Babies, Parenting, Child Health, Infant Nutrition

Infant Nutrition – A Mother’s Diet Influences her Baby’s Acceptance of Food

09.12.2007 | 9:22:06 pm | Posted by admin

By Colleen Hurley, RD, Certified Kid’s Nutrition Specialist

Every parent secretly hopes their child will like fruits and vegetables and eat them without a struggle. According to a new study, you may be able to increase the odds of your child actually liking his veggies. New research reported in the December issue of the Journal of Pediatrics states that if you are breastfeeding, you can help create a taste for healthy foods in your infant by eating them yourself.

The study was designed to examine the influence of an infant’s sensory experiences on the development of healthy eating habits. Forty-five infants, 20 of whom were breastfed, were randomly placed into 2 groups. Each infant had no exposure to any solid food other than cereal. One group was fed strictly green beans and the other group was fed both peaches and green beans. The results? Breastfeeding encourages a baby’s acceptance of foods during weaning, but only if the mother regularly eats those foods.

It was revealed that the breastfed babies, when first exposed to peaches, ate for longer periods of time. Through questionnaires, researchers discovered this phenomenon occurred because the nursing mothers consumed more fruits than the non-nursing mothers. Researchers believe the increased acceptance of peaches was due to the fact that the breastfed infants had previous exposure to fruit flavors through breast milk. As well, the repeated opportunities for tasting green beans through breastmilk seemed to increase the infants’ direct intake of green beans threefold.

The researchers also discovered that a baby’s facial expression of wanting no more food didn’t always match their fullness. Just like adults, some babies have their own taste and will let you know whether they like a food or not.

In summary, breastfed babies can have an increased likelihood to try fruits and veggies, but only if the mother is eating them herself. However, just because your infant is drinking formula doesn’t mean she’ll never eat fresh foods. As this study shows, your child may simply need to see a new food a few times before warming up to the taste of it.

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The Baby Mum-Mum blog discusses everything to do with babies and parenting with a focus on child health and child development. Baby Mum-Mum is a healthy, easy to digest baby rice snack that is enjoyed by babies and mothers around the world for its portability, gluten free ingredients and great taste.

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On February 22, the FDA issued letters relating to labelling to 22 food companies, including several baby food manufacturers. We were advised by the FDA that we are not permitted to print the statements "Low in Fat" or "No added fat or oils" on our Baby Mum-Mum packaging.

Although these statements are true and each serving of Baby Mum-Mum does not contain any fat, the FDA has brought to our attention that these claims are technically not allowed on our packaging solely because the product is intended for consumption by infants and children under 4 years of age.

In the future, these claims will be removed from our packaging.

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