Feeding of Infant and Young Child, with Focus on Behavioral Aspects

In this overview of past and recent psychological studies of infants focusing on reading appetite cues, Marion Hetherington notes that the introduction of solids could be a perfect “teachable moment” on family nutrition. She details an in-depth study across Europe, which demonstrates that with repeated exposures to specific foods, infants can “learn” to like them, despite initial refusal.  She notes that children have different temperaments and differing abilities to self-regulate, so we need to think about personalizing nutritional recommendations to specific infants.  We certainly need to look at ways to encourage carers to introduce vegetables first when weaning, despite often initial negative reactions from babies.