Speaking of formula and solids.

[Gidget]

Is there really a correlation between formula feeding and picky eating habits later in life? I ask because my son was switched from breast to bottle at 3 months. His younger sibs were bf'ed longer than a year. When I was bf'ing ds I limited my diet as he was a colicky baby. With the second I only eliminated dairy and the third, dairy, peanuts, eggs, and soy. But I ate spicy and other flavorful foods. Some of you may know that my ds has sensory issues. So, he is an extremely picky eater. I know his SID may contribute but I am wondering if also ff'ing him contributed to it too. He is extremely hesitant to try new things and I usually have to force him to taste something new. It isnt always texture. BUt in the case of leafy foods, it certainly is.

[annettemarie]

Well, I don't know that it has ever been studied, per se. I do know that breastfed babies get lots of different tastes in the breastmilk, while formula always tastes like formula.

[Bleu]

There is a strong belief in Italian culture that a mother who eats a wide variety of foods and flavors is "priming" her baby's palate to enjoy all those flavors one day, too. I've also heard some forceful lactivists frame it the opposite way and say that ffing is preparing your kid for a lifetime of McDonald's. Guess that's cultural, too. I think there's probably a grain of truth in it, but it does the cause of breastfeeding advocacy to be so snarky.

[Aura_Kitten]

i don't think there is, because my son was exclusively ff'ed (no b/m ) and he is one of the least picky kids i know. when he was about 2, he snuck out of his room during a party (he was supposed to be asleep, don't kill me!!) & got into our (very flavorful & VERY spicy) salsa... i caught him sitting on the floor with the bowl in his lap, eating it by the handful, and loving it.

last year i took him to an Indian restaurant, and it was all food he had never tried before but he was very adventurous & ended up liking almost everything. he did go through a short "i'll only eat peanut butter" phase (he even stopped eating bread for awhile ) but it passed quickly.

i think more than ff'ing, what's really important are 1) what the parent(s) themselves eat, 2) what is made available in the home and at mealtimes (variety = good), and 3) maybe MOST importantly, is how the kids are treated @ mealtimes ~ is it a pleasurable, relaxed experience, or are they constantly being harped on & stressing out? ~ & if the family eats together.

[Proudmomoftwinsplusone]

I don't think there is a correlation either. My two 21 month olds were formula-fed and they like Italian, Middle Eastern, and Indian food. They hate McDonald's food.

[Moon Faerie]

My ds was only bf for a few weeks, and he eats anything now. Well, he throws green beans in the floor. He eats pretty much anything else, as long as he's feeding himself.

[Soxfan Mom]

My 5-year-old, who was exclusively breastfed and weaned at 3, now subsists on a diet of mac & cheese, grilled cheese, turkey dogs and pasta with no sauce.

My 3-year-old, exclusively breastfed and weaned just before 2, eats anything and everything including my favorite Indian dish (paneer mahkani) and my husband's (chicken buna), shrimp, salmon, pork chops, salad with Italian dressing, etc. etc.

I have a 6-month-old, so maybe he'll be the tiebreaker. But from what I can tell, kids will be kids in regard to their pickiness tendencies.

[BethHG]

I ff fed all three on mine, and my toddler isn't picky. The first two are. It's my own fault though (at least I believe). I gave them a lot of "kid-friendly"foods, and never really pushed what we were eating, as did my dh (who did cook most of our dinners back then). My toddler was eating shrimp scampi with me today, loves Cajun ramen with dh, and will eat mostly everything else as well. I do believe that it depends on the kid, but also what you feed them when they are little as well.

[Gidget]

Thanks.I had heard it before but when you consider the toddler diet it made no sense to me. My son has always been kind of picky. Dd has her picky days, but will eat almost anything. Same for the little one. I think alot of it was that I was not so enlightened on child feeding at the time and only fed him stuff I thought/knew he would like.

[hubris]

I'm not sure about research regarding the picky eater phenomenon, but there *is* research that looks at foods eaten by the mother during pregnancy and breastfeeding and babies' later preferences.

One study I remember hearing about looked at carrot consumption in mothers before birth and after birth. Some of the mothers ate carrots and some did not eat carrots (they were assigned to one group or the other). There was some complexity of WHEN they ate carrots - like during pregnancy AND breastfeeding, or during one and not the other, or during neither. What they found was that prenatal exposure to carrots had nothing to do with later preferences, but exposure to carrots through the mother's breastmilk did. Babies whose mothers ate carrots during the breastfeeding period studied tolerated carrots much better at a later age (not sure what the age was) than the babies whose mothers had not eaten carrots during that period.

So...you can draw a generalization that exposing your baby to food flavors via breastmilk gives them a better chance of liking those foods later. It would seem reasonable to me to assume that formula, which doesn't change with the daily family diet, would be less likely to introduce your child to different flavors. I would expect FFed children to have a harder time with new foods than BFed children in general. BFed mamas with limited diets would probably have slightly pickier kids than BFed mamas with very varied diets.

Of course, that's just one element in the picky eater phenomenon, I'm sure. The temperament of the child, foods offered to the solid-eating child, family mealtime practices, etc, would all play a role, too.

[hubris]

OK, just searched PubMed and discovered that I'm slightly wrong...both prenatal and postnatal flavor experience shaped later flavor preferences, so it's not just breastmilk, but also exposure through amniotic fluid.

BUT...if you search PubMed for that article (Mennella JA, Jagnow CP, Beauchamp GK. Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants. Pediatrics. 2001 Jun;107(6):E88.), then click on "related articles," there's lots of nifty stuff.

[Bleu]

Funshine, that is FASCINATING! Thank you for posting that! Such a great subject -- breastfeeding and food, two of my favorite things. Thanks everyone else for the firsthand stuff. I definitely family eating habits and individual personality are two biggies, as well.

[stafl]

pickiness can also be a sign of food allergies or intolerances. I'm the pickiest eater I know, and I'm allergic to *everything* to some degree. I was breastfed until 15 months.

DH never got a single drop of breastmilk and will eat absolutely anything and everything. He has no known food allergies.

DD1 is mildly allergic to lots of things, is a very picky eater.
DD2 has only shown allergic reaction (and it's a very mild reaction) to tomatoes and potatoes, and will eat anything (except tomatoes and potatoes).

[doctorjen]

My exceptionally picky kid is my 3rd, who's now almost 8. He eats hardly anything. He eats most fruit, raw or frozen vegetables (still frozen right from the freezer) and bread for the most part. He also loves junk food . He doesn't even like most foods that kids like, no pasta, no foods with more than one ingredient, etc. He was exclusively breastfed for 5 mos, then started solids. However, he had a nursing strike at 16 mos and never nursed again, and that was the start of his extreme pickiness. Maybe the nursing strike and his pickiness are related? My other kids are much less picky. My oldest ds eats anything (and lots of it - he's 16 1/2 and 5ft 11inch and still growing.) Older dd was a little picky when she was younger, but now at 10 she'll try just about anything and has a good appetite. Little dd is only almost 22 mos, but she also eats a variety of foods. So I guess I think individual personality is probably the most significant factors.