First Foods & Infant Microbiome
Vegetables, before fruit.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” - Chinese Proverb
Forgive me, but I’m feeling very hopeful today. Last night we watched a Jane Goodall documentary on Disney+. She quietly lifted my quarantine spirits. My son fell asleep.
The footage of course included a lot of chimpanzees, but I particularly loved the emphasis on her activism. Bold and gentle. When speaking to a very crowded auditorium (jarring to think about in quarantine), she touches on human lethargy. How it’s easy to feel as though problems are too large to make any difference with small change. But our everyday choices and decisions can make a difference, especially as a collective whole.
In a time when the world is suffering, it was a nice reminder. We do have the ability to make small, personal changes in our own life, in our children’s lives, and to inspire change in others.
OK, so let’s talk about First Foods.
Rather than give you definitive rules on how you should feed your family, my hope is to offer inspiration and insight for you to make better choices that work well for you. It’s important to remember that food philosophies change. Science and research changes. Our palates change. Our understanding of the world around us changes (especially right now). Microbiota changes.
So if you read my posts and think that I hate sugar, or that I don’t eat it or let my child eat it, you’re wrong. And I don’t consider sugar ‘good’ or ‘bad’ food. But if you want to simplify things, my message to you is almost always this: Eat Less Sugar, Eat More Vegetables.
image via npr.org, 2018
My first consideration, when talking about first foods, is not wanting anyone to think they’re doing it (or have done it) wrong. It’s not helpful, as parents or humans, to feel like we’ve made irreversible errors. No thanks.
If this, then that, is a tool I use as a practitioner, to determine how a client’s symptoms, and health history, dictates strategic steps towards better choices and positive change. As parents, we understand this as course correction, if I let my child watch tv all day or eat his entire birthday cake in one day, I will probably need to redirect tomorrow. Whether you’re just getting started with first foods for a child now, or trying to redirect toddler eating habits, or maybe trying to broaden your own palate, there’s hope. Jane Goodall says so.
And microbiota is a similar ecosystem. Based on internal & external influences, the microbiota changes and certain strains become more or less dominant. Many of these influences are dictated early in life, including: prenatal (mother’s) health, birth, antibiotic use, breastfeeding, formula feeding, weaning and introduction of solid foods. There’s a lot of opportunity to course correct and make change.
FIRST FOODS
“Weaning is one of the most dramatic rearrangement periods for the microbiota in a person’s life. Because this malleability comes in response to dietary change, it makes sense to wean children onto food that will maximize the health of their microbiota.” - The Good Gut, Justin & Erica Sonnenburg
When I started introducing first foods to my son, I wasn’t restrictive to follow one eating philosophy. I sorta introduced foods one at a time to start to follow allergy guidelines? I sorta followed baby-led weaning? More than anything, I followed my gut (and literally, gut research) and I started by establishing my own approach, based on what was available, what I was cooking that day, and what felt right on a given day.
My first food inspiration for you:
Vegetables before fruit. Introducing a wide variety of vegetables, before fruit and sweet flavors, is important to establish both palate and microbiome diversity. If sweet flavors are predominant and established first, it can be hard for babies to enjoy earthier, bitter, more monotone flavors. Equally, sugars (even healthy fruit sugars) dramatically shift microbiome development and can create a more dominant colony of “sweet-toothed bacteria” (leading to more sugar craving tendencies). Honestly, this is where I personally was the most strict. I didn’t start to introduce *too much* fruit prior to age of 1, or if I did, I tried to focus on higher fiber fruits like berries, pear. I resisted the urge to blend fruit into vegetables. And I incorporated starchy vegetables to introduce sweet flavors, such as beets, carrots, sweet potato.
Let the season be your guide. Focus on seasonal availability, vegetables will be fresh, readily available, and taste their best. It’s a good way to establish variety too. Yes, peas and sweet potatoes are obvious baby foods for most families, but don’t forget about winter rutabaga, or spring asparagus and kohlrabi, summer green beans, or fall beets. (I’m not saying these should be the absolute first foods, but you know). Once you’ve established introducing solid foods, think about variety and a full range of flavors and texture. A diverse microbiome is a healthy microbiome.
Yogurt. There’s some controversy on whether cow’s milk should be introduced before 1 year. Yogurt is generally acceptable, but if you have concerns about it or think your child has a dairy allergy, obviously check with your pediatrician. Yogurt is not only beneficial for all it’s live probiotic cultures, it’s fun and messy and a good source of nutrients. Whole-milk, plain, unsweetened, unadulterated yogurt. Great introduction to sour flavor too.
Real, whole foods. Resist packaged and processed foods as much as possible in the first year. It’s less nutritious and more reliant on artificial flavorings, high in sugar or modified fats or salt, and all that can be confusing to the palate and/or microbiota. The famous fruit/vegetable squeeze packs? Sorry, but they offer very little real nutrition (highly processed, pasteurized/heated prior to sitting on a shelf for endless eternity) and rely heavily on sweet flavors. I often couldn’t find one that didn’t include fruit, I searched! Does it make sense occasionally, when you’re traveling or need a quick, easy snack option? Sure. A less processed option would be the yogurt packs, just be careful of high sugar ones. Also, it’s helpful to ask yourself, would you eat that vegetable/fruit pack (?). My answer was No.
Food doesn’t have to start bland. There’s opportunity for full flavors and variety and interesting textures. Don’t go crazy with salt, of course, but seasoning can also be reflected in cooking style, fresh & lively foods to begin with, some fresh herbs, lemon or even diluted stock.
Serve what you’re eating. Once you’ve established some first foods, you can offer simple ingredients from your own meals. Steamed or puréed vegetables. Cooked pasta or rice. Cooked lentils or bean purées. Animal proteins, appropriate for age and chewing ability, of course. I used one baby food gadget that I loved, a little hand grinder that was helpful for proteins and more tactile vegetables (cooked first), or softened with a splash of broth/stock, until my son had the true hang of chewing. American culture is bent on “kids food” and “kids menu” but really that’s just a marketing scheme, and typically translates to processed, high sugar, high salt foods. If you want your child to eat real, whole foods, then start with real, whole foods.
Keep your cool. Before I started introducing first foods to my son, I thought feeding a child would be easy and fun. I love food, so naturally he would imbibe all my good sense about eating and love food too. Not exactly. And it’s defeating and frustrating when food gets flung and spit on the floor, over and over. But when I changed my expectations, and actually started to assume he wouldn’t eat it, it was a celebration every time he did. And giving him food I expected him not to eat became the mindset, over and over, until he did.
I hope this is helpful to apply to all the things you’re already considering when you introduce first foods and new foods. Next week I’ll talk about The Problem With The Term Picky Eater and how to course correct if your little eater refuses to eat the foods you’re serving. Because guess what? They will.
Bon Appetit! Bonne Chance! Stay healthy & stay home.