Baby‐led complementary feeding: Randomized controlled study

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Baby‐led weaning (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>) is an approach to introducing solid foods to infants that gives control of the feeding process to the infant. Anecdotal evidence suggests that<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>is becoming popular with parents, but scientific research is limited to a few publications. This study assessed growth, hematological parameters and iron intake in 6–12‐month‐old infants fed by traditional or baby‐led complementary feeding.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>We recruited 280 healthy 5–6‐month‐old infants allocated to a control (traditional spoon feeding;<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TSF</jats:styled-content>) group or an intervention (<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>) group in a randomized controlled trial. Infant growth, hematologic parameters and iron intake were evaluated at age 12 months.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>Infants in the<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TSF</jats:styled-content>were significantly heavier than those in the<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>group. Mean weight in the<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>group was 10.4 ± 0.9 kg compared with 11.1 ± 0.5 kg in the<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TSF</jats:styled-content>group. There was no statistically significant difference in the iron intake from complementary foods between the<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>(7.97 ± 1.37 mg/day) and<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">TSF</jats:styled-content>(7.90 ± 1.68 mg/day) participants who completed the diet records. Hematologic parameters were similar at 12 months. The incidence of choking reported in the weekly interviews was not different between the groups.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>To the best of our knowledge, this is the first randomized ‐controlled study to have examined the impact of weaning method on iron intake, hematological parameters and growth in breast‐fed infants.<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">BLW</jats:styled-content>can be an alternative complementary feeding type without increasing the risk of iron deficiency, choking or growth impairment.</jats:p></jats:sec>