Breastfeeding could hold key to getting kids to eat their veg

BREAsTFEEdinG is said to give babies the best possible start in life.

studies show it can protect against infections, improve school performance and even bolster iQ.

And now scientists have found breast milk could also hold the secret to getting children to eat their vegetables.

Researchers discovered babies whose mothers have lots of veg in their diet while they are breastfeeding are much less likely to turn their noses up at them as they get older.

They believe newborns exposed to the subtle flavour of vegetables through their mother’s milk get used to the presence of them in their diet.

This makes it less of shock to their tastebuds when they encounter strongtasting greens when they start eating solid foods.

The discovery could help millions of mothers who want their children to eat healthily but fear a battle getting them to accept foods like carrots, broccoli and cabbage. Us researchers got new mothers to drink beetroot, celery or carrot juice, and tracked their infants’ eating habits as they grew older.

The results, published in the American Journal of Clinical nutrition, showed babies who drank veg-flavoured breast milk were less likely to reject vegetables when they were served up as solid food.

Researchers at the Monell Chemical senses Centre in Philadelphia studied 97 new mothers who were breastfeeding and split them into two groups.

One group was told to drink vegetable juice for between one and three months. The rest drank water instead.

When the babies were eight months old, researchers monitored their responses as they were fed cereals laced with carrots or broccoli.

The results showed babies were more likely to eat their greens even if the mothers drank vegetable juice for as little as one month. in a report on the findings, scientists said the foods that lactating mothers eat influences what children will eat too.

They added: ‘Early life may be an optimum time for both infants and their mothers to learn to like the taste of healthy foods.’

The UK has some of the lowest breastfeeding rates in the world despite the benefits associated with it. Around 80 per cent of British mothers breastfeed at some point, but many switch to formula milk very early in their child’s life.

A 2016 study found only one in every 200 babies in the UK is breastfed until the age of 12 months, compared one in four in the Us and more than one in three in norway. in india, 92 per cent of babies are given breast milk until they are at least a year old.

The World Health Organisation claims childhood obesity, diabetes and infections could all be significantly reduced if more mothers could be persuaded to breastfeed.