Health for Body Mind and Soul

Getting pre-school children to eat vegetables can be somewhat of a daunting task, and can make mealtimes quite challenging. Methods used to encourage healthy eating are varied. The use of rewards to encourage eating vegetables is controversial, but research findings by Remington et al (2011) show that rewards, when combined with taste and exposure, not only increases intake but also liking for vegetables.

During the research project parents offered their child one of six types of vegetables, and told their child that they could have a sticker of their choice if he or she tasted a predetermined size of vegetable. In addition, parents praised their child for tasting the vegetable, and emphasized that both the sticker and praise was given for tasting the vegetable.

Visit the American Journal for Clinical Nutrition for more information on this topic

The researchers concluded that if parents combined repeated taste exposure with small rewards their children would increase their acceptance of vegetables they had previously disliked.

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