Title: Longitudinal study on acceptance of food textures between 6 and 18 months
| Authors: | Lauriane Demonteil, Carole Tournier, Agnès Marduel, Marion Dusoulier, Hugo Weenen, Sophie Nicklaus |
| Published: | 2018 |
| Journal: | Food Quality & Preference |
Background
The timing of the introduction of textures to infants and toddlers is important for their development of healthy eating, however little is known about when and which textures are accepted. This paper fills this gap by reporting the results of a longitudinal study of infants 6-10months old (mo) and toddlers 12-18mo. Children were given different foods with different textures at three moments in time (infants: 6, 8 & 10mo; toddlers: 12, 15 & 18mo) and their acceptance was assessed by measuring how much of a standard quantity (3 spoons, or one unit of biscuit or one crust of bread during one minute) was eaten.
Results
At 6 months, pureed textures and cooked pieces were highly accepted (Acceptance Probability AP>0.8). Up to 10 months, the acceptance of more complex textures (e.g. sticky texture, hard foods) increased strongly with age as did chewing behaviour. At 12 months, most food textures were accepted (AP>0.6), except raw vegetable pieces and pasta (AP<0.35), and chewing behaviour was predominant over sucking. Up to 18 months, raw vegetable pieces and pasta acceptance increased with age and reached AP>0.5 at 18 months.
Conclusions
In conclusion, children accepted most textures (at least in small amounts) at an earlier age than their parents’ current feeding practices, their feeding behaviours depended on age and food texture, and acceptance of hard textures was related to the development of chewing. These findings can provide input for recommendations on complementary feeding.