Event Report | Nutricia Paediatric Nutrition and Allergy Study Day Repeated and early exposure to new tastes
and textures in infancy is key to acceptance of a variety of foods including fruit and vegetables in later childhood: Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s Child Psychologist Dr Gillian Harris reported that, although the effects of a maternal diet on taste preferences in infants was generally a weak one, and in need of much more research, recent rat studies have indicated a link between a maternal diet high in fat and sugar and their offspring’s preference for similar ‘junk food’, resulting in subsequent adiposity.3
She highlighted that although
infants are born with a preference for sweet tastes, bitter tastes are also accepted if they are linked with positive nutritional consequences and exposure is frequent.
There is some evidence of a difference
between the preferred drink flavours of bottle fed children in the pre-school age compared to breast fed ones. However, this is not evident for preferred food tastes, and the difference appears to diffuse by the age of four. Dr Harris feels the evidence points to the optimum window of opportunity for the introduction of solids when looking at the acceptance of new tastes is four to six months, with the ideal being the introduction of stronger tasting foods than the popular bland first stage foods such as baby rice. She cited various research that repeated exposure to fruit and vegetables in this age window improves later intake of these foods, and particularly the introduction of a high variety of new foods.4
Analysis of the ALSPAC Children of the
90s study has added evidence to the standard UK guidance for lumpy foods to be introduced before the age of nine months. Infants introduced to lumps after this age were found to eat fewer fruit and vegetables and experience more feeding problems at the age of seven years.5 Early diagnosis and increased survival rates
in cystic fibrosis raises dietetic challenges at different age stages: Birmingham Children Hospital’s Dietitian Carolyn Patchel reported the challenges of supporting patients with cystic fibrosis throughout their life. Infants are now often being identified before becoming symptomatic – thanks to the neonatal screening which has been introduced across Britain over the last five years. Priority is given to promoting breastfeeding whenever possible, with bottle fed babies being fed normal formula on demand. Only 6 per cent of newly diagnosed infants in Birmingham have been found to need immediate transition to a high energy feed, with this increasing to 30 per cent at three months. Carolyn reminded us of the 2006 CALICO study which found that the use of oral protein energy supplements did not result in improvements in nutritional status or outcomes for children with CF.6
However, they still retain an important place
in nutritional support during acute exacerbations of disease. Supplement acceptance is often found to be poor in school age children, and Carolyn called upon companies to produce products that taste and look more like mainstream drinks, that children would find more acceptable to drink in
40 | Complete Nutrition Vol.10 No.6 December/January 2010/11
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