Outcomes on weaning style and infant feeding, socioeconomic status scores, picky eating and BMI*
| Characteristic | Baby-led (n=92) | Spoon-fed (n=63) | p Value |
| Child age at testing (months) | 32.12 (10.30) | 41.62 (13.58) | <0.0001 |
| Female† | 57.6% (53/92) | 39.7% (25/63) | 0.03 |
| Handled food from introduction of solids | 96.7% (89/92) | 15.87% (10/63) | <0.0001 |
| Exposed to pureed food | 32.6% (30/92) | 100% (63/63) | 0.0001 |
| First exposed to finger food (age in months) | 6.49 (1.41) | 7.10 (1.63) | 0.001 |
| Child was breastfed‡ | 98.9% (91/92) | 88.9% (56/63) | 0.008 |
| Duration (months) of breastfeeding | 23.70 (11.27) | 9.50 (9.30) | <0.0001 |
| Socioeconomic status: IDACI score | 0.11 (0.08) | 0.14 (0.11) | 0.17 |
| Socioeconomic status: IDACI rank | 19566.81 (8304.26) | 21679.33 (7218.74) | 0.16 |
| Birth weight (lbs/oz) | 7.64 (2.70) | 7.09 (1.31) | 0.09 |
| Child BMI: NHS UK percentile rank | 54.38 (28.91)§ | 64.79 (26.20) | 0.05 |
| Child BMI: CDC US percentile rank | 48.46 (29.71)§ | 61.44 (26.98) | 0.009 |
| Parent BMI | 24.08 (5.46) | 24.91 (1.31) | 0.91 |
| Child is picky eater | 18.5% (17/92) | 23.8% (15/63) | 0.43 |
↵* Means and SDs are shown in parentheses for continuous variables. Analyses were conducted on the whole sample.
↵† In the matched sample (used to analyse weaning style preference data), there was no gender difference (table 2).
↵‡ There was no difference in breastfeeding between the groups in the matched sample (92% were breastfed in the spoon-fed group compared to 97% in the baby-led group) (χ2=0.30, p=0.62).
↵§ BMI data were missing from 29/92 (32%) because parents had not weighed or measured their child recently. Within the baby-led group, there was no difference in preference ratings between those children with BMI scores and those without (max U=151.5, p=0.88, for protein).
BMI, body mass index; CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; NHS, National Health Service; IDACI, Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index.