In some ways there is more to weaning than first meets the eye. It is easy to imagine that weaning is just about encouraging babies to take solid food, but in reality babies are learning about food itself.
Food plays an important role in everyone's life and it would appear that patterns of eating and attitudes towards food are developed in early childhood. With childhood obesity having doubled since the 1980s, the way that we introduce foods to babies deserves some thought.
First, we may need to consider what messages babies and young children are given as they are being fed. Attitudes left over from the Second World War, when food was compulsorily rationed, have often permeated down through families. Claire, who has struggled with her weight, reflects, 'I look back at meal times and remember being told off if any food was left on my plate.
I think it taught me to eat everything, even if I wasn't hungry. I now realise that it was the way my mum had learned about food from her mum. It has taken me years of dieting and misery to learn to eat only when I am hungry.'
Claire now has her own eight-month-old son. 'With Josh,' she says, 'I am determined not to make him feel guilty about food.'
Understanding that babies are learning about attitudes towards food may mean questioning practices such as encouraging a baby who has refused food to have 'one more spoonful' or praising babies when they have finished with expressions such as, 'Well done, you ate it all up!' You could instead say, for example, 'Did you enjoy it?'
It may also mean thinking about the atmosphere in which babies are fed.
Debra Smith of Kinderquest, part of the Bright Horizons Family Solutions group that provides workplace childcare, says that its aim is to avoid situations where babies and toddlers learn that food is linked to rewards.
'While we try to respect parents' wishes, we now stress that it is extremely important to create a happy social atmosphere at meal times, and we begin this in our baby rooms. Forcing a baby to eat simply doesn't work, and making a big thing about puddings can be counter-productive. We want babies to learn that food is an integral part of the day which is pleasant and fun.'
As well as thinking about the messages that babies are getting, it is also worth remembering that they are learning about tastes. Babies soon learn to differentiate between tastes and quickly show marked preferences for certain foods. This means that an early introduction to a range of foods, particularly fruit and vegetables, is essential, as the tastes that we learn to like in childhood stay with us in later life. According to the Department of Health, a study in the United States showed that the greatest predictor of whether adults were taking sufficient fruit and vegetables was whether they had acquired the habit in childhood.
With falling rates of fruit and vegetables consumption among the general population and the trend towards a more sedentary life style, helping babies to develop a healthy palate is perhaps more important than ever before.