Toddler Tastes Study

Launched by STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO · Mar 13, 2025

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

The Toddler Tastes Study is designed to explore new ways to help toddlers who are picky eaters learn to enjoy vegetables. Instead of just repeatedly offering them the same foods, the study will look at two different approaches: one where toddlers taste vegetables with a tasty dip, and another where they taste vegetables together with a parent. The goal is to see if these methods can make toddlers more accepting of vegetables.

To participate, toddlers need to be between 18 and 36 months old and considered picky eaters, meaning they score high on a specific scale for food fussiness. Parents or guardians must be at least 18 years old and the primary caregiver. During the study, families will visit the lab twice and take part in vegetable tastings over four weeks. The researchers want to find out how well these strategies work and if toddlers end up liking and eating more vegetables by the end of the study. This trial is currently looking for participants, so if you think this could be a good fit, consider getting involved!

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• • 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