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
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Publications
Houston-Price C
(2019)
Parents' experiences of introducing toddlers to fruits and vegetables through repeated exposure, with and without prior visual familiarization to foods: Evidence from daily diaries
in Food Quality and Preference
Mura Paroche M
(2017)
How Infants and Young Children Learn About Food: A Systematic Review.
in Frontiers in psychology
Orla Kennedy (Author)
(2012)
Encouraging change : interventions to increase fruit & veg intake
Carmel Houston-Price (Author)
(2011)
The impact of picture book exposure to foods on children's fruit and vegetable consumption
Carmel Houston-Price (Author)
(2010)
The impact of picture-book exposure to foods on parents' food choices for their children
Laura Owen (Author)
(2012)
Picture books about food increase toddlers' liking and consumption of disliked vegetables
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 |