Tiny Tastes
Why is it that some children readily accept broccoli and spinach, while other children refuse all vegetables and favor only bread or crackers? Perhaps the answer lies in the child’s first exposure to food. Around the world, babies are offered a wide array of family, or cultural, foods when they first begin taking solids. Yet, here in America, there has been a long standing, deeply entrenched practice of offering rice cereal fortified with iron. When the child become constipated, fruit is commonly added to the meal.
Today’s nutrition science has shown that this glycemic reactive meal can favor the development of a “sweet tooth” in the infant, with an increased preference for refined carbohydrates and sweets. Repetitive feeding of fruit and grains can trigger the desire for “more”, overriding natural feelings of satiety or fullness in the baby and teaching them to believe all foods should be grains (breads, crackers, etc.) and sweet (fruit, candy, chocolate). Just look at the tradition over the past century of feeding rice cereal sweetened with fruit not just once a day, but as often as three times a day to very young babies. Add to this the cultural tradition of needing to sweeten vegetables in order to gain infant acceptance. Or, masking vegetables altogether in sauces or muffins for a picky eater.
We are what we eat.
Yet, training your baby’s palate is simple biochemistry. Science shows us that all babies are exposed to a wide variety of flavors from their mother’s diet during her pregnancy. Early exposure to a variety of flavors can positively influence your baby’s future food preferences. By offering early food exposure to alkaline or savory food choices – the green, yellow, orange and other “challenging” vegetables – your baby learns that food is savory, with many textures and enjoyable tastes.
Palate training is a sensory experience for your infant involving both the taste, as well as the smell of various “real” foods – before they begin to eat. From five months of age, there is a “window of opportunity” where you may offer your baby “tiny tastes” of varied foods on a daily basis to encourage the experience the rich flavors of real foods while setting up future healthy food preferences. Starting with the “challenging dark vegetables”, such as spinach, broccoli, chard, asparagus, collard greens and kale, you may work your way through the various squashes, zucchini, green beans, peas and all varieties of beans. With the recent American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, your baby may also taste animal or vegan proteins, cheese, and nut butters (if there is no prior history of nut allergies in the parents). A simple “taste”, merely touching the food in a mashed form to your baby’s lips, encourages their sensory food exploration of licking, smelling, sucking, and eventually, chewing each new “taste”. There’s no need to start feeding “meals” until six to seven months of age – but “tiny tastes” can become a favorite daily food exploration ritual from 5 months on between you and your baby.
Food choices are not random events. What you, the parent, model repetitively for your baby, sets up a pathway of savory food recognition in their brain – for life. What you model as “food” for your baby, he or she will take with them, internalized in their body chemistry, out of the home and into the American cultural food experience.
Cynthia Epps, MS, IBCLC, RLC Copyright 2017
www.cynthiaepps.com
Today’s nutrition science has shown that this glycemic reactive meal can favor the development of a “sweet tooth” in the infant, with an increased preference for refined carbohydrates and sweets. Repetitive feeding of fruit and grains can trigger the desire for “more”, overriding natural feelings of satiety or fullness in the baby and teaching them to believe all foods should be grains (breads, crackers, etc.) and sweet (fruit, candy, chocolate). Just look at the tradition over the past century of feeding rice cereal sweetened with fruit not just once a day, but as often as three times a day to very young babies. Add to this the cultural tradition of needing to sweeten vegetables in order to gain infant acceptance. Or, masking vegetables altogether in sauces or muffins for a picky eater.
We are what we eat.
Yet, training your baby’s palate is simple biochemistry. Science shows us that all babies are exposed to a wide variety of flavors from their mother’s diet during her pregnancy. Early exposure to a variety of flavors can positively influence your baby’s future food preferences. By offering early food exposure to alkaline or savory food choices – the green, yellow, orange and other “challenging” vegetables – your baby learns that food is savory, with many textures and enjoyable tastes.
Palate training is a sensory experience for your infant involving both the taste, as well as the smell of various “real” foods – before they begin to eat. From five months of age, there is a “window of opportunity” where you may offer your baby “tiny tastes” of varied foods on a daily basis to encourage the experience the rich flavors of real foods while setting up future healthy food preferences. Starting with the “challenging dark vegetables”, such as spinach, broccoli, chard, asparagus, collard greens and kale, you may work your way through the various squashes, zucchini, green beans, peas and all varieties of beans. With the recent American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines, your baby may also taste animal or vegan proteins, cheese, and nut butters (if there is no prior history of nut allergies in the parents). A simple “taste”, merely touching the food in a mashed form to your baby’s lips, encourages their sensory food exploration of licking, smelling, sucking, and eventually, chewing each new “taste”. There’s no need to start feeding “meals” until six to seven months of age – but “tiny tastes” can become a favorite daily food exploration ritual from 5 months on between you and your baby.
Food choices are not random events. What you, the parent, model repetitively for your baby, sets up a pathway of savory food recognition in their brain – for life. What you model as “food” for your baby, he or she will take with them, internalized in their body chemistry, out of the home and into the American cultural food experience.
Cynthia Epps, MS, IBCLC, RLC Copyright 2017
www.cynthiaepps.com
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