let's just talk about what it is. Broccoli's green, you know? Chicken is white, you know, it can shred or it can be eaten in cubes, right? Like just talk about what food is for itself, not this is healthy, so you should eat it because then we're labeling foods as good versus bad. you know, as your child gets older.

then they're like, ooh, but I want the bad ones, right? So if you want to just sort of develop that positive relationship with food, keeping the pressure low, the curiosity high, and just really teaching them to trust their bodies.

Sarah Schlichter (34:46.153)
Mm-hmm. And that's why people like you exist because you know a lot of our generation didn't grow up with this information our parents Probably didn't have it. So, you know, we're kind of learning ourselves So I think having some professionals who specialize in this field sharing their knowledge is great So speaking to that Hillary tell us a little bit about how you work with clients You have a first foods Academy a toddler foods Academy. Tell us a little bit about those

Hilary McMahon (34:53.187)
Yeah.

Hilary McMahon (35:14.208)
Yeah, yep. So as I said before, I started with First Foods Academy with the intention of just sticking with baby-led weaning, but I do offer lifetime support to my clients. So essentially what that means is I'm not going to just cut you off it when your child turns a year, right? Those new situations develop. So yes, you can just stick with like verbal support and chat support, or you can enroll in toddler foods and get this whole new slew of information.

If you have another child, can 100 % do First Foods Academy over again, and I'm not gonna charge you more money. This is for your family, an investment for your family. And so what that looks like is I have online courses for both programs. The First Foods Academy is baby-led weaning based, but there are opportunities for sort of like combo feeding if you wanna incorporate some purees or if you have caregivers who are preferring that. Giving you all the tips pointers.

templates, tools, all the things that you need. When you enroll in both programs, you get a one-on-one support call, and then there are monthly office hours after that. So you can hop on a call. Sometimes you might be the only one there if no one needs that live support, or there might be four or five, six other moms there. And then there is chat support ongoing. So I use an app called Boxer. It's basically like texting. can send audio, like voice memos.

People can send me pictures or videos, hey, this is how she's eating, does this chewing look okay? So really that ongoing support to make sure families feel comfortable with what they're doing. So when challenges arise, you have a resource to reach out to versus Google or Facebook groups, like I said, which are not the best source.

Sarah Schlichter (36:59.999)
Thank you.

Hilary McMahon (37:01.934)
I can speak for one example. I have a mom who started solids with her son a few months ago and he has now had two instances with food allergies. having that resource to reach out to versus just Googling, right? And it's just like, what do I do? And I called the pediatrician and they said, we did the Zyrtec thing and all of that. But I was like, reach out to an allergist, connect with an allergist, right? Build that person into your care team. And having someone in her corner.

just made her more comfortable and confident to be able to navigate this because it is scary. So I think for me, the biggest avenue is the support element, but I do also have DIY or just kind of like self-service options too for each course where you can just purchase the course for families that don't want the support aspects. And I will say with Toddler Foods Academy, it's that expansion, right? Kind of what we already talked about here where, you you have this child who

maybe eats great or maybe you didn't do baby lead weaning and now you're like, shoot, I'm kicking myself because I wish my child ate better. Toddler foods is they are not just for picky eating, but for just understanding how to feed a toddler and how those developments in their just general growth and development, how that changes at the table.

Sarah Schlichter (38:17.675)
sounds so helpful. And I love how you said you have videos of gagging and just different videos that parents can watch and feel a little bit more empowered. Because like you said, going down the Google rabbit hole can waste a lot of your time, it can scare you even more, it can give you all of this false information. So knowing you're getting it from a registered dietitian who knows the research is really, powerful.

Hilary McMahon (38:40.814)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and kind of to your point of the, you know, unsafe information, I do also have an e-book that I developed that is all about how to serve foods from a safe texture. So there's over 130 foods in the e-book as far as, you know, different categories, fruits, veggies, animal proteins, plant proteins, grains. How do I serve that to a six to nine month old, as well as how do I serve that to nine to 12 or 12 plus months?

food safety pointers, like textures, there's photo examples in there. Just a lot of really great tools for if you're maybe not really wanting a full support, but you're like, hey, I need a resource that I can look to and I don't know how to serve my child zucchini. It's a great option.

Sarah Schlichter (39:24.939)
sounds super helpful. We will definitely link to that in your both academies in the show notes. Tell us again how people can find you on social media and what your website is once more.

Hilary McMahon (39:37.43)
Yep, my Instagram is nutrition.mama. Mama has two M's in it. And then my website is nutritionmama.com. I do have a podcast. I will be completely honest in saying that the episodes are great, but I haven't really been active there with having a newborn and pregnancy, newborn life is just, you know, takes up a lot of time. hoping to get back into that, but I will say the episodes there are also really, really great, helpful, free information.

Sarah Schlichter (39:56.323)
I

Hilary McMahon (40:05.838)
that are great resources to families.

Sarah Schlichter (40:08.802)
And we'll link to that. What's the name of your podcast?

Hilary McMahon (40:11.819)
It is first bites baby lead weaning and beyond.

Sarah Schlichter (40:17.461)
Awesome. So many resources from this episode. Hopefully parents can leave feeling a little bit more empowered about what baby lead weaning is and maybe a little bit less intimidated by it. Thank you so much for your time, Hillary, and great rest of your day.

Hilary McMahon (40:35.022)
Absolutely, thank you so much for having me. This was great.