The Baby-Led Weaning & Daycare Dilemma: How to Make It Work
*An edited transcript from my podcast, First Bites: Baby-Led Weaning & Beyond from August 25th, 2023
Episode 12 Recap: So how exactly does BLW work with daycare?
This is a recap of the last episode of season 1 of my podcast. If you haven’t listened, be sure to head over and take a listen – it’s such a fun way to bring you content and I feel like I can share so much more information with you all there!
Some more big news: I launched my very first e-book this month! It’s a brand-new BLW serving guide to how to prepare all different kinds of foods for your little one starting at 6 months using the BLW serving methods. It has guides on over 130 different foods and how to serve them, plus some other helpful, printable guides on food allergies, choking hazards, food planning and more. I’ve already given my clients access to it and one of them voiced that she was super grateful for the little ‘call-out boxes’ at the bottom of each page. Those include information including how to add that food to a recipe, how to add additional nutrients, and more!
The inspiration for this episode stems from my friend, Akirah, who has twin girls that are a little bit over a year now. She has overcome a lot of anxieties surrounding, not just one mouth, but two. We all know how overwhelming the BLW process can be, and it can be particularly challenging to navigate this as it relates to daycare. It’s difficult because the feeding practices are often different than those at home, so it can be incredibly challenging to manage starting solids and ensure proper preparation too. At home, you’re able to guarantee food safety, preparation, and modeling good eating patterns.
A lot of moms neglect BLW entirely because they fear this daycare transition. They might feel like it is a burden to the daycare or have trouble trusting others with food safety there. Maybe this sounds familiar to you because you are sending your child to daycare or you have a family member or babysitter watching your baby and struggle to figure out how they are going to feed your baby too! I’ve heard so many people say that BLW is only for stay-at-home moms and babies, which is entirely untrue. It can totally be done in other situations, and many of my clients enrolled in my First Foods Academy and Toddler Foods Academy (my course and support/coaching combo programs), are sending their child to daycare a few times a week or are often trusting someone else to care for their child while they are gone. For families specifically using daycare or in-home care, we discuss several different strategies which cater specifically to each family’s needs. So far, all of the families I have worked with through this process are doing great. Sure, there are hiccups along the way, but we do a lot of troubleshooting with good planning strategies and open communication to ensure that BLW and daycare go hand-in-hand. While I do spend a lot of time figuring out how to make things work for each family’s specific daycare setting, I wanted to take some time to discuss the more general, overarching points that might be helpful to those getting ready to sen their child to daycare.
Tip #1 – Offer baby’s first meals at home
In the early stages of BLW, one solid meal per day is actually all that is needed. So, save this meal for when you are at hom e(maybe in the evening) so you don’t even have to worry about these foods until they are skilled. I recommend this method for the first 3-5 weeks or so, and then progress into adding a second meal while also dropping a breastfeeding or bottle session. So, if you can get a solid month or so of getting your baby acclimated to solid foods while also working on your own skills and confidence too, that can be huge for building confidence in this new setting.
Tip #2 – Have a conversation with one or more daycare staff members to discuss whether/not they support BLW
It will be so helpful to find out what they feel comfortable doing and if they have any experience with BLW as well. From the clients I’ve spoken to, some daycares will restrict the age at which they will support BLW for liability reasons, and others are more than okay with it and encourage it! Some daycares have even sent home information packets on BLW as well. You can also use a meeting time like this to discuss your expectations about allowing the baby to self-feed, including what types of cups and supplies you could send in.
Tip #3 – Understand where your comfort level is on having another person in charge of BLW in your absence
If you are apprehensive about having someone else help, you may have to search for your own confidence in this process first. A lot of times, the more you practice self-feeding in the comfort of your own home and you become aware of your child’s abilities, you can become more confident in what they can handle. I know that someone watching eight babies at a time in a daycare setting might not seem as diligent as you would be at home, but the more you practice, the easier it should be for you to trust. If you’re not ready for others to be in charge of your baby’s feeding, consider introducing that second meal at home first. Some of the families I work with have tried getting their babies up a bit earlier to do an early breakfast before daycare and then a dinner once they are home for the night. If that is too stressful during the week, consider trying 2 meals during the weekends for a few weeks. Then, you can check back in with your confidence and see how you’re feeling about transitioning this to daycare. Having a support system or coach here can be so helpful. I have guided a lot of moms through overcoming their fears of having others help their babies eat. It’s not just daycares, but also grandparents, aunts and uncles, and babysitters alike. A bit of a self-plug here, but I do think it is so helpful to have someone there to help increase your confidence in these times.
Tip #4 – Send familiar foods to daycare
Introducing new foods is fun and exciting, but it is definitely best to save this for home. Send in foods which you know your baby does well with and has had before for a few reasons: You know that they are not allergic to this food, and you know that they can handle that texture well. This way, you are confident that no allergic reaction will take place, and also that they are comfortable with the food and will want to eat it on their own. If they’re more likely to go after a food on their own, it decreases the risk for caregivers and teachers to feel the need to step in to pressure the baby or spoonfeed them. I don’t want to paint a negative picture here, but it is possible that they might see that they are not eating and will want to help. It is always a good bet to send familiar foods which you know your baby likes.
Tip #5 – Send BLW supplies to daycare with them
Whether it be plates, spoons, bowls, cups, or bibs, these supplies can ensure that the daycare has everything they might need to make the experience successful. Since we are potentially asking them to do something out of their norm, the most courteous thing you can do is to offer the supplies needed to ease their experience. You can use that first planning meeting to identify what you should supply and what they already have. I know some daycares use sippy cups and many families participating in BLW will opt for open cups or straw cups instead, so this can be a good opportunity to discuss different solutions.
Tip #6 – Plan ahead
Come up with a routine to plan out foods to send for the week so you know what you’re sending to daycare each day. This way, you won’t have any surprises or end up sending something baby hasn’t had yet or something they don’t do as well with. You could also look at the daycare’s weekly meal menu to see which meals they could actually partake in as well. Chances are, you might need to ask for some modifications to that menu or just ask for parts of the menu early-on based upon your baby’s ability and what they have had before. If you go in with a plan, you’re eliminating the chances of the daycare making these decisions for you.
A real BLW daycare experience:
Those are some of my tips! Now, I wanted to share some information with you on one of my clients, Kim, and her husband, Matt, who just recently went through this entire process. Their son started solids in early June. He started with purees and then switched their approach to BLW in June. They had been doing breakfast and dinners at home for the whole summer now, but now that Baby D is more skilled in using his pincer grasp, they decided it was time to start letting him eat foods in daycare with his friends. They reached out asking for my input on how to best make this work. They sent me a video of Baby D’s pincer grasp skills so I could assess his readiness for small bites of food, specifically because they only serve small bites at daycare. She also provided me with a few weeks of daycare menus.
After assessing the videos and menu, we decided to wait another week or two to give Baby D more practice on working with his pincer grasp. If you’re unfamiliar, the pincer grasp is the baby’s ability to use their pointer finger and thumb to pick up smaller pieces of food. When giving little pieces of food too early and they’re still using their palmar grasp to scoop the food with their hands, it can be a frustrating experience for baby. We decided to give him a little bit more time to let him further develop his skills. In the meantime, they started sending some earlier BLW foods cut into larger strips so that he could still eat with his friends while still holding off on some of the menu items. This time also allowed Kim and Matt some time to meet with the operations lead for their daycare to discuss what they wanted him to have from the menu, along with things they didn't want him to partake in.
Essentially, Kim and Matt used all of the tips we just discussed. They started serving Baby D meals at home so they could watch his skills grow and develop their own confidence in his eating gskills. They also planned ahead by talking with me, as their BLW coach and dietitian to get feedback on when Baby D was ready. They also looked in advance on the daycare menu to get a grip on what he would be eating. They also met with their daycare provider to figure out details, what supplies were needed, and make sure his safety was the number one priority. They also sent in some familiar foods that he was already comfortable with to help get him started.
If your daycare isn’t comfortable with BLW:
You can always use pre-packaged or homemade purees that mimic that of a naturally pureed texture, such as yogurt or hummus. Those are perfectly okay options to serve repeatedly until your baby and daycare provider gets more comfortable. Sometimes, with BLW, we tend to think that we cannot serve purees, but we actually want to make sure we allow them to master this texture so they can get comfortable with their spoon (or their hands!). I would recommend these natural purees and then you can save your true BLW meals for home. As a compromise, you could ask your provider to still ask them to self-feed instead of forcing them to be spoonfed or finish whatever you send so they can still get the opportunity to decide when they are still full or hungry. There is still room for compromise, so those meetings can be very helpful.
I hope you found these tips helpful! Remember that these tips can be very helpful for not only the daycare setting, but for other care providers and even spouses that may be less comfortable with feeding your baby. Ideally, your baby will be able to self-feed at all times so they don’t get in the habit of expecting others to feed them. But, we can still do so while serving what others may perceive as ‘safer’ versions of food.
Feeling like you’re still stuck and need customized help? Book your free discovery session with me today! We’ll chat about your needs, your fears, and what can make this journey work for YOU. I got you. ❤️
