Table 3.

Studies examining Baby-Led Weaning.

Author (Date) [reference]	Participants	Design and Methods	Definition of BLW	Main findings
Brown and Lee (2011) [18]	n = 655	Cross sectional	Spoon-feeding and purée use ≤10% of time	Mothers using BLW had higher education, were more likely to breastfeed and were less likely to be returning to work before 12 months postpartum.
	UK mothers with infant aged 6-12 months	Online questionnaire
	Recruited online and from community groups			Infants following BLW were more likely to have meals with family and eat the same food as family.
Brown and Lee (2011) [16]	n = 652	Cross sectional	Spoon-feeding and purée use ≤10% of time	Mothers following BLW reported lower levels of restriction, pressure to eat, monitoring and concern over child weight compared to mothers following SW.
	UK mothers with infant aged 6-12 months	Online questionnaire
	Recruited online and from community groups			No association between weaning style (SW or BLW) and infant weight.
Brown and Lee (2011) [17]	n = 36	Cross sectional	Self-reported	Mothers reported:
	UK mothers following BLW with infant aged 12-18 months	Semi-structured face-to-face interviews		(1) Positive experiences including: more convenient (at meal times and when out and about), reduced cost, didn’t have to worry about following a plan, thought baby would develop healthier eating patterns, thought baby enjoyed it more and “it made sense”.
	Recruited online at BLW websites
				(2) Infants participated in family meals and generally ate what the family ate.
				(3) Some challenges including mess, food wastage, and anxiety about potential choking in the first few weeks of BLW.
Rowan and Harris (2012) [20]	n = 10	Cross-sectional	Planned to use BLW techniques and had read the BLW book by Rapley and Murkett ∗	Parents offered 57% of family foods to infant.
	Parents of infant aged 6 months	Two 3-DDR at 6 and 9 months		No change in parents’ diets.
	Recruited at BLW websites
Townsend and Pitchford (2012) [19]	n = 155	Case-control	Self-reported	Compared to the SW group, the BLW group demonstrated significantly increased liking for “carbohydrates”.
	UK parent of infant aged (20-78 months)	Questionnaire
				There appeared to be an increased incidence of underweight in the BLW and obesity in the SW group (significance not tested).
	Recruited online at BLW websites (cases) and from laboratory database (controls)
Moore, Milligan and Goff (2012) [21]	n = 3607	Cross sectional	Self-reported	“Baby-Led” or “finger foods” weaning approach was the strongest predictor for weaning at or later than 26 weeks.
	UK parents	Online questionnaire
	Recruited at parenting groups and online forums
Cameron, Heath and Taylor (2012) [22]	Healthcare professionals (n = 31)	Cross-Sectional	Self reported	Health professionals suggested potential benefits of BLW such as greater opportunity for family meals, fewer mealtime battles, healthier eating behaviours, greater convenience, and possible developmental advantages. However they also had concerns about potential choking, iron intake and growth.
		Semi-structured interview
	Mothers who had used BLW (n = 20)
	Recruited by advertisement, email and parenting groups
				Mothers considered BLW to be a healthier, more convenient and less stressful way to introduce complementary foods.30% (n = 4) mothers reported at least one choking episode-most commonly with raw apple.

BLW, Baby-Led Weaning; SW, standard weaning (spoon-feeding purées); 3-DDR, three day diet record; ∗ [7]; GMS, Gateshead Millennium Study.