How your baby learns about food, and three tips to help

When your baby first starts solid food, your focus is often on which foods you should introduce and when. Early childhood is a time when we develop food preferences and habits that might last a lifetime – so it can be helpful to think of this period of learning about food as more than just trying different flavours, but the whole experience of eating!  

What is food learning? 

Food learning is described as developing personal likes and dislikes, and also understanding other aspects of eating, such as where food comes from, how it’s prepared and expectations about eating – mealtime manners.  

Ways of learning about food 

Like many aspects of your baby’s learning, they will have a few approaches to developing their knowledge and understanding of food and eating. 

Familiarisation  

One of the ways your baby learns about food is by trying a new food many times. Researchers suggest that seeing, touching and tasting foods a few times, without pressure to eat it, increases the likelihood that your baby will like the food.  

Observational learning 

We know babies and young children copy what they see people around them doing. The interest babies have in watching and copying other people is described as ‘observational learning’.  

There is some evidence that children learn food preferences from watching the people around them – so if you say, “Yuck,” when you see a sprout or push all your potatoes to one side of the plate, your baby might be more likely to develop a dislike for these foods. If they watch you eat peas and broccoli enthusiastically, they might be more likely to do the same.   

Categorisation 

One of the ways your baby learns about the world is by organising things and experiences into categories. These categories help your baby to make sense of new objects or experiences as they begin to think about how these fit with their previous knowledge.  

Your baby will organise their experience of food by making categories of foods, and scripts for meal and snack times. They might begin to understand food in categories, such as fruit, and understand these as how they fit in a script – such as porridge is breakfast food.  

Try our three tips to help your baby as they are learning about food  

• Offer new foods several times – don't assume if your baby doesn't want a new food the first time they will never like it. 
• Eat with your baby, and when appropriate eat the same or similar food.  
• Name the food your baby is eating but avoid adding in things like “this is a treat” or other phrases that might lead your baby towards making good food/bad food categories.  

Reference: 

Paroche, M., Caton, S.J., Vereifken, C.M.J.L., Weenen, H. & Houston-Price, C. (2017). How infants and young children learn about food: A systematic review. Frontiers Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01046