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Will starting solid foods early help your baby with catch-up weight? What if your baby is small or low on the growth chart, will solid foods help regaining weight? In today’s episode I’m joined by pediatric dietitian, Rosan Meyer, PhD, MSc to talk about why we don’t use food early on to support weight gain.

Rosan is a researcher and practitioner specializing in childhood nutrition, growth faltering, failure to thrive and pediatric allergies. In our interview she’s breaking down topics like how to interpret your baby’s growth chart and why starting solid foods early is not only unwise but also dangerous and will NOT help your baby with catch-up weight.

For parents who are getting pressure to start solid foods early for weight purposes, you’re really going to enjoy Rosan’s practical, down-to-earth suggestions about what to do INSTEAD.

SHOW NOTES

SUMMARY of episode

In this episode, I’m interviewing pediatric dietitian, professor, and researcher Rosan Meyer, PhD, MSc. Our conversation covered:

• How to interpret what your child’s normal growth rate is...and what to be wary about when reviewing your baby’s growth chart

• What is catch-up weight and how to be proactive about setting your baby’s weight goals with your practitioner

• Tips for shared decision making in setting forth a feeding plan for your baby

• Why starting solid foods early is not an appropriate suggestion for babies of low weight and how to augment breastmilk or formula to meet growth needs (...not food!)

  
  

LINKS from episode

• Rosan Meyer’s website for her pediatric nutrition practice Step by Step Kidz Nutrition is here 

• You can follow Rosan on Twitter here and Instagram here

• The video about obtaining infant length and height measurements Rosan mentioned in the interview is located here

  
  

WANT MORE BLW INFO?!

• SUBSCRIBE to the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy Podcast here - new episodes are released on Monday and Thursday and subscribing means you’ll never miss what’s new (+ you’ll get notified about special bonus episodes too!)

• FOLLOW Katie’s baby-led weaning Instagram page @babyledweanteam for daily video trainings - lots of great info on interpreting your baby’s feeding behaviors here too!

• SIGN UP for Katie’s free online workshop “BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS: How to get your baby to try 100 foods before turning 1 without you having to spoon-feed purees or buy pouches” - everyone on the free workshop gets a copy of the 100 FIRST FOODS LIST so you can focus on trying new (high iron!) foods that your baby CAN and WANTS to self-feed! Sign up for this week’s workshop times here.

TRANSCRIPT of episode