Episode 14: How Babies Learn to Like Vegetables

Did you know your baby's veggie preferences start forming before their first bite of solid food? In this episode, Dr. Liz Daniels explores the fascinating science of flavor development, from pregnancy through the toddler years. Learn practical strategies to help your little one actually enjoy vegetables, understand the "beige stage," and discover why cultural approaches to baby feeding offer valuable lessons.

Key Topics Covered:

Early Flavor Development

• How babies detect flavors through amniotic fluid starting at 8 weeks
• The role of the olfactory system in taste preferences
• Fragrance compounds (vanilla, garlic, carrot, anise) detectable in utero
• Flavor transmission through breast milk (1-4 hours after maternal consumption)

Cultural Approaches to First Foods

The Science of Exposure

• 8-20 exposures needed for flavor acceptance
• Why variety matters more than hitting "100 foods under one"
• The critical texture window at 8-9 months

Practical Feeding Tips

• Herbs and spices are safe for babies 
• Vegetables first vs. fruits first doesn't matter as much as frequency
• Different preparation methods count as valuable exposure

The Beige Stage (Neophobia)

• Typically starts 18-24 months, can last months to years
• Developmental autonomy and need for control
• Why kids reject previously loved foods
• Low-pressure strategies: invitation without expectation

Key Takeaways:
✓ Keep eating veggies during pregnancy and breastfeeding
✓ Offer the same veggie 8-20 times in different preparations
✓ Use family spices and seasonings from the start
✓ Don't give up during toddler rejection phases
✓ Focus on exposure and invitation, not expectation
✓ Your job: provide variety. Their job: decide what to eat

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode 12: Introducing Solids

NEW COURSE! "Read the Pattern: Feeding Your Baby 0–4 Months" — because a healthy relationship with food starts earlier than most people think. Course Link!

Transcript

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What if I told you that your baby's acceptance of veggies starts long before their first bite of solid food? Truth is, whether or not you realize it, it gets shaped from before they're born. Today we're diving deep into the fascinating science of flavor preferences and how you can set up your little one to actually enjoy their veggies. Now hear me when I say you can do all things perfect as a parent and still have a picky eater, but there are things we can do to encourage their preferences. Welcome to the Nutrition for the Early Years podcast with Dr. Liz, your guilt-free guidance for feeding your family. This podcast is for folks who are craving better nutrition for their kids, but are tired of the whiplash of nutrition claims and diet culture influence. You're reading labels, paying attention to ingredients, but you still doubt yourself. And for good reason. Food goes deep, and often we fear making costly mistakes that as parents we hope to prevent. If you're ready to explore the ins and outs of your child's actual nutrition needs and nourish the whole child from the inside out, hang with me, Dr. Liz Daniels. I'm a board certified pediatrician plus registered dietitian, and we're gonna dig deep into real deal nutrition science, honest talk about barriers to health, and real stories that I help address. So let's dig in. What most parents want for their kids' nutrition is actually pretty simple. I just don't want them to be picky. And if you have a baby and you're being honest, you're probably not even thinking about toddler years quite yet. You're just hoping you don't mess this thing up from the beginning. And the good news is this doesn't start at the high chair. It actually starts much earlier than you might think. So today I'll walk you through what actually shapes your baby's palate, what matters, what doesn't, and what truly does help move the needle when it comes to raising a child who accepts a variety of foods. And my hope is that you walk away from this not feeling like you have to do more, but feeling more confident in what you're already doing. So let's start with something I hear all the time. Parents will say, I ate so much watermelon when I was pregnant. My baby is definitely gonna love watermelon. Or I had the craziest craving for fill in the blank. There's no way they won't like it. I actually remember one of my own cravings. It totally shows how Texan I am. I craved jalapeno ice cream. Never had it. I hope I do someday. So uh I guess if anybody from Jenny's or greater's is listening and you want somebody to test out the next flavor of the month, you just you let me know. I just pictured in my hot Texas summer days of being fully pregnant, there would be this delicious ice-cold vanilla ice cream with that jalapeno heat. And it never happened. But I sure questioned if some crazy craving that I had was something that my kid would someday want, or if something that I craved would be something that they would want when they were older. And as funny as that sounds, there's actually a little bit of science behind this idea of what we eat during pregnancy influencing our babies. Interestingly, by about eight weeks of pregnancy, babies are already developing their part of the smell system, believe it or not. And the compounds from foods that you eat during pregnancy that are really aromatic, like garlic and vanilla, carrot, they can actually show up in the amniotic fluid. This has been shown over and over, culture upon culture, for a long time. And so even though your baby isn't eating, they are actually experiencing flavor through not their taste buds, but their smell. And smell is a huge part of how we experience flavor. Other studies looked at ultrasounds where moms who'd had strongly flavored foods during their early pregnancy would then during later pregnancy actually be seen having mouth movements, almost like they're tasting it. And this is amazing to think about, but it doesn't actually stop after birth. The same flavor compounds can show up in breast milk and really soon, like within an hour to four hours after you eat something. So when they looked at these babies who they'd seen in the womb make these gestures after they were born and they had exposure through those same flavors like vanilla, anise, carrot, they actually seemed to mimic that same gesture as if they were familiar with that flavor, which is wild. Okay, so funny story. I I actually have a mom who um she, God bless her, was an overproducer. I mean, like incredible supply, the kind I just wished I had always had, but never did. Anyway, she produced so much milk, she actually was able to feed her baby for the first year of life from just the first four months of nursing and pumping. Pretty amazing. But there was this particular week where she had a lot of a delicious chicken salad, strong on the onions. Well, she went through this phase where, and it was only like a week or so, she was eating a lot of this one particular chicken salad that was heavy on the onion. And her baby actually could tell. The bummer here is that she was such an overproducer that she didn't realize that he noticed this until she already produced like gallons of this milk. But her baby refused all of it. So he could absolutely detect that there was onion in there, and now a lot of leftover milk. And while that's a funny story, it actually tells us something important. That babies are detecting these flavors, and not only that, they can remember them. So when you zoom out, your baby's getting exposure to flavor first through pregnancy, then through breast milk, and then through solids when they get the opportunity to eat. It's actually a lot of opportunity for familiarity. And familiarity is really what we're after. Now, that's not to say that everything you eat in your pregnancy, your baby's going to be able to detect, but this is a really interesting thing that I think highlights just how amazing our memory is. And the same is true for us. You like walk into somewhere that has a familiar scent and you're taken back decades. And that's really impressive that our bodies can do this, that they can hold on to fragrance for years and a deep part of our memory. So these experiences of familiarity are gained through the sense of smell well before the baby's actually truly tasting these things. And that's a little different. Most of the time when we think about palate development, we're actually thinking about the tongue and the taste buds, but it's a little different process altogether. And that's actually where I want to shift gears and talk a little bit more about how cultures do things, because this is an opportunity for us. Here in the US, we tend to think of baby foods as usually being pretty bland, like just one thing, right? Like a plain cereal, civil puree's, single ingredients. But often that's not actually how babies are fed in lots of other parts of the world. In fact, in Japan, they often serve a dish called okayo, which is like a rice with broth, and it has really strong umami flavors. In India, it's often lentils and turmeric, corian, cumin, and in Mexico, beans, rice, herbs, lots of cilantro and onion. And in France, it's really common for some of the first foods to combine leek and onion and other savory flavors, and that is really a reflection of their family's meals. And it's safe. I just like to be mindful of keeping salt low and avoiding added sugar, but the herbs and the spices, they're not the problem. They're actually really helpful. Herbs and spices often contain a lot of phytochemicals and antioxidants, and they can have abundant sources of vitamins and minerals too. So it's not only a beautiful way to broaden the flavor and exposure, but they're safe and actually provide some quality nutrition, even in small amounts. So if you're making like a soup or a chili for your family, this is the perfect opportunity to pull some aside before salting it on the stove and have that for your baby to serve at the meal. In fact, one of my personal favorites was carrot and ginger soup, and I loved it, especially in the fall. I remember feeding it to my boys when they were little. But at the end of the day, it's absolutely a great way to be able to share your food with your baby and simplify the feeding process to broaden their flavors and exposures. Now, this next part is the most important piece of this entire conversation. It's repetition. Now, often what I hear in my office is something along the lines of, yeah, we're doing pretty good on solids. We did really good with peanut butter, we tried eggs, we did so good with cereal. They love sweet potato, but you know, the green beans, oof, we tried that a couple of times and it did not go well. They spit it right out or they made a face, and I just couldn't get them to open their mouth. So often what I'll ask is, well, how many times then did you actually try it? And the answer might usually be about three. Three is kind of where I hear parents tend to move on to something else, thinking that they really don't like it. When I think that in all fairness, this makes a lot of sense because parents are also trying to get a lot of different foods in and they really just want to try something and they want to move on to the next thing. But I want to mention that acceptance doesn't happen in just one exposure or three exposure or even five. It's actually a lot more. It's as few as eight to ten and as many as 10 to 20 times before those exposures can be accepted and remembered by babies. But exposure doesn't necessarily mean having to eat it. It can mean touching it, smearing it, throwing it, putting it out in their mouth, spitting it out, and then putting it back in their mouth, playing with the utensil. Sometimes it means having exposures also in different textures. So if you do a green bean puree, maybe the next time, like a really soft steamed green bean. Maybe the third time it's mixed with something else. Maybe it's offered in a little different temperature, like warm or cold even. Babies notice all of these other things, and while they're integrating them, it is a lot to process. And that added repetition really helps build that familiarity. I mean, if you think about it, how many times do you say their name before they know that you're calling them by their name? How many times do you have to say no to the outlet before they know that that's off limits? It's usually a lot more than 10 or 20. And yet with food, it sounds like a lot, but it's actually very few. It's just hard to sometimes stick with it when we feel that there's resistance. And that's what I want to lean into. There's still a lot of learning through exposure, even if they're not eating it. So don't let that resistance scare you away. The continued exposure is the foundation for repeating and building familiarity, which is really the ultimate goal. And all of that is learning. So if your baby throws the broccoli on the floor instead of thinking they don't like it, you could start thinking, oh, well, that was exposure number three. And it takes the pressure right off. You know, I also have to say that I think this is sometimes where, you know, we think about the hundred foods under one idea. And I like it. And in theory, I think the idea is to take, for example, broccoli as one, broccolini as two, Brussels sprouts three, and cauliflower four. While all four of them actually have cruciferous components and some of the similar flavor compounds, there's four different ways of getting exposure to it. But what I think sometimes parents take away from that is that they need to get to a number, and that's the goal. But what matters more than the number of foods that you're accomplishing is the frequency of that exposure. Trying a hundred foods once is less powerful than 10 foods 10 times. Especially if those 10 foods are really common in your household, they're healthy, and you know that you want your kid to have continued exposure over time because familiarity is what builds acceptance for that particular food. I'd just like to remind you that if there's something you think your kid really doesn't like, if it's not an allergy, keep it going. Now let's layer in texture because this is another added level of nuance. I hear families say, okay, I want to do puree's because I just feel better about their choking risk, or I want to do baby lid weaning because I don't want them to be picky when they get older. And I just want to pump the brakes on that. If you want to dive deeper, just a suggestion, go back and listen to episode 12 because there's a lot more on that particular topic. But spoiler alert, neither one of those things is going to give you a less picky three-year-old. Interestingly, textures is actually where we have data that gives us the strongest outcomes on building palettes beyond the toddler years. So texture and flavor go together. But there's a critical window at about eight to nine months when babies hit this opportunity for texture acceptance. And that is a really important window that we want to maximize opportunity. For example, if you started with puree's, we want to make sure that by eight to nine months, we're getting a lot of lumpy, um different textures, like the stage three textures if you're purchasing food pre-made. And likewise, if you're starting with baby-led weaning, we want to make sure that the texture has changed from really big pieces down to smaller pieces in that lumpy kind of range. And some babies struggle with this. I mean, I definitely see some babies who are still gagging a lot at this age or who have a pretty pronounced tongue extrusion reflex, and it takes a lot longer for them to accept food readily. And so that can really concern beerants. But I just want to make sure that so in that situation, I'm gonna lean in and watch what the baby's feeding. I want to know how they're getting practice, how much is actually happening. And in fact, I recall one lovely little family that had a baby who was really struggling at about this age. And they remembered our conversation, they alerted me, which was really smart. And all we had to do was address how he was being fed at daycare. And he went from eating just really thin purees of daycare to lumpier textures, and within two weeks, this baby was eating a lot more food and loving it. And it showed his growth curve changed as a result of that, and it really made a big impact. So the bottom line here is that texture actually helps them learn not just flavor, but it's how it feels in their mouth. So think herbs, okay? You go in the garden, you pick up a fresh little herb, you put it in your mouth, it doesn't taste like much, but as soon as you chew it, then some of those flavor compounds are going to hit your taste buds, and then eventually they travel to the back of the mouth where they'll float up to the nose, and you actually are smelling the food, but it's interpreted as taste. And in a similar way, as babies learn to chew, they're going to break down the food more in their mouth, and then there's more flavor compounds for them to accept. So it doesn't mean that your baby has to have teeth in order to eat. I just simply like to highlight that as their teeth are coming in, that impacts the flavor that they're experiencing. And the two texture and flavor go together to help support this broadening palette. So let's clear up another question that I often get, which is don't I need to offer veggies first and fruit second in order for them to like veggies? Mm-aloney sandwich. Actually, this idea doesn't hold up. What matters is, again, exposure over time. If I have a baby who eats fruit first, but continues to eat vegetables regularly throughout their first year of life and then their toddler years, they're actually gonna likely do better long term than the baby who started out with veggies, but then hardly ever gets them in their toddler years. So, bottom line, feed your baby, have fun with the process, and keep incorporating these things. Okay, so Dr. Daniels, what about this? I did all the right stuff. I did everything right during my pregnancy to stay healthy. I ate all the right stuff during breastfeeding, and I fed my babies veggies from my garden. So top that. And that's the case for a lot of people. And let's fast forward a bit, because even if you do everything right, and one of mine was like this too, many kids will go through a phase where they reject a lot of food. Familiar food, delicious food, food that they loved and ate just yesterday. This is the phase where you cut the sandwich wrong and they won't eat it. They asked for that food ten minutes ago, and in the two minutes that it actually took you to put it out of the fridge and on a plate, now they're crying. Sound familiar? This is actually called neophobia, and it's completely normal. And it's not because you fail, it it's developmental. So what helps with that? Well, okay, get ready to get bored. You keep offering the food and you don't pressure or bargain. You don't have to just say, one more bite. Because kids are incredibly good at sensing pressure, and pressure creates resistance. If you want them to try some stuff, let go of your expectation and focus on your invitation. I'm gonna say that again. It's something I came up with years ago, and I say it all the time. Let go of your expectation and focus on your invitation. Because your job is really deciding what's offered, and then they get to decide whether or not they're hungry. If so, how much of the food they want to eat, and that's it. You don't need to do that job for them. So instead, keep the foods on the table. You let them be seen, even if they're not eaten, because exposure is still happening. Remember the baby? If it was touched, if it was smelled, that still counts as exposure. And the same is true for the toddler, for what it's worth. A lot of toddlers tend to be in this phase from about 18 months to even up to seven. And that isn't necessarily a huge red flag. It's important to just know that this can be a long process. And that's all right too. I love to encourage families that if you're in a stage where you're in neophobia and you're like, man, I just want to make sure that they get the nutrition that they need, it's okay. This is your permission to hide the veggies. That's okay. But it's also good to keep them out on the plate. So you still keep exposing them. And you can have both of those things, you know. If you take one thing away from today, let it be that building your kid's plate is not about getting it right for one day or even for a season or for a year, because kids change. And that's all right. We can adapt with them too. And helping them have a broad palate comes down to repeated low pressure exposure over time. So whether you're pregnant, breastfeeding, starting solids, or deep in the toddler phase, keep offering the foods you want your kids to be accustomed to. If this kind of guidance helps you feel more confident, I'd love for you to join my newsletter. It's where I share some of my most practical strategies, encouragement, and just keep the real life side of feeding kids. You can sign up through the link on the show notes or head on over to my website at newsstorynutrition.com. Thanks so much for being here. And as always, keep offering your veggies, trust the process, and I'll see you next week.