SENSE BY MEG FAURE
Season 8 | Episode 214
Air Date: 11 June 2026
Your Baby’s Feeding Masterclass: What Every Parent Needs to Know (But Nobody Tells You)
Host: Meg Faure (Occupational Therapist, Author, Parenting Expert)
Guest: Kath Megaw (Clinical Paediatric Dietitian, Founder of Nutripaeds)
INTRODUCTION
[00:00 – 03:06]
MEG FAURE:
Every parent has been there. It doesn’t matter how old your baby is, there has been a moment in which you have second-guessed yourself around your baby’s feeding. If they were a newborn, are they getting enough? If they’re a toddler, why won’t they eat their vegetables? And of course, panicking with those very first gag reflexes, then googling at midnight whether or not to start solids and whether it’s too early or too late.
We’ve all had these questions and, in actual fact, I think feeding is one of the trickier areas of early parenting. So I always rely on Kath Megaw, a paediatric dietitian, to bring the sense and the wisdom into feeding conversations. I believe that she’s one of the most trusted voices in baby and toddler nutrition, and this conversation is an incredible one. I structured it quite differently. I wanted to make sure that we covered everything for everyone, and so we look at different age bands. For each age band, newborn, baby, toddler, I took the most common questions that came up.
In the newborn weeks, one of the big questions is, is my baby actually getting enough? And in fact, that’s one of the reasons why parents often give up breastfeeding, because they’re not sure if their baby is having enough. So Kath and I look at what are the reliable signs for that. Then of course, we look at weaning, because the big question is when is the right time to start weaning your baby, and we look at the science and how you can really know whether your baby is ready.
For older babies, we look at gagging versus choking, because I think every single one of us has had a baby gag and wondered, are they going to survive it? We talk about the difference between gagging and choking, and you will never look at gagging the same way after this conversation. And then of course we go into the picky toddlers. We talk about how little a toddler can eat and what you can do to get your toddler eating better. And then we go down a myth-busting route, looking at all the big myths that persist around feeding at the moment.
So this is almost like a feeding masterclass, the practical science-backed information that you need to feed your baby. So do hit play, don’t go away. Please do subscribe to Sense by Meg Faure and do share this, because it’s a really useful podcast for any mum.
Welcome to Sense by Meg Faure, where we make sense of the science and art of parenting. Parenting is grey, gritty and beautiful all at once. My life’s work as a healthcare professional is helping parents feel more confident in a season that can feel really overwhelming. In each episode, we share honest conversations with real mums, dive into the science with experts, and simply make sense of it all in practical ways. This is your space. You’re not alone. You’re held. So let’s unpack the journey of a lifetime with Sense.
So we have Kath with us here today. Welcome, Kath.
[03:07 – 03:09]
KATH MEGAW:
Hi Meg, thanks for having me.
RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS
[03:10 – 04:20]
MEG FAURE:
It’s always good to have you. And of course, today we are getting very deep on the subject of nutrition and diet for little ones. I thought we’d cover everything from birth all the way through to toddler, so there’s something for everyone. I’m going to kick off with five rapid-fire questions. As far as possible, Kath, if you can stick to a yes or no, or if it’s too difficult, one phrase to substantiate what you’re saying. Are you ready?
KATH MEGAW:
I’m ready.
MEG FAURE:
Question number one: Should every baby be on a probiotic?
KATH MEGAW:
No.
MEG FAURE:
Question two: Is formula feeding ever a better choice for a baby?
KATH MEGAW:
Yes. For children who have specific nutritional inborn errors of metabolism or something like that.
MEG FAURE:
Excellent. Number three: Can a toddler survive nutritionally on only five foods?
KATH MEGAW:
Yes.
MEG FAURE:
That would have a lot of moms breathing a sigh of relief. Number four: Should parents ever use food as a reward?
KATH MEGAW:
No. Never.
MEG FAURE:
And number five: Is a vegetarian diet safe for babies under one?
KATH MEGAW:
Yes, if done with appropriate help and advice.
MEG FAURE:
I love it, Kath. I think we have definitely given people some food for thought. So now I want us to start looking at different age bands. I’ve broken this down into the four main phases where the big questions come up: the newborn milk phase, the weaning window, the six to twelve month age band, and the toddler.
AGE BAND 1: NEWBORN MILK PHASE
[04:21 – 08:12]
MEG FAURE:
Let’s kick off in the first six weeks. Our most important nutrition at that stage is milk. And in those first few weeks, every mom is obsessing over whether or not their baby is having enough. It’s the most common question: is my baby getting enough food? What is the single most important thing that moms in this window need to know?
KATH MEGAW:
I think the important thing is: is your baby growing? Is your baby gaining weight adequately and growing in height? Is your baby passing enough stools and having enough wet nappies? Those are the fundamental questions a mom would ask herself, and she could be at peace if she can say yes to those questions.
MEG FAURE:
I think it’s very tricky at that time, because moms are often feeling like their babies are not getting enough because their baby is crying quite a bit. What I’m hearing you say is that rather than watching your baby’s mood or state, you’re looking for growth signals. Does mood and state come into it? Does sleep come into it? Or is it really just all about how your baby is growing?
KATH MEGAW:
Babies are trying to figure the world out, and crying is not necessarily a sign that they are hungry. It will be one of the ways they communicate hunger. But when you feed them and they are still crying, it’s not necessarily a sign that they need more food or that they’re not getting enough. You would have to couple any behavioural observations with the growth, the wet nappies, and the passing of stools. Those are your objective ways of assessing whether your baby is getting enough in. Your subjective measure is whether your baby is settling, but that alone is not sufficient.
MEG FAURE:
If I’m a mom at home and I’m worried about weight and growth, I’m obviously not able to measure them in the same way as at a clinic. Should I be getting them weighed regularly? And what if I can’t get there?
KATH MEGAW:
Ideally, if you are a first-time mom, I would really recommend getting your baby weighed in the first week, then weekly for the first few weeks. After six weeks, every two weeks, and then by three months you can go to once a month. That would be most ideal.
If your baby is having about six to eight wet nappies a day and comfortably passing stools daily, that is a good sign. Breastfed babies might pass lots of stools in a day, or they might pass one stool in a week. That is also normal. To assess whether your baby is growing without weighing is quite hard, especially for a first-time mom. But if you are exclusively breastfeeding and you’re happy that your baby is making enough wet nappies, that will definitely put your mind at rest. Ideally, I would really recommend a mom going to get her baby weighed.
AGE BAND 2: THE WEANING WINDOW
[08:13 – 14:36]
MEG FAURE:
So we’ve got some parameters there for moms. You are going to look at your baby’s state, combine that with how many wet nappies they’re having and whether they are passing stools. And then obviously, you’re going to do the weighing. Let’s move on to the next age band, the weaning window. The guidance on when solids can be introduced has parents very confused. Some babies really do feel ready at four months, and I certainly had that with some of my own babies. And yet science will often say breast is best until six months. How does a parent know when the right time to introduce solids is?
KATH MEGAW:
I think firstly, if you take out all the noise, moms are often spot on. They often just have the sense that their baby is showing interest in food. We always encourage from about three months, start eating around your baby quite proactively. That’s often the stage where the baby is waking up, out of their fourth trimester, and starting to experience the world more interactively. You can actually observe the interaction with you around food.
They might start to show real interest. They may seem more hungry, desiring more and more milk feeds. If that’s the case, meet their needs with milk feeds first. Increase the frequency of feeding, because you are not going to quickly sort that out with solids.
A baby that can sit supported, not necessarily unsupported, but with some good neck control, is very helpful when starting the solid journey. That shows readiness from a gross motor point of view. So: interest in food and the world, ability to sit supported with fairly good neck control, and being past the age of four months. Physically, we do know that their bodies and their little systems do better after four months.
I also want to add: a reason not to start solids is to try and fix stuff. Don’t try and fix sleeping with solids. Don’t fix reflux with solids. Don’t fix poor growth with solids. Get those things right with your healthcare professional and your milk feeds. Rather start solids to teach your baby about food, how to eat, and the joy of a variety of different flavours, tastes and textures. That is the purpose of solids.
MEG FAURE:
I love that, Kath. Parenting wisdom comes in three buckets: the science, the cultural influences, and the mother’s or father’s gut feeling. The science does tell us quite a lot. Simple things like your baby needs to be able to hold their head up and sit somewhat supported. They need to have an interest in food. There also seems to be quite a firm line in the sand around not introducing solids before 17 weeks. But the science does not give us a definitive date.
That’s when cultural wisdom and maternal gut feeling come in. Cultural wisdom does differ depending on where in the world you are raising your child. And there have been massive shifts in the last 100 years. As long as they are not flying in the face of science, those variations are valid.
And then of course, the overriding one you alluded to is the mother’s gut and the father’s gut. As you said, nine times out of ten, you actually know when your baby is ready.
AGE BAND 3: SIX TO TWELVE MONTHS – GAGGING vs CHOKING
[14:37 – 20:46]
MEG FAURE:
One of the things that really comes up in the six to twelve month age band is the question around gagging and choking. It absolutely terrifies parents. The first time they see their baby’s tongue go out and their body kind of heave, they think their baby is going to die, that they must be choking. Especially when we talk about baby-led weaning, where babies are encouraged to have whole foods rather than purees. Can you give a bit of wisdom to moms around what gagging is, what choking is, when to worry?
KATH MEGAW:
Gagging is a very protective and developmental process, something that all babies will experience at some point. The difference between gagging and choking: gagging is very loud, very pronounced, very active. Baby is active in the process of gagging. Whereas with a choke, baby gets very quiet and generally goes limp. It is remarkably eerie, seeing a baby go from very active to suddenly very quiet, with lips turning blue.
I would say 99.9% of babies will gag numerous times. Some babies gag more than others. Choking is much, much less frequent, and it’s something we seldom see when parents are actively involved in the feeding process. So it’s not something to fear, it’s something to be aware of.
With baby-led weaning, it works better when the baby is a bit older, because the baby needs certain developmental skills to take food to the mouth. The gag reflex becomes less pronounced as time goes on. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start introducing textures earlier. Let them taste, lick your apple, squish a bit of banana and put it in their mouth. That’s all part of the solid journey. It doesn’t have to be a set-in-stone organised meal.
I think we should be careful not to become too camp in one zone or the other. Parents often have a real knowing of what works for their baby and what works for them. I’ve had some parents who say to me they just could not face messy eating. And so that parent might be more comfortable with spoon feeding. That’s okay. It’s about what’s going to work for you as a family.
If you’re a very engaged parent at mealtime, your baby’s chance of choking is very unlikely. Your baby’s chance of gagging is very likely. When they gag, observe, watch, and calmly help them navigate the food in their mouth. If you are very anxious about choking, choose foods that are bite-dissolvable, foods they can suck on, very mushy foods. That will take away your anxiety, which is also a very important part of the whole process.
MEG FAURE:
Parents’ anxiety and emotions have a very massive layer over this. I’ve had moms on the podcast who could never have gone down the route of baby-led weaning because they were just so anxious around choking. That’s valid. I love what you said about choking not being a very regular occurrence, while gagging actually is. Gagging is common, and actually it’s a reflection that your little one is learning, navigating textures, and developing. Reframing those road bumps as something positive rather than something to be avoided is so helpful.
AGE BAND 4: THE PICKY TODDLER
[20:47 – 28:57]
MEG FAURE:
We move on to the toddler years. This is a very common question around how much variety toddlers need. We alluded to it in the rapid-fire questions. If we do have toddlers who are refusing to eat and maybe limiting themselves to only five foods, generally white foods like breads, pastas, and yoghurts, is this a phase? Does it have to do with personality? Is it a nutritional problem? Or is this simply a power struggle that needs to be navigated?
KATH MEGAW:
Toddlers will definitely go through picky eating phases. It’s part of their job description. It’s part of their cutting the umbilical cord and realising there’s a lot of power in the eating space. That is normal. We need to normalise it.
The second thing: don’t get swept away with the anxiety that your toddler is going to starve. If your toddler lives in a home where there is access to food and food is around numerous times in the day, the chance of your toddler starving is highly, highly unlikely. This is for a neurodevelopmentally typical developing toddler.
According to the American Academy of Paediatrics, they encourage breastfeeding up until three years of age. Toddlers do still need a form of nutritious milk until three years of age. Including that towards the end of the day is nice to fill the gaps for everything that wasn’t eaten during the day.
Offer multiple opportunities but not consistent feeding all day. We have to be very careful of the toddler grazing the whole day. Toddlers thrive on routine. They can expect to know what’s coming and when. It gives them multiple opportunities to eat when they are genuinely hungry.
You don’t have to give an abundance of food because their little tummies are small, but their attention spans are even smaller. They lose interest in food very quickly because for them it’s just an activity. It’s very normal that they will fixate on a food group. They generally go for what’s easy.
If you want the more challenging foods, they often do better with those early on in the day. Even leftovers of supper for breakfast is a very good option. By the end of the day, toddlers have had a lot of information coming at them all day. They are not in the space to try a whole lot of new sensory experiences with food.
Toddlers will often eat well at school in a social space. When they come home, you don’t have to redo a whole big balanced meal. A smoothie bowl, porridge, a boosted yoghurt bowl. Something easy for their tummies before bed.
I really want to say to moms: don’t get so anxious about your toddler’s lack of eating that you end up giving them very non-nutritious foods just because you want them to eat. When a toddler tastes artificial sugar and salt, they are going to lose their taste for good fruits and vegetables. But they can very quickly unlearn habits. So if you’ve fallen into that trap, you can undo it just as quickly.
MEG FAURE:
A lot of what you’ve said today is about the learning process in feeding babies and toddlers for their palates. The weaning window is not about nutrition, it’s more about experience and learning. The same is true of the toddler. Their palates learn a certain approach, they start to associate certain things as safe or unsafe, flavoursome or not. We really do train our little ones. And we have this window of opportunity in the early years to do that.
I love the fact that you said we can always start again. A lot of parents really think they’ve lost the battle if they’ve got a three-year-old who is a picky eater. They haven’t. The one thing I want to clarify: you said the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends milk until three years old. The problem with a picky eater is that we can get into a cycle of filling them up with milk and saying, well, the milk is taking care of all the nutrition. But we’re actually killing their appetite for solids. How do we get that balance right? How much milk for a toddler?
KATH MEGAW:
Milk should form about 25% of a toddler’s nutrition. So 75% we would want from food. That might be a small morning milk cup or breastfeed, and then a cup of milk or breastfeed at the end of the day. I would not include it at night. Dentally, there are many reasons why we wouldn’t want to do that for teeth. And then during the day is food time. That would be an easy way for a mom to know her boundaries when it comes to milk. It is still important and should still be present in their diet.
MYTH BUSTING: ALLERGEN INTRODUCTION
[28:58 – 03:02 Part 2 / ~30:00 – 35:00 total]
MEG FAURE:
Another myth that does the rounds, particularly on social media: you have to introduce one food at a time and wait three days between each food. True or false, Kath?
KATH MEGAW:
False. Can you imagine how long it would take us to get every food into the diet?
MEG FAURE:
What does the current evidence actually say about how swiftly we should be introducing new foods?
KATH MEGAW:
For non-allergens, your veggies and fruits, you can introduce one or two new ones a day. There is no rule. It’s based on your baby’s keenness and eagerness. The more eager your baby is, the more you’re going to be encouraged. We call this responsive feeding.
With regard to allergen foods, the old guidance of waiting three days is still a reasonable approach. But the new evidence is actually showing that we can introduce a new allergen food as fast as every two days, or even every 24 hours. You don’t need to wait for the delay because it’s the immediate reactions that we’re really concerned about and worried about.
MEG FAURE:
I had also heard that the reaction is not usual on the first introduction, it’s normally on the second or subsequent introductions, when the body has had the ability to actually mount a response. Is that no longer true?
KATH MEGAW:
If your baby is going to have an IgE response, they generally will have some reaction within the first two hours of having that allergen. For an IgE response, it will get subsequently worse with repeated exposures.
MEG FAURE:
When you’re talking about an IgE response, what sort of reactions are mums looking for?
KATH MEGAW:
An IgE response that you would not want to re-give that food prior to speaking to your paediatrician would be: vomiting, quite violent and forceful; or explosive diarrhoea, and they’ll have that quite quickly. So within two hours, the body wants to clear itself. Or breaking out in hives on the skin. It’s not a missed reaction, it’s not like ‘oh, is the baby having a reaction?’ It’s very obviously in your face. That will generally happen within the two to three hour mark of ingesting the food.
CLOSING
[~35:00 – 37:11 total]
MEG FAURE:
Very interesting, Kath. That is amazing. It has been an incredible podcast. Thank you so much. I mean, I had many more questions that I was going to work through with you, but as usual, you and I have run out of time. So I think you’ve left people with incredible wisdom. But I’d like something just from your heart. If there are parents listening and you want them to take away just one thing from this conversation, one thing that would generally change how they feed their little one, what would that be?
KATH MEGAW:
I think it would be to follow their gut, to follow their instinct, and to respond to their baby. I’m really becoming quite keen on the whole concept of listening and responding. I think in any part of our life, but when it comes to feeding our baby, we listen with our eyes and with our ears to what our baby is showing us, the cues they’re giving us, and then we respond to that. And I think if we do that in the feeding space, you will have a lot more joy in the feeding, a lot more fun in the feeding, a lot more success with feeding.
MEG FAURE:
I really love it, Kath. That’s wonderful advice. Moms and dads, if you’re listening to that, you might sometimes feel like it’s hard to hear your gut because there’s a lot of other noise. But I think if you stop for long enough and you think about how you’re feeling, you probably are right. Your gut response is probably the right way to go. So thank you, Kath, for layering the science down for us.
Moms and dads, remember that you will always hear the science from the lens of your culture and your value system and the society you’re in. And over that, you’re going to listen to your own gut. If you get those three pieces right, you’ll be well on your way to feeding your little ones.
So Kath, thanks again for joining us. Thank you for joining me today. I hope today’s conversation brought you a little more clarity, calm and confidence on your parenting journey. If you enjoyed the episode, please do share it with a friend who needs to hear it today, and also go and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss out on an episode. I’ll be back next week with another episode, same time, same place, and always here to support you. And in the meantime, download the Parent Sense app to take the guesswork out of feeding, sleep, weaning, routines and everything in between.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
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