The Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy Podcast is LIVE!
If you’re a podcast person just starting solids with your baby…then I created my brand new podcast for YOU! Here’s a little rundown of the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast launch and what’s in store for you…
Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy
As a dietitian with over 20 years experience, I’ve been working exclusively in baby-led weaning for almost 4 years now.
I absolutely LOVE helping families raise independent eaters and prevent picky eating using baby-led weaning.
And while my Instagram page @babyledweanteam has been my main platform for BLW content creation for the past 2 years, I’m personally a HUGE podcast fanatic and have wanted to use this medium to help share tips on getting a SAFE start to solid foods for sometime now.
You probably agree, but I think so much about raising babies and children is made overly complex for absolutely no reason. Especially when it comes to starting solids…so I’ve made it my personal - and professional mission to help simplify the very crucial transition from breastmilk and/or formula to starting solid foods - and to make BLW safe and simple to implement in your family.
You guys are an incredible community and I love getting feedback about how my workshops and courses and training videos all help make baby-led weaning EASY…so the podcast kind of named itself: Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy!
Survey Says…Podcasts!
I have 7 kids age 5 and under plus a full time job running my online BLW nutrition communications business. So my housework situation - and I am not ashamed in the least to admit this - is admittedly, a disaster.
I’m talking hours of after-bedtime dishes and laundry and just picking up stuff my kids leave everywhere. And I honestly don’t mind it…but ONLY if I have my headphones in and I am listening to a podcast while I trudge through some of the more mundane aspects of motherhood.
When I was pregnant with my quadruplets at the end of 2015 I got REALLY into podcasts. I was never put on bedrest, but I basically didn’t move for the last 20 weeks of my 34 week quadruplet pregnancy. And every hour I wasn’t taking care of my 18-month-old daughter Molly (…ok, also sometimes when I was :) I was listening to a podcast to try to stay distracted from the terror I felt about giving birth to 4 babies at once.
But over 4 years late - and with those 4 little babies now really loud rambunctious preschoolers - my love of podcasts has endured.
And I was curious if my audience listens to podcasts as routinely as well…so my team and I surveyed our email list and Instagram following to get an idea of how you guys listen to podcasts…
The results were so interesting (…especially devoted interest in “how to get the yogurt off the walls” 😂)
Even though we launched the podcast at the height of the coronavirus quarantine, I was surprised to learn so many moms are listening to podcasts while still commuting to work. I assume they are essential workers and I am so in awe that they are still prioritizing introducing new foods to their babies despite everything going on in the world around us 🙌
And since we’ve launched this podcast, I’ve gotten a ton of comments that you guys are listening on your way to and from work…but also while doing dishes and folding laundry and nursing and walking your babies….so I hope it’s a platform that is convenient and that the content is valuable and useful for you and your babies.
While Instagram is and always will be such a great platform for visual teaching, I’m really looking forward to the story-telling aspect that a podcast can provide. I have learned so much from YOU guys and YOUR experiences and the podcast is such a great way to share your stories and help support other parents and caregivers going through the same ups and downs of baby-led weaning too.
Giveaway Time!
To really help kick off the launch of the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast, our team hosted a huge giveaway for 3 lucky winners. The giveaway winners received a prize package containing “Everything You Need to Get a Safe Start to Solid Foods” and it featured some of my favorite brands in baby-led weaning.
The prize package included:
A Nomi high chair - my absolute favorite chair for BLW both at home and in my work
An ezpz First Foods Set - their Tiny Bowl, Tiny Cup & Tiny Spoons are ideal for self-feeding
A BapronBaby Bapron Bib & Splash Mat - must haves for minimizing mess when starting solids
Lifetime access to my digital program The Self-Feeding Baby: a step-by-step digital blueprint for how to start BLW safely with over 100 BLW recipes
It was so fun being able to select and let the 3 lucky mom winners (Jessica, Amanda & Mollie) know they had this prize package coming their way. Each is just about to start baby-led weaning with their babies Sadie, Donnie & Woody and I can’t wait to see them try all of their new foods!
A special thanks to these fabulous brands for supporting the launch of the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast. You can get 10% off ezpz products at ezpzfun.com and 10% off bapronbaby.com using the same code KATIE10.
Launch Mode
I wanted to time the launch of the podcast just before Mother’s Day and we released the first 20 episodes on May 4, 2020.
The coronavirus quarantine has certainly been ROUGH on a lot of families…but one of the silver linings has been the opportunity for more parents to be at home with their babies during the crucial phase of their babies learning how to eat.
We did a massive 10-Day BLW Pantry Challenge before the podcast launch and it was so inspiring to see all of these parents continuing to try new foods despite COVID-19.
That momentum from the pantry challenge carried over into the podcast launch and by the end of the first week after the podcast went live, we were in the #2 trending spot in Parents category on Apple podcasts which was so cool!
Tune In Twice a Week…
If you want to catch everything that is going on in the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast, we created a separate website with all of the episodes and show notes and podcast-related news. You can the podcast website out at www.blwpodcast.com.
New episodes of the BLW podcast drop twice a week: on Mondays and on Thursdays. You can subscribe on every major podcast listening platform, or be directed to the one already pre-loaded on your device.
I’ve had a lot of questions about the podcast, including this nice one from my mom: “So…is the podcast just you talking?” 😂 Yes, and no…I’m recording a mix of episode types: mini BLW technical trainings, struggles and success stories from real-life parents and caregivers as well as interviews with feeding experts.
We released our first bonus episode last week called “Is it Safe to Introduce Allergenic Foods During COVID-19? with Dr. Ron Sunog” which was a HUGE hit with you guys…and hopefully it took a little anxiety out of the allergenic foods introduction process for you and your babies.
Click to check out the show notes from that BONUS episode, or listen to it by clicking the player below:
A Huge Debt of Gratitude…
Although I’ve dreamed of doing a podcast about baby-led weaning for you guys for a long time now, I definitely did not do nor could I have ever done it all by myself.
A huge special thanks to everyone who made this podcast a reality, including:
Hollis from MM design for the amazing covert art
Katelynn our community manager dietitian who also somehow builds out amazing websites
Lauren our strategist who came back just in time to micro-manage this whole launch 😁
Jenn our integrator and funnel designer extraordinaire
Lefter our editor who listened to more BLW content than any man without children should ever have to!
And also grateful to the podcast creator communities of Pat Flynn and Luis Diaz from Podcast Domination for helping keep us on task and getting this podcast off the ground with great success!
Lastly, a special thanks to all of YOU who have given me such good episode ideas, constructive feedback, success stories and inspiration. I hope you enjoy the podcast!
And Now…a Shameless Plea for Ratings & Reviews!
…and if you do like what you’re hearing on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast, if you could please please please (…one more please :) leave me a review on Apple podcasts, that would mean the world!
Reviews are so important for helping the podcast get found by other parents and caregivers who are looking to give their baby a safe start to solid foods using baby-led weaning!
Launch Party Limited
I had high hopes of a big blow-out launch party after we got the podcast off the ground. But social distancing and coronavirus left us pretty limited with options.
We did take the kids to the beach as podcast launch day happened to coincide with the day the beaches in San Diego reopened.
It was nice to celebrate for a bit, but still a more low-key party than I would have otherwise wanted (…oh, and look how enthused 6 of my 7 kids were about the podcast launch party 😐)
Thank you for listening & can’t wait to bring you more great baby-led weaning info on the Baby-Led Weaning Made Easy podcast!
…and also thank you to everyone on my team who helped bring this podcast to life. The same people who put up with me & all my WFH mom fails trying to keep 7 kids occupied during quarantine while doing so!!
(…but for real: lollipops for the 2-year-old twins were a lifesaver on podcast strategy zoom calls!)
