Research report Vegetables by stealth. An exploratory study investigating the introduction of vegetables in the weaning period Samantha J. Caton *, Sara M. Ahern, Marion M. Hetherington University of Leeds, Institute of Psychological Sciences, United Kingdom Introduction A child’s early experience with food has the capacity to influence their taste development and food preferences right through in to adulthood. An infant’s earliest experience with a variety of tastes has been demonstrated to occur in utero via the flavours ingested by the mother. This chemical continuity follows through in to the post-natal period whereby flavours are passed through to the infant through breast milk (Mennella & Beauchamp, 1997; Mennella, Jagnow, & Beauchamp, 2001). However, an infant’s very first experience with solid food occurs in the weaning period following the cessation of a milk only diet. The current recommendation in the UK is that the introduction of solid foods should be delayed until the infant reaches 24 weeks of age and certainly no foods should be introduced before 16 weeks (Department of Health, 2008; World Health Organisation, 2003). Mothers are also advised to breast feed their infants exclusively until they are six months of age. Despite this advice, research has demonstrated a wide disparity between officially sanctioned recommendations and what is actually practiced by mothers (Anderson et al., 2001). Weaning earlier than 6 months is very common in the UK. Savage, Reilly, Edwards and Durnin (1998) reported two major reasons why mothers weaned their infants early; these included the perception of the child not being satisfied with just milk and because babies were not sleeping throughout the night (Alder et al., 2004; Anderson et al., 2001; Harris, 1988; Rosen, 2008; Savage et al., 1998; White, 2009). Additionally mothers report that they ‘‘know best’’ as revealed by Alder et al. (2004). Readiness for solid foods is related to the individual baby and might occur at different ages for different infants (Alder et al., 2004). However, there is evidence that early introduction of solid foods is linked to rapid infant weight gain (Sloan, Gildea, Stewart, Sneddon, & Iwaniec, 2008) and increased body fat during childhood (Forsyth, Ogston, Clark, Florey, & Howie, 1993; Wilson et al., 1998). Rapid infant weight gain has also been linked to increased risk of obesity in childhood and adulthood (Baird et al., 2005; Ong et al., 2006). Despite the purported detrimental effects of early weaning on the development of overweight or obesity, early weaning may indeed have an associated benefit. The ‘‘sensitive period’’ hypothesis (Harris, 1993) describes how between the ages of 4 and 6 months infants are more likely to accept a wider range of different foods and that this willingness to eat a varied diet tracks into later years. Infants who are offered a wide variety of vegetables in the weaning period are more likely to accept novel foods (Maier, Chabanet, Schaal, Leathwood, & Issanchou, 2008) Appetite 57 (2011) 816–825 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 22 February 2011 Accepted 22 May 2011 Available online 27 May 2011 Keywords: Infant feeding Weaning Vegetable intake Appetite ABSTRACT Few studies have examined in detail weaning practices and how mothers introduce vegetables into the diets of their infants. The current exploratory study set out to use both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate approaches to nutrition in the weaning period and in early infancy with a particular focus on vegetables. 75 mothers of infants aged 24–72 weeks filled out a postal questionnaire regarding infant feeding during the weaning period. Mothers completed the infant feeding questionnaire (IFQ) and a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to measure familial fruit and vegetable intake. Mothers introduced solid food to their infants at around 20 weeks of age and those who breast-fed their infants tended to introduce solid foods later compared to formula feeding mothers (21 wks versus 17.8 wks, p < 0.05). Infants were offered around 3 different types of vegetable during the first 4 weeks of weaning. 13 mothers then took part in a follow-up in-depth interview. Mothers reported that they relied upon advice from family and friends and their interpretation of cues from their infants indicating the readiness for food, rather than relying on official guidelines. Mothers demonstrated high concern about the nutrient quality of their child’s diet and perceived vegetables to be an integral part of the diet. A number of strategies for promoting vegetable intake were identified by mothers, offering vegetables by stealth was one of the most commonly identified strategies. ß 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: s.caton@leeds.ac.uk (S.J. Caton). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Appetite journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/appet 0195-6663/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2011.05.319