Weaning foods variety

Providing good nutrition through variety

Good nutrition supports your baby’s rapid development. Introducing a variety of nutritionally balanced foods from the earliest stages of weaning is the best way to encourage healthy eating habits that can last a lifetime.

Breast milk's role in encouraging food variety

Among its many benefits, breast milk carries flavours from a mother’s diet, which may encourage a baby’s acceptance of a variety of foods. So, if you eat a healthy, well-balanced diet, it’s likely that your baby will too.

Infants fed formula milk are less likely to be accepting of new flavours, so if you’re bottle-feeding, it’s important to give your baby a varied weaning diet. Introducing them to lots of different tastes and textures supports a greater approval of new foods.

Introducing new foods, tastes and textures

Puréd vegetables and fruit are ideal first weaning foods for your baby. As well as being an excellent source of nutrients, familiarity with many different vegetables at an early age can lead to your child eating more vegetables and fruit in later life. Many mums also use a baby rice, such as Aptamil Organic baby rice, during the early stages of weaning. Made up with breast milk or formula, this can be offered on its own or mixed with puréed fruits or vegetables.

Studies suggest introducing a variety of puréed vegetables alongside fruit, as your baby will already have a sweet palate from drinking breast milk or formula. This will help them learn to accept savoury and more bitter tastes, as well as the sweet and sour combinations of fruit.

While it’s tempting to make sour or bitter flavours more appealing by mixing them with sweet tastes, there is little evidence that this really helps. What’s more effective is introducing a wide variety of flavours as early as possible in the weaning process. It’s been shown that babies fed a variety of fruit and vegetables are more likely to accept other novel tastes, such as puréed chicken, than those fed on a less varied diet, because they’ve been exposed to, and are more used to eating, lots of different tastes, smells and textures.

Time and patience – the key to successful weaning

There is no need to introduce foods one at a time unless there is a history of food allergy in your baby’s immediate family. Offer the same new foods for a few days, even if your baby turns them down at first. Several studies have shown that it can take many attempts (usually 8–10 tries) for a baby to accept a new food, so keep persevering. Many parents give up after just a few attempts, believing their child simply doesn’t like it, when in fact they are may still be getting used to a new food or flavour. Persistence can pay off, so don’t be discouraged – keep trying.

Last reviewed: 5th September 2016