Does Baby Gaga Ruin a Child's Love of Vegetables?

We are programmed to prefer sweets and fats. However, there are ways to get children to like vegetables. Common knowledge states that you should start babies on vegetables first because if you start them on the sweeter fruits they will never like or at least prefer their vegetables. That never made sense to me. Anyone who has ever tasted breast milk knows that breast milk is incredibly sweet. (If you haven't tasted breast milk you can now go to Convent Garden, London and get a Baby Gaga ice cream cone which is breast milk, vanilla and lemon zest.) So a breastfed baby essentially starts out life drinking warm, melted ice cream. Then I noticed that most of the Asian babies in my practice preferred vegetables over fruits and the Caucasian babies preferred fruits over vegetables and it made NO difference which order the foods were started. So I thought, maybe, there was a genetic preference for taste.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. (At least no one has found a gene to get us to prefer vegetables over fruits.) What has been shown though, is what a mother eats during her pregnancy and while she is breast feeding makes a difference in the acceptance of certain foods by the infant. Certain aromatic chemicals found in vegetables can get into the amniotic fluid and breast milk. And what I was noticing was that the Asian mothers of my patients loved and ate their veggies and their children were accepting those flavors when those foods were introduced. My Caucasian babies were eating the diets that their mothers had been eating - more fruits and less vegetables, which is a typical American diet.

That does not mean all is lost. I have tasted most formulas and to my adult palate formula tastes disgusting, and yet look how many babies take it willingly. And how many babies do you know love to increase their roughage with eating paper and dirt? So we know babies are willing to try many things. The trick is to get them to keep eating those things. Babies taste buds develop with time, and developmentally babies put things in their mouths between ages 6-12 months. This is the perfect time to introduce foods that have the complex flavors you find in vegetables. If your baby rejects it the first time you offer it, don't despair. Just because a baby rejects something does not mean they truly dislike it. You have to try it about 20 times before you should accept that this is a food they do not like. Taste and preference develop with time.


Roasted vegetables are foods that lend themselves to something you can cook for the whole family and experiment with different tastes. You also take advantage of the roasting process which caramelizes the vegetables. As the name "caramel" implies, there will be a natural sweetness that occurs as result of this process. You can make a lot at one time so that you have enough for more than one meal and you can puree the extra to make baby food.

ROASTED VEGETABLES (Pick your family's favorites and throw in some new ones each time you do it.

Preheat to 425 degrees.
Start with the root vegetables. Put oil (I prefer olive oil for taste and nutrition) and garlic cloves in the bottom of the pan
Put unpeeled beets in foil by themselves (they are messy)
Add vegetables to pan in oven as you finish peeling and cutting them
Peel the beets and slice.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve them separately or throw them all in one bowl (which is what I do.)

Carrots (if you buy the baby ones, you don't have to peel them)
Buy and scrub baby potatoes or peel and cut waxy potatoes (not russets)
Turnips
Parsnips
Sunchokes
Small onions (like pearl onions)
Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower

Add "summer vegetables" (these days you can often find them year round)
Asparagus
Eggplants
Summer squash
String beans

Cook the root vegetables 30-45 mins until brown and soft when stuck with a knife and the summer vegetables 10-25 mins until slightly brown (if you do not have root vegetables you can increase the heat to 450 degrees.)


The next day you can either reheat in the microwave, or serve as a cold salad with your favorite dressing.