Your Baby Can Self-Feed, Too: Adapted Baby-Led Weaning for Children with Developmental Delays or Other Feeding Challenges

A groundbreaking book on feeding children with special needs — and setting them up for lifelong feeding independence! Your Baby Can Self-Feed, Too, is the inclusive guide to introducing solids. Over 25 percent of children experience challenges with this big step — both typically developing babies and those with (known or unknown) physical or neurological differences. Resources on how to help babies who face obstacles in making the move to solid foods are scarce. That’s where this book comes in. Feeding therapist Jill Rabin teams up with BLW pioneer Gill Rapley to introduce their new proprietary take on Rapley’s groundbreaking approach: adapted baby-led weaning. With ABLW, you can meet your child’s needs by: responding to his or her signs of readiness, whenever they appear, adapting food to fit his or her abilities and promote skill development, working with your therapist to provide individualized targeted support, using “bridge devices” (for example, silicone feeders) with your therapist’s guidance. Baby-led weaning transformed the parenting landscape by replacing boring purées with real, healthy food that babies can explore for themselves — while building motor skills, coordination, and confidence. Now, every baby can benefit: Your Baby Can Self-Feed, Too!