Structural Equation Model illustrating the drivers of children’s green bean and pasta intake.

<p>The SEM assessed the relationships between salt content, green bean and pasta preferences and intake, hunger and z-BMI. SALT2 = Salt². Salad is vegetable salad. The variables in squares represent measured/observed variables, and those in circles represent latent variables. The effects concerning green beans are set equal to those concerning pasta and are reported for green beans only. The effect of hunger on the intake of green beans, pasta, salad and chicken were set to the same value (reported only once). Dotted lines represent effects suggested by the modification indices, and solid lines represent assumed effects. Numerical values next to arrows represent path coefficients, significant at p<0.05. All fit indices suggest a good fit: model chi-square = 135, df = 85, p = 0.0005, Tucker-Lewis NNFI = 0.93, Bentler CFI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.04 with 90% confidence interval [0.03, 0.06].</p

Higher number of vegetables liked by 15-month old children if they had been breast-fed.

<p>Mean ± SE of the maternal reports of number of vegetables eaten and liked at follow-up 1.</p

Early food-related variety experience is associated with higher intake of new vegetables.

<p>Intake (mean ± SE, in grams) at follow-up 3, i.e. when children were on average 6 years old. A: for breast-fed and formula-fed infants; B: for the three experimental groups (no, low and high variety).</p

Experimental design.

<p>This includes the initial study with early exposure with flavor variety at the very beginning of complementary feeding and the short-term tests on new food acceptance. In the follow-up studies, we tested the persistence of these effects, measuring acceptance of vegetables when the children were about 15 months, 3 and 6 years of age. The measurements conducted at each follow-up are reported in the present paper. During the initial intervention (day 2 to 10) there were 3 groups of variety exposure at home: the ‘No’ variety group received carrot (Ca) every day, the 2 other groups were offered artichoke (Ar), Green beans (Gb) and pumpkin (Pu) for but the ‘Low’ variety group was given each purée for 3 consecutive days and there were daily changes for the ‘High’ variety group. In the initial study (7) acceptance of new foods (puréed zucchini-tomato mix (ZT) was evaluated at day 12, puréed peas (Pe) at day 23, meat purée (Me) when decided by the mother (so after a variable delay, mean ± SE: 21.7 ± 1.8 days) and fish purée (Fi) 13 days after this. In each of the 3 variety groups, there were ‘formula-fed’ and ‘breast-fed’ infants (i.e. who had been breast-fed for less than 15 days and more than 30 days, respectively).</p

Early experience with high variety of vegetables is associated with higher intake of familiar vegetables.

<p>Intake (mean ± SE, in grams) at follow-up 3, i.e. when children were on average 6 years old, for the three experimental groups (no, low and high variety).</p

Early experience with high variety of vegetables is associated with higher liking of familiar vegetables.

<p>Liking (mean ± SE) at follow-up 3, i.e. when children were on average 6 years old, for the three experimental groups (no, low and high variety).</p

Characteristics of the Aalen sample split by mode of milk feeding and variety exposure group.

<p>Characteristics of the Aalen sample split by mode of milk feeding and variety exposure group.</p

Characteristics of the participants.

<p>1 SD: standard deviation</p><p>² BMI: body mass index</p><p>Characteristics of the participants.</p

Associations between liking for fat, salt and sweet sensations and salivary variables¹.

<p>¹ All models were adjusted for sensory analysis laboratory site, sex and age.</p><p>Associations between liking for fat, salt and sweet sensations and salivary variables<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0137473#t002fn001" target="_blank">¹</a>.</p

Eating categories: examples of individual profiles of intake (g) of artichoke over the intervention period.

<p>(Numbers for each case represent participant ID).</p