It's official: Pressuring kids to eat doesn’t work!

Pressuring children to eat can actually lead to lower food intake and negatively affect their liking of a food.

This was the finding of a recent study of 27 pre-schoolers aged between 3 and 5 years.

In this study, the children were more likely to increase their intake over a period of days of an initially unfamiliar food when they were not pressured to eat it.

These results are consistent with other findings that exposing children to foods increases liking, but any attempt to control intake will limit the positive effect of exposure.

See the First steps in healthy eating article for tips on getting your kids started at healthy habits.

Source: Appetite, 2006, 46:318-23