Influences and interactions in the weaning process

A recent survey showed that about 42% of parents wished they could improve their child's willingness to try new foods, especially given the fact that most food preferences develop early and are highly influenced by caregivers. There are many approaches when it comes to introducing foods during complementary feeding, such as spoon-feeding, baby-led weaning, responsive feeding, or the new method of “sensitive feeding” which combines certain factors of all aforementioned techniques. This shows that mealtime influences are bi-directional, where the caregiver and the child both play roles. Caregivers not only decide what and when to feed their child but also influence with guidance and responsive behaviors, while infants would need to be offered a good variety of foods in a positive and interactive experience.