oh, baby: Eating for Two

By Kathy Sena

If you’re breastfeeding, you can train your baby to like the taste of fruits and veggies by eating these healthy foods yourself. That’s according to new research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, published in the December 2007 issue of the journal Pediatrics.

“If we can get babies to learn to like these tastes, we can get them off to an early start toward healthy eating,” says study author Julie A. Mennella, Ph.D. Researchers also suggest offering your baby plenty of opportunities to taste fruits and vegetables as she makes the transition to solid foods—regardless of whether you’re breastfeeding or using formula.

The researchers studied 45 infants between four and eight months old, 20 of whom were breastfed. The results revealed that breast-feeding confers an advantage for a baby’s acceptance of foods during weaning—but only if the mother regularly eats those foods.

“It’s a beautiful system,” says Mennella. “Flavors from the mother’s diet are transmitted through amniotic fluid and mother’s milk. So a baby learns to like a food’s taste when the mother eats that food on a regular basis.” Babies are born with a natural dislike for bitter tastes, explains Mennella. “If mothers want their babies to learn to like to eat vegetables, especially green vegetables, they need to provide them with opportunities to taste these foods.”

And don’t be so quick to give up if your baby makes the “yuck!” face when she first tries healthy foods. The researchers found that babies’ facial expressions did not always match their willingness to continue eating a particular food, and that infants innately display facial expressions of distaste to certain flavors. They urge parents to provide their baby with repeated opportunities to taste fruits and vegetables, and to focus on the infant’s willingness to eat the food instead of on negative facial expressions.

Kathy Sena is a mom and a freelance journalist specializing in health and parenting issues. “Health Notes” is one of her regular columns. Visit her blog at www.parenttalktoday.com.