Picky Eaters
As many as 50% of children are considered picky eaters, resisting all kinds of foods — vegetables in particular — that would be beneficial for them. Psychologists have tried for years to discover ways to help these kids accept the foods that they resist with such determination.
One approach has found more research support than any other over the past decade: repeat exposure.
Here's how it works: Every day for 14 days, offer your child small pieces of a single "moderately disliked" target vegetable (either carrot, celery, tomato, red pepper, green pepper or cucumber, depending on the child's tastes). Offer the vegetable raw, and allow your child to eat as much or as little as she likes. You might say, "You don't have to eat it, just taste it."
"The evidence is pretty good that 10 (tries) will do the trick," says Lucy Cooke, a senior research associate at the Health Behaviour Research Centre at University College London. The report of her team's research was published in the journal Appetite (October, 2003). "15 tries is optimal, but we do fully understand that it's just beyond the patience of many parents to persevere that long — especially if the child doesn't appear to be responding."
If a child doesn't show increased acceptance after 10 tries, Cooke would give up on that particular food and start with something else. Every step of the way, parents are urged to take a neutral, indifferent attitude toward the results — a simple "taste this" with no pressure, criticism, upset or anger.
Cooke acknowledges that some kids aren't willing to try a disliked food, but she says a small nonfood incentive can tip the balance. In later studies, younger kids were offered stickers each time they tasted the target vegetable. They all were willing to at least give the food a try.
Many of the parents in the 2003 study said their children had actually enjoyed the tastings. "Afterwards, he kept asking to try other things," a parent was quoted as saying. Other parents felt that the experiment had had a lasting effect on their child's opinion of the test vegetable. "It is his favorite, and he would not touch it before," one parent said.
Repeated exposure over time is often what it takes for adults to enjoy certain foods — think coffee or beer, for example. It stands to reason that children's taste buds may also need time to acclimate to something new.