Baby’s First Food Should Not Be Ice Cream

It’s important that a baby’s first taste of solid food be something nutritious such as rice cereal or pureed carrots, not ice cream, say U.S. researchers.

There is a tremendous problem today with childhood obesity in the United States, one that medical researchers and physicians are trying to address head-on by identifying the factors that are contributing to this epidemic, says Dr. Julie Lumeng, a developmental and behavioral pediatrician with the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor.

Lumeng says it extremely important to keep sweets out of a child’s diet when an infant first learns to eat.

Pudding or ice cream should not be the first foods your child experiences, says Lumeng. The more kids eat sweets and sugar, the greater liking they’ll develop for them and the more they’ll want to consume them. Plus, there is some evidence that suggests that the type of food children eat early in life could contribute to their risk for obesity.

Getting baby to enjoy purred peas and squash may be as easy as eating healthy during pregnancy — studies show that women who drink carrot juice through pregnancy have infants who will enjoy pureed carrots more than children whose mothers did not drink carrot juice, according to Lumeng.