Resource of the Week: The Latest Research on Baby-Led Weaning
For this week’s resource of the week, I’m highlighting a research article that investigated baby-led weaning as a feeding method.
This research study was published in the journal of Nutrients in June of 2018.The full title of the article is: “Impact of a Modified Version of Baby-Led Weaning on Infant Food and Nutrient Intakes: The BLISS Randomized Controlled Trial.”
You can click this link to read the full research article on PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s research publication database. If you are interested in reading this article, I would recommend starting with the Abstract section (the first section at the top of the paper). It describes the gap in knowledge that the study was trying to address, goes over how the research was conducted, and the main conclusions.
For more on how to find and read a research article, see our past post about research studies! If you don’t have much experience with reading research articles, I hope this post can provide an example of how you might be able to approach research studies as a resource.
Goal of the Research
The goal of this research study was to investigate the growing interest by parents in using baby-led weaning to introduce solid foods. The baby-led weaning method, in contrast to spoon-feeding approaches, encourages the baby to self-feed and join in family meals from the very beginning.
While many parents are using this baby-led weaning approach, we don’t have much data about the nutrient intake of babies learning to eat this way. This study tried to learn more about the food intake of babies who are introduced to solid food with baby-led weaning.
The researchers state:
“Despite growing international interest in Baby-Led Weaning (BLW), we know almost nothing about food and nutrient intake in infants following baby-led approaches to infant feeding. The aim of this paper was to determine the impact of modified BLW (i.e., Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS; BLISS) on food and nutrient intake at 7–24 months of age.”
Details of the Study
- How was this research performed?
The authors performed a randomized controlled trial which they called “Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS)”. BLISS was a modified form of baby-led weaning. One aspect of the modifications involved educating parents to offer high iron, high energy, and easy-to-eat foods.
206 women in late pregnancy were recruited to participate in the trial. Each woman was assigned to either a control or a trial group. When their babies were born, the women in the study were educated on how to follow the BLISS approach for introducing solid foods. They were given detailed instructions and a variety of resources to support them in preparing food and introducing food.
- What did the researchers measure?
The diet of each baby (including breastmilk or formula) was measured over a three week period at 7, 12, and 24 months of age. The parents measured and wrote down in detail what and how much of each food was eaten by the baby, as well as who fed them that food (baby themselves versus adult).
Results of the Study
- Differences in specific nutrients
The researchers found that babies following the BLISS method had slightly higher fat intake at 7 months, but the differences were not significant by 24 months old. They state:
“Total fat intake was slightly higher at 7 months, and percent energy from saturated fat slightly lower at 12 months, but by 24 months no differences were apparent for any of the nutrients measured.”
- Differences in food groups
In terms of food groups included in baby’s diet, they found some differences early on, but these disappeared by 12 months. The figure below shows the control versus the BLISS groups at 7 and 12 months, and the percent of energy in their diet made up by each food group.
[“Figure 3: Mean proportion of energy from each food group at 7 and 12 months of age.”]
The authors write that:
“intakes of “grains and cereals”, “meat and meat alternatives”, “milk and milk products”, and “miscellaneous foods” were significantly higher in the BLISS infants at 7 months, but by 12 months of age there was no evidence of differences in the food group intakes between infants following a baby-led approach and those following traditional spoon-feeding.”
- Diet concerns
One unexpected result was that both those who followed the baby-led weaning method and the control group were found to have high amounts of sodium and sugar by two years of age. Regardless of what feeding method is followed, keeping an eye on these intakes in baby’s diet is a good idea.
- Overall conclusions
The researchers concluded that overall, BLISS is a nutritionally comparable diet to spoon-feeding.
“In conclusion, BLISS appears to result in a diet that is as nutritionally adequate as traditional spoon-feeding, and may address some concerns about the nutritional adequacy of unmodified BLW. However, BLISS and Control infants both had high intakes of sodium and added sugars by 24 months that are concerning.”
How can you use this information?
If you are interested in using a baby-led weaning approach to introducing solids with your little one, this data may be helpful.
For those who have questions about whether baby-led weaning would provide babies with enough and appropriate nutrients, this study supports the fact that by 1-2 years old, there are no significant differences in food intake or nutrients between baby-led or spoon-fed approaches.
If you’re making a decision about starting solids, this data could help you feel confident that from the perspective of getting appropriate nutrients, neither decision is a wrong one.
However, this study only looked at one specific outcome from a baby-led weaning approach (nutrient and food group intake). There are other aspects of feeding that may or may not be similar or different with differing approaches.
Related Resources
In addition to the paper highlighted here, the BLISS study was a larger research trial that produced other kinds of data about baby-led weaning. If you’re interested in learning more about the full results from this trial, check out the published protocol for the study, the pilot or test study, and the paper highlighting the main outcomes of the research.
Full Citation: Williams Erickson L, Taylor RW, Haszard JJ, Fleming EA, Daniels L, Morison BJ, Leong C, Fangupo LJ, Wheeler BJ, Taylor BJ, Te Morenga L, McLean RM, Heath AM. Impact of a Modified Version of Baby-Led Weaning on Infant Food and Nutrient Intakes: The BLISS Randomized Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2018 Jun 7;10(6):740. doi: 10.3390/nu10060740. PMID: 29880769; PMCID: PMC6024590.
