How to get a child to try new foods

Today I was reminded of a journey I went through with a child in the early years of my career, because I'm bound by confidentiality I am unable to reveal the child's name so some of the details of this story will be changed some what to protect the identity of this child.

Liam aged 4, I was told when I began work at my new centre, has not ever eaten anything that the cook has made since he has been at the centre. Liam apparently had found every excuse under the sun not to eat what has been cooked, here I am new to the centre and I'm faced with the battle... how do I get Liam to at least try the food?

At this point I wasn't a parent, I hadn't received advice from anybody about what to do with fussy eaters. So now as a new worker at a new centre, I need to devise a strategy that will get Liam to eat with mum's help... hmmm what to do.

I had to break down the problem at hand, when I did this I came up with the idea, the first thing we need to do is get him to taste the food, he doesn't have to swallow it just taste it and give it a rating. So with his mum we came up with a rating system that was developmentally appropriate for a 4 year old. So we began our rating system which was:

2 thumbs down for I'll never taste it again I need a drink to get the taste out of my mouth
1 thumb down for I don't like it, can I have a drink please.
1 thumbs up for It's alright but not my favourite.
2 thumbs up for this is delicious I'm going to eat more.

So how to remember what Liam liked eating? We got the cook to give us a copy of the menu, we then drew at the end of the meal Liam's rating of the meal, if it got two thumbs down then he could eat plain rice or pasta on that day. Once he had had a lick of the meal to check he still didn't like it he could eat the plain stuff. I came up with this idea after doing a lot of research into fussy eaters I found an article that said "children need to taste foods numerous times before they acquire the taste of it" for this reason we would make Liam taste it again just to check. I have come to the realisation that some times children have had limited exposure to a particular type of food and will say that it is yuck because they are not used to the taste.

Some examples of tastes which normally need to be tried several times to 'learn to like' are beer, coffee, (not that you would be giving these to a four year old) goats cheese, caviar and olives. There has been quite a lot of debate on how this change in taste experience is accomplished, as many people, report that without effort or intent they have learned to appreciate these flavours simply by repeated exposure. So this is why we continued to re-offer Liam the same foods even after he had given it a 2 thumbs down rating. Some of the 2 thumbs down foods upon a second taste would become a 1 thumbs down, and slowly get to a 1 thumbs up.

Slowly over the course of six months Liam began taking bites of one thumbs up foods and eating bowls of two thumbs up foods. Liam's mum thought I was a miracle worker. It was all a part of my job. He was normally overwhelmed by the prospect of eating a whole bowl of food he had never seen before at child care, once I told him he doesn't have to eat a bowl full of food he just has to lick it, it became less scary.

My advice:
Sometimes a whole bowl of a new food can be scary, try small portions of new foods if it's a hit you can give more if not your not wasting food. But don't be afraid to re-offer in a few days or weeks because young children's tastes change.