Sowing the Seeds of Taste? A Novel Approach to Investigate the Impact of Early Sweet Exposure on Children's Dietary Taste Patterns from 12 to 36 Mo.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Early food experiences shape children's eating behavior. Whether initiating complementary feeding (CF) with sweet-tasting foods impacts the taste of later dietary patterns remains unknown. This study combined a quantitative taste intensity database with dietary assessment methods to investigate this.

Objectives

This study aims to investigate whether initiating CF in infants with sweet compared with neutral-tasting foods leads to different dietary taste patterns at 12-36 mo.

Methods

A total of 246 Dutch infants (age 20.2 ± 1.8 wk, 129 girls) participated in an randomized control trial; they received either sweet-tasting (n = 125) or neutral-tasting (n = 121) fruit and vegetable purees during the first 15 d of initial CF. Dietary intake was assessed at 12, 18

SUBMITTER: Mueller C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12121417 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature