A visual exposure strategy to facilitate the introduction of fruit and vegetables into the diets of toddlers

Lead Research Organisation: University of Reading
Department Name: Sch of Psychology and Clinical Lang Sci

Abstract

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Description This project explored whether parents' attempts to introduce new or disliked fruit and vegetables into toddlers' diets are facilitated by a prior period of familiarisation to the foods' appearance. Familiarity with a food's taste is an established predictor of food liking; our previous work had shown that visual exposure similarly impacts on toddlers' interest in looking at and tasting fruit and vegetables in laboratory tests. The current project extended this work to the home environment. Parents of 127 toddlers identified one fruit and one vegetable which they wished their child would eat. Families were assigned to a 'fruit exposure group' or a 'vegetable exposure group', who looked at a book about their target fruit or target vegetable every day for two weeks, or to a 'control group', who received no book. Parents of all children then offered both target foods to their child every day during a two-week taste-introduction phase. As expected, children's reported liking of both foods increased as a result of taste exposure. Importantly, however, exposure to vegetable books significantly boosted children's liking of the target vegetable, both in the short term and after a six-month delay. Moreover, reported consumption of the target vegetable at follow-up was greater among the vegetable book group than other groups. Findings demonstrate that visual exposure facilitates the introduction of vegetables, in particular, into children's diets. Additional findings of reductions in neophobia and food fussiness levels among the vegetable book group suggest that the benefits of picture-book exposure extend beyond the vegetable targeted.
 
Description Mechanisms by which children learn about food 
Organisation Danone
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Private 
PI Contribution Collaborative project to produce systematic review article on the mechanisms by which children learn about food, in association with Dr Sam Caton, University of Sheffield, and a team at Danone Research.
Collaborator Contribution Co-authorship of systematic review
Impact Mura, M., Caton, S.J., Vereijken, C., Weenen, H. & Houston-Price, C. (under review). How infants and toddlers learn about food: A systematic review.
Start Year 2012
 
Description Mechanisms by which children learn about food 
Organisation University of Sheffield
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Collaborative project to produce systematic review article on the mechanisms by which children learn about food, in association with Dr Sam Caton, University of Sheffield, and a team at Danone Research.
Collaborator Contribution Co-authorship of systematic review
Impact Mura, M., Caton, S.J., Vereijken, C., Weenen, H. & Houston-Price, C. (under review). How infants and toddlers learn about food: A systematic review.
Start Year 2012
 
Description Picture books increase toddlers' liking and consumption of disliked vegetables 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.)
Results and Impact Presentation at the Opaline workshop on "Understanding the early development of food preferences and eating behaviour in children", Dijon, France.

I was invited to collaborate on a systematic review article with colleagues in the Netherlands and UK.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2012
URL http://www.vitagora.com/newsletters/opaline-workshop1