Content Creator Celia Prawita100 First Foods : What is It and the Benefits
When your child is ready to move to solid food, it can be the most exciting and scariest feeling. If you’re unsure of what food to give your child on your baby-led weaning journey, you might want to check 100 First Foods. One hundred might seem overwhelming, can a baby actually eat that many varieties of food? Turns out, yes, babies can eat more types of food than we first thought. If you’ve never heard of this approach before, no worries, we’ll
So, what is 100 First Foods?
In short, it is the approach of introducing your child to 100 different foods. If that sounds a lot to you, imagine feeding them 100 different foods before your child turns one! But according to Katie Ferraro, this is very much achievable. Of course, while achievable, that’s not the main goal. It’s never about rushing your baby or racing with others.
The goal of 100 First Foods is to introduce your child to varieties of food, different flavours, textures, colours. The best thing is this approach may help them to be less likely to be picky as a toddler! According to Katie Ferraro, most babies might have only eaten 10 to 15 varieties of food when they turn one. This approach won’t eliminate picky eating entirely, your child will have some degree of picky eating especially in their second year of life. But, with the 100 First Foods approach, if your child doesn’t like some foods, you’d have many more choices to fall back to.
This is also taking advantage of the “flavour window”, a period between 4 to 18 months where children are more likely to accept new flavours. Children who have been introduced to new varieties of food are also more willing to try other new foods. This means, what they eat early on can affect their food preference in life (in fact, as early as in the womb!)
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How to do the 100 First Foods?
Katie Ferraro based her 100 First Foods approach on her 5-Step Feeding Framework. It means that you will be giving your child one new food each day, 5 days per week. The food offered will be:
- 1 new fruit
- 1 new vegetable
- 1 new starchy food
- 1 new protein
- 1 new allergenic food/challenge food
On Monday to Thursday, you’ll be introducing low-risk food and on Friday will be new allergenic food as well as other food that has trickier texture and more complex flavours that babies aren’t always exposed to. Feed the food given on Friday, on Saturday and Sunday as well or cycle back to familiar food that the baby has had before. This will give a two - three days pad to see any reaction to the food given on Friday. Using this approach, you’ll get 20 foods per month and then in 5 months, you’re reaching those 100 marks!
Of course, you can always adapt this approach to your preferences and your child’s needs. Afterall, it’s not about who reaches the finish line first, it’s about introducing the wide, big world of flavours!
Are you planning or already doing the 100 First Foods approach? What’s your experience? We’d love to hear your thoughts!
Wondering what food you should NOT introduce to your toddler? We got you covered!
Read the article and more about baby-led weaning and parenting on our blog and check out our instagram @bibadosg!
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Disclaimer : The statements on this blog are provided for educational purposes only. The author does not in any way guarantee or warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any message and will not be held responsible for the content of any message. Always seek advice from a qualified health care provider for any question or medical advice.
