March 26th, 2005
Introduce More Varities To Avoid A Fussy Eater
» motherhood
“Psychologists there have found that babies weaned on rusks are more likely to go on to prefer beige foods, such as crisps and chips, later in life.
The researchers said children built up a “visual prototype” of favoured foods.
But babies exposed to a range of tastes by the age of one, including fruit and vegetables, went on to show a greater preference for those tastes later on. ” BBC: Children’s tastes ‘develop early’
Oh dear, does that means that we might be doing more harm to the kids in future because we are very careful when introducing new food. I have not been very adventurous in introducing a wide variety of food. The top reason is because every other food seems to be unsuitable, unhealthy, toxic, hormones laden or is an allergy trigger. The safest way out is to stick to the few safer choices.
Besides that, I also have the impression that limiting the child’s exposure to different taste should produce a less fussy eater. When you have tasted the flavourful goodies, why would you want to settle for the bland ones? I seem to be getting it all wrong, the young ones build a visual database of the food they like, and might just reject those strange looking new food different from their preferred “prototype”. They don’t even want to give them a chance!
But then, the baby’s food are all mushy and mashed up, how would they know about the colour, texture and shape.
March 28th, 2005 at 11:21 am
I think it is better to introduce the 1-yr-old kid to all the different types of food than limit them as we might have a problem feeding them later on. My MIL has been very faithful by cooking soupy stuff for my daughter since the time we gave her solids. Now at age 3, we have problems feeding her whenever we are at an eating place which does not serve soups suitable for her!
Where junk food and all the other unhealthy stuff are concerned, I now give them if she asks for them in limited quantities. I am afraid that if I stop her from eating them, she might go on a junk food binge when I am not around since she has been so deprived.
I don’t think everyone will agree with me. What do you think?
March 28th, 2005 at 3:30 pm
I have a friend who did something like what you did, only more extreme. Her daughter asked for chocolate and she just let her eat all the chocolate she wanted, until she grew sick of it and doesn’t want any chocolate anymore! Luckily it works, else she would have to deal with a chocoholic.
Now my girl is over 1yr old, I am also getting a bit less axious about what goes into her mouth. As long as they are not too salty or sweet or loaded with preservatives, I will let her eat if she shows interest. Sometimes I feel that depriving them of certain food (ie, control intake) would make the eating more enjoyable when they get to eat them in future. By the way, the junk food binge you mentioned created a very frightening image in my mind…hehe.