Don’t Like It – Or Don’t Know It Yet?

One of the most common mistakes we can make during weaning is assuming that a baby’s first reaction to a food tells us whether they like it or not.

A screwed-up face, a head turn, a spoon pushed away, or food dropped onto the floor can all feel like a very clear verdict. But in reality, babies are still learning what food is, how different tastes and textures feel, and what to expect from something unfamiliar.

That means an initial rejection is often less about dislike and more about lack of familiarity.

The danger is that, if we make a quick decision that a baby “doesn’t like” something, we can stop offering it altogether. Over time, that can unintentionally narrow the range of foods they are exposed to and reduce opportunities to build familiarity with different flavours, textures and smells.

Food preferences take time to develop. Research consistently shows that repeated exposure can increase acceptance of unfamiliar foods, with studies suggesting that some foods may need to be offered eight to ten times or more, and sometimes 10–15 times, before they become familiar and accepted.

So rather than treating every refusal as a final answer, it can be much more helpful to think of weaning as a long introduction.

The aim isn’t to persuade or pressure a baby to eat something they don’t want. It’s simply to keep the door open long enough for them to get to know it.

Because “I don’t like it” and “I don’t know it yet” can look very similar at the beginning.

Do they dislike it – or are they still getting to know it?

A funny face isn’t a food review. One of the easiest mistakes to make during weaning is interpreting every expression as an opinion.

Offer your baby something bitter, sour, cold, sticky or completely unfamiliar, and you might see:

a dramatic grimace
pursed lips
a shudder
their tongue pushing the food back out
the food being picked up and immediately dropped
a hand firmly batting the spoon away

It’s easy for us to interpret that as a sign that they don’t like it.

Babies are processing an enormous amount of sensory information when they eat. Taste is only one part of it. There’s smell, temperature, texture, pressure and the physical challenge of moving something unfamiliar around their mouth - this last point is easier said than done when mouth muscle development is still in progress. It’s another great reason to introduce a multi-sensory teether like Dotty the Dinosaur to help build and strengthen the lips, cheeks, jaw and tongue.

A wrinkled nose after the first mouthful of broccoli isn’t necessarily your baby’s way of giving it zero stars. Sometimes it’s simply them working it out.

Babies don’t start with a completely blank flavour slate

There’s another reason broccoli might have a harder time winning your baby over than banana.

Babies are born with a highly developed ability to detect taste, and research suggests that some taste preferences are already biologically primed.

Some claims suggest that babies are born with around 10,000 taste buds and lose large numbers of them as they grow. The reality is a little more complicated: estimates vary, taste-bud density differs between people, and a simple “babies have twice as many taste buds as adults” statistic isn’t particularly helpful.

What we do know is that babies experience taste very effectively from birth – and they don’t respond equally to every flavour.

Research into early taste development has repeatedly found that babies tend to show a natural preference for sweet tastes, while bitter and sour tastes can provoke stronger negative facial responses.

There may be a useful evolutionary reason for that. Sweetness can signal an energy-rich food source, whereas bitterness may historically have helped us recognise substances that could potentially be harmful.

And when you think about the very beginning of a baby’s feeding experience, it makes sense too. Milk has a naturally sweet taste, so the leap from a milk-based diet to the bitter notes of broccoli, kale or spinach can be a significant sensory gear change.

That doesn’t mean we should simply serve more sweet foods because babies accept them easily. In many ways, it means the opposite.

The foods that generate the biggest grimaces may be exactly the foods that benefit most from calm, repeated exposure.

A dramatic reaction to broccoli doesn’t necessarily mean broccoli is permanently off the menu. Their taste system may simply be reacting exactly as we would expect to something unfamiliar and bitter.

And crucially, these early taste preferences are not fixed.

Biology may influence where your baby starts, but experience helps shape where their tastes go next.

Their flavour education may have started before the highchair

Your baby may also arrive at weaning with more flavour experience than you realise.

Research has found that flavour compounds from a mother’s diet can pass into amniotic fluid and breast milk, giving babies opportunities to experience different flavours before they ever sit in a highchair.

Studies have even suggested that early exposure to particular flavours can influence later acceptance of them.

Starting solids dramatically expands that flavour world.

Suddenly there are bitter vegetables, tart fruits, herbs, spices, savoury flavours, different temperatures and an enormous range of textures to process.

Every experience adds to your baby’s growing food knowledge, which is why one taste – or even several tastes – rarely tells the whole story.

Make the most of the flavour window

The period between around 6 and 12 months is sometimes referred to as an important “flavour window”. Children’s Dietitian Lucy Upton highlights this as a time when babies are particularly receptive to experiencing different tastes, flavours and textures.

It doesn’t mean the opportunity disappears after their first birthday, but it does make those early months a valuable time to offer plenty of variety – especially less naturally preferred bitter, savoury and sour flavours – and to keep bringing them back through repeated, pressure-free exposure.

The 10–15 exposure rule

Children’s Dietitian, Lucy Upton regularly reminds parents that children may need to encounter a food many times before they become comfortable eating it.

Lucy advises that for some foods children may need 10–15 exposures or more before acceptance develops.

And importantly, exposure doesn’t only mean successfully eating the food.

Seeing it, touching it, smelling it, preparing it and interacting with it can all help a food become less unfamiliar.

Research supports that idea too. Weaning studies have found that repeatedly offering vegetables and fruits can improve acceptance, often following eight to ten or more exposures.

So one rejected carrot doesn’t equal: “Doesn’t eat carrots.”

The important word here, though, is exposure – not pressure.

Your job isn’t to make them eat it. It’s to keep giving them safe, relaxed opportunities to learn about it.

Keep rejected foods on the exposure list

This is where parents understandably get stuck.

If peas have been pushed away or abandoned for the last four mealtimes, serving peas again doesn’t feel particularly appealing.

Food waste is frustrating. And nobody wants to cook food purely to scrape it into the bin.

But completely removing rejected foods also removes the thing that may eventually help your baby accept them: familiarity

Instead, you can make some small adjustments.

You don’t need to serve half a plate of broccoli every time.

Try:

one small floret alongside foods they already know
a teaspoon of lentils next to a familiar meal
a tiny smear of hummus on the highchair tray
one strawberry quarter beside another accepted fruit
a small portion from the family meal for them to investigate

They don’t have to eat it for that exposure to have value.

They might poke it. Squash it. Smell it. Lick it. Pick it up and put it back down.

All of those interactions count as an exposure and can help move a food from unknown towards familiar.

Lucy similarly recommends continuing regular, positive exposure rather than immediately removing foods that have been refused.

Try a “No Thank You” plate

For slightly older babies and toddlers, a No Thank You plate – or simply a designated area of their plate or tray – can be a really useful tool.

Rather than a rejected food immediately disappearing from the table, show them somewhere they can place something they don’t want to eat.

The message becomes:

“You don’t have to eat it.” instead of “You don’t like it, so we’ll take it away.”

It removes pressure while allowing the food to remain part of the mealtime.

That distinction is really important.

Responsive feeding approaches encourage adults to decide what and when food is offered, while allowing the child autonomy over whether and how much they eat.

Sometimes having permission not to eat something makes it far easier to investigate.

Mind your language

There’s another surprisingly powerful influence sitting at the table. Us, as parents. Without meaning to, we can start writing their child’s food story for them.

“Oh, you don’t like tomatoes.”

“You’re just like me – I’ve never liked fish.”

“He won’t eat anything green.”

“She hates anything with lumps.”

Today’s refusal can very quickly become tomorrow’s label. Instead, try keeping your language open:

“You’re still learning about that one.”

“You didn’t want it today.”

“That’s a new flavour.”

“You don’t have to eat it right now. It can stay there while you explore your other food.”

And don’t underestimate the usefulness of one tiny word: Yet. “You don’t like it yet.”

Because food preferences aren’t fixed. They develop through a combination of biology, experience, familiarity and the eating environment around your baby.

And watch your face, too! Your words aren’t the only thing your baby is absorbing. Babies learn through observation, so it’s worth being mindful of your own expressions.

Imagine offering them avocado while pulling a face and saying:

“Mummy doesn’t like this, but you might…”

You’ve unintentionally supplied a fairly substantial review before they’ve even tasted it.

If we routinely avoid certain foods, describe them negatively or visibly react to them, it shouldn’t be surprising if our children begin to form opinions about those foods too.

You don’t have to pretend every food is your favourite, but where possible, aim for neutrality rather than passing on your own dislikes.

Let them make up their own mind.

Eat it together

One of the simplest exposure tools requires no special activity at all.

Sit down and eat together. Letting your baby see a varied diet being eaten as a normal, everyday part of family life can be a very powerful tool.

Lucy Upton frequently advocates family mealtimes because they give children an opportunity to watch other people eating and interacting positively with food.

Research into children’s eating behaviour also supports the role of modelling and social eating in helping children learn about food and develop preferences.

If broccoli is sitting mysteriously on your baby’s tray while everyone else eats something completely different, they’re being asked to take quite a leap of faith.

But if they can see you picking it up, biting it, chewing it and carrying on eating? Suddenly broccoli looks a little less suspicious.

Remember: eating isn’t the only sign of success

Lucy encourages parents to think beyond eating when introducing unfamiliar foods too. Positive exposure can include touching food, helping prepare it, talking about its colour and texture, playing with it and simply becoming comfortable having it nearby.

For babies, wonderfully messy mealtimes can be particularly valuable here.

Touching, squashing, smelling, licking and tasting gives them repeated sensory information about what a food is before eating significant quantities ever enters the equation.

This is perhaps the biggest mindset shift of all. We tend to measure mealtime success by how much our baby eats.

But learning to accept food happens in smaller stages. Today they might tolerate avocado on the tray. Tomorrow they might touch and squash it. Eventually they lick their fingers.

Another day they put it in their mouth and spit it out. And perhaps several exposures later, they swallow some.

That isn’t five failed attempts followed by one successful one. It’s a gradual learning process.

Your “keep it on the menu” plan

1. Don’t label it
Replace “They hate peas” with “Peas weren’t a winner today.”

2. Keep offering it
Think in terms of repeated exposures rather than one or two attempts. For some foods, that may mean 10–15 times or more.

3. Make portions manageable
Exposure doesn’t require a whole serving. A small amount reduces waste and keeps things low pressure.

4. Pair new with familiar
Put new and unfamiliar foods alongside something your baby already feels comfortable with.

5. Let them investigate
Touching, smelling, squashing, licking and even spitting something back out are all experiences.

6. Create a No Thank You space
Give them somewhere to put a rejected food without making it disappear from the meal altogether

7. Keep your language neutral
Avoid turning today’s refusal into a permanent label.

8. Check your own reactions
Try not to unintentionally pass on your own food dislikes through your words or facial expressions.

9. Model it
Eat together where you can and let them see other people eating a varied range of foods.

10. Keep pressure off
You provide the opportunity. They decide whether to eat.

11. Think in weeks and months, not mouthfuls
Food acceptance develops through experience. One mealtime tells you very little.

Don’t close the door too quickly

There will, of course, be foods your child genuinely doesn’t enjoy. Adults have preferences, and babies and children are allowed them too. The aim isn’t to raise a child who loves absolutely everything.

It’s to give them enough opportunities to discover their preferences rather than having those preferences decided for them by an early reaction.