Longitudinal study on acceptance of food textures between 6 and 18 months

Abstract

The timely complementary food introduction is important for the development of healthy eating. However, little evidence is available about when to introduce which texture during this period. This study aims to fill this gap by measuring the evolution of food texture acceptance and feeding behaviours between 6 and 18 months. Two groups of healthy children participated in the study: at 6, 8, and 10 months (n=24) and at 12, 15 and 18 months (n=25), respectively. They were offered foods with different textures (purees, double textures, cooked pieces, sticky and hard foods) at an age when few infants were already familiar with these textures. For each food texture, children's acceptance (ability to process and swallow a food) and feeding behaviours (sucking and chewing) were assessed by the investigator; liking was assessed by parents. At 6 months, pureed and double textures were highly accepted (Acceptance Probability AP>0.8); when offered at 8 months, cooked pieces were highly accepted (AP>0.8). Up to 10 months, the acceptance of more complex textures (e.g. cheese, bread crust) increased strongly with age as did chewing behaviour. At 12 months, most food textures were accepted (AP>0.5), except raw vegetable pieces and pasta (AP<0.35), and chewing behaviour was predominant over sucking. Up to 18 months, raw vegetable pieces and pasta acceptance increased with age and was >0.5 at 18 months. In conclusion, children accepted most textures at an earlier age than their parents' feeding practices; their feeding behaviours depended on age and food texture and acceptance of hard textures was related to the development of chewing.

Parent‐reported ease of eating foods of different textures in young children with Down syndrome

“…For aversions to specific food textures, early dietary intervention is important as experience with different textures early in life might facilitate infants' acceptance of more complex textures at a later stage (Blossfeld, Collins, Kiely, & Delahunty, 2007;Demonteil et al, 2018;Demonteil et al, 2019;Johnson, 2016). As such, food texture acceptance is also known to evolve with age; certain textures that are not accepted at one age may be accepted at a different age.…”

“…This decreased masticatory efficiency may be associated with a loss of sensory input, decreasing the pleasurable aspects of eating (Hennequin, Faulks, Veyrune, & Bourdiol, 1999). Struggles with texture sensitivity often persist into adulthood (Hennequin, Allison, Faulks, Orliaguet, & Feine, 2005), highlighting the importance of understanding food texture selectivity and aversion in childhood (Demonteil et al, 2019).…”

A new masticatory performance assessment method for infants: A feasibility study

“…The gel was processed by chewing/biting by all children and by chewing/biting and sucking for half of them. The frequency of sucking behavior observed is higher than observed with real foods (Demonteil et al, 2019). We believe that this behavior can be either induced by the presence of the mesh or favored by possibility to better taste the sweetness of the gel by sucking.…”

“…This transition in oral processing strategy between 6 and 10 MO is congruent with the strategy naturally adopted by children when eating hard foods. Indeed, we previously studied the same children in eating situations and observed that the probability of eating a biscuit by sucking decreased from 1 to 0.7 between 6 and 10 MO whereas the chewing probability sharply increased from 0.1 to 0.8 during the same period (Demonteil et al, ). A transition from sucking to chewing at an early age of complementary feeding was also reported in another study characterizing 6 and 24 MO children in feeding situations (Gisel, ; Stolovitz & Gisel, ).…”

“…Sessions took place at meal or afternoon snack time in the Center of Taste and Feeding Behavior (Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l'Alimentation, CSGA, INRA) facilities and the general organization was similar across ages and across groups. Sessions comprised a parent's interview and the evaluation of children's acceptance for three trials of a maximum of five different solid foods (See Demonteil et al () for details). Each session ended up with a collection of saliva using a cotton swab and then the determination of children's masticatory performance.…”