Children's acceptance of new foods at weaning. Role of practices of weaning and of food sensory properties

Abstract

Weaning (i.e. introduction of complementary foods) is a transitional process between the consumption of a unique food, milk, and family foods. This review of existing literature regarding factors favouring the development of food acceptance at the beginning of weaning underlines in particular the roles of repeated exposure, of introduction of a variety of foods, of timing of introduction of weaning foods, and of food sensory properties (texture, taste and flavours). All factors appear to play a role in the acceptance of weaning foods. The efficiency, most favourable windows and long-term impact of each of these factors is not known accurately.

Introduction

Food habits form early in childhood and are likely to track over childhood until the beginning of adulthood (Nicklaus et al., 2004, Nicklaus et al., 2005). Understanding the factors driving the acceptance of the very first foods other than milk, is therefore of particular importance, since these foods will form the basis of the child's future food repertoire.

Several factors are now known to be involved in the acceptance of foods at weaning. In particular, the role of previous, indirect sensory experience has gained attention, as described in another paper in the present supplemental issue (Cooke and Fildes, 2011). Here we will ocus on the role of direct experience with food on their acceptance, describing in particular the role of the practices of weaning, i.e. timing of introduction of solid foods, repeated exposure, and variety of foods offered together with the role of the sensory properties of foods.

Introduction of weaning foods is a process which helps the transition between a unique single food, milk, toward a diversity of family foods. At the age when weaning is generally conducted in developed countries, that is during the middle of the first year, the infant displays limited abilities in terms of physiological capacities (i.e. intestinal maturity, renal functions and oral development), therefore family foods need to be adapted to enable the developing infant to process them. They are adapted in terms of texture and are initially offered in the form of purées or soup; they are also adapted in terms of sodium and fibre contents, which intake should be limited at the beginning of weaning. Weaning is defined here as the transitional process between milk and family foods through the progressive introduction of weaning foods and therefore can be considered as having been achieved by around the end of the second year at the latest. In the light of this specification, the present review will mainly (but not exclusively) focus on studies presenting results covering this age range (6–24 m).