How to Make Your Child Eat Healthy

Children tend not to like vegetables and other healthy foods. According to the psychologists of the University of Reading, you can make squeamish children taste new food by showing them the picture of it.

They found that children who often look through books with pictures of vegetables and fruit which are not included in their regular diet are more willing to taste them. In the experiment, parents of toddlers who participated in the study were given picture books about two vegetables and two fruits. Two items were known by children (carrot and grapes), while the other two they have never seen (radish and exotic fruit litchi). The parents read from the book every day for two weeks.

Two weeks later, the toddlers were offered four vegetables, two of which were not shown in the book, and the same set of fruit. Children were more likely to taste the unknown vegetables and fruit that parents showed them in the book. For example, if there was a picture of litchi, children chose that very fruit, instead of anything they saw previously (like blackberry). If children saw the picture of blackberry in the picture book, they picked litchi without hesitation.

Scientists think that visual exposure to pictures of healthy foods can help make children willing to taste them and develop healthy eating habits in future.

Source of the image: sxc.hu/profile/TouTouke.