News

August 1, 2007

Getting It Right from the Start

"Fresh From Florida Kids" provides training and resources to educate parents about early-childhood nutrition

Eating right is a teachable skill. It’s one of the first life-lessons- because long before a child is ready to walk or talk, a baby is learning how to eat.

There’s a window of opportunity between birth and the age of three when a child’s taste preferences are still forming. With the right training during this critical period, a child can develop a lifelong preference for healthy foods. To help parents make the most of this window, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Florida’s Healthy Start Coalitions are launching a new nutrition-education program. "Fresh from Florida Kids" provides parents with equipment and information they need to prepare healthy baby food at home using fresh fruits and vegetables.

"It’s important to instill healthy eating habits in children as early as possible," said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charles H. Bronson. "A healthy start will help them avoid obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and many other diet-related health risks later in life."

Mothers in Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami are being recruited to participate in the program through their local Healthy Start Coalitions, non-profit organizations dedicated to improving the health of pregnant women and babies. Participants receive a feeding kit that includes a food grinder, a freezer tray, a storage container, and an information binder filled with easy recipes, tips and techniques, and sound advice about how to improve the health and fitness of the entire family. There is also a web site, www.FreshfromFloridaKids.com, that anyone can access to benefit from the online recipes, cooking and storage tips, and nutritional information.

Healthy Habits Start Early

Obesity and obesity-related disease rates are escalating throughout the nation. In Florida, nearly 20 percent of adults are overweight. Obesity-related medical expenditures for adults in the Sunshine State total over $3.9 billion, with over half of the costs financed by Medicare and Medicaid.

Given these statistics, it’s not surprising that only 26 percent of Florida adults eat the recommended five servings of fruits and vegetables daily. Everybody knows American eating habits are pretty poor—we consume too much fast food, too many processed snacks, and too many sugary sodas. But what you might not know is how young we are when these habits become ingrained. Current research suggests that taste preferences and eating habits are developed by the time a child is three years old.

Newborn babies prefer sweet tastes to sour or bitter ones. This makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint since bitter tastes are often associated with plants and other things in nature that are poisonous. Our innate taste preferences are survival instincts, but they aren’t set in stone. Right from the start, they are subject to change through learning. Babies learn to trust and like new flavors through experience.

Food neophobia, or fear of new foods, is a normal phase that all young children experience. Keep in mind that children often need repeated exposure to new foods in order to start feeling comfortable with them. Present a variety of healthy foods and encourage your child to try a bite of each.

"You don’t want to force a child to eat," said Carla Henry, chief clinical dietitian at Capital Regional Medical Center in Tallahassee. "If a child refuses a food, be patient and offer it again at a later time. You might even try offering the food in another form. For example, a child who doesn’t like cooked carrots may like raw carrots. Children have higher taste acuity than adults do, so they often prefer the milder tastes of raw vegetables."

"It’s true that we have to develop our tastes for certain foods, and that it’s something that sometimes happens over time," said Rachel Chambers, secretary of the Florida Dietetic Association and a registered dietitian in Sarasota County. "For example, we don’t just wake up and like mustard and sour things. We have to practice. We have to gain experience with new foods in order to learn to like them."

Tasting is one of the first ways babies begin to explore the world. Scientists believe the learning process starts even before birth, with the fetus experiencing different flavors from the mother’s diet through amniotic fluid. Babies continue to learn about flavors through breastfeeding, since the taste of breast milk is also influenced by the mother’s diet. Studies have shown that women who eat a variety of healthy foods during pregnancy and lactation have babies who are more willing to accept those healthy foods when they get older.

As babies transition to solid foods, and as young children move on to table food, parents should aim to expand their children’s palates by continually introducing new healthy foods and flavors. Every time you introduce a new food, you are providing an opportunity for learning.

"Right now it’s very popular to sneak vegetables, primarily purees, into kids’ favorite foods, Chambers said. The method might be an effective way to get vitamins into picky kids, she admits, but she stresses that it’s still important for kids to be able to see and taste their vegetables. "The vegetables need to be on the plate so kids develop a taste for them and realize the importance of eating them. The vegetables need to be there so children can establish good habits. They can even become a topic for conversation. Parents can talk to their kids about the benefits of eating healthy foods."

Infants and young children who are exposed primarily to processed foods that are high in sugar, salt, or fat often favor these types of foods later. However, children with early exposure to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables are better educated about nutrition and better equipped to make healthy choices.

Home cooking for the High Chair Set

Preparing your own baby food has many benefits. One of the biggest is that it puts you in control of what goes into your baby’s meals. Homemade baby food contains no salt, processed sugar, additives, fillers, or preservatives—just pure, nutritious fruits and vegetables that you select. You can search local farmers’ markets for the freshest, most nutritious produce, and parents concerned about pesticides and other chemicals can choose organic offerings.

"I started cooking for my daughter because I had no desire to feed her jarred food from the grocery store," said Carla Lewis of Tallahassee, whose child is now 13 months old. "I didn’t know exactly what was in the jarred food or where or how it was being made. Cooking for my baby at home assures me she’ll have the nutrition she needs."

Lewis enjoys deciding what goes into each dish and how it will be cooked. The "Fresh from Florida Kids" program recommends steaming as one of the best cooking methods for retaining nutrients and flavor. Food should be placed in a steam basket or colander above boiling water to cook, and leftover water should be saved to thin pureed foods if necessary. Fresh food can be frozen for later use. Freezing preserves baby food’s color, taste, texture, and nutrients better than the jarring process, which uses very high heat and destroys vitamins.

Providing food that is less processed and more natural is an idea that appeals to many parents. Chris Green is a father of the three who lives in Tallahassee. When his third child was born, Green and his wife were eager to experiment with making their own baby food from fresh ingredients.

"Having been raised on a farm where we grew our own vegetables, I’ve always been interested in eating fresh," Green explains. "And once my wife and I had children, it just seemed natural to extend that to them. It seemed a smart choice."

Though their son responded well to the more interesting colors, flavors, aromas, and textures of the homemade food, Green and his wife eventually stopped cooking for him, concerned they "weren’t doing it right."

"There were no guidelines available at the time to help us," Green said. "So we didn’t feel as confident as we would have liked. There’s a real need for a program like ‘Fresh from Florida Kids.’ I like that the recipes come from a trusted source and that the information is based on the latest research."

Making Time for Making Dinner

Preparing baby food at home is the healthiest way to feed your child, and it’s also the most economical. During an infant’s first year of life, parents can spend more than $300 on processed food, while home-prepared food costs approximately $55. Is making baby food a realistic option given parents’ busy schedules? How do you squeeze in an additional chore when you’re already time-pressed?

"My husband works during the day, and while he’s gone I take care of my baby and three to four other babies," Lewis said. "I have a pretty hectic schedule, but I still have time to make baby food, so obviously it doesn’t take long. It’s very easy to do it while I’m doing something else, like doing laundry or making my own dinner."

Planning is the key, according to Lewis. "You just have to be organized enough that you have your prep work done before the baby is hungry," she said. "I usually cook a lot of food at once, at least enough for four or five days."

"Fresh from Florida Kids" provides parents with quick, easy recipes and tips on how to save time and work more efficiently. The centerpiece of the program is an educational guide that provides parents with simple recipes for making baby food from fresh produce. There are step-by-step instructions for making meals in advance and for freezing and storing them so they can be served when time is short. Some of the recipes are just for baby, while others are designed to be enjoyed by the entire family. When preparing the family recipes, there are certain stages in recipe development when ingredients can be removed and set aside for your baby. That way, with little effort, your baby’s meal can be prepared with the family’s dinner.

"I like that cooking for the family and cooking for the baby can both be part of the same process," Green said. "If my wife and I had known how to do that, I think we would have made our own baby food a lot more often."

Healthy Parents, Healthy Kids

Young children’s attitudes toward food are influenced by the people around them, especially their parents. Because no one can influence a child the way a parent can, the "Fresh from Florida Kids" program stresses health and fitness. When parents consistently model good eating behaviors, kids get the message about the importance of eating right.

"If my kids see me skipping meals or eating potato chips for lunch when I’m in a hurry, then they’re going to think that’s normal and okay," said Tallahassee mom Kris Coppage, who has a four-year-old son and six-year-old daughter and runs her own business. "What I say doesn’t matter as much as what I do. I know they’re always watching me."

Despite her busy schedule, Coppage makes time for exercise as well as healthy meals.

"Staying fit is something we do as a family," she said. "It’s our fun time. The kids and I jump on our trampoline together. We dance and play tag, and when they were babies I took them for stroller rides."

"Eating right and exercising give me more energy and make me a better mom," she said.

Have a Good Time at Mealtime

Experts agree the ideal place for parents to demonstrate healthy eating behaviors and reinforce good habits is at the family dinner table.

"Parents can model good eating habits by making home-cooked meals a priority," Chambers said. The registered dietitian/nutritionist is a member of the Sarasota County Wellness Coalition, which works to combat obesity in children and adults. "Studies tell us that children who eat home-cooked meals tend to be healthier and don’t risk obesity nearly as much."

Young children should have three meals and two snacks served at more or less the same time every day. Kids who are allowed to graze all day long never really learn to identify the feelings of hunger and fullness and often eat out of boredom or frustration, which can lead to overeating. A regular mealtime provides kids with structure and helps them begin to develop self-discipline.

The Complicated Twos and the Triumphant Threes

Fresh from Florida Kids offers support and training tools for parents past the introduction of solid foods up to age three. Preparing homemade baby food creates a strong foundation and commitment to the development of healthy habits. This is especially important as children enter stages of picky eating and increasing independence. Phase II and III of Fresh from Florida Kids give ideas on how to include even the smallest child in food selection and preparation and more healthy eating tips. Parents will continue to learn ways to influence healthy eating habits and to be positive role models for their children to imitate.