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144 5.1 Preschool Children 1–4 Years
In addition to these factors all toddlers go ●● Eat together as a family and make mealtimes
through a phase of becoming quite choosy about happy, relaxed, social occasions. Parents
what they will and will not eat. It may be most should offer their toddler nutritious foods but
noticeable around 18 months of age but it can begin allow the toddler to decide which foods and
any time in the second year. Toddlers may: how much he or she will eat. Without any
pressure exerted to eat certain foods or
●● eat less than expected quantities, toddlers will come to enjoy
mealtimes and different foods.
●● refuse to taste new foods that are offered
●● Eat the foods you would like your toddlers to
●● refuse to eat certain foods including some they eat. Parents are good role models for their
have previously eaten well toddlers who learn by copying what others do.
If parents eat and make positive comments
●● refuse to eat a food that looks slightly different about foods their toddlers will be more likely to
to the food they are familiar with e.g. if a piece of try eating those foods. Siblings, other children
apple has a mark on the skin, a yogurt is a and carers are also good role models for
different colour or in a different carton, or a toddlers. Some toddlers may need to watch
biscuit is broken, not whole. others eating a food that is new to them several
times before they become confident to try it
Food Neophobia themselves.
Becoming wary of trying new foods is a normal ●● Make foods easy to eat by offering finger foods
stage in their development and is called food so that toddlers can feed themselves and have
neophobia because ‘neophobia’ means fear of new. more control over how much they eat.
It is more evident in some toddlers while hardly
noticeable in others. Parents begin to notice it soon ●● Praise toddlers when they eat well or try new
after toddlers have become independently mobile foods as toddlers respond to praise and tend to
and are becoming more adept at investigating their repeat behaviours they are praised for.
environment. The fear of new foods is probably a
survival mechanism to prevent mobile young ●● Allow enough time to finish eating and drinking
toddlers from harming themselves through eating but do not extend the mealtime to try to coerce a
anything and everything: if they were to taste any toddler to eat more than they want to. Average
interesting looking berry on a bush they could well ideal times are around 15 minutes for a snack
poison themselves. and 20–30 minutes for a meal.
Once the neophobic stage begins toddlers may ●● Reward toddlers with attention but not food or
refuse to even try a taste of a new food they are not drinks. Foods used as rewards or treats become
familiar with. They will take much longer to learn more desirable than other foods and this
to like and eat new foods than during infancy. encourages taste preferences for sweet,
high-calorie foods that are generally used as
Most toddlers will move through this stage in rewards.
their own time if parents and carers follow some or
all of the suggestions below: Some young children are much more likely to take
longer to move out of this phase and strategies to
●● Offer a variety of foods and repeatedly introduce help them are discussed in the next chapter.
new foods from an early age to allow young
children time to learn to accept different tastes References and further reading
and textures. It is the number of times they taste
a food not the amount eaten that will determine Birch LL (1998) Development of food acceptance
how long it takes for them to learn to like a new patterns in the first years of life. Proceedings of the
food. Nutrition Society 57(4): 617–624.
