Don't Baby Your Babies. Let Them Take Their Lumps.

Texture, or more accurately, the way toddlers respond to texture, is one of the potential pitfalls parents face when transitioning infants to solids.

But avoiding texture is the wrong way to go.

In my last post I discussed how the French have an advantage in the vegetable department because they introduce their infants to a wide range of vegetables from a very early age.

The French strategy—both introducing lots of different vegetables and switching up which vegetables are offered from day-to-day—exposes infants to a wide range of flavors.  Read Early Vegetable Variety: The French Advantage.

But the French strategy does more: It also exposes infants to a wide range of textures.

Variety—in both taste and texture— isn't just the spice of life; it's the key to teaching your tots to eat right.

The more varied textures you expose your infants to the better they’ll eat.

Taste and texture have a symbiotic relationship.

• Flavor variety leads to texture acceptance.
• Texture variety leads to flavor acceptance.  

Think of taste and texture like a food relay race: You need to optimize both racers in order to get to the finish line fast.

Make it your goal to vary the taste and texture of the food you provide as often as you can—both from day-to-day and over the course of a single day.

Here’s the study:

• Take a bunch of 12-month-old babies.
• Cook up some carrots so they’re nice and soft.
• Puree some of the carrots.
• Chop some of the carrots.
• Dish up the carrots (pureed on one day, chopped on another).
• See who eats what.
• Figure out why.

Some of what the researchers discovered was pretty obvious:

• All the babies ate more carrots when they were pureed than when they were chopped.
• Babies who had more teeth were more willing to eat the chopped carrots.

These findings fall under the category of, "We needed researchers to tell us that?"

Some of what the researchers discovered wasn’t so obvious. 

 Look at who consumed more of the chopped carrots:

• Infants who were accustomed to eating a wide variety of foods.
• Children who started early with mashed foods, and who had frequent exposures to chopped versions of different foods.
• Children whose main meal on the day of the study was either chopped or lumpy, as opposed to pureed.

The researchers concluded: The more familiar infants are with different textures, especially with chopped foods, the more likely they are to eat (and like) chopped carrots.

The researchers also concluded that:

"Infants with more experiences with different textures seem to be more confident in handling more complex textures and are less likely to reject these foods."

Many parents are reluctant to give their infants chopped foods because they worry about their children choking.

And that’s a reasonable concern.  You don't have to compromise your feeding goals, however, to keep your kids alive. You can serve mashed, chopped and lumpy foods safely.

In this study, the researchers thoroughly cooked both the pureed and the chopped carrots, and the chopped pieces were about ¼ inch in size. This complies with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that to prevent choking parents leave bites no bigger than ½ inch in size. 

Other parents steer clear of challenging textures because their kids reject them.

But that's the wrong approach.  Repeatedly serving textures infants prefer reinforces their limited palates. It doesn't move them along.

Even if your child has a physical or development issue which makes tackling textures tough, you still have to introduce a variety of textures. Just see a professional. Read: What can you do about texture issues and My Child Only Eats Cheerios and Puffs: When to Seek Medical Help.

Kids who reject challenging textures need more exposure to them, not less, because they need to learn how to handle textures they find tough.

• Make textural changes slowly.  Mix purees with mashes so they're half and half. Put teeny lumps into sauces. 
• Serve small portion sizes so the challenge is doable.
• Deliberately vary the textures you serve.  An easy way to do this is to vary the brands you buy (read How Brands Bite You in the Butt!) and vary the kinds of foods you serve (read Falafel for Breakfast).
• If your child is having trouble, make smaller textural changes, but don't abandon your efforts.

The longer you wait to introduce lumpy, bumpy, and chopped up foods, the harder it becomes.

In another study, children who were introduced to lumpy foods before they were 6 months old:

• Ate a wider variety of foods.
• Moved on to family (or table) food more quickly.
• Were less likely to be considered picky or difficult eaters.

The message is clear: stop babying your babies.

Instead, let them take their lumps.  It's only through exposure to textural variety that your kids will learn to eat a wide variety of foods. And that's the habit you want to teach your kids for a lifetime of healthy eating.

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

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Sources:

Blossfield, I., A. Collins, M. Kiely, and C. Delahunty. 2007. “Texture Preferences of 12-Month-Old Infants and the Role of Early Experiences.” Food Quality and Preference 18: 396-404.

Northstone, K., P. Emmett, F. Nethersole, and A. L. S. P. A. C. S. Team. 2001. “The Effect of Age of Introduction to Lumpy Solids on Foods Eaten and Reported Feeding Difficulties At 6 and 15 Months.” Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics 14: 43-54.

Falafel for Breakfast

Falafel.

That’s what my daughter was eating the other morning for breakfast.  I’m not crowing (ok, maybe I am just a little) but my purpose here isn’t simply to give myself a big congratulatory blog-hug. It's to fill you in on an easy technique that can revolutionize how your kids eat.

Parents ask me all the time how they can expand the repertoire of foods their kids eat, and I always reply: Implement variety with the foods your kids already eat.

In other words, routinely serve dinner food (falafel—or chicken nuggets) at breakfast (or lunch food at dinner). It is the first and easiest step you can take to put your kids on the road to new food acceptance.  It’s a small change with a big effect.

Variety doesn’t always mean “new.”

The first step in teaching kids to eat a wider range of foods is to get them in the habit of eating different foods.  I know that sounds like a contradiction, and you’re probably asking yourself: How can I get my kids to eat different things if they won’t touch anything new?

But different doesn’t always have to mean new. 

One of the most destructive habits kids develop is becoming overly attached to eating the same small set of foods for each meal and snack. 

This is most likely to happen at breakfast when kids cycle through a limited set of items that typically includes cereal, toast, eggs, pancakes and waffles.  It also happens at other meals too…PB&J for lunch every day, anyone?

I don’t take much issue with those foods (though you should probably read A Spoonful of Sugar? and The Secret of Unsweetened Cereal before reaching for a box of Honey Nut Cheerios).  My problem with overusing the same breakfast foods is that they:

• Set your kids’ expectations about what food is acceptable, and repetition is the opposite of new.
• Offer your kids a limited sensory experience because they all deliver basically the same bland, crunchy, bready, food encounter.  Except for the eggs.  Which we serve with toast.

 Read Breakfast: The Most Important Meal of the Day and The Variety Masquerade.

You can introduce different foods using the same tried-and-true favorites your kids already willingly scoop up.  All you have to do is mix up when you offer them. 

Thinking they have to serve breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch foods for lunch, dinner foods for dinner and snack foods for snack hampers parents by limiting their choices.  It sets up a series of False Choices.

It’s not surprising that parents get trapped by these false choices; there’s an industry working overtime to convince you that certain foods are appropriate for certain times.  Breakfast is for bread-like products. Snack time is for something crunchy, out of a box or a bag.  And dinner is the time for veggies.

But here’s a news flash: Chicken nuggets are no better or worse for your kids to eat at dinner than they are at breakfast.  (And if you wouldn’t serve Goldfish crackers at breakfast, maybe you should reconsider their role in snacks.  Read Goldfish vs. Bunnies.) 

You can actually serve anything you want at any time!

In addition to the usual stuff (eggs, cereal, pancakes, bagels…) here are some of the things my daughter has eaten for breakfast:

• A plate with small mounds of peanuts, raisings, chickpeas, and dried mango
• Carrot and celery slices with hummus
• Chicken nuggets
• Cheese, Goldfish crackers, apple slices and broccoli
• Blintzes
• ½ a turkey sandwich
• Apple slices with peanut butter and a glass of milk
• Bean and cheese burrito
• Quiche

And, of course falafel!

(Lest you think I cook any of these things in the morning, rest assured, I do not.  These breakfasts are pieced together from food on hand, including leftovers and the freezer—I’m BIG a fan of Trader Joe’s.  Remember, I’m a Slacker, and I know what it's like to be too tired to cook).

Think outside the (cereal) box and eventually your kids will try new foods.

Breaking the connection between a meal and a set of foods changes your children’s expectations of what they will eat, and it’s this changed expectation that will make them more open to trying new foods.   (Plus, new foods simply stand out less in a system where foods rotate than in a system where they stay the same).

But there’s more.  Rotating through foods your kids already like, in a conscious way, wakes up your kids’ taste buds.  As your kids get used to eating different flavors, different textures, and different food experiences, they’ll also become more open to new foods. The real kind—ones they've never tried before!

Read House Building 101. 

Want to get started mixing-it up?

Make a list of everything your child regularly eats.  Then just start, well, mixing it up!

~Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits.~

The Goldilocks Approach

The blank stare.  I get it a lot when I tell parents that they have to back off the pressure if they want their kids to try new foods.

Without a little friendly encouragement, these parents’ eyes seem to say, their kids would never venture beyond bland, tan, “child-friendly” foods (chicken nuggets, pasta, bagels…you know the ones I mean).  And green would never be a color that would grace their kids’ plates.

These parents mistakenly believe that I’m suggesting they back off entirely.  That less pressure means no guidance.  That I believe in letting the inmates run the asylum.  But that would be nuts.

Research shows that it’s not just pressure that creates a problem.  The lax approach doesn’t work either.  Read The Pressure-Cooker Problem and  What do you want for dinner?

The key to teaching healthy eating habits is to establish a clear set of boundaries and expectations while remaining empathic and respectful of your children’s opinions. 

In other words, you have to be firm but flexible.  Your kids have to know the ground rules, but they also have to feel like they have some say. 

Think of this parenting style as The Goldilocks Approach (not too hot, not too cold …).  Researchers call it Authoritative.  (This sounds a little dictatorial to me.  But the dictatorial style is called Authoritarian, a parenting style heavy on discipline and control, light on regard and respect—or as I like to call it, the “My-Way-or-The-Highway Approach.”)

Authoritative parents are successful because they are able to navigate the tension between pressure and leniency to create a supportive structure.

Specifically authoritative parents:

1) Cultivate self-control and responsibility in their children through supervision, rules, structure and discipline. 

2) Foster their children’s individuality and self-assertion by being attuned and supportive of their kids’ needs and demands.

Many people I know successfully integrate authority and compassion in other areas of parenting, but vacillate between the two extremes when it comes to food.

The most effective way I know to create a supportive structure for eating is to set guidelines around how foods are chosen, and then let your kids participate in many of the choices.

Here’s the structure to teach your kids:

• Eat fresh, natural foods more often than processed foods (proportion).

• Don’t eat the same foods two days in a row for any meal or snack (variety).

• Only eat when you’re hungry and stop eating when you’re full… even if your parents think you should eat more (moderation).

Read House Building 101, How Big is That Bag? Eating in the Age of Portion Distortion and The 2-More-Bites Tango: How YOU Can Take the Lead. 

Here’s how to give your kids choices:

• Whenever you can, let your children decide what to eat by giving them two choices you have preselected.  Read Feng Shui for Food and Marshmallows Make You Smart.

• Let your kids use a mealtime backup. Read How Cottage Cheese Changed My Life.

• Allow your kids to decide when they eat their treats.  Read It Doesn’t Matter WHEN Your Kids Eat Their Crap and Candy with Breakfast?

~ Changing the conversation from nutrition to habits. ~

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Berge, J. M., M. Wall, D. Neumark-Sztainer, N. Larson, and M. Story. 2010. “Parenting Style and Family Meals: Cross-Sectional and 5-Year Longitudinal Associations.” Journal of the American Dietetic Association 110(7): 1036-42.