A team of researchers analysed data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of more than 7,500 mothers of infants born in and around Bristol in 1991 and 1992. They found that feeding babies home-cooked or raw fruit and vegetables was associated with an increase in consumption and the variety of fruit and vegetables in children at the age of seven.
Weaning babies on ready-prepared fruit and vegetables, such as store bought baby food, had no positive effect on children’s eating habits.
The authors suggest this could be down to the uniform taste and texture of baby food, whereas vegetables cooked at home or eaten raw vary. They say that the variations in taste and texture of fruit and vegetables should expose an infant’s palate to a ‘wider range of experience’, thereby increasing the likelihood they will accept a wider range of foods.
The study also revealed that babies who were weaned earlier, between four and six months, and exposed to fruit and vegetables regularly, had higher levels of consumption. Those weaned later, closer to six months, as recommended by the World Health Organisation, and given fruit and vegetables frequently were likely to eat fewer vegetables at seven years of age.
Dr Helen Coulthard from De Montfort University in Leicester, who led the study, said, ‘The range and type of foods that young children eat is becoming an increasing cause for concern, in particular children do not seem to be eating the amounts of fruit and vegetables recommended for health.
‘The research has provided evidence that the early weaning period is an important time for the introduction of fruit and vegetables and that exposure in this period is a good indicator of later frequent consumption of fruit and vegetables.’
‘Health workers should encourage the introduction of home-cooked fruit and vegetables rather than ready-prepared baby foods to infants during the weaning process. High levels of fruit and vegetable feeding should be recommended early in the weaning process to optimise the effects of exposure.’
- The study, Long term consequences of early fruit and vegetable feeding practices in the United Kingdom,is published in the journal Public Health Nutrition.
