Food Allergy Living Blog Tagged Results

As we enter the new year, which just so happens to be a leap year, it’s a great time to take a “leap” (pun intended) and resolve to add new foods to your little one’s diet.

When your child has multiple food allergies, you have to work within the range of safe foods so as always, if you are unsure if a certain food is safe or not, always consult with your child’s healthcare professional first.

Be persistent!

One important thing to remember is that if you don’t succeed with a certain food, don’t give up on it or assume that your child doesn’t like it. A certain degree of “neophobia”, or fear of new foods, is normal for toddlers and young children. According to Angela Haas, a speech language pathologist and feeding therapist with over 18 years of experience, children may need up to 20 exposures to a new food before they will accept it. So, if the first try fails, continue to present the food occasionally in a non-forceful manner and eventually, you might be surprised to find that your child accepts and even enjoys it.

Give choices!

Another tip for introducing new foods is to always provide choices so your child feels in control of what they are eating. Instead of saying “You are going to try sweet potatoes today!” ask “Would you like to try sweet potatoes or squash today?”

You may choose to present a small amount of several different foods (only those which are allergy-safe of course). Include a few familiar, preferred foods and a few new ones that they can choose from. Again, this makes them feel in control of what they are eating and less resistant to try new things. You may think that children would be overwhelmed by multiple foods at one time but a recent article reports that on average, children prefer a plate with 7 different items and six different colors (while adults prefer a plate with 3 different items and 3 different colors)[1].

Baby steps!

With toddlers and young children, its important not to pressure them to eat a certain food. Give them the option to say “no, thank you” (but not, “eww gross”) if they aren’t ready to try it. Depending on how resistant the child is to new foods, there are different levels for gradually getting them to accept them. You can start by presenting a new food, along with other familiar foods. They don’t have to eat it but they have to allow it to remain on the plate throughout the meal. Continue to present a new food along with familiar foods and allow your child to get acquainted with it. This might mean smelling it, touching it, playing with it and once they are ready, tasting it. We’ve always heard “don’t play with your food!” but for very young children at this stage, the goal is get them comfortable and familiar with a new food, however that may be.

For more tips on expanding your child’s diet, here are some resources which might be helpful:

• Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense
• How to Get Your Kid to Eat…But Not Too Much
• Secrets of Feeding a Healthy Family: How to Eat, How to Raise Good Eaters, How to Cook
• Just Take a Bite
• http://www.ellynsatter.com/

Please remember that these are general guidelines for expanding your child’s diet. Always ensure that you only introduce foods that are safe for your child’s specific food allergies and when unsure, consult with a healthcare professional.
 

What challenges do you have with expanding your child’s diet? Any tips for other parents?

-Mallory

We get questions related to starting solid foods from parents pretty often, and have blogged on topics such as how to start and some specific tips for infants with allergies. Most questions about starting solids are best answered by your little one’s health care team, since there isn’t always consensus in the medical community. Today we want to share an interesting study that was published recently in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that may be helpful.


The Article and the Study

The title of the article is “Associations of Infant Feeding Practices and Picky Eating Behaviors of Preschool Children.” We can simplify it to “how feeding infants might add to picky eating later on.” The authors looked into the way that feeding patterns in infancy, when eating patterns start to develop, affect picky eating behavior later in life. We know that every child will exhibit picky eating at some point; what we don’t know is how picky they will be and how long it will last. We don’t know any parent who wouldn’t do whatever they could to lower the risk of picky eating!

The authors of the study looked at data from 129 mothers of preschool children. The focus was on how early the moms started solid foods. They compared this with how willing the children were later in life to try new foods and how much variety their diets had.


The Results

The authors found that children in the study who were exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life were less likely to be picky about how their food was prepared, less likely to reject food, and less likely to be afraid of new foods. By waiting until 6 months to introduce solid foods, their children were less likely to be picky eaters later in childhood.


What the Results Mean

While it’s tempting to take the results of this study at face value, waiting until 6 months to introduce solids will not guarantee no picky eating. For starters, the authors admit that picky eating is hard to define, and each parent sees picky eating differently. This study also relied on parents’ memories about feeding their infants, and the small study group may not represent the whole population.

What we should take away from this study is that infant feeding practices, particularly the age when solids are started, can have an impact on picky eating behavior later in childhood. This study presents evidence that waiting until 6 months may be a good start, and that further studies could be useful. Introducing solids at 6 months is in line with the recommendations of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). For infants with documented allergy or risk of allergy, an expert panel has also suggested that it’s best to wait until 6 months to introduce solids. This is part of the reasoning behind why we suggest waiting until 6 months to introduce Neocate Nutra, the only hypoallergenic, amino acid-based semi-solid designed specifically for infants and children with allergies.

Would you change the age that you introduce solids based on the results of this study?

- Rob

[Image Source– http://www.babybites.info/2012/03/08/forgo-the-food-fight/]