The document summarizes a study that analyzed over 1,400 Instagram posts using the hashtag #babyledweaning to identify foods associated with this approach to introducing solid foods to infants. The most common foods identified were cheese, banana, chicken, rice, pasta, yogurt, potato, milk, toast, and egg. While these foods represent a variety of tastes and textures, some like cheese and yogurt may contribute to high saturated fat intake. More research is needed on the nutritional quality of foods offered to infants following the baby-led weaning approach.

1. Portrayals of infant feeding practices on social media:
Baby-led weaning on Instagram
Allison Doub Hepworth, MS1, Meg Small, PhD1, Leann Birch, PhD2, and Timothy R. Brick, PhD1
1Penn State University 2University of Georgia
Background Methods Results
Conclusions
Research Questions
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DGE1255832 and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2011-67001-30117
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The introduction of solid foods is a
feeding milestone as infants transition
from a milk-based diet to foods that
vary in texture, flavor, and nutritional
quality.
Baby-led weaning is one approach to
introducing solid foods in which parents
offer soft table foods instead of puréed
foods as the first foods for infant
consumption.1,2
Social media is a large-scale, naturalistic
setting to observe the types of foods
that are fed to infants by parents
following the baby-led weaning
approach during this critical stage.3
The current study used natural language
processing and qualitative content
analysis to identify specific foods
associated with baby-led weaning on
Instagram.
Data collection
All Instagram posts (English, USA) that
included the hashtag #babyledweaning
were collected using PulsarTrac over a
15-day period: 11/26 – 12/11/2015.
Analyses
Text data from image captions were pre-
processed and then tagged for part-of-
speech using ‘treetaggerwrapper’ in
Python 3. The frequency and
distribution of nouns were calculated
using ‘nltk’ in Python 3.
Frequently occurring nouns were filtered
and coded using qualitative content
analysis by the first author to identify
words that referred to specific foods and
beverages. Resulting foods and
beverages were evaluated for their
potential to promote a variety of tastes
and textures to the infant diet.
PulsarTrac collected 1,397 Instagram posts
from 750 unique public accounts and 141
posts from private accounts. Image captions
contained 4,614 unique nouns. Based on the
frequency distribution (see Figure 1), nouns
that occurred ≥ 20 times (n = 223) were
coded for specific foods and beverages.
There were 68 unique specific foods and
beverages, ranging from spices (e.g.,
cinnamon, basil), drinks (e.g., juice,
smoothies), and mixed dishes (e.g., soup).
Foods associated with baby-led weaning on Instagram represented a variety
of tastes and textures from all major food groups, but also discretionary
calories (e.g., chocolate, cake).
Cheese, milk, and yogurt were common foods, which may contribute to high
levels of saturated fat consumption, as observed in a previous study.4
More research is needed on the nutritional quality of foods offered by
parents following the baby-led weaning approach.
What types of foods and beverages are
associated with the baby-led weaning
approach to infant feeding on
Instagram?
References
1. Rapley & Murkett (2010). Baby-Led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Food. Workman Publishing, New York, NY
2. Brown & Lee (2013). Maternal & Child Nutrition, 9(2)
3. Doub, Small, & Birch (2016). Appetite, 99
4. Morison et al. 2016). BMJ Open, 6(5)
Image caption: Someone really
enjoyed his grilled cheese and
broccoli! #babyledweaning
The ten most frequent were: cheese (n = 158), banana (n = 138), chicken
(n = 130), rice (n = 113), pasta (n = 94), yogurt/yoghurt (n = 94), potato
(n = 92), milk (n = 89), toast (n = 88), and egg (n = 86).
Figure 1. Frequency distribution of the 223 most common nouns
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
babyledweaning
breakfast
lunch
chicken
time
instafood
potato
spinach
soup
sauce
butter
week
tsp
flour
yum
bit
bread
meal
mummyblogger
snack
bayiasi
yogurt
healthybabyfood
sugar
instamum
porridge
blog
life
plate
realfood
method
everything
fish
post
blwinspiration
son
chocolate
smoothie
homemadebabyfood
dish
bake
latergram
vegetable
pancake
kidsmeal
blueberry
syrup
mushroom
girl
broth
tray
sarahledweaning
oats
kembar
cauliflower
bayikembar