Where do I start?
What is the best way to offer food?
Is traditional pureed food best or Baby Led Weaning?
What age is appropriate to start solids?
Should I introduce solids at four or five months to avoid allergies?
Is baby cereal healthy?
How much am I meant to give my baby?
What should they be eating?
How do I make sure they get enough iron?
What does a day with solids even look like?
What is this ingredient? Is it safe?
What effects can/will this food have for my child?
How can I feel confident that I am doing the best for them?

And the questions can go on and on, sometimes delivering even more confusion within the contradictory responses as you try to decide what is best. Especially when we consider that a lot of the information parents currently receive is based on commercial profit margins as companies, and in some cases national organisations, try to convince you to spend money, or take paths that aid them.

Now some of you may think, wow. That’s a rather bleak, pessimistic analysis from me, and I am truly sorry that I am compelled to share it. But after working in the healthcare sector for almost three decades, and digging deep within the layers of research that is then spun out to parents to effect change, I wholeheartedly believe that commercial profit margins is one of the biggest health issues that our children face today.

As our lives become busier, as our time to weed out the marketing hype from the truth begins to diminish, as we possibly feel too small to question, or to stand up and make noise about what we are seeing and hearing, our children have become, and continue to be, guinea pigs for profit.

However, as the guardians to our next generation, we all have an obligation to assess and ask questions like, “Who stands to make a profit if we follow this advice”, and “what companies do they own to then pick up the possible ill health that is generated by that advice?”

The highly questionable data that can be found within the trail of expenditure, profit and convincing the public, has had me spontaneously burst into tears as the health risks to our young resound in my head and heart, while feeling overwhelmed with the task before us.

Knowing that millions of well-intentioned parents, with little time, blindly follow some of the misplaced ‘advice’ as it’s weaved down through national organisations that have the marketed persona of best health practices, is mind blowing. These companies and organisations have cultivated the belief that they have your child’s best interests at heart, and while some of course do, we must also remain aware that some receive great benefits from pedalling out certain information or products. We must remain aware that all is not what it seems sometimes, whether it comes from world or national organisations, government, researchers, or the health professional that sits before you.

As a Mum and a health professional, my overwhelming indignation and heart break from witnessing literally ‘ill advice’ wash its way through the internet like a tidal wave, considerably changing our children’s mental and physical health, is my drive to stand up and share my methods of Bio-logical Weaning with a wider worldwide audience.

I am committed to shedding light on the truth behind some of the research that parents are being fed, while also hoping to create a shift of balance where we move away from following the commercially marketed advice, and begin to base our choices on the child’s digestive biology and holistic development at each age and stage. This necessary shift in balance is one of the core reasons for this guide, and what began the birthing of Bio-logical Weaning, many moons ago.