Have you ever tried a new food and not liked it? Then it grows on you after a few more tries? You’re not imagining things. There are ways to help develop taste preferences, and these principles can guide your approach to feeding your littlest eaters.
Numerous experts and peer-reviewed scientific studies suggest that parents can play a role in developing the tastes of their babies and toddlers. Taste preferences may actually begin as early as in the womb. Introducing variety within the first year of life can help alleviate toddlers’ fears of trying new foods. Repeated exposure can help further develop a kid’s tastes—and this approach often works for adults, too.
Useful Tools, But Not A One-Size Fits All Solution
As a new parent, I consider this helpful context to guide how I introduce food to my baby. I’m sure one day I’ll struggle to get him to try new vegetables or unfamiliar dishes. Thankfully science suggests that patience and persistence with feeding will often be rewarded. So that’s why I’ll be giving this a shot.
However, remember that parents only have so much control. Children have their own taste preferences from birth—like preferring sweetness and disliking bitterness. Offering new foods is not the same as force feeding, which can make kids even more reluctant to eat. “Healthy” and “unhealthy” should be considered in the scope of a balanced diet that is full of nutrients; you can also consider it foods to eat more of, versus consumed in moderation. And last but not least, consult a doctor, nutritionist, or other professional when it comes to specific questions about your child’s health, development, allergies, and the like.
Pickiness: It Often Sets In With Newfound Mobility
Children tend to be most open to new flavors before they can walk. This is sometimes called the “flavor window,” and it generally lasts until about 18 months of age. Some research suggests that the ages of four to 12 months are especially vital for introducing new foods.
As children master walking, they tend to enter a picky phase in which they prefer foods that are simple or that they have eaten before. As annoying as this pickiness can seem to parents, it may reflect an evolutionary survival tactic. Early humans had to distinguish between many types of plants to eat for survival, some of which were toxic. It would have been dangerous for newly mobile toddlers to go exploring and accidentally nosh on a poisonous plant. So there was good reason for our young ancestors to mostly trust food that they already knew.
What you can do: Once your infant is ready to eat solids, try introducing her to a variety of vegetables and fruits to foster a diverse palate. But also remember that it is normal for young children to be picky.
Exposure: The More the Better
For adults, fine wine, pungent cheese, and raw oysters are all considered an acquired taste. Turns out this isn’t just a saying—and that both adults and kids may start enjoying things more after multiple tries. A body of research suggests that repeated exposure helps us learn to like new foods. Several studies suggest that we even need eight to 10 exposures to before taste preferences are established.
However, many parents stop offering a food before several exposures because they think that their child just doesn’t like it. But don’t give up if your little one doesn’t like the first bite. Numerous studies report that repeated exposure to new vegetables—especially for kids younger than 24 months—correlates with increased acceptance to eat them. So give a food at least several tries before making any conclusions about taste preferences.
What you can do: Keep serving healthy food to your children, even if they initially don’t like it. Let them see it, smell it, and touch it, even if they won’t taste it the first time. More exposure to foods makes children (and adults) more likely to accept them.
Conditioning: Use Familiar Flavors To Ease In New Ones
Most people don’t like coffee the first time they try it plain. Yet we start to develop a taste for it after having many coffee drinks mixed with sugar and cream.
You can use this same principle to condition taste preferences for healthy foods. Parents sometimes think that if they rely on additional flavorings, like salad dressing on vegetables, their child will never want to eat the main food alone. But studies show that the opposite is true. Pairing a flavor that your child already likes with something unfamiliar can help create a positive association. You can then slowly reduce the amount of the preferred flavor to become accustomed to eating the other food alone.
What you can do: Offer a picky eater his first serving of vegetables with dressing. Try reducing the dressing—or other supplemental flavoring—with each serving until he is eating the vegetables on their own.
Performing: Do As I Do
Kids are like little sponges. They look to adults for how to behave and absorb our behaviors more than our words. Research even suggests that kids start to mimic their parents’ food choices at an early age. Don’t underestimate your ability to be a role model and encourage your kid to make healthy choices.
What you can do: Bust out your acting chops, especially when introducing a new food to a skeptical child. Take a bite, exaggerate a happy face, and make noises indicating how delicious the food is.
Portion Control: Let Them Decide
We should all listen to our bodies’ satiety cues. This means eating when we’re hungry and stopping when we’re full. Unfortunately, adults often let a variety of external cues influence how much we eat—mindlessly snacking at the movies, eating more from a buffet, grazing appetizers at a happy hour, etc.
Nevertheless, it’s ideal for kids to learn how to self-regulate their food intake. Parents can help do that by fostering good meal time habits. For example, make eating its own experience: when possible, sit together at the table without distractions like TV so your child can focus on the food. It’s fine to eat when hungry, but not out of boredom or simply because something tastes good. Supplemental treats—the less nutritious kinds—are fine at whatever frequency you decide as a parent, but kids should know that they are getting a treat for the taste and not to fulfill hunger.
What you can do: Help kids be intentional about their food intake and listen to their own hunger cues. Offer healthy snacks and meals when your child is hungry. Also respect when she says she is full rather than forcing her to clean her plate, which can lead to overeating. If you’re concerned that she is trying to abandon food for treats, put the unfinished plate in the refrigerator and make it available if she is hungry later. Or, some experts even suggest serving a small portion of dessert with dinner to help normalize it as just another food.
Emotional Eating: Disassociate the Heart and Stomach
We all know that food is necessary for life. It’s fuel for our bodies. Yet as with portion control, too often we link eating with emotions instead of our physical needs.
It can create problems for kids when they come to associate food with behavior rather than hunger. Food should not be regularly used as a tool for punishment (“no dinner if you keep fighting with your brother”), as a bribe or reward (“ice cream if you get a good grade”), or for comfort (“you had a difficult day so you can eat potato chips to feel better”). It’s tempting to offer food rewards for preferred behavior: like the classic, “if you finish your vegetables, you can watch TV.” But this reinforces the idea that vegetables are bad and TV is good.
What you can do: Try to separate emotions from eating when possible. That doesn’t mean you should totally deny your child special foods for special occasions. There is no need to cancel birthday cake! But food probably should not be the first or only thing you offer your child to process or soothe their emotions, as this is a hard habit to break. Instead, frame eating vegetables as something we do because we are hungry and vegetables are good for our bodies. The ultimate takeaway from feeding strategies should be to focus on the positives.