Dr Gill Rapley is the pioneer of “baby-led weaning”, a practice of allowing your baby to self-feed as you introduce family foods.

Gill Rapley first started talking about Baby Led Weaning in 2001 and in November 2015 she completed her PhD, which revolved around some interesting research comparing spoon feeding with self-feeding. The findings, which show just how different these two experiences are for the baby, have been published in various academic journals.

Gill is the author of a number of books, including Baby Led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food; The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook; Baby Led Breastfeeding and Baby Led Parenting.

In this interview we cover the comparison between spoon feeding and self-feeding and how this experience differs for babies and Gill answers all of your questions about sharing family foods with your baby:

• What is the best time for starting family foods? Why? What does the research say?
• How does ‘Baby Led Weaning’ work in practice?
• How much can we expect babies to eat?
• What foods are best when introducing family foods?
• What foods should we avoid?
• Should parents offer foods at the same time or after milk feeds?
• What are the general safety rules for babies who are managing their own transition to solid foods? Do parents need to cut up food, for instance, or what size pieces of food should they offer?  What about choking?

Resources

Gill Rapley is the author of a number of books, including Baby Led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food; Your Baby Can Self-Feed too: Adapted Baby-led Weaning for Babies With Developmental Delays; The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook; Baby Led Breastfeeding and Baby Led Parenting. See Gill’s website

 

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Dr Gill Rapley is the pioneer of “baby-led weaning”, a practice of allowing your baby to self-feed as you introduce family foods. Gill first started talking about Baby-led weaning in 2001, based on her experience as a Health Visitor in the UK, her personal experience with her own three children and research for firstly, her master’s degree then a PhD.

She says, “doing a Master’s degree gave me the chance to look at whether babies would move on to solid foods spontaneously, if they were given the chance. The answer was not just that they would but that it became an easy and pleasant experience for the parents too.

In November 2015 Gill completed her PhD, which revolved around some interesting research comparing spoon feeding with self-feeding. The findings, which show just how different these two experiences are for the baby, have been published in various academic journals.

Gill Rapley is the author of a number of books, including Baby Led Weaning: Helping Your Baby to Love Good Food; The Baby Led Weaning Cookbook; Baby Led Breastfeeding and Baby Led Parenting.