This week we’re talking about baby food: when to introduce solid foods, which ones are best, and how to do it. Our expert, Jenny Best, founder of Solid Starts, says that for the most part, everything you’ve learned from your parents or read online is probably incorrect! Prepare to have your mind blown. 

ASK AN EXPERT: Introducing new foods to your baby 

We sat down with Jenny Best, the Founder of Solid Starts, A Baby Food Revolution. The Solid Starts team consists of parents, feeding therapists, swallowing specialists, pediatricians, an allergist, pediatric dietitians, lactation consultants, and a nutritionist. To learn more, check out their website, Instagram, or brand-new app.

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What is the overarching theme that parents need to know when it comes to feeding their babies? 

Everything you’ve been told or learned from your parents or read is probably incorrect. And I hate to add more anxiety to an already anxious moment in parenting. There’s just very little evidence supporting the traditional ways of starting solids, which are spoon-feeding and texture-less purees, in fact, there’s no evidence. There are no developmental reasons for starting solids with a jar of baby food vs. something you mashed at home.

How did this way of thinking start? 

I think we’re all products of our parents, and our parents are products of their parents, and the last two generations were heavily marketed to by baby food companies who had one goal– to make money, and to keep your child on their product as early as possible and then keep them on through toddler foods. 

So I want to invite people to start questioning what they know and are told because the science around all this is rapidly changing. Most of the recommendations you’re going to find from institutions around the world are severely outdated. 

To start, when do you suggest parents first introduce solid food? 

Generally, most babies are ready around 6 months of age, but we like to look at developmental readiness instead of age. One of those is the ability to sit independently (for about a minute). Having core strength is really important for a smaller, fine muscle movement in the throat and reaching and grabbing of the arms. 

Imagine an infant that can’t hold their head up or bopping around in the high chair, falling forward. These are not conditions for safe eating. 

Which foods do you recommend people start with? 

We love looking at foods that act like tethers, and this is really going to blow your mind for a minute. We’ve been conditioned to think the only and best first food is something like rice cereal, something that has zero texture and is bland in taste and primarily delivered on a spoon from the caregiver into the child’s mouth. This is completely unnecessary. 

What our experts say is to start with resistive, unbreakable foods like a mango pit or corn on the cob with most of the kernels cut off, or dare I say, a spare rib or meat on the bone. 

WHAT?!?! 

There are some more approachable ones for your audience as well. For example, cutting an apple in half and boiling it without skin, and letting the baby hold it with two hands is a great first food. We love greek yogurt because it sticks to the spoon really nicely, as opposed to dripping everywhere. I love hummus because it also sticks to the baby’s fingers. So things that are naturally mashed or come that way, like a mashed potato. 

We love setting mashed potatoes in front of an infant and letting them scoop them with their hands and eating that way. Half an avocado and a banana are also great. 

What’s the basic science behind these types of food? 

These things blow peoples’ minds because it’s not quote-unquote baby food, but these resistive foods hold up in an infant’s hand better than any other food and provide a lot of safe sensory input into the mouth, which helps the brain make a mental map of baby’s mouth.

Editor’s Note: A big thanks to Jenny Best for taking the time to chat with us. Next week she walks us through the best way to spoon-feed your baby (if that’s how you’re most comfortable), and why finger foods are so important. To learn more, check out Solid Starts’ website, Instagram, or brand-new app.