This research project aims to explore mothers’ experiences of the first four weeks of weaning because giving children the best start in life is essential. The objective of this research is to discover what prompts mothers to start weaning, which methods of weaning are used, the use of home-cooked or shop-bought baby food products and the support available during weaning.
The project is underpinned by an interpretivist paradigm, using qualitative questionnaires to gather data. The participants are mothers’ that have at least one child and have recently weaned their child in the last few years. Snowball sampling was used to gain participants with the final sample size of 37. The questionnaires were completed electronically through Microsoft Forms and analysed thematically to identify significant patterns.
The key findings were that mothers’ combine baby-led and spoon-fed weaning together rather than solely using one method. Additionally, online support available during weaning has now extended to social media such as Instagram. Thus, this research study demonstrates weaning is a complex process which mothers experience differently.