Pureed green beans, mashed sweet potatoes and corn, apples blended with chicken, and rice cereal.

While not exactly five-star dining, feeding your baby and toddler foods made with real fruits and vegetables, and loaded with vitamins and nutrients, could keep their waistlines trim as they grow through childhood and into adulthood.

"Pudding or ice cream should not be the first foods your child experiences," says Dr. Julie Lumeng, a pediatrician with the University of Michigan Health System.  "The more kids eat sweets and sugar, the greater liking they'll develop for them, and the more they'll want to consume them.

"Plus, there is some evidence that suggests that the type of food children eat early in life could contribute to their risk for obesity."

Kudos to breastfeeding

The news comes on the heels of  pediatricians saying that overweight toddlers may not outgrow their extra pounds by the time they hit 12, according to September's Pediatrics.

Dr. Philip R. Nader, a pediatrics expert at the University of California, San Diego, says overweight pre-schoolers are more than five times as likely to be overweight at their 12th birthday than their healthy-weight playmates.

Meanwhile, Lumeng says years of research already show that breastfeeding protects against obesity later in life. New moms should seek help from their pediatricians or a lactation consultant if they experience any difficulty.

However, debate still simmers over when you should introduce solid foods to your infant and how that affects obesity later in life, Lumeng adds.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents begin introducing children to solid food no sooner than four to six months of age.

"Solid foods are great for a child to experience developmentally - learning how to swallow food from a spoon and tasting the flavor - but parents need to keep in mind that, for infants, breast milk still provides the best source of nutrients at a young age," Lumeng says.

When your child is old enough for solid foods, Lumeng recommends starting with rice cereal, a major source of iron. Then it's time to move on to vegetables, like pureed green beans or carrots.

"It's really important for your child's first flavor experience to be something that's healthy," Lumeng says. "And the more a child tastes a particular food, the greater liking they'll develop for it."

For that very reason, Lumeng urges that you keep sweets out of your children's diets when they're first learning to eat.

Eating healthy while pregnant

So how do you get your child to eat and enjoy foods like pureed squash, carrots and sweet potatoes that will provide them with the best source of nutrient for their growing bodies?

It may be as simple as eating healthy while you're pregnant, Lumeng says.

Women who drink carrot juice through pregnancy have infants who will enjoy pureed carrots more at four months of age than those children whose mothers did not drink carrot juice during pregnancy, according to research.

Nursing moms should be vigilant about the foods they eat, too, especially considering that the flavors of foods are passed to the infant through breast milk, Lumeng says.

So eating vegetables while nursing should increase your infant's acceptance of vegetables once they're ready for solid food, she adds.

Continuing to teach

And if your child still won't eat vegetables, don't give up hope. Most infants will need to be exposed to certain food 10 to 15 times before they will begin to accept it and like it, she warns

"It's important to continue to teach your children healthy eating habits, especially between the ages of 3 and 5 when experts believe they begin to develop their food preferences, and ability to respond to hunger and satiety," Lumeng says.

During this critical developmental stage, Lumeng also recommends that parents encourage their children to eat a wide variety of food. Allowing them to sample a range of healthy foods may translate into a healthier diet as they age, potentially lowering their risk for obesity, she adds

"There is a tremendous problem today with childhood obesity in the United States, one that medical researchers and physicians are trying to address head-on by identifying the factors that are contributing to this epidemic," Lumeng says. "One area of focus is the possible connection between early feeding practices and a child's risk for overweight or obesity.

"Certain aspects of the way children are fed and what they eat very early in life may be related to their later risk for obesity."

For more information

•  Your Child: Feeding your baby and toddler (birth to age two)

•  Feeding your 8- to 12-month old

•  Defining Overweight and Obesity

•  American Academy of Pediatrics: Overweight and Obesity

Source: Newswise
Reference:University of Michigan Health System

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