Some of the babies Kath Megaw helped parents wean 28 years ago are now adults.
As a pediatric dietitian and the co-author of the books “Weaning Sense” and “Mindful Meals,” Megaw has had a rare opportunity to watch children grow from their first teaspoons of food right through adolescence.
“You get this wonderful long view that you simply cannot get from a textbook,” Megaw told The Epoch Times. “I have had many firsthand experiences of seeing how a child’s early eating habits relate to their health later in life.”
Dr. Wendy Schofer, a pediatrician at Family in Focus, told The Epoch Times that “the first 1,000 days of eating matter so much for children, because they are developing their coordination needed for eating, neural pathways, as well as early food relationships.”
Nutrition is just one part of a much bigger picture. Can parents effectively influence the trajectory? Decades of research suggests they can.
Why the First 1,000 Days Matter
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The first 1,000 days run from conception to a child’s second birthday. During this stretch, the brain is forming connections at a remarkable rate, while the body is building systems—metabolic, immune, digestive—that will regulate health for years to come, even influencing lifelong risk of developing chronic disease.
What children eat in this window shapes how they learn to eat, which foods they see as safe, and the associations they develop with food that can continue into adulthood, Schofer said. “Think about how many of the early memories that we have are around family and food. The details tend to fade, but the relationships are the anchor for lasting memories.”
A few nutrients do particularly heavy lifting during pregnancy. Protein, for example, helps build and repair tissue in both the mother and baby. Iron is needed to carry oxygen from the blood to tissues, while vitamin C supports the development of the baby’s teeth and bones and helps with wound healing. Calcium is important for the development of the baby’s heart, muscles, bones, teeth, and nervous system, while folic acid supports brain and spinal development.
A 50-Year Natural Experiment
More than 70 years later, the researchers could see whether that difference mattered. They identified more than 64,000 people in the UK Biobank who had been born between 1951 and 1956 and used their birth dates to determine how much of their first 1,000 days had been spent under rationing. They then linked their early-life exposure with cancer diagnoses recorded later in their lives.
“Our findings suggest that nutrition during this relatively short window may have consequences that persist for many decades,” Weilong Zhang, a University of Cambridge researcher, told The Epoch Times.
The rationed groups had lower rates of several cancers in adulthood. They also consumed less sugar, ate smaller quantities, and maintained healthier, more diverse diets five decades later.
The researchers also found biological differences. Those who experienced sugar rationing showed slower biological aging and lower chronic immune activation.
Clinicians see a simpler version of the same pattern play out in real time. “If children are taught from a young age to consume high amounts of sugar, snack a lot, and not prioritize eating whole meals, this becomes their nature as they grow older,” Dr. Dineo Sefoloko-Chitambo, a general practitioner with a special interest in pediatrics, told The Epoch Times.
The importance of nutrition during the first 1,000 days, therefore, goes beyond preventing nutrient deficiencies or chronic disease. Eating habits are formed—a theme pediatric dietitians return to often. Weaning isn’t simply about getting enough broccoli or iron into a baby; it’s about introducing another human being to food for the first time, Megaw said.
“We are building a brain, an immune system, and helping establish the gut microbiome, but at exactly the same time, a child is also learning an entirely new skill: how to eat,” she said.
What a Healthy Start Looks Like
“The very best start in life would be breast milk, followed by a wide variety of weaning foods,” Claire McHugh, a pediatric dietitian at Nutrition Innovated, told The Epoch Times. “Keep away from highly processed foods—even purees are highly processed—and use foods in their most natural form.”
Birth to 6 Months: For the first six months, breast milk provides the nutritional foundation a baby needs. It contains the nutrients a newborn needs in the proper amounts. Breast milk also changes as a baby develops, helping to meet their evolving nutritional needs.
Around 6 months: Once a baby is developmentally ready, Megaw recommends gradually introducing the foods that parents ultimately want their children eating around the family table, such as vegetables, fruit, legumes, eggs, fish, meat and other protein-rich foods, avocado, smooth nut pastes (when they are introduced safely), whole grains, healthy fats, herbs and spices. “Different colors, flavors and textures,” Megaw said.
Legumes are good at this age because they bring in plant protein and iron, and different fibers for the developing gut microbiome.
Iron matters more than parents expect. By the second half of infancy, the iron babies are born with start running low, right as they’re growing fast enough to need more. “That is why I encourage parents to think about an iron-rich food regularly: meat, chicken, fish, egg, lentils, beans or iron-fortified foods, depending on the family’s diet,” Megaw said.
Texture is part of learning, not just nutrition. Megaw encourages parents not to stay with completely smooth purées for too long. “Babies need opportunities to learn what food feels like in their mouths. Moving through mashed, lumpy, and finger-food textures is part of learning to eat.”
“Please don’t make children’s food unnecessarily bland.” Megaw said. Food has flavor. “Use herbs and spices. Let them experience the smell of garlic cooking, the tartness of plain yogurt, the bitterness of broccoli, the earthiness of lentils, and the flavors that belong to your family’s culture.”
Expect to offer new foods again and again. Getting children used to a variety of flavors can take time, especially when they are naturally cautious about new foods. Young children may need to be offered the same food several times before they accept it, sometimes eight to 15 times. For this reason, parents can encourage children to try a range of foods without putting pressure on them.
“Your baby pulling a face at something does not necessarily mean they dislike it. It may simply mean, ‘What on earth is this?’ New flavors and textures take time to become familiar,” Megaw said.
With that said, most children go through fussy phases. “My own three children did too. And I think that is important for parents to hear. A child refusing broccoli at three years old does not mean you have somehow failed at weaning,” she said.
A Rough Day for a 1-Year-Old
Megaw suggested that a “typical” diet rather than a “perfect” one is the goal:
Breakfast (7 a.m.): oats or soft porridge with full-fat plain yogurt, some fruit, and perhaps a little smooth nut butter mixed through. Or scrambled egg with avocado and soft toast.
Mid-Morning Snack (10 a.m.): fruit with yogurt, or avocado on a small piece of toast. “At this age, snacks don’t need to come out of packets. They can simply be small portions of real food,” Megaw said.
Lunch (12 p.m.): leftovers from the family meal—such as a little chicken with sweet potato and broccoli, lentils with vegetables and rice, or fish with potatoes and peas
Afternoon Snack (1 p.m.): fruit with cheese, hummus with soft vegetables, or plain yogurt with fruit
Dinner (5:30 p.m.): family meals like a mild chicken curry, vegetable-packed bolognese, fish cakes, or casserole
No child needs to eat everything on this list every day, she said. One day they may eat the egg, the avocado, and half the toast. The next day they may lick the avocado, throw the egg on the floor, and demand more toast. That is typical one-year-old eating.
Megaw prefers that parents look at nutrition across a week rather than across a single meal, asking themselves: Am I regularly offering iron-rich foods? Are there different colored vegetables and fruits appearing? Are there good sources of protein and healthy fats? Is my child experiencing different textures? Are we sitting together and making food enjoyable?
If those foundations are there, you are doing well.
The Part That Isn’t on the Plate
A healthy approach to feeding is about more than what ends up on the child’s plate. The way children experience food and mealtimes matters too.
Schofer, who has practiced pediatric medicine for more than 22 years, said that parents can sometimes become so focused on what their children are eating that they overlook what is happening around the food.
“The number one thing that parents need to be able to feed their children well is a surprising answer: it’s emotional regulation,” Schofer said. “When a parent is calm, meals feel safe.”
Healthy relationships with food, she said, are grown with practice—in low-pressure environments that invite children to sample foods, without forcing, shame, or restriction.
It’s also important for parents to eat with the children. “Families who share meals together build the strongest relationships with food, body and especially each other,” Schofer said.
Parents can shape their child’s lifelong health through what happens on a highchair tray but not through any single perfect meal. “We are not feeding children for one perfect meal,” Megaw said. “We are teaching them how to eat for a lifetime.”
