Dietary Experiences and Food Acceptance Patterns from Infancy through Early Childhood

Abstract

Research suggests that children's early experiences with food and eating have an impact on their eating practices in later life. This implies that these early years may be of considerable importance in the development of good eating practices. One facet of good eating practices that has received much attention is the encouragement of variety-seeking behavior. This is because early variety-seeking behavior has been associated with greater dietary variety in later years (Nicklaus et al. 2005). This paper reviews research examining children's development in the food domain, with a particular focus on studies that examine techniques that may be used to encourage dietary variety.