Exposure, exposure, exposure

Exposure: any time your baby is given a food to explore, play and eat.

Exposing your baby to lots of different foods, with a variety of colours, textures, temperatures and flavours is one of the most important parts of their weaning journey. It helps them to learn how to eat different foods and also helps with accepting foods now and in the future.

Your baby may need to be exposed to a food several times before they decide whether they like it or not, so if you give a food and your baby appears to be uninterested or pulls a face and doesn’t eat much just try again another day.

Exposures to foods don’t always look the same. Sometimes your baby might eat lots, other times they might just play and appear to eat very little. Both exposures are equally important. As time goes on and your baby learns to like a bigger range of different foods you will still have days where they seem to want to just play, and that’s ok. Remember, weaning is about exploring and building trust as well as nutrition.

Thinking about adding new foods is a great way to increase variety in your baby’s diet; so each week think about something you haven’t yet used. We tend to be creatures of habit with our food shopping, especially when we all have such busy lives and are used to dashing in, grabbing our favourites and getting home as quickly as possible. We want to challenge you to get adventurous in the supermarket and look at foods you perhaps haven’t eaten for a while. Pick up vegetables you’ve not eaten before or a new grain or pulse that you’ve never tried before. Exploring things together can be a learning experience for both of you.

Another type of exposure that is often overlooked is simply buying different varieties of the foods you have already given. Are you guilty of always buying the same pasta shape, rice, bread etc? When we always give the same variety, your baby learns how to eat that particular type and they can often get very stuck in their ways! If you give the same bread for 8 months and then suddenly you have to eat something else, you may find your toddler rejecting a different variety as it is not familiar to them.

Then we think about how those foods are prepared. Try to make sure you prepare and cook foods differently. You don’t have to make it different every time, but mixing things up will help your baby to turn into a toddler who accepts change better. Take a carrot, for example. You could steam, roast or mash it. You could grate it, cut it into slices or batons. There are so many options and we want to encourage you to make the most of the opportunities to vary your baby’s food when you prepare it. Future you may look back and be grateful you took a few extra minutes.