Tiny Tasting, At-home tasting Game

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Teaching children to eat fruits and vegetables can be a challenging process for parents.  One study examined how playing a “tasting game” at home can impact children acceptance of vegetables.  The parent has the ultimate power in choosing which foods to bring into the home. However, picky eaters can make it difficult to resist purchasing “junk food” or the select foods the child is willing to eat.  Past studies have found that offering a sample of the vegetable followed by a reward can encourage children to be more willing to eat vegetables. 

The name of the program in this study was called Tiny Tastes.  The children were offered small samples of vegetables each day to try. The kids that tried the foods were given a sticker as reward.  There were 196 children in the intervention group. At baseline, only 39 children would try new foods; after the intervention 141 would eat the foods.  Consistency is key and providing a small reward for eating the sample of food. Thus reinforcing that it may take many attempts to change a child’s eating behaviors and preferences and providing evidence that picky eaters can learn to eat a variety of foods.

The findings of this study were published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Reference: http://www.whtc.com/news/articles/2013/oct/17/at-home-tasting-game-helps-kids-accept-vegetables/ and through the JAND at http://www.andjrnl.org/article/S2212-2672(13)01254-9/abstract


--Sarah Carlson

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