Just Curious

My son would eat anything at first, but after he tried different things, he realized what was good & what wasn't so good. He would spit out whatever he didn't like, and gobble up the good stuff - like fruit! So yea, I think they can taste. You are one of the lucky ones if you don't have a picky eater. As my son got older, the pediatrician told me to not worry about it, as long as he was eating at least "some" of each of the basic food groups, and continuing to gain (not lose) weight it was ok. He is now 9, and my sister tells me to just save my food money now, because he will probably eat me out of house & home once he becomes a teenager. I wonder. :-)

I thought the same thing with my little boy...My daughter is 8 years old and is such a picky eater it drives me crazy. So when I had my son I was on a mission to get him not to be!!..He did very well until a couple months ago..around 14 months...one night he had some strawberries and in the middle of the night vomited and ever since then will not even touch them...its been downhill since then!..he definitely has things he likes and some that he refuses to eat. My advice is just to keep the variety going so that he doesn't get used to certain foods consistently.

Honestly A., my girls ae pretty much everything we put in front of them when they were babies - and not all of it was edible! They are now 6 and 4 and even though they have developed preferences for certain foods they still eat pretty much everything. The one thing that you don't want to forget (an I really hope it was mentioned in the book that got you so worried) is that even when they get older and are trying new foods, it really takes 3 to 4 times of trying for them to really decide if they do or don't like something. Taste buds, like everything else, have to develop but remember if he sees you not liking something he's more likely to not like it eiter no matter how many times he tries it. This should be the only thing you worry about :)

There is no true formula. I have had 4 kids and each one is different. I think the more food choices you introduce to yoiur child when they are young(before the age of 2/3) the greater chance they have enjoying all kinds of food. But that is still no guarantee. Doctors have come to realize also kids that reject food could be the result of food allergies/intolerance. Our body knows what it can't handle and a lot of times it let's us know in it's own way that it doesn't want a certain food. SO some of it is chance and some of it can be physiological. I do wish I would have offered more food to them when they were younger because all but 1 is a picky eater today. (25,15,13,10)

My advice is to just keep giving your son food that is healthy for him. His preferences might change but if you give him healthy options than he will be fine. I try to cook healthy meals and I don't let my kids just decide that they aren't going to have what I make. Kids like to have choices, however, so I always gave my son two or three choices for snack (healthy ones of course). I also always made him drink milk with his dinner. He will be 9 this year and he still makes drinks milk with his dinner. When we go grocery shopping he rarely asks for cookies or something like that. Even though he likes that stuff too he usually asks for carrots with ranch or "ants on a log" (celery, peanut butter, and raisins). don't worry if his preferences change as much as whether or not he is making healthy choices as he grows. You will do great! Good luck!

Hi A.!

I basically agree with your book. My son ate everything as an infant. He certainly liked applesauce and sweet potatoes more than he liked carrots and peas (he ate the first two items within minutes and the others took forever), but he did eat everything with no fuss.

At my son's two year old well visit his pediatrcian told me to constantly introduce new foods to my son because around this age kids tend to stick with certain foods. He described it as kind of a stage. My son's eating habits have changed a little bit. He does like to eat the same foods over and over, but I make sure I am always introducing new foods. And he's remained relatively flexible when it comes to eating.

Enjoy your little bundle!

I've always heard the best way to prevent a picky eater is to give them a wide variety of foods before they turn 1. Once they turn 1, it's more about taste and textures. The wider variety they have of each, the more likely they won't turn out to be picky eaters. That means that the now-slightly-outdated-but-still-widely-practiced method of introducing a new food every 4-5 days is doing more harm than good because you don't have the time to give a good variety of foods and textures. Most babies don't have an allergic reaction to something until they've had it half a dozen times or more so waiting 3-5 days between new foods doesn't allow enough time to figure out an allergic reaction. You still have to play detective to figure out what it is.

Anyways... my 3 kids had a big variety of foods as a baby. They basically ate whatever the rest of the family ate at a meal - just cut into pea-size bits because none had a tooth before their 1st birthday. That is what my 9 month old is currently doing. My 2 and 5 year old did the same thing. My son continues to eat whatever we put in front of him. My daughter went through a no-veggies phase for a few months but otherwise has never had the typical food jags that toddlers get. Nowadays she'll also eat whatever we put in front of her... salmon, Chinese, Italian, Mexican, Thai, sushi - whatever.

In my experience their tastes change as they get older. I have a daughter who is 7 now who liked all kinds of food as a baby. Then around 3 yrs. old everything changed and she liked maybe four different things and that was it. Meat of any kind (including chicken nuggets if you can believe it) was out of the question. Every meal time was a struggle. We even had to ban her saying she didn't like her food at the table because I was afraid she would do that at someone else's house and completely embarass us all. Then around 6 it all started to change again. Now she likes all kinds of meat, including steak, and will even eat some vegetables. She even likes salad and raw carrots. So I think it's all and up and down thing. Some of it could just be flexing muscles and exercising choice. I know it can be the texture of food that is off-putting (we have one of those too).

At any rate, as your baby gets older keep introducing new things and keep putting it on his plate whether he likes it or not. You never know when that will change again. :)

By the way, I do think there are foods babies don't like. I have yet to find one in five that will eat peas. Or spinach. My oldest son wouldn't eat anything the color green from the time we started feeding him jar food.

My experience is that the book is basically true. However, their tastes may change some as they get older. I always introduced the food with a very positive attitude and they seemed like most of it. And, if they didn't, I'd try it another day or wait a while and try again.

Yes and no...there are some babies that are picky right from the beginning. Then there are babies like my son who would eat anything you put in front of him until about 18 months and then he realized that there were things he liked and didn't like. So, now he eats a whole lot of yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, pasta, and canned peas. I can get some other things in, but those are the staples he eats almost every day. The funny thing is, he doesn't like (and has never liked) anything bland. He will eat sharp cheddar over American slices, spicy salsa with a spoon, gazpacho, it's kinda odd! Anyhow, enjoy it while it lasts because almost all kids get picky at some point;)

I hate to tell you that at 4 1/2 months your baby boy is not set in what he likes and doesn't like. I watch children during the day, and along with four of those kids, and my two - they all changed their minds at about 14 months. Until your baby is just over a year old, he'll probably eat anything you give him. Just take advantage of the time now, and remember that when he does get older, they say it takes up to 7 tries of one food before a child actually decides for sure whether or not they like it. So, when he gets picky, keep introducing the same foods for him to make the final decision. Good luck! Jen

of course there taste will change some but i have found for the most part my kids all eat about everything i give them. i have a 3yo that loves broccolli(sp) and she will eat most foods givin. i think as long as you are offering it and they se you eating stuff as well they will eat it. they are very big on doing what mommy and daddy do and eating what we eat..

My daughter, though not a picky eater per se, definitely had taste preferences right from the beginning. While she would keep trying for at least 5 bites if I held the spoon in front of her, she would make distinct faces whenever I gave her greenbeans or broccoli and then eventually start gagging. Tons of other foods did not provoke that response. I've had friends who say the same thing. So, I do think babies have taste preferences regardless of age. However, on a good note, she will now eat those foods if they are not the puree version but chopped into small foods so she can finger feed. This seems to be primarily because she's so motivated to feed herself, but even then, she still makes a strange face after a few bites, but without the gagging at this point.

I think it's all in how we approach our kids about eating habits. As an infant my daughter would not eat peas or pears. She still won't eat peas! But she is a pickier eater than when she was growing up. She didn't get junk food while living at home. She discovered it from her friends. She still basically eats healthy but craves the junk now and then. Diet and exercise are so important starting at a young age. I work in health care and it's so sad to see so many heavy people. And it's hard work trying to work with heavy people that can no longer do for themselves. Junk food and sweets should be special treats...an earned privelage. Kids that eat healthy, get plenty of rest and exercise will be the ones that excell. It has been proven many times. I wish you the best!
L.

Our son ate everything as a baby, and became more selective (not exactly picky) right about age 2. Now I have to try all sorts of tricks to get him to eat vegetables (hide them in Mac and cheese, etc). Used to love crinkle cut carrots, but now won't eat them at all. I'm sure all kids are different though!

I don't know if it's the taste or the texture but there were foods that my daughter did not like as early as 6mo. She never liked any baby foods so I had to make my own and she still doesn't like peaches!! Her tastes have changed a lot over the years though. There are a lot of foods she pushed away as a child but she likes them now and fixes them for her kids.

I thought the same thing about my daughter. She is not 16 months old and now looks at everything I put in front of her. I almost have to force her to eat things,but once she gets a taste of it she seems to like it and eat it. But now there are things I put into her mouth and she will spit it right out. Also, sometimes she will love something I feed her than the next day she hates it. I just keep introducing her to the same food over and over.

I disagree with that logic completely. Babies have tastebuds, just as you & I do. Babies KNOW taste differences. Why do you think when a breastfed baby is switched to formula, often times it's a struggle? Because they reject it. Why? Because it's not a taste they like. Most other parenting books tell you that when you start babies on solids, it may take 10 times of giving it to them before they like the taste of a particular type. This is so true. I know a friend who had a baby who absolutely did not like bananas. He's a toddler now and still doesn't like them. So yes, they do like or dislike tastes. That's not some phenomenon that just happens over night.

My son loved everything I gave him at the beginning except Gerber potatoes. My Dr. suggested real mashed (w/o lumps of course) potatoes. Nope. He is 5 ans STILL will not try mashed potatoes! They're my favorite, so this is just funny.

Also when he was moving into more chunkier foods (stages 2 & 3) I used my food processor and pureed what my husband and I ate. I went so far as to shop the farmer's market and find veggies that we never ate! My son really liked turnips. I made them like mashed potatoes--go figure!

By the time my son reached 20 months or so, he became picky. I think he became more aware of what was going into his mouth and he was more aware of tastes. Now that he is 5, it has been a roller coaster ride of likes and dislikes. My Dr. says that as long as he's eating something and is healthy, he is fine. My son lived on chicken nuggets, fish sticks, french fries, cereal, poptarts, and pasta for a couple of years. In the last couple of years he has warmed up to more veggies and meats.

I'm sure that they have taste buds, but they can't tell if its peas or carrots they are eating. If you start to put tell them,"this is carrots, this is peas" and they either like them or not, then they will be able to let you know that they are good or bad. They only can tell from bitter to sweet as far as I know. When we put my daughter on solids, she would have different faces for different things. She enjoyed almost everything she ate, until we gave her peas or sweet peas, she wouldn't even touch them. And even now, She's 2years old and she still won't eat her peas! We are starting to find out that there are things that she's perferring more over the other. She'll eat baked potatoes over mashed. She loves her fruits, and she'll eat all her veggies except peas. She'll take water over milk. But she'll take milk over soda pop. She's not a really picky eater, she's just making out with her preferrances. Sometimes you can't believe everything you read or hear. You just got to go with instincts.

My little girl is 21 months old. She didn't have any solid food until 5 1/2 months, but it does seem to me that she had preferences right off the bat, and it seems that other moms have said the same thing (Baby makes a terrible face when she gives him peas, etc.). If it is a texture issue and not taste, I don't know. My kid is not a picky eater now, considering the stories I hear about toddlers. She won't eat eggs or broccoli (but she loves it in soup). I'd say his tastes will probably change as he experiences more and more, but that he probably does have true preferences already. Enjoy the new experiences!

I think that the best thing that you can do to keep a child from being a picky eater is to introduce them to a variety of food at a very young age. I would also hold off on giving your child the typical "chidren's food" like cicken nuggets and hot dogs for as long as you can. We have the expectation at our dinner table that our boys, ages 4 and 6, will eat what is prepared (uness it is something extreme). They do not get their own meals. My son told his kindergarten teacher that his favorite food is broccoli.

I think the key is, to keep the foods around and to not let anyone make negative comments. With my oldest, who is now 9, he use to eat everything. But, you know kids always wanna be like mom or dad. One day, he was eating veggies and his dad said ooooh, yuck! I still have a time getting him to eat them sometimes. With my youngest, who is now 20 months, I have never allowed anyone to do that to him, since I had that experience with my oldest. He eats things very well. I make sure though that the most common "least liked foods" are very common parts of our meals. Like I serve brocolli, cooked carrots, raw carrot sticks, cauliflower, green beans, peas, etc. several times a week. I believe there is less risk that way of having him just up and one day saying "I don't like it". This way he stays use to the taste. For my oldest (and my husband), I have taken to hiding veggies in their food. Heaven save me if they ever found out just how many veggies they eat! haha I hope this answered your question some. Good luck, Shannon G.

The book can tell you what it will about taste and texture of foods, and maybe they can't taste early on but at 56 with a brother 9 years younger, DD at 28, DD at 26, and a 10 year old I have had since he came home from the hospital it has been my experience of the following:
I was wise enough with my own children to start with cereal then moved to vegetables. Early on I realized none of them like green beans very much and I wore a lot of beets. While the peas are pretty dry they seemed to like them.
Baby egg yolks are very dry, I always mixed a little 2% milk in them to get them to a texture I could handle with the spoon, and they all liked the eggs. Meats came next, again you may have to add a little water to get the consistancy to manage easily.
Fruits and desserts are never a problem, they all liked them very much. These are all sweet and they love sweet things. I learned quickly if you introduce these first these are the ones they will quickly and willingly eat and you can put the vegetables in the garbage, they won't want them at all. You can manage with carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash, again the sweet vegetables but the rest will be a waste of time.
I also learned by the second child to use my blender a lot. The 10 year old ate pretty much everything we ate at dinner time once we were past the are they going to have an allergy thing. I could not mash up enough broccoli, cauliflower, and asperagas to keep up with him! Blending down meats is a little harder, but it can be done! And teething on a chicken bone from the leg or thigh is always a joy for them while you are eatting you dinner.
Being picky comes later. We have now gone into a phase where we do not eat mushrooms, onions, cabbage, broccoli (actually he just started eatting that again and likes it again), cauliflower, and he hates green beans unless they are french cut and he doesn't have to deal with the bean part. Amazing to me because he likes lima beans, chili, and baked beans (go figure) and this started when he was about 6. It isn't so much flavor as it is textures. We are working this out. He loves salad and raw carrots but until the last year wouldn't eat cooked carrots. He loves cole slaw but won't eat any other form of cabbage, and cucumbers are only good in original or sweet pickle form, take the dills and put them in the trash. He won't eat olives now either, beets, zuchinni if it isn't in bread, and doesn't like raw peaches or nectrines anymore.
Good luck.
P. R

HI A.,

My dd didn't care for fruits at first and now she loves them, she loved veggies and now at 21 months I have a hard time getting her to eat much. She prefers to snack all day so we've cut off snacks.

My son, 10 months, hated eating for a long time, didn't not only not gain weight, but lost, only wanted his bottle and baby food gagged him. He now loves all table food but I know that will also change as they get picker. I read somewhere that the taste and texture begin to play part in it all.

My dh and I are also great eaters and it doesn't mean as an adult he will be so picky if you continue to introduce alll types of foods, but IMO they will go through the phase of being picky no matter what

As a mom of two, I've been down that road already. My kids got a variety of baby foods starting at 4 or 5 months. I started with a veggie and worked my way up. My daughter is a picky eater, and she got the same stuff her brother got, and he eats like a horse. I think some kids are just born to be picky, despite our best efforts. Just feed him a balance of fruits and veggies and go with what works once he's on table food. I gave one fruit and one veggie at lunch and dinner with the 2nd foods with the meats starting at 6 or 7 months. Don't worry, kids generally eat enough to keep them going, even though WE think they might starve in the meantime!!!

I haven't read the book, and my kids are teens but I agree with the others in that part of it is our attitude when feeding them. I breastfed and didn't start our 3 on food till they were older (9-10 mo) then went straight to table food, sometimes smashed sometimes very small bites. We were told NOT to start on fruit or sweets or baby would not eat veggies, etc. = but that was NOT true as we started ours on fruit first. These were some tips we followed:
1) Wait till they can sit up or hold their head up
2) Wait several days before introducing new food
3) Wait till their tongue gets used to utensil in their mouth before starting/continuing solids
Also, since some babies shake their heads or indicate that they don't like a particular food...it is probably the SMELL they are reacting to not the taste :-D
Enjoy this new time of your life!!

My son, now 5, loved everything from the beginning and still does. He eats just about anything we put in front of him even if he doesn't really like it (he will tell us he doesn't like it but eat it anyways! SO LUCKY) My neice and my sons half brother (dad's other child) are the pickest eaters most the time and always have been from the time baby food was started.
Other things that may lead into this: I didn't start any form of food until I got ok from Ped. I did veggies first then fruit, one at a time with at least 3 to 5 days between each food and son had a very regular eating schedule.
My neice was fed rice cereal at 2 months and really didn't like it. They still continued to try to feed her any baby food whenever they wanted. Some days she ate food at 7 in the morning, other days was 10 at night. Whenever mom and dad were in the mood to try, that's when she got it. She is now 15 months old and LOVES junk food but it's a fight for them to get her to take regular food.
My sons half brother was started on apple sauce at 2 and half months as his first food. He has never ever taken to veggies and is very picky at a year and half.
Are any of these related? Who knows. It's definitly not a big enough group to say yes or no either way. Best of luck on keeping your lil man a non-picky eater!

A.,

My 3 yr old has developed her sweet tooth (dangit) but still digs the veggies, thank goodness. Luckily, she's experimenting at the table with what we give her. She says, "Mommy, what about peas AND nugget?" As if no one in the world but her has ever thought about mixing chicken and vegetables togther. Of course, we jump on the bandwagon to keep food interesting.

But I think your real question can be answered by my 10 month old. He definitely has some tastebuds that prefer the ... salty and savory I guess you'd call it. He's all about the meats and veggies. He hates anything sweet. (how could he possibly be my child????) No fruits are allowed, apparently. I think if I even gave him a fingertip of chocolate, he'd do his newly acquired head shake "NO" and move on to some veggie mum-mums. What an odd boy.

Good question! Hope your little one continues liking everything!

J.

I'm pretty skeptical of Martha & David Kimmel's theory, actually, because it seems to totally ignore the fact that breastfed babies get taste variation from birth via mothers' breastmilk!

If a baby is exclusively fed infant formula, then yes, I'd say they eat for hunger not for taste because the taste is completely uniform, never varying (unless the parents are switching among different formulas, which isn't typical).

But I think it's a totally different story if a baby is getting mother's breastmilk, which is a dynamic, living fluid! We know that proteins from what mom eats can pass through into mother's milk, which strongly suggests that flavor would be present too. There are also studies that show that flavors of what the mother eats are somewhat shared via mother's milk - one study in particular even showed that babies stayed longer at the breast in the study group who was ingesting increased levels of garlic (vs the control group who were eating low garlic).

Also, any mother who has pumped breastmilk for her baby over time (like a mom who returns back to work and provide breastmilk, or a mom who is exclusively pumping for her baby) has noticed that breastmilk varies from day to day in color/shading. Wouldn't surprise me if that affected the taste as well.

So, in the end, I think the authors of the Mommy Made book are not telling the whole story because they are probably not taking into account breastfed babies who get dynamic, living breastmilk -- and it would make sense that this wide variation of tastes from birth would positively impact a baby's transition to solids. Sounds like the Kimmels are only focusing on those babies getting infant formula.

As far as babies growing into toddlers and beyond, of course other factors come into play in terms of pickiness, etc.! Certainly, I think the behavior the parents model for the child have a significant impact - for example, if the parents themselves are picky, or if the parents are adventurous eaters. Additionally, as another mom already mentioned, a young child may well know intrinsically to avoid a certain food if it makes them feel bad (food allergy or sensitivity).

Also, it's important to take into account that sometimes severe pickiness issues are actually sensory or motor problems that the child could get past with the right therapy from a feeding specialist (for example) and excellent family support.

And last but not least, sometimes food issues are really just toddlers or preschoolers flexing/experimenting with their autonomy. :)

So, lots of factors come together to make up a child's willingness (or not) to try and eat a variety of foods, IMO.

A.,
That was not the case with my daughter. She is now 7 months old. When we started giving her little jars of fruits & veggies she did have a preference. We even gave her one thing over & over & over again like they suggest to get the baby used to that particular flavor. There are some that she just wants NOTHING to do with. (carrots, peaches, banannas...). So, I think they do taste things and some things taste like poo. Good luck!