Baby Led Weaning - Interview with Gill Rapley, PhD

Gill is credited as the originator of the term ‘baby-led weaning’ (BLW) and is recognized worldwide as the pioneer of this approach. She has been a health visitor, midwife, voluntary breastfeeding counselor, and lactation consultant (IBCLC), and worked for 14 years with the UNICEF UK Baby Friendly Initiative. Since 2000, her interest in complementary feeding has grown, prompting first a Master’s degree and then a PhD, in which she explored the introduction of solid foods from the baby’s perspective.Gill is the co-author, with Tracey Murkett, of five books on infant feeding and parenting, beginning with the definitive Baby-led Weaning: Helping your baby to love good food, first published in 2008 (revised 2019) and now available in over 20 languages. She has also written articles for a range of professional and academic journals and contributed to several textbooks. Her latest book, Your Baby Can Self-Feed, Too, co-authored with Jill Rabin, MS, and published in 2022, describes how BLW can be adapted to enable babies facing feeding challenges to enjoy the same autonomy in eating as their typically developing peers.In honor of inclusivity, please know in all episodes & show notes, breastfeeding can be interchanged with chestfeeding.To find out more about the BRC, visit our website or contact Hillary@BRC4Babies.com.