Kids and Taste Exposure
… if at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try, try, try again
Here’s a little story about feeding my son:
The first time I offered Theo pineapple, he spit it out. The second time I offered Theo pineapple, he threw it on the floor. The third time I offered Theo pineapple, he gave it the cold shoulder, ignoring it on his tray as he ate all the food around it.
After that I wanted to figuratively and literally “throw in the towel” and give up on offering him pineapple. In fact, for several months I did just that.
I would dole (pun intended) out pineapple to his brother while telling myself “what a shame that Theo won’t eat pineapple.”
Then I reminded myself of what the research says about exposing kids to new foods over and over again to build up acceptance and I resumed regularly serving Theo pineapple which he continues to regularly refuse.
Studies show that food exposure and parental persistence are key tools in getting kids to accept a new food or a previously disliked food.
Studies also show that parents often give up easily when it comes to offering kids foods they haven’t previously tried or liked.
Declaring that a kid doesn’t like a given food such as broccoli after 1, 3 or even 5 tries might be the equivalent of declaring “game over” on broccoli just as your kid is warming up to it.
In the early months of eating, children are in the flavor window phase and tend to willingly accept a wide range of new foods, taste and textures.
As they near 2 years old , that window can seemingly slam shut as kids often become “fussier” eaters with stronger opinions about what foods they will and will not consume.
Food neophobia (fear of new foods) is common in toddlers though it may be more pronounced in some kids. The neophobic phase, when children are reluctant or outright refuse to try new foods, is dreaded by parents as it can be maddeningly frustrating and upend the joy of mealtime.
In the 1960’s, Robert Zajonc popularized the psychological concept of “mere exposure.”
Mere exposure means that people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them. Conversely, dislike is a result of a fear of the unknown.
Today, exposure therapy is used to help people face a fear through systematic exposure in a safe space. Often the first exposure is a tiny baby step such as looking at a photo of a plane with a therapist when someone has an intense fear of flying.
Applying the mere exposure theory to foods means that the way we learn to like a food would be simply by seeing it and trying it.
Research on kids and dietary behavior does support this theory:
A 2007 study offered 7 month old babies a disliked vegetable puree or a liked vegetable puree on alternating days for 16 days. By day 16, the babies on average were eating about as much of the previously disliked vegetable as they did of the liked vegetable. Even at a 9 month follow up, 63% of the babies continued to eat the previously disliked vegetable.
In general, children age 2-5 may need to try a food upwards of 15 times before it becomes familiar and accepted.
Researchers exposed a cohort of 2 year olds to 10 novel foods either 0, 2, 5, 10, 15 or 20 times. As the number of exposures increased, acceptance also increased. These findings have been replicated in other studies and with a variety of foods.
So, do parents offer children disliked foods 20 times?
It appears not. A 2004 study of 3000 kids in the US age 4-24 months showed that over 90% of caregivers gave up on offering a foods that was disliked after only 3-5 tries. About 25% of caregivers only offered a food 1 or 2 times before deciding that their child dislikes the food.
This is understandable given how demoralizing it can feel to have food rejected over and over again. However, when armed with the knowledge that repeated exposure leads to greater acceptance, hopefully more parents will persist in offering initially disliked foods. (Personally, I am holding out hope that Theo comes around to pineapple one of these days.)
So what counts as exposure?
Almost anything.
Kids gain exposure to food through seeing it, smelling it, touching it, helping prepare it, licking it, putting it in their mouth and spitting it back out. Seeing a parent or another child eating the food can help model that the disliked food is nothing to fear.
What doesn’t help increase food acceptance in kids? Pressure. So play it cool. If they try the food, great. If they don’t try the food, also great. It’s a bit like dating. Acting desperate is a turnoff and kids have a built in desperation radar.
One way that our family has built in taste exposure for the boys is with our nightly shared family dinners. As discussed in Dinnertime Magic, we serve the same family dinner to everyone without regard for personal preferences. Regardless of if the family meal contains the boys’ favorite or most detested foods, everyone is served at least a small portion of each item. After that it is up to each boy if they will give each item a try.
In conclusion, my hope is that you feed your kids something they don’t like today and that you feel really good about it.
