The Dastatuz Project

Plain-language summary

Unhealthy eating habits are a social challenge in this century, regarding that children usually refuse to eat and taste fruits and vegetables. The Dastatuz project aims to study children food neophobia (the term used referring the reluctance to taste new foods) and fruit and vegetables acceptance. It pretends to tackle the issue from an early stage: pregnancy, lactation and complementary feeding. In this sense, the Project aspires to assess the possible impact of maternal diet and complementary feeding on young children eating behaviour until 18 months of age. In addition, it intends to study the effect that the type of complementary feeding (spoon-fed or baby-led) might have on that eating behaviour. Considering these objectives, a quasi-experimental, multicenter, controlled and prospective intervention study is proposed. If it proved to be effective, this experience would have a high potential to be transferred and would open the possibility to give way to future public programs or guidelines, as a basic and easy solution to achieve higher fruit and vegetable intake among children and, consequently, the potential health benefits this may bring. Besides, taking into consideration the above mentioned ideas, the investigators hypothesized that a high intake and variety of fruit and vegetables (FV) during pregnancy and breastfeeding will lead to distinctive sensorial experiences for the baby, different from those of the babies whose mothers following a "standard diet" (as described in the National Nutrition Surveys). This consumption profile will promote the acceptance of fruits and vegetables along complementary feeding. Additionally, a correct baby-led weaning (BLW) may also contribute to establish these healthy eating habits.

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