Stress-Free Solids
A clear roadmap to start solids in a baby-guided way, using both finger foods and spoon feeding
Is this you?
You barely have time to feed yourself and do not have hours to spend in the kitchen or research online.
You feel overwhelmed at the thought of making changes (again) now that you’ve just adjusted to the biggest change in your life – having a baby!
You need easy steps, a roadmap to give you peace of mind and help your baby happily feed himself table foods and get enough nutrition.
You are not sure whether to try the Baby Led Weaning approach or start with purees.
I got a solution
As a Registered Dietitian, child nutritionist and mom, I spent the last 13 years researching, teaching and writing on the topics of complementary foods (and practicing with my 3 kids).
What parents often do not know is that there is no need to follow a rigid philosophy when starting solids. You do not need to choose between baby Led Weaning or puree based approach.
Instead, you can use the baby-guided approach, with safe finger foods to boost self-feeding skills and optional purees to keep the nutrition in check.
My complete online Stress-Free Solids program has everything you need to safely and easy start solids with your baby using this mixed approach, step by step.
What is Stress Free Solids?
Stress Free Solids is a predominantly video-based online course, enhanced by recipes, pdf printouts, meal plans and cheat sheets for a quick reference. It includes lots of pictures of food and videos of babies eating to show you how exactly to start solids.
You can take the course from your computer, tablet or phone and it will take you only a couple of hours to cover all you need to know to start feeding your little one solid foods.
You can take the course on your own time, no schedules, extensive reading or quizzes!
What is included?
Videos and downloads available on computers, tablets or phones.
Quick straight-to-the-point videos taking you through the process step-by-step. Videos of babies (6 to 15 months) eating both finger foods and purees, including videos of babies gagging.
Recipes, sample schedules and meal plans, cheat sheets and pdf summaries
Class content
1.What is the mixed approach to solids?
Benefits of BLW, spoon feeding and how to do the mix right.
2.Is your baby ready?
Signs of developmental readiness.
Why it’s important not to start solids too early.
What to do if your baby is past 6 months and does not not show the signs.
3.The foundations
Your role in feeding
Help your baby self-regulate
How to not get “pushy” with a spoon (video of baby eating)
Gagging vs choking
How to minimise the risk of choking
Foods to avoid before 12 months
When and how to introduce potential allergens (recent research guidance)
Signs of immediate vs delayed response allergic reactions
How to choose and serve drinks
Taste training – teaching your baby to like a variety
Also:
Lists of allergenic foods and ways to introduce them
List of choking hazards
CPR/First Aid materials.
4. Stress Free Solids – Step by Step
Step 1 – The First Tastes (from 6+ months).
Step 2 – Mixed Food and Textures (from 7+ months)
Step 3 – Pincer Grasp (from 8-11 months)
Step 4 – Eating like a big kid (from 10-12 months)
Each step includes:
Pictures of finger foods from all food groups
Videos of babies eating different textures
What your baby can do, breast/formula feeding, texture and self feeding, use of utensils, sample schedule, drinking, meal set up and behaviour.
Checklists/Recipes/Additional videos:
The fist meal checklist
Step by Step summary chart
Meal plans and sample schedules, including breastmilk and formula feeds
Snack ideas for babies from 10 months
COOKBOOK with 50+ recipes and meal ideas: Cooking for your baby and the whole family.
COOKBOOK: Easy finger food ideas
5. Nutrition for babies 6 to 12 months
Main nutrients to watch
List of nutritious foods to offer (as finger foods and purees)
Supplements your baby may need
6. Common issues and concerns
No interest in solids
Sudden drops in appetite
Baby stuffs too much food in their mouth
Food throwing
Reflux
I think my baby has a feeding problem
Food to help with constipation in babies
Ways to add calories to food
7. Useful Q&As
Rice cereal
What to order for a baby in restaurants
Puree pouches
Pieces of food in poop
Organic food
BONUSES:
Supportive online community
How to help your baby transition from purees to finger foods
The gear you need
Breastmilk, formula or milk – what happens after 12 months?
Vegetarian and vegan nutrition for babies, including recommended supplements
Stress-Free Solids program will help you to:
Know exactly which safe and nutritious foods to offer to your baby at first meals and as she grows.
See how babies learn to eat by watching videos of babies going through all the milestones ( 6 to 15 months).
Support your baby’s self-regulation and a healthy relationship with food from the first bite.
Get inspired by over 50 recipes and meal ideas.
Stay organized with sample schedules and mealplans.
Introduce more variety and help your baby develop adventurous taste buds without spending hours cooking or leaving $$$ in a grocery store.
There is so much differing advice out there – that’s the trouble with the Internet I think, everything you read touts something different as the best thing to do. So I found the mixed approach to starting solids really refreshing. Everything else I’d read was one extreme or the other.
The sample meal plans are very helpful to visualize how the day can be structured and how mealtimes should fit in. Another thing I found really helpful was the nutritional advice. A lot of the other information I have read was solely focused on taste or texture, but this added another dimension which (silly as it sounds) I hadn’t really considered.
The tables with the foods / nutrients and serving suggestions will be pinned up in the kitchen for inspiration!
The stress-free solids information is fantastic, I love your straight forward approach, it fits very well with my personality. I need more of a methodical “this is what you do and when” approach to this whole baby-raising adventure. I find so much of what is out there is go with the flow and it will figure itself out which just doesn’t work with my need to know where things are going next so thank you!
It is filled to the brim with everything I wondered about when I began solid foods with my baby. I love that the books walk you through the developmental stages a baby goes through when introducing solids.
The solid nutritional information and real-life advice really made the book useful for me. Though I have done some research of my own into healthy eating for babies, I learned a great deal after reading through it. I found it to be very comprehensive.
The information for feeding babies starts around the 6-month mark and continues on into early toddlerhood. Information was thorough, well researched, and easy to read and act on for busy Moms.
As a new Mom, I wasn’t sure about how much texture my baby could handle, this book provides a texture timeline that I found especially helpful. The breakdown of recipes by baby’s age was also great.
The recipes presented as really inventive and as healthy as can be! I am pretty good at coming up with ideas for cooking but this really expanded my thought process when it comes to cooking for my little one.
Natalia your recipes are the biggest success for my little girl!
We tried the Baby’s First Bolognese tonight and it was an absolute hit! I love the variety of ingredients in your recipes and how perfect each and every recipe is for babies that are beginning to manipulate their hands/fingers with more precision.
Willow is loving all of the things I’m trying from your ebook! As a first time mum, I wouldn’t have known that she could try things like herbs at her age but I’ve gained so much knowledge through your book and I really love how varied her diet is as a result. The amount of ingredients in each is perfect for the night’s feed and to pop plenty of little portions in the freezer as nutritious go-to’s when in a hurry.
Thanks so much for such a great resource.
About Natalia
Speaker at the International Conference of Child’s Eating Behaviour (UK), Women, Infants and Children (WIC) conferences and trainings (US)
Co writer of Baby Led Feeding cookbook (Amazon bestseller)
Co writer of Real Baby Food cookbook
Creator and presenter of professional continuing education child feeding courses at Dietitian Central
Registered Dietitian (accredited in US and UK)
MS in Nutrition Education, Columbia University, New York (US)
Founder and author at FeedingBytes.com
Registered Dietitian at YourFeedingTeam.com
Contributor to parents.com
Mom of three 💪🏾
I loved that you covered the most current research and included citations. I find that a lot of resources on the internet are quoting outdated information and recommendations, so I always want to double-check the author’s sources.
I discovered the class after we started solids, my daughter would not allow me to feed her purées so I started to look for more information. Once I started reading and listening to the videos, i felt that this one class had all of the information needed for a stress free start with solids. I wish I would’ve found it before we started solids.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I do not have time to cook baby food.
Neither do I! So I used the mixed approach with my two younger babies. I prepared a few super nutritious purees and fed them with a spoon. But most of the time, I adapted family meals and gave my babies lots of safe finger foods to practice self-feeding. This way, they got the nutrition they needed while learning to self-feed at a rate that worked for them. More and more feeding experts now recommend the mixed approach to start solids. And this is exactly what Stress Free Solids will show you how to do.
I want to try Baby Led Weaning, will your program help me?
This program gives you all you need to start solids with confidence, whether you are planning to use the Baby Led Weaning, puree approach or the mix. You see, I think that feeding should be ALWAYS child-led, at any age and regardless of the type of food the child eats. I am a supporter of the mixed approach, where smooth purees and spoon feeding are possible but optional. But even if you are planning to skip purees altogether you will still learn so many useful things from the program like how your baby’s self-feeding skills will be developing and which roadblocks to expect at each stage. And you will get lots of finger food ideas and recipes.
I want to do the traditional/puree approach, will your program be useful?
I think you NEED this program because it can help you and your baby get all the benefits of responsive, trust-based feeding while allowing her to move through feeding milestones at her unique speed. I recommend exposing your baby to different textures including finger foods from day one of starting solids while using smooth purees as a backup. This helps babies learn to self-feed quickly. Every week I am receiving dozens of emails from parents for whom the information I am sharing was THE resource they needed to move away from purees towards self-feeding a variety of textures and flavors.
I’ve already started my baby on solids. Is it too late for me to join the program?
Absolutely not! Especially if you are wondering about what would be the next milestone, feel that your baby is stuck on purees, need meal ideas to transition your baby to family foods or are looking to offer your baby more variety.
How long is the program?
Starting solids with your baby is a process, a fun journey without a definite end. Kids continue learning how to eat for many months and even years. When joining Stress-Free Solids you get access to all the materials and the closed Facebook community for 1 year. This should give you and your little one enough time to go through all the major transitions with the support of a child feeding professional.
I am still not sure… What else have you got?
I spent months researching, writing and recipe testing to create this resource for you. Then I collected feedback from other child feeding experts and parents and used it to make it even more useful and practical. But if you think it is not a good match for you, it would not feel right to me to keep your money.
Just drop me an email within 30 days of purchase and I will refund it 100%, no questions asked.
Did I miss anything important? If you have more questions, please email them to info@feedingbytes.com.
Thank you again for creating these resources! …these are the most practical tools I have come across – they gave me the information I needed to be educated and informed, as well as easy ways to implement this information in our crazy day. I also really appreciated that your approach is not one size fits all, which ended up being really reassuring, as an already overwhelmed new mom.
I have loved the recipes! The videos also debunked my idea of starting with only puree and only introducing a new food every 3 days. This has made my life easier and more fun. My baby is such a good eater and others are impressed with what he can handle. This class has also helped as an SLP to see in more detailed the stages that a child progresses through so that I can work on them with the children I serve.
AP