I recent­ly attend­ed a con­fer­ence that was spon­sored by a dozen com­pa­nies and orga­ni­za­tions. This infor­ma­tion con­tained in this blog post rep­re­sents my syn­the­sis and inter­pre­ta­tion of the mate­r­i­al pre­sent­ed. I was not paid for or asked to write this post.

As an old­er not old adult, I am tru­ly amazed at how deci­sions ear­li­er in life, forks in the road and forks on the plate, can man­i­fest them­selves lat­er in life. As par­ents trav­el through preg­nan­cy, infan­cy, and child­hood, they make deci­sions about feed­ing their kids that can have a pro­found effect on a child’s health as an old­er adult.

Child­hood experts and researchers talk about the impor­tance of the first 1000 days, from the start of preg­nan­cy to about the sec­ond birth­day. As I sum­ma­rized in a blog post for the Ker­ry Health & Nutri­tion Insti­tute, weight gain dur­ing preg­nan­cy affects a mother’s health, the course of her preg­nan­cy, and health of her child. Vit­a­mins and min­er­als such as folic acid, choline, iron, cal­ci­um, omega‑3 fat­ty acids, vit­a­min D, and iodine are extreme­ly impor­tant dur­ing preg­nan­cy, and many of these nutri­ents war­rant atten­tion dur­ing breast feed­ing also.

It is all too easy for par­ents to over­feed young chil­dren. In a 2012 study, Li et al found that bot­tle-fed infants con­sumed too many calo­ries com­pared to those who are breast­fed. Why? Because with the bot­tle, mom and dad decide how much baby should be drink­ing; with breast­feed­ing, babies reg­u­late them­selves. Over­feed­ing at such an ear­ly age can over­ride the infant’s nat­ur­al respons­es to hunger and full­ness, and this can last a life­time. What this means is not rec­og­niz­ing the sig­nals of hav­ing eat­en enough and get­ting used to eat­ing more calo­ries than need­ed.

Over­feed­ing is even more preva­lent when kids start eat­ing food. Accord­ing to the Nes­tle Feed­ing Infants and Tod­dlers Study, con­duct­ed in 2002 and 2008 and sched­uled for 2017, infants and tod­dlers get too many calo­ries and too much pro­tein; also too much sat­u­rat­ed fat and sodi­um as they get old­er. After 2 years of age, kids typ­i­cal­ly eat more serv­ings of sweets and desserts than fruits and veg­eta­bles. Since lit­tle kids can’t shop or cook for them­selves, it’s up to par­ents to decide what to serve and when, but for kids to decide how much to eat … and par­ents to let them stop.

Anoth­er life-chang­ing deci­sion has to do with aller­gies. Until very recent­ly, par­ents were told to avoid feed­ing their chil­dren the most aller­genic foods – cow’s milk, eggs, wheat, soy, fish, tree nuts, and espe­cial­ly peanuts. Aller­gies in gen­er­al, and peanut aller­gies in par­tic­u­lar, are on the rise. But not in Israel, where chil­dren eat a puffed snack made with peanut but­ter at a very young age. So researcher and pedi­a­tri­cian George Du Toit con­duct­ed a study where he fed peanut but­ter to infants start­ing at 4 to 6 months of age. A few kids had minor aller­gic reac­tions and very few devel­oped peanut aller­gies. At the con­fer­ence I attend­ed, Du Toit explained that wait­ing too long to feed chil­dren peanut but­ter allows their body to devel­op an aller­gic response. The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Pedi­atrics recent­ly issued rec­om­men­da­tions to intro­duce peanut pro­tein as ear­ly as 4 to 6 months, under the guid­ance of a pedi­a­tri­cian for kids who may have oth­er aller­gies. The amount can be small, just 7 grams or so per week in Dr. Du Toit’s study.

Moms who get the okay from their pedi­a­tri­cian can make a sauce from smooth peanut but­ter to stir into baby’s cere­al or mix into mashed veg­eta­bles. Anoth­er option is stir­ring a bit of pow­dered peanut but­ter into foods. I recent­ly received coupons from Peanut But­ter & Co. for its pow­dered peanut but­ter, and I am look­ing for­ward to try­ing it!

For this blog’s recipe, I cre­at­ed a quick, kid-friend­ly dish made from sweet pota­to flour and peanut flour. What I like about this is that Mom can pack it in a small cov­ered bowl, toss it in the dia­per bag, and pre­pare it on the fly with water. You can use mashed sweet pota­toes or any oth­er mashed veg­etable, and either peanut pow­der or smooth peanut but­ter. Any intro­duc­tion of peanuts to the diet of an infant should be done ONLY with the approval of the pedi­a­tri­cian.

Sweet Pota­toes with Peanut, inspired by Dr. George Du Toit

2 tea­spoons mashed sweet pota­toes (can use sweet pota­to flour)

1 tea­spoon peanut pow­der (can use smooth peanut but­ter)

Warm water to thin

Mix togeth­er sweet pota­toes and peanut pow­der in a small bowl. Add warm water tea­spoon by tea­spoon to thin to the desired con­sis­ten­cy.