Rapley Weaning .com

Baby-led Weaning: The fuss-free way to introduce solid foods

Books

DVDs

Welcome!

I'm so pleased you've found this website - and that you're interested in baby-led weaning. However, before you get too excited I should explain that you won't find a lot of information here about how to use BLW with your baby; it's intended as a focal point for queries - to lead you to where you can learn more - rather than as a place to find out everything you ever wanted to know about BLW. The best place to get all of that is from the original book that I wrote with Tracey Murkett, and from the forums and blogs written by parents who are doing it.

The buttons on the left will take you to:

Information on our books
Information about three useful DVDs on BLW
A simple 'how to' leaflet
Basic BLW guidelines, with a brief explanation of the rationale behind them
Details of the book in which there is a chapter about BLW
A bit of background about me
Links to just a few of the many websites and blogs about BLW
The email address for this site

14 Jan 2011. Response to reports that some researchers propose a return to 4-6 months for the introduction of solid foods.

In case you missed it: An exciting piece of research was published online in October 2010 (and in print in January 2011), which found that BLW is "probably feasible for a majority of infants". The only caveat is that babies with mildly delayed development may need some pureed food as well (sadly, some agencies have since focused on this as if it were the main conclusion of the study). The research used data from the Gateshead Millennium Study to identify the age at which babies started to reach out for food and feed themselves. The authors acknowledge that these babies were born before either the six months recommendation or BLW had come into being, and that their parents may not have expected or encouraged their babies to handle solid foods as early as BLW parents do. So the fact that, on the basis of the data they do have, the authors were able to conclude that BLW is "probably feasible" for the majority is just great! The paper also points out the merits of family mealtimes and acknowledges the popularity of BLW. The reference is:

Wright CM, Cameron K, Tsiaka M, et al. Is baby-led weaning feasible? When do babies first reach out for and eat finger foods? Maternal & Child Nutrition, January 2011, Volume 7, Issue 1, pages 27–33.