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Kate Middleton shook hands with a baby who, this time at least, didn’t try to steal her bag.

The Princess of Wales met staff today at a children’s clinic taking part in a study to help healthcare workers and families know how to spot when a baby is distressed.

In her first official engagement to Warwickshire, Kate visited the Riversley Park Children’s Centre in Nuneaton, a town around 20 miles east of Birmingham.

Before heading in, she waved at, high-fived and spoke with lines of local schoolchildren under clear blue skies.

Kate later sat down with a group of women all bouncing babies on their laps at the centre.

One of the mums, Mischa Kerr, 36, saw her nine-month-old Talia Saliba-Kerr hold Kate’s hand the entire session.

Sadly, unlike one of the last times Kate held a baby’s hand in Aberfan, Talia didn’t try to steal her handbag.

Mischa said: ‘I was very surprised – she tried to eat the princess.’

‘I think it’s great she came down to see everyone, it’s important everyone knows what resources are available and what health visitors do.’

But in what could be a first in the royal history books, the Princess of Wales found herself interrupted by a baby loudly burping as she spoke.

Blushing mum Brogan Goodwin had been winding 10-week-old Raphael Pickering nearby.

‘Well done you,’ Kate told Raphael, adding: ‘It’s always really reassuring, you spend ages trying to make that happen.’

‘I’m going to wait until his 18th birthday and then drop it when he’s really cocky,’ said the windy baby’s mum, Brogan.

Kate’s trip to the West Midlands town was to see how researchers are finding new ways to keep better tabs on how babies feel and interact with the world.

Funded with a £50,000 grant from her Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, the clinic is evaluating the use of the Alarm Distress Baby Scale (ADBB).

The scale, designed by French psychiatrists, is often used by healthcare professionals, educators and childcare workers to check if a baby has become so distressed they begin to socially withdraw.

During a visit to Denmark in February 2022, Kate saw how the ADBB model was being used by health visitors, who are specialist nurses who work with infants.

Today, Kate told health visitors she is ‘excited’ to see how the ADBB programme can change lives in the UK.

The 10-month-long trial is running through the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust and the Humber Teaching NHS Foundation.

‘It’s such a wonderful and valuable role that you all play to the future of our whole society,’ she said.

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