Observatory of Food Preferences in Infants and Children

Food habits form early in infancy and are likely to track into childhood until the beginning of adulthood. Understanding the factors driving the acceptance of foods in the early years is therefore of particular importance, since these foods will form the basis of a child's future food repertoire. This is especially important for vegetables, which consumption is recommended at all stages of life but is below the recommended levels and which acceptance is difficult to promote during late childhood.

The objective of the present study was to unravel the respective contribution of maternal feeding practices, of children's rate of exposure to vegetables and of children's sensory reactivity factors over the course of the first two years, to explain the development of liking for vegetables at the age of 2 years. This analysis took advantage of data recorded in a prospective cohort of children recruited before birth and followed up longitudinally until the age of 2 years.