Weaning your baby can be an exciting but overwhelming journey. With so much advice
online about introducing a wide variety of foods, many parents feel pressured to serve up something new and different at every mealtime. But here’s the good news: you don’t need to stress about constant variety. In fact, repetition is a critical part of weaning, supporting both your baby’s cognitive development and their eventual acceptance of new foods. Let’s explore why repetition is so powerful and how it ties into your baby’s natural learning process.
Babies Learn Through Schemas
Babies (and children) experience the world through schemas – mental frameworks that help them make sense of what they encounter, including with their eating development. Each time they interact with a food, they’re creating or reinforcing neural connections that inform how they understand and respond to their environment. These schemas are built through repeated exposure. For example, offering carrot sticks multiple times helps your baby develop a mental map of carrots: their shape, colour, texture, and even their smell. Even if your baby doesn’t eat the carrot right away, these repeated experiences are building familiarity and comfort.
Schemas don’t just help babies process food – they underpin many aspects of learning. From stacking blocks to recognising a favourite toy, repetition helps babies organise their thoughts and predict what’s coming next. This predictability makes their world feel safe and manageable, which is key to their overall development.
Why Repetition Matters in Weaning
Repetition during weaning plays a dual role. On the one hand, it helps babies build familiarity and acceptance of specific foods. On the other hand, it strengthens their cognitive and sensory processing skills, which are essential for exploring and enjoying a variety of foods in the future.
Research suggests that repeated exposure is often necessary before a baby will accept a new food. A study by Sullivan and Birch (1990) found that it can take between 8 to 15 exposures for a baby to eat a food they initially rejected. While this might feel disheartening for parents, it’s a natural part of the learning process. Every interaction your baby has with a food – whether they taste it, touch it, or even just look at it – is meaningful and contributes to their gradual acceptance.
Repetition also provides babies with the opportunity to engage multiple senses. Squishing avocado, smelling broccoli, or dropping a piece of banana onto the floor might seem like “playing with food,” but these are all valuable sensory experiences. By repeating these interactions, your baby learns about textures, weights, and reactions, which supports their sensory and motor development.
The Cognitive Benefits of Repetition
Repetition doesn’t just influence how babies perceive food – it also impacts how they think and learn. When your baby repeatedly encounters the same food, they’re developing problem-solving and categorisation skills. For instance, they’re learning that a carrot stick looks and feels different from a piece of bread, and they’re experimenting with how to hold, chew, and swallow it.
These repeated experiences help your baby build the confidence they need to explore new foods. Once they’ve formed strong schemas for a few familiar foods, they’ll find it easier to generalise those experiences to similar foods. For example, a baby who is familiar with apples may be more willing to try pears, as their brain recognises certain similarities between the two.
Do You Need Variety?
While variety is important for exposing babies to different nutrients, textures and flavours over time, it doesn’t have to be the focus during the early stages of weaning. Offering a smaller range of foods repeatedly can still support a balanced diet while allowing your baby to fully process and accept what’s in front of them.
Parents often worry that they’re not doing enough if they don’t serve up a rainbow of foods every day. But what’s more important than variety is consistency. By repeatedly offering the same foods, you’re giving your baby the chance to build familiarity and confidence. Once they’re comfortable with a core group of foods, you can gradually rotate in new options.
Practical Tips for Parents
Be Patient: It’s normal for babies to reject foods at first. Keep offering them in a low-pressure way.
Stay Consistent: Regularly include the same foods in your baby’s meals to build familiarity.
Engage the Senses: Allow your baby to touch, smell, and explore foods, even if it’s messy.
Focus on Progress, Not Perfection: Every small interaction with food is a step forward.
Add Variety Gradually: Once your baby accepts a few foods, slowly introduce new ones while maintaining familiar options.
Final Thoughts
Repetition during weaning isn’t just about getting your baby to eat a particular food. It’s about building a foundation for lifelong positive eating habits and supporting their cognitive development. By embracing repetition, you’re helping your baby learn, grow, and feel confident in their food journey. So, take the pressure off yourself—you’re doing an amazing job, one (soft) carrot stick at a time!
If you’re feeling unsure about how to approach weaning or want tailored guidance, I’m here to help. Book a consultation today, and let’s create a plan that works for your family.
Key Studies and References
Sullivan, S. A., & Birch, L. L. (1990). Pass the sugar, pass the salt: Experience dictates preference. Developmental Psychology, 26(4), 546-551.This study highlights the importance of repeated exposure in shaping food preferences during early childhood.
Coulthard, H., Harris, G., & Emmett, P. (2009). Delayed introduction of lumpy foods to children during the complementary feeding period affects child’s food acceptance and feeding at 7 years of age. Maternal & Child Nutrition, 5(1), 75-85.This research supports the idea that early, repeated exposure to textures and tastes is critical for long-term food acceptance.
Caton, S. J., Ahern, S. M., & Hetherington, M. M. (2011). Vegetables by stealth. An exploratory study investigating the introduction of vegetables in the weaning period. Appetite, 57(3), 816-825.The study explores strategies for introducing vegetables during weaning, emphasising the role of repeated exposure.
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