Rethinking First Foods

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Rethinking First Foods JoAnn Guest

Oct 26, 2006 08:32 PDT

 

 

Rethinking First Foods

Somewhere between mother's breast and the lunchroom, something has

gone very wrong. How to instill good eating habits from the start

By PAMELA PAUL

SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR

Posted Sunday, Jun 11, 2006

 

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1200769,00.html

 

Too much sugar, too much fat, too many meals on the run and not

enough vegetables or variety. Could it be that Americans' worst

eating habits all take root in the high chair and stroller? Consider

this: By age 2, according to a 2002 survey, 1 in 5 babies is eating

candy every day. And the No. 1 vegetable for toddlers isn't pureed

peas or carrots; it's French fries. Sounds a lot less like baby food

and a lot more like, well, our own meals.

 

To understand exploding obesity rates among the very young,

researchers are looking into the critical period between breast or

bottle and the school lunchroom, when lifelong food habits take

shape. During the first year of life, experts say, babies self-

regulate how much they eat;

infants who aren't hungry will refuse another swallow, no matter how

much parents try to feed them.

 

But in the second year, babies, like adults, begin responding less

to hunger pangs and more to social cues: Is Mommy giving me more?

Has everyone else at the table had seconds? I want to snack in front

of the TV too!

 

That occurs at the very time when a baby's galloping growth rate is

beginning to taper. A child typically triples its birth weight

during the first 12 months, but babies don't normally approach the

quadruple mark until their second birthday. With growth slowing,

toddlers need fewer calories per kilogram than infants, but not

manyparents seem to know that.

 

In fact, because toddlers tend to be pickier than infants and are

less interested in sitting still for a meal, parents often grow

concerned that their kids aren't eating enough. " It becomes a

vicious

cycle where the parent is chasing the toddler around with a spoon,

trying to get him to eat, " says Dr. W. Allan Walker, a professor of

pediatrics and nutrition at Harvard Medical School and the author of

Eat, Play, and Be Healthy. Many parents come to rely on snacks eaten

on

the go, which tend to be salty, sweet or otherwise unhealthy. At

mealtimes, instead of offering whatever the parents are eating, moms

will provide " kid food " --easy-to-prepare child pleasers like pizza,

mac

and cheese and chicken nuggets.

 

No wonder that, according to new data from the National Health and

Nutrition Examination Survey, 26% of 2-to-5-year-olds are at risk of

becoming overweight, and 14% are already overweight--more than twice

the

incidence in the mid-'70s and up 35% in the past four years alone.

Those

numbers could rise as much as 30% overnight if the U.S. adopts the

new

growth-chart guidelines issued last month by the World Health

Organization. " I'm seeing younger and younger kids overweight--as

young

as 10 months old, " says Jan Hangen, a clinical nutrition specialist

at

Children's Hospital Boston. " Parents bring babies into the office in

these huge strollers packed with food and snacks, drinking soda and

juice. We never used to see that. "

 

In most cases, parents, particularly mothers, are the gatekeepers of

what babies eat. An eight-year study of 70 baby-mother pairs at the

University of Tennessee, published in 2002, confirmed that food

preferences are established early: 8-year-olds usually like the same

foods they did when they were 4, and preferences are often formed as

early as age 2. Mothers tend not to offer their babies food they

dislike

themselves. So if Mom can't bear Brussels sprouts, chances are her

child

will never taste them.

 

That's a shame because babies are already not eating enough

vegetables.

According to the 2002 survey, Feeding Infants and Toddlers Study

(FITS),

which tracked the diets of more than 3,000 tots, a quarter of

9-to-11-month-olds do not routinely consume even one helping of

vegetables a day.

Those who do tend to have the least nutritious kind. By 9 months,

potatoes, either mashed or fried, are the most commonly consumed

vegetable; by 12 months, 13% of babies eat French fries every day,

according to FITS, which was conducted by Mathematica Policy

Research

and sponsored by Gerber Products Co.

 

Babies and toddlers are also learning early on to indulge their

sweet

tooth. FITS found that 10% of 4-to-6-month-olds consume desserts,

sweets

or sweetened beverages daily. By the time they are 2, 60% of

toddlers

eat some kind of pastry every day. Although added sugar was removed

from

most jarred baby foods in the mid-1990s, baby-food companies

continue to

offer dessert lines with flavors such as vanilla custard pudding and

peach cobbler, loaded with sugar and starch.

 

Early exposure to intensely sweet foods has long-term consequences,

says Amy Lanou, a senior nutrition scientist for the Physicians

Committee for Responsible Medicine, a Washington-based

nonprofit. " When

we're really young, our taste buds are especially attuned to sweet

flavors. If you're offered bananas and berries at an early age, that

level of sweetness will satisfy. But if you're given concentrated

sweets, a taste for those intense sweets will follow you for the

rest of

your life. "

 

On a more positive side, ethnic communities are introducing other

Americans to the notion that babies need not subsist on pabulum.

South

Asian parents offer curries in small doses at young ages. Hispanic

parents give their babies tortillas and other ethnic dishes.

 

" There is no good reason to feed babies bland food, " says Nancy

Butte,

a professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. " It's

culturally determined, not scientifically based. "

 

Another healthy trend is the growth of organic baby food. Sales were

up

57% in the past four years, although organic still has only 2.7% of

the

U.S. baby-food market, according to ACNielsen. Some pediatricians

say

organic produce is especially beneficial to babies.

 

" Organic fruits and vegetables tend to have about 30% more

antioxidants

than nonorganics, " says Dr. Alan Greene, a professor of pediatrics

at

Stanford University and host of DrGreene.com " This is when babies'

brains are developing and are most in need of those benefits. " Some

researchers believe babies are particularly vulnerable to

pesticides,

traces of which can be found in commercially grown produce.

 

A study in California found that newborns exposed to higher levels

of

pesticides in utero were more likely to have abnormal neurological

reflexes. Still, some doctors say because no definitive data support

the

benefits of organic baby food, the extra cost--sometimes over 50%

more a

jar--may not be worth it.

 

Pediatricians do agree on one thing: the period before age 2 is

critical

for establishing healthy eating. " We need to send a message to new

parents, " says Dr. Ari Brown, of Austin, Texas. " Here's your

opportunity

to change the way a generation eats. By the time a child is 10,

eating

chips in front of the TV, it's almost too late. "

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets