Jenny Best is the founder of Solid Starts, an Instagram account and smartphone app focused on helping parents introduce their babies to solid foods through baby-led weaning, and the co-author of Solid Starts for Babies: How to Introduce Solid Food and Raise a Happy Eater.
The reason I started Solid Starts is that spoon-feeding my first child didn’t go so well. He really didn’t like the texture of purees, and I didn’t know there were alternatives. At the time, there wasn’t a lot of information on how to introduce real food to babies; like, how do you get from purées to eating a family dinner of steak? That seemed like such a huge leap. So when I got pregnant with my twins, I was basically like, By the time they are 6 months old and ready to start solids, we have to find a different way of doing it.
I started doing research and found a group of medical experts who were promoting baby-led weaning. A lightbulb went off in my head, because it just seemed to makes so much sense. I did baby-led weaning with my twins and was stunned — it was just night and day. I couldn’t believe how happy they were.
So many parents are overwhelmed, like I was. Maybe you just nailed a nap schedule or you feel like you got into some sort of rhythm, and then the doctor’s like, “Let’s start solids.” To that parent, I would just say this is a process that can take time, and a baby’s primary source of nutrition for the entire first year of their life should be breastmilk or formula. You can take it slow; your baby does not need to be eating three meals a day of solid food until they are around 12 months old. So start in a way that feels right for you and your family. The most important thing is letting the baby feed themselves. That could be putting purée in a bowl and letting them dip their fingers in and lick it off their own finger. That could also be handing over a preloaded spoon of mashed potatoes and letting the baby grab it and take it from you.
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The thing I love about these plates is they are very low-profile, meaning the baby can actually see into them while seated in a high chair and then more easily reach in to grab food. And I think we forget about that. We buy this beautiful tall bamboo bowl or whatever it is, but then the baby can’t actually see the food because the bowl is higher than their eye level.
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If you’re giving them a leakproof cup, babies won’t ever learn the skills needed to use an open cup. So with my twins, we started with an open cup at around 6 months, as soon as we started solids. What I find works best is to put about an ounce of liquid in there, either an ounce of water or an ounce of breastmilk or formula, and hold the cup in front of them for them to reach and grab with their two hands. You can even put purée in there so it’s more slow-moving — applesauce or something from a pouch — to give them a better chance at learning the gradual tipping motion without spilling it all over their face on the first try.
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Long-handled infant spoons make it way too easy for babies to poke the back of their mouth or poke their eye. So for self-feeding, the utensils should really be short. These short pre-spoons are fantastic because the food goes right through the spoon or sticks to it so babies can more successfully taste the food and not drop it. And because of the textured surface, foods like avocado or mashed banana will stick and cling to these more than they would to a typical metal spoon.
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Believe it or not, when a baby picks up a banana and squishes it in their hand, it cues the brain to learn how to process that food in the mouth. And that can actually reduce the risk of choking and help kids develop a tolerance for different sensory experiences, from food to sand to grass. So, yeah, baby-led weaning is really messy on purpose, and the food is going to go way beyond the area of a bib. That’s why I loved using these smocks instead. I always had at least two of them in rotation so that I wasn’t constantly doing laundry.
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A splat mat will make life so much easier because you can let everything fall down off the high chair and onto the splat mat then fold it up and dump out the food and crumbs versus trying to pick up every tiny piece of rice that might have ended up on the floor.
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For the messiest meals, I like to use this food catcher that acts kind of like an upside-down umbrella to collect all the food pieces that fall off the tray. Because sometimes, a whole meatball falls to the floor and you don’t want to waste the food, but you aren’t so sure about eating it off the dirty floor. The Catchy saves those pieces and will help you minimize food waste.
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In addition to open cups, I recommend starting straw cups at 6 months of age because that’s when babies still have a really strong natural sucking reflex, and you want to take advantage of that because it sort of dies down closer to 12 months of age. This cup is excellent for teaching straw skills or helping a baby that’s struggling to get it down. It’s shaped like the honey bear you’ve seen at the grocery store with honey in it, and it’s squeezable. When you squeeze it, some of the liquid inside gets pushed up to the straw and hits the baby’s mouth. Then the brain goes, “Oh, I should suck that in.” I’ve never seen a baby not learn straw drinking from this cup. But I will say, parents shouldn’t try to make a cup like this at home from an actual honey bear, because of the connection between honey and botulism before 12 months of age.
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I mean, they’re washcloths. But I love to have really good washcloths around that are nice and absorbent and soft to clean up the mess that comes with starting solid foods. These are worth investing in; I usually had 10 to 20 of them on hand, because with twins I was washing two babies’ faces and cleaning up four arms and wiping up two high chairs several times a day.
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One of the best ways to help babies tolerate toothbrushing is by using your finger and kind of desensitizing them to having something in their mouth like that. These little brushes cover your finger and have little bumps on them to help simulate a toothbrush. Obviously, because most babies don’t have teeth at 6 months, you’re just gently rubbing the gum, but it really helps them get used to the sensation so down the line you’re not fighting with a toddler. Then when they’re used to the finger brush, you can start using the actual brush that comes in the set. If your baby or toddler really does not like having their teeth brushed, you can sit them on the edge of the sink with your arm wrapped around their waist and let them play with the water to give them something fun to do while you’re brushing their teeth.
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I think there is a fair amount of knowledge around the most common choking hazards, like string cheese, popcorn, and grapes, but I just wanted to put all of the information available plus tips on introducing allergens in one place, so parents don’t have to be researching all over on their own. The Solid Starts app teaches you how to introduce any food to your baby for their particular age and development phase. So whether it’s how to reduce the risk of choking with apples, which are on the list of the ten most common choking hazards for kids under 3, or how to introduce eggs, a common allergen among infants, the app walks you through every step, and the majority of the information is free. A paid subscription gets you a deeper, more guided experience that includes videos, an interactive foods tracker, 300-plus meal ideas, and tips from our pros.
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