Before beginning weaning, parents can find themselves bombarded with conflicting information on how, and when, to wean their little one successfully. Your Baby Club, the UK’s fastest growing online community of new parents, recently surveyed 450 parents on behalf of Weaning Week, to find out how UK parents are navigating this period of their baby’s development.
The research found that before getting started on their weaning journey, 29.3% of parents said they researched weaning approaches on the internet and 24% said they asked their health visitor.
As for when they started weaning, 41.3% followed government guidelines and waited until their baby was 6-8 months before weaning their little one, with 16% bucking the trend and starting the process when their child was just 0-3 months.
It appears that UK parents are choosing to use mixed methods when feeding their babies, with 9 in 10 (90.7%) of parents choosing to wean their baby using a mix of both spoon-fed and baby-led weaning. This is in contrast with only 2.2% exclusively spoon feeding their baby purees.
An explanation for this move to mixed methods could be that parents are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of making healthy eating choices, even from the very first meals. In fact, 69.8% of UK parents said selecting nutritious choices was their main focus.
Tesco won the race as the number one retailer of choice for parents, with Asda coming in a close second.
When on the move, these healthy eating choices are still being implemented with 64% saying they feed their baby on the go by taking homemade food with them. However, 68.7% of parents said their main concern with weaning was fear that their child would choke or have an allergic reaction (42%).
To find out more, visit www.weaningweek.co.uk or #weaningweek2019
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Weaning Week runs from Monday 6th – 12th May, working with a number of experts, brands and real parents.