It seems that if you have your child taste a vegetable they dislike for two weeks, they can overcome their pickiness.

Thank you for visiting. I am a science-loving mom raising a two-and-a-half-year-old picky eater son and a four-month-old daughter.

How can I get my son to eat a wider variety of foods...? Searching for research papers when I'm worried is my science-loving side coming out.

So, today I would like to introduce a study that says, “This is how I was able to help my child overcome their pickiness.”

The twins revealed it for us

The study (1) I am introducing this time involved 3-year-old twins who participated. (Thank you to the 442 twins and their parents who participated in the study!!)

Having them taste a disliked vegetable for two weeks

As for what kind of study it was, first, the families were divided into Group A and Group B.

The families in Group A were given no special instructions and lived their normal daily lives. The families in Group B were taught a “strategy to overcome pickiness” and otherwise lived their normal lives.

The strategy is as follows↓↓

As for what the results were...

So, it was an overwhelming victory for Group B, which implemented the “strategy to overcome pickiness”.

The test conducted before and after the strategy to evaluate whether they could eat the disliked vegetable involved serving the vegetable to the children in 1.5cm x 1.5cm pieces, and the parents were asked not to encourage them to eat it.

In other words, 90% of the children in Group B voluntarily ate the vegetable they had disliked two weeks prior. This is amazing.

In addition, in a survey from the parents' perspective on “how much they came to like the disliked vegetable,” the percentage of those who answered that they “came to like it” was higher in Group B.

Pickiness is genetic, so it can't be helped, but...

As I wrote before in “Picky eating and food dislikes seem to be genetic,” pickiness is genetic, and it is not the result of parents spoiling them, nor is it the parents' fault.

However, if you keep having them taste a disliked vegetable for 14 days, maybe they can overcome it? But, for the person actually doing it, the impression is that it “takes a lot of patience;;”.

So, I have arranged it into an easier method and am putting it into practice. As a result, as I wrote the other day, he ate tuna and potatoes for the first time in months.

I will write about my own way of doing this at a later date.

Finally, to my fellow parents who are raising children with many likes and dislikes

You are really doing your best every single day, aren't you!
Great work!!
When I get frustrated thinking, 'Ah, they won't eat it!', I keep a passage from a book that encourages me.

Yes, it's not just your child who won't eat. It's just that kind of phase, and no matter how much you reason with them or what you do, sometimes it just won't work!!!!!

When I think that, my frustration strangely settles down. Let's do our best together (within a range where we don't overexert ourselves)✨ Even if they still won't eat it, it can't be helped!

Please take it easy.

References & Books

(1) Parent-administered exposure to increase children’s vegetable acceptance: a randomized controlled trial. J Acad Nutr Diet 2014; 114: 881–888.

(2) The Most Important 1000 Days of Nutrition in Life: The Complete Book of Baby Nutrition from Pregnancy to Age 2

A book that explains 'what' and 'how' to feed children based on the 'Gemini' research introduced in this article.

Since the situation regarding weaning and toddler food in the UK is different from Japan, honestly, I don't think it's a case of 'this one book covers everything' as the obi strip suggests, but it was a book I was glad to read because it contains information on 'how to overcome likes and dislikes' based on scientific evidence.

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