Modified Version of Baby-Led Weaning Does Not Result in Lower Zinc Intake or Status in Infants: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc, published as a randomized controlled trial.

To determine the zinc intakes, sources, and biochemical zinc status of infants following Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS), a modified version of Baby-Led Weaning (BLW), compared with traditional spoon-feeding.

Regression analyses were used to investigate differences in dietary intakes and zinc status by group, adjusted for maternal education and parity and infant age and sex.

Why It Was Studied

Little is known about zinc intakes and status during complementary feeding.

This is particularly true for baby-led approaches, which encourage infants to feed themselves from the start of complementary feeding, although self-feeding may restrict the intake of zinc-rich foods.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as infants, both men and women.

BLISS participants received eight study visits (antenatal to 9 months) providing education and support regarding BLISS (ie, infant self-feeding from 6 months with modifications to address concerns about iron, choking, and growth).

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Secondary analysis of the BLISS randomized controlled trial.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Diet Records, Eating, Infant Behavior, Infant Nutritional Physiological Phenomena, Nutritional Status, Regression Analysis and Weaning.

Author keywords: Baby-Led Weaning, Complementary feeding, Infants, Zinc intake and Zinc status.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized study of Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc.

Its findings take up roughly 6 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2018 (Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), a journal based in United States.

More context: the Vitamin D, K2, Magnesium and Zinc compound page, all human trials.