Encouraging good habits when weaning to help prevent fussy eating

There is a lot you can do in the early stages of weaning to help your baby learn to enjoy food and to avoid fussiness at meal times.

Here are some tips to help you, and your baby, on your journey of discovery of food.

• Experiencing a wide variety of flavours early on will help lay the foundations for a healthy, confident eater and make them more open to new tastes.
• Be prepared to offer a certain food many times over, even if it is initially rejected. Babies may need to be offered some foods on more than eight occasions before they are accepted.
• Include a range of different coloured foods to keep things interesting and fun, for example, red pepper, carrots and broccoli.
• After seven months of age, once your baby is confidently eating purees, start to introduce soft lumps. Early introduction of lumps in food has been shown to lead to fewer feeding difficulties later on1.
• Once you start weaning, try to eat together as a family whenever you can. If you or the rest of the family can eat something similar at the same time, all the better.
• As time goes on, your baby will want to play with their food and try to feed themselves. This should be encouraged. Let them get messy and encourage self-feeding by introducing finger foods and letting your baby hold the spoon. Food is a whole new world to be explored and your baby needs to be allowed to experiment and experience it with all their senses.

Dealing positively with faddy eating

• Almost all babies will go through periods of fussiness. But there are plenty of ways you can help steer them through these challenging times.
• Make sure your baby is not filling their tummy with drinks just before a meal, especially calorific ones such as milk and anything with added sugar such as fruit cordials or carbonated drinks.
• Learn to recognise when your baby has had enough. Signs include turning their head away, refusing to open their mouth, crying and pushing the bowl or spoon away.
• Keep meal times relaxed and try not to let them drag on for too long. Babies do not generally continue eating beyond about 20 minutes.
• Keep portions small and include a variety of tastes, textures and colours.
• Do not try to coax or bribe your baby, especially with the promise of other foods. This sets up the idea that some foods are rewards and better than others.
• Try not to get anxious about your baby's eating habits. Your baby will pick up on your anxieties. If on the odd occasion your baby does not seem to be eating much, rest assured that if they are gaining weight and seem well, then in the vast majority of cases they are getting as much food as they need.

1 2008 ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition. Complementary Feeding: A Commentary by the ESPGHAN Committee on Nutrition, Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 46:99-110