New Start4Life campaign launched to boost parents’ confidence in weaning their baby

Public Health England (PHE) has launched its first ever Start4Life campaign to help parents introduce their baby to solid foods.

Official advice is that most babies should not start solid foods until they are around six months old. By this point their bodies are better able to cope with solid foods and they are more able feed themselves. They are also better at moving food around their mouth, chewing and swallowing.

Dr Cheryll Adams, Executive Director of the Institute of Health Visiting, commented:

“This is very helpful advice. PHE’s new Start4Life hub contains lots of important information that will help parents feel confident introducing solid foods to their baby for the first time. We recommend that mums still unsure about how to wean their children ring their health visitor or attend a child health clinic to seek advice.”

The brand-new weaning hub has been launched on the Start4Life website to help parents during their weaning journey. Packed with NHS-approved advice and tips for each weaning stage, plus simple, healthy weaning recipes for different age groups, it puts everything parents need to know in one place. It also includes new videos showing the signs that indicate babies are ready to wean, how much food to give, and weaning tips from other parents.

A new survey of 1,000 mothers of young children conducted for Public Health England found that common myths persist about the signs a baby is ready for their first solid foods, including:

Just under half of mums (46%) think wanting extra milk feeds is a sign that babies are ready for solid foods;
A third of mums (32%) believe that a baby chewing their fists is a sign that they are ready to start weaning;
Just under a quarter of mums (24%) believe that waking up in the night is a sign a baby is ready for weaning.

The survey revealed that many parents have concerns around weaning with more than a quarter saying they didn’t feel confident when they introduced solid foods to their baby. Choking topped the list of worries about weaning, with mums also concerned about allergic reactions to new foods, how much food to give their baby, and concern that their baby won’t eat enough or will reject food.

Go to Start4Life weaning hub

Telling parents about the hub is a simple way to help them access information that they know they can trust. To support your conversations, PHE has created a new weaning leaflet which is available to order free of charge by health visitors and early years professionals via the PHE Campaign Resource Centre. It comes in a handy pocket-size format which folds out to a wall-planner, with tips for each stage of weaning. A social media toolkit is also available on the Campaign Resource Centre.

Start4Life launches new Breastfeeding Friend tool

Start4Life launches new Breastfeeding Friend tool on Google Assistant during World Breastfeeding Week

As World Breastfeeding Week launches (1 August), the 24/7 Breastfeeding Friend from Public Health England’s programme Start4Life has been made available on Google Home and the Google Assistant app for mobile to provide even more parents with advice and support during the first few weeks of breastfeeding.

Start4Life Google Assistant

The 24/7 Breastfeeding Friend has been developed to provide friendly advice to mums who have questions and need support with breastfeeding at any point day or night. The tool is voice activated on the Google Assistant app and Google Home, meaning mums can get NHS-approved advice and daily breastfeeding tips in the moment and when they may have their hands full. Anyone with a smartphone can download the Google Assistant app for free and say “Hey Google, talk to Breastfeeding Friend” to access the service. Those with a Google Home device set up can access the service with the same phrase.

Start4Life Google Assistant

The 24/7 Breastfeeding Friend is also available on Amazon Alexa and Facebook Messenger and joins a suite of breastfeeding tools from Start4Life, including the relaunched Start4Life website, the ‘Off to the Best Start’ breastfeeding leaflet and the Start4Life Information Service for Parents, all of which provide 24/7 access to expert NHS advice and useful information, in a friendly and accessible way.

Whilst three-quarters of women start breastfeeding when their child is born, by 6-8 weeks this drops to just 44%^[1] , making breastfeeding rates in England amongst the lowest in the world.

However, new research^[2] among 1,000 mothers commissioned by Public Health England shows that 42% of breastfeeding mums wish they had known that breastfeeding may not come easy at first but getting support and advice can really help. When mothers reflected on breastfeeding, the poll also illustrated that 26% wished they had known that asking for help breastfeeding can make a real difference. Almost one in four (24%) wish they had known that there is lots of help and support from breastfeeding groups, other parents and online.

Public Health England recommends exclusive breastfeeding for around the first six months. Breastfeeding boosts a baby’s ability to fight illness and infection, and babies who are not breastfed are more likely to get diarrhoea and chest infections. Breastfeeding also lowers a mother’s risk of breast cancer and may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

For more information, please visit the Start4Life website

^[1] Public Health England annual data on breastfeeding at 6-8 weeks

^[2] Kantar data collected from 1,005 mothers of children under the age of 4 on behalf of PHE, 26th January to 7th February 2018

PHE’s Start4Life and Amazon Alexa helping mothers to breastfeed for longer

Evidence shows the right support helps mothers to breastfeed for longer. Public Health England’s programme Start4Life has created the Breastfeeding Friend to encourage parents to adopt healthy behaviours. It is available for free on a range of platforms, including Facebook Messenger, and now for the first time it will also be available as a skill for Amazon Alexa’s voice service.

Mothers can ask Alexa a variety of questions about breastfeeding and the answers will be provided tailored to the age of the baby. This means that they can get helpful advice even when their hands are full.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, Executive Director Institute of Health Visiting, said:

“This innovative new service will enhance those already provided by health professionals. Whether a mother manages to establish breastfeeding is largely determinant on the support she receives in the first few days after birth. However, with such short hospital stays, professional support is not as widely available as it once was. To have this back up, which can be accessed from anywhere, will be hugely helpful and we expect health visitors to want to promote the service.”

PHE recommends exclusive breastfeeding for around the first 6 months. Breastfeeding boosts a baby’s ability to fight illness and infection, and babies who are not breastfed are more likely to get diarrhoea and chest infections. Breastfeeding also lowers a mother’s risk of breast cancer and may reduce the risk of ovarian cancer.

Almost three-quarters of women start breastfeeding when their child is born, however by 6 to 8 weeks this drops to just 44%. This makes breastfeeding rates in England among the lowest in the world.

A new survey of 1,000 mothers of young children commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) revealed that in hindsight, mothers wished they had been better prepared for breastfeeding. Before the birth of their first child, mums’ biggest priorities were:

buying baby equipment (66%)
preparing for labour (49%)
buying baby clothes (40%)

However, post birth, nearly a quarter (24%) wished they had read about and were more prepared for breastfeeding and 1 in 4 (26%) of those who had given breast milk to their first child wished they had known that asking for help can make a real difference.

Viv Bennett, Chief Nurse at Public Health England said:

“Breastfeeding, whilst natural, is something that mothers and babies learn together, and whilst learning, women may have questions and setbacks. PHE is working with health professionals to make sure women are not embarrassed and receive timely help. Health professionals do an excellent job of caring for new mothers, but they cannot be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is where our Breastfeeding Friend from Start4Life is designed to help. This tool, together with the range of support materials from Start4Life, can provide breastfeeding advice at any time of night or day and support mothers and their partners and families through challenges they may face.

“These digital offerings will help guide new parents through their first weeks of breastfeeding and beyond, providing help at any time of the day or night, and aim to complement support and advice from health care professionals and breastfeeding specialists. The information provided by all the Start4Life services is NHS approved and both services are independent of Amazon and Facebook.”

Resources for parents

Amazon Alexa – Once you’ve enabled the Breastfeeding Friend you can get to know the skill by saying ‘Alexa, open Breastfeeding Friend’.

Alexa Skills - Breastfeeding Friend from Start4Life

The new service is in addition to the interactive Start4life Breastfeeding Friend chatbot, accessed through Facebook Messenger, which launched last year, and the Start4Life website.

Resources for healthcare professionals

You can now order posters from the Start4Life breastfeeding campaign resource centre to help support your local activity – and a range of digital assets are available, including: TV screensavers, Empty belly poster, Web banners

Go to PHE Start4Life Breastfeeding resource centre