The Effects of a Preschool Intervention Aimed at Improving Young Children's Willingness to Consume Novel Foods
Authors: Johnson Susan L , Ryan Sarah E , Kroehl Miranda E , Boles Richard E , Davies Patricia , Gavin William J , Bellows Laura L 
Published: June 2021

Background

Early childhood is a period of heightened food neophobia and declining dietary variety. Programs that have been developed to improve children's food acceptance have utilized repeated exposure principles and have focused primarily on improving children's taste preference for novel foods. However, few studies targeting preschoolers have measured whether repeated exposure can result in increases in consumption of novel foods and whether increases in acceptance for one novel food generalizes to other foods offered during the intervention program. The Colorado LEAP (Longitudinal Eating and Physical Activity) study was an intervention trial focused on improving the food acceptance patterns of young children at high risk for obesity.

Objective

To determine the effects of the Food Friends Program, a 12 week preschool curriculum designed to improve preschoolers’ willingness to try new foods, on children's consumption of 2 novel foods: jicama (repeatedly offered during the program) and edamame (offered only 1 time).

Methods

Four‐year‐old children and their families were recruited from Head Start settings in 5 rural communities in CO via an informational packet (in English & Spanish) that was sent home with their child. At baseline (T1), children's willingness to consume a ½ c. (65 g) serving of jicama and edamame during a usual eating occasion at preschool (lunch or snack) was measured. Servings of the target foods were pre‐ and post‐weighed to determine the amount (g) that each child consumed. Subsequently, preschool teachers delivered the Food Friends program to children in the intervention group. Intake assessments were repeated for control and intervention groups at post‐intervention (T2). Change in consumption between T1 and T2 was estimated and children were categorized into those who: 1) increased consumption by >2.0 grams; or 2) remained the same or decreased consumption. Chi‐squared tests were used to test the proportion of those who increased the amounts consumed (T1 to T2) for jicama and edamame across treatment and control groups.

Results

Significantly more children in the intervention group increased jicama consumption at T2 compared with children in the control group (65.0% and 33.8%, respectively, p<0.0001). The median intakes of test foods are reported in Table 1. The median increase in jicama consumption for the intervention and control groups was 13.5 g (IQR: 0.2 – 37.3) and 0.8 (IQR: −0.4–3.3), respectively. There was no difference in the proportion of children who increased consumption of edamame at T2 for intervention and control groups (32.0% and 33.8%, respectively; p=0.807).

Conclusions

The results of the intervention are promising in that they suggest that repeated exposure can impact young children's dietary intake of target foods, which is above and beyond changes in taste preference usually noted for repeated exposure effects. While significant effects were noted for the intake of the repeatedly exposed food (jicama), this intervention effect did not generalize to the other food associated with the program that children encountered only 1 time.

Support or Funding Information

Supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA (Agriculture and Food Research Initiative competitive grant 2010‐85215‐20648).

Group
Amounts consumed (g)

T1 Jicama
T2 Jicama
T1 Edamame
T2 Edamame

Median (IQR)
Median (IQR)
Median (IQR)
Median (IQR)

Intervention (n=107)
4.4g (1.3–18.5)
23.1g (2.5–59.7)
1.9g (0.8–7.8)
2.2g (0.7–12.3)

Control (n=77)
1.2g (0.3–3.5)
1.7g (0.6–6.2)
1.6g (0.8–7.5)
1.7g (0–4.5)