Agency, ‘good motherhood’ and ‘a load of mush’: Constructions of baby-led weaning in the press

• Published in: Women's studies international forum 2015-11, Vol.53, p.139-146
• Main Author: Locke, Abigail
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Babies; Childrearing practices; Children; Discourse analysis; Mass media; Mothers; News media; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Weaning
• ISSN: 0277-5395; 1879-243X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.wsif.2014.10.018

In this age of ‘intensive motherhood’, new mothers are flooded with information on the best ways in which to raise their children. One of the key issues is infant feeding, in particular, the timing and method of weaning their children onto solid food. This paper examines a new approach called ‘baby-led weaning’ (BLW) in which the child feeds themselves instead of being spoon-fed, that came into popular parenting culture in recent years, considering the ways in which it is represented in National and International newspapers. The media search database Proquest International Newsstand, was searched for ‘baby-led weaning’, producing an eventual sample of 78 articles from a number of countries. The articles were subjected to a critical discursive psychological analysis. The key themes that emerged from the newspapers focused around two main areas; the infant as agentive in their eating behaviours; and, constructions of maternal identities and resisting ‘good motherhood’. •We consider how the press constructs the positive nature of baby-led weaning.•We examine how the child is constructed as agentive in their feeding.•We examine how the choice of weaning method is tied to an ideology of intensive motherhood.•We consider how women both resist and construct 'good motherhood'.