For a long time, weaning typically began with a real focus on offering fruits as baby’s first foods. I’m a huge fan of a more recent approach, Veg Led Weaning, and in this blog I’m going to explain the benefits to trying Veg Led Weaning when you start your weaning journey. Just to point out that Veg Led Weaning isn’t the ONLY way to start weaning and you can always offer whatever first foods you’re comfortable with for your baby’s first tastes of foods. It’s all about making it exciting and enjoyable for you both.
Here are 7 reasons why I’m a fan of starting weaning with vegetables:
1. It helps them explore the NEW
Babies are born with a preference for sweeter things – such as breast or formula milk. However, in recent years (especially in the UK) a fair amount of research has looked at a concept called Veg Led Weaning, where vegetables (especially less sweet ones) are offered early on in the weaning journey. Research suggests that offering veggies early on, in variety and continuing to offer them regularly throughout the weaning journey may have a positive impact on veg intakes in children later on.
2. Vegetables are nutritious
There is a huge amount of research that suggests that vegetables (and fruits) are good for our health and that (more or less) the more we eat of them, the healthier we are, especially as we get older. As fruits are sweeter generally, they need less effort to be accepted by babies in comparison to vegetables, which is why it’s a good idea to get in early with veggies. Vegetables, of course aren’t the only thing we need to be eating (a balanced diet is important for all of us, including a baby from fairly early on in the weaning journey) but they can be a fab source of vitamins, minerals, fibre, water and other compounds like polyphenols and antioxidants.
3. Children like familiarity
This means that, if you offer sweet foods that babies are ALREADY pre-programmed to like, they’ll carry on being familiar and accepting these…but it might mean that they find it harder to become familiar with the varied, and often less sweet, taste of vegetables. We know from research that familiarity leads to acceptance, so instead of reinforcing those sweet preferences, helping kids to become familiar with more variety in their diet via vegetables is a great way to kick start their journey onto food.
4. They offer variety
If you think about some foods we buy in packets – such as certain breakfast cereals – you know what you’re getting each time you buy them. They will usually taste the same on each eating occasion. However, there are a vast amount of veggies available to us in the UK and these often all have different flavour profiles, textures and colours. They offer such a wide variety of flavours – even the same vegetable can vary in its flavour and texture depending on its age, where it was grown, how big it is etc. If your little ones are offered a variety of veggies from the start, they will grow to understand that flavours of foods are variable, and it’ll allow them to be exposed to such a wide variety of different food flavours and experiences early on in their food journey. This is also the same for fruits, of course: each apple tastes somewhat different, for example. But focusing on veggies at the start allows babies to experience the less well-accepted flavours – sometimes bitter, sometimes umami, sometimes neutral flavours of different veggies.
5. Their cost and availability
There are SO many different veggies out there to try. The standard ones we typically eat in the UK include broccoli, carrots and peas. But there are many others on offer that we might serve less often, like cabbages, beetroot, fennel, mushrooms, kale, swede, leeks, okra and so many more like celeriac and cassava…you name it. They are very accessible, and you can often get many of them frozen, tinned, pre-cooked or fresh – depending on your time, budget and practical needs. In the UK, you may also be able to apply to get Healthy Start fruit and veg vouchers too, which can help!
6. It MAY reduce picky eating later on
This is a big *may* and certainly not a guarantee. But if your little ones are offered and exposed to veggies early on and throughout their journey with food, it’s much more likely that they will accept a wider variety of veggies later on, too. Vegetable refusal is one of the challenges that parents face into toddlerhood and beyond. It’s something we discuss on my Fussy Eating Crash Course too, but ensuing that they are a “normal” and familiar part of a baby/young child’s diet can help them be more readily accepted, even during and after those inevitable fussy phases.
7. It helps YOU (and possibly your whole family) eat more vegetables
Many of us would benefit from eating more veggies in our diet and I generally recommend with weaning we, as the adults, try to eat similar foods to our babies during this time. So having a real focus around veggies early on and throughout the rest of their meals (along with a wide variety of other foods of course) might help us to eat more veggies ourselves too.
I hope you found these tips helpful. Remember that single tastes of veggies during weaning are only for the first week or so. In my book How to Wean Your Baby I help you move through the first 30 days of weaning step by step and after day 10, we start to explore a wide variety of the foods that make up a balanced diet as this is important early on. However, there is still a large focus on vegetables as these are important for the 7 reasons above and many more. Other nutrients are important during weaning such as iron and fats.
If you want to know more about weaning, including where to even begin and have all the information directly from me, at your finger tips, try my Online Weaning Course today.
Online Weaning Course
If you’re soon to begin your baby’s weaning journey, Charlotte’s Online Weaning Course is your complete step-by-step guide to introducing solids.