HOW LIKES AND DISLIKES FOR FOODS ARISE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 5, Issue 108, 18 July 1941, Page 8

HOW LIKES AND DISLIKES FOR FOODS ARISE

(Written for "The Listener" by DR.

MURIEL

BELL

Nutritionist to the Department of Health)

OW happily the average child of to-day takes its cod liver oil! When I have said this to medical students, the great majority of these young men of 20 have made a face which indicates that up till twenty years ago, there was something wrong with the way in which the oil was given to children. Speaking from my own experience (and without referring to my own particular case as being anything but that customary for those times) my Memory recalls the occasions when, for colds or sore throats, cod liver oil was forcefully administered just at a time when one was feeling so miserable that almost anything would be distasteful. We each can remember some occasion on which we attacked the honey pot, or the coconut, and ate to such excess that we were sick; we vowed that we would never eat honey or coconut again! Or we heard an adult say that. there were mites in cheese, and thereafter cheese became a repulsive article of diet until we learnt more sense. On one occasion, which I often quote, there was engendered in my own mind a perfectly irrational dislike for a good food; when I was ill with scarlet fever I was given some baked custard; the memory is still so strong of that slippery feeling that even now it lingers. That it is irrational is perfectly obvious from the fact that fluid custard made from the same ingredients does not. produce any. of these mental reactions. Do It With a Smile As we get older, we lose many of the fads we had in childhood, but some of them, if founded on some _ intense psychological ri zee are difficult to eradicate,

The mother of to-day knows that she must approach her baby with a smile as well as a spoon containing cod liver oil; a child is extremely sensitive to the attitude of adults; if it hears them say they don’t like a particular food, the attitude infects the child. This is often at the bottom of distastes for such good foods as milk. Conversely, a dislike is often overcome by the attitude of other children or of adults. Teachers in infant rooms often tell me that during the first week of the year there are many newcomers who say they don’t like their school milk. When they see the others taking it, they follow suit; there are many ways that the teacher can use to encourage them to lose their former faddiness, and I am told by wise infant teachers that they soon have them all drinking their milk regularly, with very few exceptions. Forcing a food on a child when it is not hungry or when it is tired is another way to create dislikes. Or not allowing it to be independent because it smears its food too badly for its fastidious mother to behold! By far the greatest proportion of food dislikes occur in the cases of only children. The happy companionship of other children is an important factor in the psychology of eating. And, moreover, the cajoling and persuading, and admiration, of doting parents and aunts are the very things which cause a child to draw more attention to itself by refusing food. The rules for creating a happy attitude to foods are to give (with a smile on your own face) small quantities (quarter teaspoons) till the baby has grown accustomed to the taste of a new food-for liking comes from learning to like. (Next week: " Droplet Infection," by Dr. H. B. Turbott.)