Washington Post published an article on what parents can do to make sure children are eating healthy nutritious foods. In the first two years of life, a child will need to be fed approximately 3,000 times.
For some parents, that figure cues an exhausting montage: hundreds of veggies chopped into bite-sized portions; spoon after puree-laden spoon wedged into a tiny mouth; countless spills.
But each of those interactions is charged with significance, said Purnima Menon, a senior research fellow who has studied and advised child nutrition programs worldwide. “You have this very critical age window where babies are learning about the world and family cultures, and so much of that happens around food,” Menon said. “What you think of as a nutritional moment actually has really cool impacts on kids’ development.” Introducing a baby to solids does more than add new nutrients; it forges new brain connections affecting everything from language development to familial bonding.