Baby-led weaning in Italy and potential implications for child development in the first two years of life

The complementary feeding period (when infants are introduced to foods and liquids different from milk) has lifelong consequences for physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional well-being. In recent years, there has been a rise in an approach to feeding solids which has been termed “baby-led weaning”. This approach is based on the infant eating finger foods on their own rather than being fed puréed foods on a spoon by a caregiver, setting the pace and amount eaten at the meal, and often eating at the same time as other family members. We aimed to investigate the association of infant feeding practices with developmental outcomes in a sample of 1235 Italian mothers of 6-12 month-old infants through an online survey. The frequency of baby-led weaning was positively associated with breastfeeding, later exposure to complementary foods, earlier exposure to both finger and family foods, and higher interest in family food and shared family meals. Infants who were introduced to solids using baby-led weaning were more likely to have met important developmental milestones: percentage of family feeding was positively associated with sitting unsupported at an earlier age and a low spoon-feeding style was associated with crawling at an earlier age. These data suggest that the potential influence of baby-led weaning on developmental domains beyond diet and eating behavior warrants further exploration. To this purpose, we have just begun a longitudinal study aiming to evaluate in more depth the impact of complementary feeding on child cognitive development in the first two years of life.