CompletedNot Applicable

Toddler Tastes Study

United States41 participantsStarted 2025-03-19

Plain-language summary

The goal of this study is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of two food preference learning approaches for toddlers that could serve as alternatives to mere repeated exposure to new or previously disliked foods. The target population is toddlers who score higher on food fussiness. The study is a two-group randomized controlled trial. Families will be randomized to 1 of 2 study groups: associative conditioning, or the child tasting vegetables alongside a palatable dip, or modeling, in which the child and parent taste vegetables together. Both groups will attend two laboratory visits, one before and one after a 4-week exposure period, and will be asked to complete 8 vegetable tastings in accordance with their assigned condition across the 4 intervention weeks. Key questions to be addressed are: * summarizing the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention strategies * assessing whether children's liking and intake of the target food increase from baseline to post-intervention

Who can participate

Age range18 Months

SexALL

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AI-rewrites the medical criteria so a patient or caregiver can understand them. Always confirm with the trial site.

Note: Age limits above reflect parents and children combined. Maximum age for children is 36 months as indicated below, and minimum age for parents/guardians is 18 years. Inclusion Criteria: * Child is 18-36 months old * Parent/guardian is 18 years of age or older * Parent/guardian participating is the primary caregiver of the child * Child is not diagnosed with a physical or mental health condition (e.g., allergies to study foods, ARFID or autism diagnosis) that would impact safe or feasible participation * Participants are English speakers * Child is high on food fussiness, defined as a 2.5 or above on the food fussiness scale of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire for toddlers Exclusion Criteria: * The child is outside the age range of 18-36 months at enrollment, as verified by birth date * Child is diagnosed with a physical or mental health condition that precludes safe or feasible participation * The parent/guardian is less than 18 years old * The parent/guardian participating is not the primary caregiver of the child * Participants are not English speakers * Child is low on food fussiness, defined as below a 2.5 on the food fussiness scale of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire for toddlers

What they're measuring

Feasibility of the food preference learning approaches

Timeframe: Intervention (Weeks 1-4 after baseline assessment)

Acceptability of the food preference interventions

Timeframe: Intervention (Weeks 1-4 after baseline assessment)

Trial details

NCT IDNCT06877468

SponsorState University of New York at Buffalo

Sponsor typeOTHER

Study typeINTERVENTIONAL

Primary completion2025-07-29