HEALTHY LIVING
Love first taste: Introducing solid foods to your baby
(Family Features) Throughout a child’s first years of life, there are several milestones for marking growth, development and progress toward maturity. As many parents can attest, few of those milestones are as messy, imperfect and joyful as those associated with a baby’s first tastes of new foods and flavors.
The 2020-25 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recognize that from 6-24 months is a key age range for building healthy eating patterns with a variety of foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains. Starting solid foods, such as oatmeal or pureed vegetables and fruits, is the first step. However, beginning this journey can often bring parents additional stress as they question what and how much is right to feed their child.
Get your little one on the path to a lifetime of healthy eating habits with these tips from Dr. Whitney Casares, pediatric consultant for Gerber.
Let the journey begin
Check with your pediatrician before starting any solid foods. Most babies are ready for solid foods around 6 months, but it’s important to not offer solids before 4 months.
Around the middle of the first year of life, it is important for your baby to get iron from the foods he or she eats, especially if breastfed. Iron-fortified baby cereal can help provide this important nutrient to support healthy growth and brain development.
Some signs your baby is ready for solid foods are when he or she has good head control, sits up with help or support, brings objects to his or her mouth and seems interested in food others are eating.
For the first attempts at feeding solids, pick a time of day when your baby is in good spirits, wide awake and mildly hungry. You can offer breastmilk or formula before solids, if necessary, so your child is not uncomfortably hungry.
Make sure your baby is sitting up and secured in a highchair. Use a soft, rubber-tipped spoon and start by guiding the spoon to your baby’s mouth with both your hand and your child’s hand on the spoon.
Introducing first tastes
Purees and infant cereal are wholesome and developmentally appropriate options for discovering solid foods and can help your baby discover a variety of flavors. Baby cereal is a good starting point for most babies because you can mix it with breastmilk or formula, and it is fortified with iron. This familiar taste can help your baby accept the new taste and texture of cereal.
While stage-appropriate purees can be made at home, another way to make your transition to solids easy is with an option like Gerber’s My 1st Starter Kits that come with fruit and vegetable varieties making it simple for parents to introduce baby to high-quality, nutritious and appropriate foods.
Follow baby’s lead
Your baby’s first tries at swallowing solid foods may be awkward and will likely require practice. If food is rejected, offer a few more spoonfuls and gauge your child’s response to decide whether to continue or try again another day.
Responsive feeding is an approach that helps set your baby up for healthy eating habits. Observing your child’s reactions can help determine if he or she is adventurous or cautious, hungry or full. All of this can help you feed in a manner best suited for your baby. Look for cues your child is interested in eating more – smiling or reaching toward the spoon – as well as those that indicate fullness such as turning away, pushing the spoon away, leaning away from the spoon, shaking his or her head or spitting food out.
Alternatively, baby-led weaning emphasizes exploration – of tastes, textures, colors and smells – and encourages baby to self-feed whole pieces of food cut into strips or small pieces. Spoons can also be pre-loaded for him or her, and this approach also promotes the development of gross and fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and chewing.
For more expert tips on introducing your baby to solids, visit Gerber.com.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
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Gerber
HEALTHY LIVING
A lesson in kindness, inclusion and how kids eat differently
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(Feature Impact) The school year brings new classmates, routines and opportunities for children to learn about people whose experiences may be different from their own. They could include friends who use a wheelchair, carry an inhaler or even receive nutrition through a feeding tube.
Watch this video to learn more
For families who rely on tube feeding, it is an essential part of daily life but is often understood only by those who experience it. That limited awareness can leave children who are tube fed and their families feeling isolated or unseen, according to Gerard Minor, a pediatric gastroenterology and hepatology specialist.
Parents can use everyday questions as opportunities to help children understand there are many ways people receive nourishment. Teachers, classmates, caregivers and communities can also help make tube feeding part of the everyday conversation around childhood rather than something that separates children from it.
“Helping children understand those differences early can encourage curiosity, kindness and inclusion,” Minor said.
To help bring greater awareness, understanding and representation to children and families who experience tube feeding every day, Compleat, a leader in tube feeding formulas, launched “What Is Better Than How,” featuring “Sesame Street’s” Elmo and his signature warmth and curiosity. The original song celebrates the many ways people eat. Some people eat with a fork, some use a spoon and some use a tube, reinforcing a simple message: What matters is not how you eat. What matters is that you are nourished, loved and included.
To hear the song, create a personalized version and learn more about the campaign, visit Compleat.com/WhatIsBetterThanHow.

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HEALTHY LIVING
Dry eye: An overlooked perimenopause, menopause symptom
(Feature Impact) Dry eye is one of the most overlooked symptoms of perimenopause, the phase of fluctuating hormones leading up to a woman’s final period, and menopause, the point in a woman’s life when she’s gone a year without a period.
In fact, 79% of women1 recognize hot flashes as a symptom of menopause, but only 14% recognize dry eye as a menopause-related symptom, according to the 2026 Bausch + Lomb (Peri)Menopausal Survey. What’s more, 78% of women1 were surprised to learn that dry eye is a symptom of perimenopause or menopause.
“Dry eye is still widely overlooked as a symptom of menopause, and many women think it’s just a minor nuisance, but the truth is it can significantly affect your daily life,” said Neda Gioia, OD, CNS, IFMCP, FOWNS, founder, Integrative Vision. “Early symptoms are often misunderstood or self-treated but it’s very important for women who experience symptoms to see an eye doctor and get an accurate diagnosis and treatment.”
During perimenopause and menopause, declining hormone levels can impact tear production, tear quality and tear evaporation, contributing to dry eye symptoms including redness, fluctuating vision and a gritty or tired feeling in the eyes, all of which can impact day-to-day comfort and quality of life. If left untreated, dry eyes may worsen over time, potentially impacting eye health and vision. Among peri-, menopausal and post-menopausal women who experienced dry eye, 80% said the symptom came as a surprise.
Respondents reported their dry eye symptoms caused difficulty reading (58%), difficulty using screens (53%), difficulty driving (26%) and reduced productivity (17%), underscoring the often-overlooked impact dry eyes can have on everyday life.1
However, there are a variety of products and treatment approaches available to help manage dry eye symptoms. For example, Bausch + Lomb offers a range of options designed to address the main causes of dry eye.
A doctor-recommended, clinically proven once-daily soft gel supplement that targets the key root causes of dry eyes, Blink NutriTears supports healthy tear production and provides lasting, continuous relief.* § As part of a comprehensive approach to dry eye management, the supplement can be used with Blink Triple Care Preservative Free Lubricant Eye Drops, which are designed to directly address tear evaporation, one of the leading causes of dry eye, and provide instant and long-lasting symptom relief.
An eye care professional can help determine the approach that’s right for each individual. To learn more about dry eye and products to help combat it, visit JustBlink.com.
| *These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. |
12026 Bausch & Lomb (Peri)Menopause Survey via Suzy, n=402; Women ages 30–80+ who are perimenopausal, menopausal, or post-menopausal
§Based on a clinical study

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HEALTHY LIVING
Life insurance is on the to-do list right after cleaning out the garage!
(Sheeka Sanahori) Being an adult comes with a never-ending list of responsibilities: Cook dinner. Scrub the bathroom. File taxes. The tasks grow even longer when sharing a household with a partner, building a family, or taking care of others. No matter how you define “adulting,” getting life insurance tends to be one part of the to-do list that keeps getting set on a procrastination loop.
New survey data backs that up: there are plenty of other tasks adults would rather focus on first.
The Adulting Task Americans Keep Avoiding
According to the 2026 Life Happens Life Insurance Survey, a financial literacy nonprofit organization, 39% of U.S. adults would rather clean out their email inbox than figure out their life insurance needs. Another 31% would rather clean out the garage or basement. One in five U.S. adults would be willing to sit on hold with customer service for three hours before life insurance planning. Even though many adults have it somewhere on their list, nearly half (46%) say they’ll either deal with it later or not at all.

They Know It Matters
Nearly a third of adults have already figured out a life insurance plan, and they feel good about their decision. Others are feeling more conflicted: 14% have a policy, but they’re not sure if they have enough. Another 12% say they either don’t know where to start or they think it’ll be too expensive.
It’s no wonder people are putting it off: Navigating a new-to-them form of financial planning can come with a lot of complicated emotions. Four in 10 feel either overwhelmed, anxious, or some combination of both. Sixteen percent of U.S. adults feel guilty for putting it off, but when the outcome is more procrastination, that feeling lingers.

Why Later Keeps Winning
If you’ve ever faced an important decision without having enough information to make an informed choice, you know how stressful it can be. While the generations have different takes on making major decisions with a gut feeling or “pure vibes,” most of the time, people want to feel like they’re making an informed choice. Forty-five percent of U.S. adults say cost concerns, confusion or procrastination are the main reasons they have delayed or would delay looking into life insurance. For more than one in five, the plan is to seriously look at it when they feel more financially stable. For 12%, they say they’ll do it when they’re older.

Men tend to feel more confident about their life insurance decisions to date; 53% of men vs. 41% of women feel confident their family would be financially protected.
The First Step Feels Bigger Than It Is
Learning more about life insurance, how it’s priced and how it works could help get many consumers out of their procrastination loop. A quarter of people say they’d make a decision if they learned it was easier to get than they previously thought. Thirty percent would make the purchase if they learned it was more affordable than they believed it to be. Others need an experienced professional to talk to or an online calculator tool to give them guidance.
Methodology: Life Happens commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of 2,000 adults, including 700 Gen Z respondents, 700 millennials, and 600 Gen X respondents throughout the United States. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/- 2 percentage points and +/- 4 percentage points for each generational sample, with a confidence level of 95 percent. Fieldwork took place between July 14 and July 20, 2026. Atomik Research, part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock (couple using computer)
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