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Purpose of Review: A sensitive period in development is one in which it is easier for learning to take place; the behaviour can however still be learned at a later stage, but with more difficulty. This is in contrast to a critical period, a time at which a behaviour must be learned, and if this window of opportunity is missed, then the behaviour can never be acquired. Both might determine food acceptance in childhood., Recent Findings: There is evidence to support the idea of a sensitive period for the introduction of tastes, a critical period for the introduction of textures and for the development of oral motor function, and a possible critical period for the introduction of new foods but only in children where there is an innate disposition to develop early and extreme disgust responses., Summary: There are both sensitive and critical periods in the acquisition of food preferences.

Current dietary advice for children is that they should eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables a day (Department of Health. National Diet and Nutrition Survey, 2014). However, many parents report that children are reluctant to eat vegetables and often fail to comply with the five-a-day rule. In fact, in surveys carried out in areas in the UK, the number of children eating according to the five-a-day rule has been found to be as low as 16 % (Cockroft et al. Public Health Nutr 8(7):861-69, 2005). This narrative review looks at those factors which contribute to food acceptance, especially fruit and vegetables, and how acceptance might be enhanced to contribute to a wider dietary range in infancy and later childhood. The questions we address are whether the range of foods accepted is determined by the following: innate predispositions interacting with early experience with taste and textures, sensitive periods in infancy for introduction, breastfeeding and the pattern of introduction of complementary foods. Our conclusions are that all of these factors affect dietary range, and that both breastfeeding and the timely introduction of complementary foods predict subsequent food acceptance.

The aim of the current study was to examine the effectiveness of different vegetable exposure methods (variety versus single taste) over a 9 day period in two groups of infants; those introduced to solids prior to the age of 5.5 months, and those introduced after 5.5 months. Sixty parent-infant dyads were recruited in South Birmingham, UK. Infants' acceptance of a novel vegetable (pea puree) was measured after a 9 day exposure period in the infants a week after they were first introduced to solid foods. During the exposure period half of each age group was given carrot every day, and the other half was given a variety pack of courgette, parsnip and sweet potato. A baseline measurement of the infants' acceptance of a vegetable (carrot) was taken prior to the exposure period. There was no difference between the groups in consumption of the baseline vegetable (carrot). There were no main effects of exposure group or age group on consumption of pea after the exposure period. There was, however, an interaction between the age of introduction and exposure group on consumption of the new vegetable (pea). In particular, infants weaned at 6 months in the single taste group ate significantly less pea puree than those in the variety group. These findings suggest that infants, who are weaned at 6 months or later, may benefit from being weaned onto a variety of tastes rapidly to ensure adequate exposure to taste. This study constitutes some of the first evidence to suggest that there may be a sensitive period for the acceptance of tastes between the ages of 4 and 6 months., (Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

The practice of obstetric ultrasound scans has undergone significant expansion in the last two decades and is now a standard part of many women's antenatal care in Australia as elsewhere. This article reviews recent evidence about the value of obstetric ultrasound, summarizing debates and contradictions in research literature and practitioner guidelines. Pregnant women's interpretations of the significance of ultrasound are examined through multiple interviews with 34 study participants. We find that ultrasound has become an integral part of women's embodied experience of pregnancy, with its own pleasures and dilemmas. The increasing use of the technology has augmented the role of scientific biomedicine in the government of pregnancy. This must be understood in the light of trends toward individualized risk management in which the pregnant woman increasingly takes responsibility for the successful outcome of the pregnancy, in a context where pregnancy is discursively constructed as a risky domain of gendered experience in contemporary Australian society.