How early can we start? Early Childhood Feeding Practices and How to...

About 40% of 2nd and 5th graders had zero vegetables on any given day in one study.

About 1 out of 5 kids and teenagers eat the recommended 5 servings a day of vegetables and fruits, with french fries counting as about a quarter of those servings.

About a third of toddlers don't eat any fruit each day, but they're eating baked desserts, candy, and sweetened beverages.

By the time a child enters elementary school, food preferences are already very well established.

Children who are born to a mother who had gestational diabetes are more likely to suffer from obesity and complications later on.

Pregnant women need no extra calories in the first trimester, about 350 extra calories in the second trimester, and about 450 extra in the third trimester.

Pregnant women should get at least 150 minutes of exercise per week, the same as the general population recommendation.

AAP recommends exclusive breastfeeding to 6 months if possible and not introducing solids until 6 months, or at least not earlier than 4 months.

Children who are introduced to solid foods before 4 months have an increased risk of developing childhood obesity later on.

Flavors pass in the amniotic fluid to the baby and also pass through breast milk, providing first flavor experiences.

Babies who are breastfed are more likely to try a variety of different foods later, possibly related to early flavor exposure through breast milk.

Babies who gain weight very rapidly in the first year of life are more likely to have troubles with weight as children later on.

The recommendation for tummy time is an hour a day or more, which can be done in spurts throughout the day.

There is no evidence that introducing vegetables before fruits prevents babies from preferring sweet flavors or rejecting bitter vegetables.

Babies have somewhat immature taste buds, which makes it so that they like everything and are open to trying lots of different things in the first year of eating solid foods.

Neophobia (fear of wanting to try new things) is a developmental milestone that almost every toddler goes through.

In the division of responsibility feeding approach, parents decide what foods are offered, when they're offered, and where they're offered; the child decides what they're going to eat and how much of it they're going to eat.

Family meals at least 3 times a week show benefits for children's health and social development, with kids adopting healthier habits through parental modeling.

If parents force children to clean their plates, use food as rewards, set up food for comfort, or bribe with food, children unlearn their ability to listen to their body in deciding hunger and fullness, with studies showing this happens as young as age 3.

It takes 15 to 20 tastes for a child to like a new food, and the taste buds are on the tongue so the child doesn't necessarily need to swallow the food to get that benefit.

Studies show that engaging children in food preparation (cooking meals together, having a garden, bringing kids to the grocery store) makes them more willing to try new foods.