Adapted Baby-Led Weaning for Babies with Feeding Challenges
Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) is a child-directed feeding approach that has gained popularity as an alternative way of transitioning babies to solid food feedings. With this method, babies are taught to self-feed table foods from the time they begin eating solids, versus the adult-directed method of being spoon-fed purees. Mere mention of the BLW approach can spark a heated and controversial conversation among feeding therapists who often deem this method as “dangerous.” Those reactions are only magnified when the prospect of using BLW with adaptations for children with feeding challenges, such as Down syndrome, is mentioned.
The adapted baby-led weaning (ABLW) approach was developed by Jill Rabin in 2010. While this approach can result in a multitude of benefits for babies at risk for or with feeding challenges, it needs to be implemented safely with a strong foundational feeding base. Through lecture, slides, and video instruction, participants will be instructed on how to safely transition babies to solids using the ABLW approach through discussion of myths about BLW, growth outcomes of babies fed using this approach, the importance of a sensory motor feeding base and use of bridge devices and responsive feeding techniques. The importance of a collaborative team approach with pertinent medical professionals as well as a feeding therapist, motor therapist and nutrition specialist, will also be addressed.
Please note this event is taking place at 6:30 pm Central Standard Time, and will be held virtually via Zoom. To find out what time this is in your country, look here. Registration will close at 5:00 pm Central Standard Time on Monday May 10, 2021. The meeting link will be sent to registrants via email that evening after registration closes. Please check your spam folder as our emails occasionally end up there.
This course has been submitted for credit with the Illinois Early Intervention Program. Please check with your local professional organization to determine additional professional education credit. Those who have paid for a professional ticket and are in attendance for the duration of the full event will receive a certificate of attendance for credit. Those who registered for a student ticket will also receive a certificate, however these will not be eligible for CEUs.
Cost: $20 for professionals, Free for Parents and Students
Tickets Available:
Parent/Caregiver
For those who are caring for a child who is learning to eat.
Student
For those who are working on degrees in a profession related to pediatric feeding; certificates not for professional development credit.
Professional
For those who work in an area related to pediatric feeding and are seeking professional development credits (SLP, OT, Dietician, SW, Nurse, etc.)
Staff
For staff members of the Chicago Feeding Group
Affiliate
By invitation only; for official affiliates of the CFG
*If you are registering/paying for more than one person, please include their name and email.
Jill Rabin, M.S., CCC-SLP, IBCLC is a pediatric speech pathologist and international board certified lactation consultant who has been working with the 0 to 3 year old population for 33 years. She is based in the north suburbs of Chicago where she has a private practice working with young babies and their families with feeding and speech/language issues. Her areas of specialty include facilitating breastfeeding in at-risk populations such as preterm infants and babies with Down syndrome, using the modified baby-led weaning approach to transition babies with special needs to solids and using child-directed feeding approaches to improve feeding skills in infants and babies with feeding aversion. She contributed two chapters to the book Breastfeeding and Down syndrome and has written three posts about breastfeeding and Down syndrome on the Julia’s Way website. Jill also wrote an essay and was quoted in the tenth anniversary edition of Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett’s Baby-Led Weaning book. She was featured as a guest on the Untethered Podcast episode 31 in December 2019 and spoke about feeding difficulties in children with special needs. Jill has done national and international webinars and presentations on the modified baby-led weaning approach, breastfeeding babies with special needs and managing feeding aversion in infants She also teaches classes about development and transitioning to solids to new parents at the New Mother New Baby lactation center located in Northbrook, Illinois.