Parenting
Food & Feeding
November 23, 2024
Starting your baby on solid foods can feel overwhelming. With so much information on baby’s first foods, feeding schedules, and how to introduce allergens, it’s easy to get lost in the details. But with the right guidance, introducing solids can be smooth and enjoyable for both you and your baby. We asked mompreneur Katie Thomson, co-founder of Square Baby and a Registered Dietitian, how to get started with solids. Let’s dive in!
Your baby might be eyeing your avocado toast, but how do you know if they’re truly ready to start solids? The transition to solids starts with knowing when your baby is ready. You should get this information at your baby’s four month well child visit, but the guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics is to look for these signs:
Here are some other signs and milestones to look for.
If this sounds like your baby, they may be ready to explore their first foods. Still unsure? Always check with your pediatrician to confirm your baby’s readiness. They will give you the final OK!
When starting your baby on solid foods, the AAP and experts at Square Baby recommend beginning with smooth purees. Purees are easy for young tummies to digest and help your baby get used to new flavors and textures without any choking risk.
Katie’s Tip: You don’t have to choose Purees -or- Baby Led Weaning. Many families find great success in a combination of both!
Parents are often torn between whether to start their baby on solids with the traditional purée approach or baby led weaning (BLW). Here’s a brief description of each approach:
The short answer: neither is inherently “better” than the other. Both methods offer their own unique benefits. And many families find success with “combo feeding” – incorporating purées and BLW as it fits into their lifestyle and daily meals.
“Parents often feel pressured to choose one method or the other, but you don’t have to. As with so many nutritional recommendations -- it's all about balance. You don't have to offer only purées. Nor should you feel the need to avoid purées altogether. It’s perfectly fine to mix and match—perhaps you offer purées at breakfast and allow your baby to self-feed at lunch. Or, use purées as a sauce, dip, spread, parfait topping, or even a popsicle teether! It’s about finding what works for your baby and your lifestyle. A hybrid approach may be best for your family -- allowing baby to explore various foods and flavors, practice with a spoon and self-feeding, explore their food, pay attention to their hunger cues, and enjoy a range of textures that will help with palate development."
- Katie Thomson, Registered Dietitian & Cofounder/CEO, Square Baby
We believe that parents should do what works for them. Not all babies will successfully take to finger foods or self-feeding when they are ready for solids (typically around 4-6 months). And some babies will be ready to move past the purée stage pretty quickly.
Learn more about BLW + Puree tips and tricks.
The AAP tells us to start solids with iron-rich foods like iron-fortified cereals or pureed meats. This is because the natural iron stores a baby is born with start to deplete. But let’s get practical. There are a variety of options ideal for baby’s first foods, all in a texture that’s safe and smooth.
Katie’s Tip: You can mix purees with baby cereal for added texture and taste.
Research like the LEAP, PETIT and EAT studies show that introducing allergens as early as 4-6 months may help prevent food allergies. This newish research supports introducing allergenic foods early and regularly, a practice known to help prevent allergies. Foods like peanuts, eggs, and dairy can be introduced as early as the baby’s first bites.
Katie’s Tip: Babies are not born with food allergies. They develop over time. And there’s research that guides how we can start preventing them today.
Remember, talk to your pediatrician before introducing allergens – especially if your baby has eczema or a family history of food allergies.
Here are a few helpful tips for the first feeding:
Katie’s Tip: Remember it often takes 10–15 tries before a baby accepts a new flavor. Building an adventurous palate is a process.
Let’s talk poop. Once your baby is eating solids, expect some changes in the diaper! Your baby’s poop will become more solid, with a stronger odor and color variations depending on the foods they eat. This is all part of their system adjusting to new textures and nutrients.
As a mom and a registered dietitian, Katie Thomson was fed up by the unbalanced, fruit-heavy options available for her baby. She wondered if her son was getting the right nutrition for his growing body and feared he’d grow up craving sweets and denying veggies. She was frustrated by the misleading marketing that made parents feel like they were buying a balanced meal (but often duped by loads of applesauce with a sprinkling of superfoods).
She wanted to alleviate every pain point she felt when choosing foods for her baby.
So she created the Square Meal System® to take the guesswork out of feeding baby the best, balanced nutrition.
She wanted to offer customizable nutrition. Offering meals that are easily tailored to your baby’s age/stage and various dietary needs. Vegan? Gluten-Free? Dairy-Free? Need Extra Iron? Rest assured you can choose any 2-3 Square Meals/day and know you’re offering baby 100% of their daily recommended fruits, veggies, whole grains, & protein.
We offer a wide variety of healthy fats, veggies, and protein sources often lacking in the baby food aisle. Our proteins include organic chicken bone broth, salmon, nuts, eggs, whole milk Greek yogurt, soy and legumes. We offer healthy fats like avocado oil for baby’s brain development – and introduce herbs/spices and unique fruits/veggies to help babies develop an adventurous palate.
And they’re fresh and delicious! Our organic purees are made fresh with no additives or preservatives. The purees are quickly frozen to lock in nutrients and freshness – and delivered straight to your doorstep.
Transparency and testing is essential – especially for baby food. Square Baby is proud to partner with local and sustainable farms and suppliers that are known to have healthier soils with fewer heavy metals, naturally. They also test all of our meals (in their packaging) to make sure they’re always offering the highest-quality and safest foods for your family.
After rigorous, 3rd-party lab testing for heavy metals, plasticizers, pesticide residues, and over 400 other contaminants - Square Baby is proud to have earned Clean Label Project’s Purity Award!
Square Baby takes the guesswork out of feeding by creating meals that meet the AAP’s guidelines - now that is the definition of pediatrician approved! They have a special Square Meal System™ that ensures your baby’s daily diet includes all essential food groups. Each meal provides a mix of fruits, veggies, protein, and grains to meet your baby’s daily needs.
Bonus, our meals introduce a variety of flavors and textures, promoting palate development and encouraging adventurous eating from an early age.
They are the only baby food company to offer an allergen introduction menu including 8 Top Allergens – making allergen introduction easy, safe, and delicious!
Did you know only about 10% of children consume the recommended daily amount of vegetables. Square Baby is a proud founding member of Partnership for a Healthy America’s “Shaping Early Palates” initiative and integral in the development of the “Veggies Early & Often” campaign and logo.
In addition to 100% Daily Nutrition, they also commit to having more VEGGIES than any other food group in every meal. They are doubling down on this commitment to raise the next generation of veggie-lovers and their new flavor launches will have even more veggie content than before.
Get your fresh baby food delivered to your door? Yes please! We offer different subscription options that take the stress out of baby meal planning. Our baby food packages live in the freezer. When you’re ready, dethaw in the fridge and they can hang there sealed for 4 weeks. You can cancel and pause anytime - we are really here to help make feeding your baby easy and stress-free!
They go above and beyond for every ingredient – working with local, sustainable, and family-owned farms. Plus, Square Baby is committed to Animal Welfare and Ethical Sourcing of their proteins. They currently source 100% of our organic chicken bone broth from farms that have earned Global Animal Partnership (GAP) certification.
And how about their award-winning, sustainable packaging! Their new custom containers are BPA- and phthalate-free – and made from 100% post-consumer materials. And they deliver their frozen meals in a compostable cooler box with dry ice (no styrofoam or plastic cold packs!)
Once you and your baby are ready, you can mix the purees as a sauce into pasta, oatmeal, or quinoa - or use as a dip, spread, or yogurt topper. My favorite quick recipes are:
Ready to start your baby’s solid food journey? Use code VILLIE25 for 25% off your first order, and let Square Baby help you and your baby take on this new adventure with confidence!
