Eat well while pregnant and breastfeeding
This is in no way groundbreaking research but yet another study, this time published in Pediatrics, says that the way to raise children who like fruits and vegetables is to eat them yourself while pregnant and nursing to pass on the preference.
Repeated exposure to fruits and vegetables in infancy is key, said study senior author Julie Mennella, a biopsychologist and member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “They need to taste them to learn to like them.”
And that face that babies can make the first time they taste a new food? Don’t focus on it, Mennella suggested. “Even though they make these grimaces, when you offered the spoon again, the baby kept on eating,” she said of her tiny study participants.
That grimace, she suspects, is innate and not a sign the baby hates the food and won’t try it again.
For the study, Mennella and her co-author wanted to focus on how babies develop preferences for foods. They observed 45 infants, ranging in age from 4 months to 8 months, who had all been weaned to cereal but had very little experience eating fruits and vegetables. None had eaten green beans and only one had tried peaches, which were the two foods studied.
The infants were divided into two groups: One group got green beans at home for eight consecutive days, while the other got green beans and then peaches at home over the same eight days. The infants were also observed for acceptance of the foods for two days before the home test and two days afterward, at the Monell center.
The researchers also measured how much the babies ate and asked the mothers about their own eating habits during pregnancy and afterward. Twenty of the 45 new mothers were breast-feeding.
During the initial exposure, the babies ate more calories from peaches than green beans — about 200 calories compared to just 74. And as they ate, most squinted, furrowed their brow or curled their upper lip.
“When we looked at the first time these babies ate green beans and peaches, the breast-fed babies ate more of the peaches [than the formula-fed infants] and made less negative faces when they ate them,” Mennella said.
Then the researchers looked at the diet records of the mothers. “These lactating mothers ate more fruits in general,” Mennella said. “The most likely reason why the breast-fed babies ate more peaches is, they were already familiar with the flavor.”
No differences in green bean preferences were found between infants who were breast-fed or bottle-fed. When Mennella looked at the diet report, she found both formula-feeding and breast-feeding mothers ate fewer green beans than recommended.
After the eight days of initial testing, all the babies ate more green beans. The green bean consumption rose from about 2 ounces per serving to more than 3 ounces.
Why didn’t peach consumption rise? “They ate the peaches after the green beans,” she said. “So they were full.”
So breast-feeding does boost the chance a baby will like a first taste of food, but only if mother ate similar-tasting foods, Mennella said.
Mennella’s advice: “Eat the fruits and vegetables you enjoy while you are pregnant and lactating, because your baby is going to be learning about those foods. Whether you are breast-feeding or formula-feeding, once you start introducing a food, make sure you offer your baby opportunities to eat fruits and vegetables. They need to taste them to learn to like them.”
From my limited personal experience I have to say this is true. Sam loves fruits and veggies and won’t touch cows milk, a beverage I won’t drink either unless it’s disguised by espresso and sugar. Yesterday the freak picked all of the broccoli off of his pizza, ate it, and left the pizza itself untouched. He did ignore all of the tomatoes and I’m not a fan of tomatoes either. He’s a chip off of the old block. I worry about my second child. One of the unfortunate effects of this pregnancy is that I’m suffering a serious aversion to fruits and veggies. I hope my taste for them comes back soon. A prenatal vitamin probably won’t help much for a future of picky eating.
(I’m double posting this at Kids Dish.)
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