How your baby’s sense of sight influences his perception of food

The human eye plays an important role in the perception of colour, which influences our ideas when it comes to the flavour of food.

Research shows that we associate specific colours of food with certain flavours - the stronger the flavour and colour link, the greater the impact of food flavour.

As colour levels increase our perception of taste and intensity of flavour do too.

The size, shape, colour, temperature and surface texture all play an important part in helping to determine your first reaction to food. Often if food does not look appetising, you won’t eat it. Appearance is therefore vitally important if you want the food you make, to be eaten and enjoyed.

Although your baby won’t be able to see much after birth, their sight develops rapidly in the first few months. To help open your baby’s eyes different types of foods, we have created some Make SuperFoods SuperFun activities.

Shapes and Colour

• Using our SuperFood Flash Cards find fruits or vegetables of the same colour and match them together. Teach your little one new colours, it’s amazing how quickly they learn.

• When eating finger-foods, why not get creative with what’s on offer? Try using different coloured foods like an orange carrot, a green broccoli floret, yellow banana or red strawberries.

• Cut the food into different shapes (sticks, chunks and circles) to appeal to little eyes. Get creative with biscuit cutters (or use play-doh shapes) on foods like bread and fruit slices. How about some watermelon stars, mango hedgehogs or toast dinosaurs?

Tasty treats

Having explored their sense of sight, continue the adventure and help them engage their sense of sight each time they interact with food.

• If your baby or toddler is still eating puréed or mashed foods, have a selection of colours on offer for them to taste and see which one they like most.

• If they’re eating chopped and minced food, show them the different shapes and colours, like the bright green peas, before they’re mixed in with their other food at meal times.

To celebrate Spring we have created activity sheets to help explore your little one’s senses in the big outdoors.  Activities like these will help your baby or toddler become accustomed to and accept new materials and objects that change their senses.

The practice of discovery will help them when they are faced with new and exciting foods. Click here to download the Little Senses printable.

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Bumbles Cookery Club

The Bumbles™ Cookery Club offers detailed workshops for each vital stage of the weaning process, as well a support and social group for moms to enjoy.

Our goal is to guide and assist moms, and dads, through the different weaning stages and to understand and learn the importance of each stage, when to introduce each food group and how to create delicious, nutritionally balanced meals not only for your little one but for the whole family.

Latest posts by Bumbles Cookery Club (see all)

• How your baby’s sense of sight influences his perception of food - September 17, 2014
• Get sniffing and develop your baby’s sense of smell - September 2, 2014
• Why the introduction of solid textured foods is important - September 1, 2014