A healthy, balanced diet provides your little explorer with all the essential nutrients they need to explore their environment with energy and learn something new every day. However, fruits and vegetables are often not especially popular with young children. How can you make healthy food truly tasty for your child? In this article, you’ll learn why it’s completely normal for toddlers to be cautious eaters and how you can gently shape your little connoisseur’s taste preferences with patience and positive encouragement.

How does the sense of taste develop?

The sense of taste is innate, and its development begins as early as the 10th week of pregnancy. Just a few weeks later, your baby starts to experience taste impressions in the womb thanks to their taste buds. In the third trimester, their sense of taste is already so developed that they can perceive changes in the flavor of the amniotic fluid. When your little explorer is born, they can initially distinguish between sweet, sour, and bitter tastes, and by around four months, salty as well. By the age of three, the development of the taste organs is fully complete.

How are taste preferences learned?

Certain taste preferences are already encoded in our genes: we owe our ancestors, who lived as hunters and gatherers, our inclination toward sweet and fatty foods. They recognized ripe, edible fruits by their sweetness, and fat provided vital energy. Today, the preference for these so-called safety flavors is still ingrained in us. In children, the preference for sweet tastes is even more pronounced than in adults. The reason is simple: children have far less learned taste experience than adults and therefore rely more on genetic cues. Other taste preferences must first be learned, and this mainly happens during the first years of life. While in the first months breast milk or formula corresponds to your baby’s familiar safety flavor, they begin to discover new tastes for the first time with complementary foods. This is how they gradually build their taste memory.

Why doesn't my toddler like the taste?

Even if the introduction of complementary foods starts out promisingly and new foods are accepted with curiosity, many parents notice sooner or later that their toddler becomes increasingly skeptical about eating. This is completely normal and has several reasons. First, many toddlers from around 18 months through preschool age enter a phase of so-called neophobia—the fear of new things. During this phase, they approach anything unfamiliar cautiously and may initially reject unfamiliar foods. This isn’t surprising, considering how much new information and how many experiences toddlers take in every day. The familiar taste of a favorite dish can help them feel secure. In addition, toddlers around the same age begin to discover their own will and assert it at mealtimes. Another reason toddlers reject certain foods is that they perceive flavors more intensely than adults do. Bitter, sour, or salty foods, in particular, are often experienced as unpleasant.

Even if your toddler currently prefers pasta without sauce every day, their taste will most likely settle over time, and they’ll naturally learn to try—and enjoy—more and more foods. However, the atmosphere at the family table and your example also play an important role in helping your little explorer develop healthy eating habits.

Why is family dinner so important?

Mealtimes at the family table are a fixed part of the daily routine in many families—and for good reason. Everyone comes together, spends quality time with one another, and eats in a relaxed atmosphere. This helps your child learn from the very beginning to see mealtimes as a special shared ritual to be enjoyed mindfully. By around one year of age, your toddler can sit at the table and take part in family meals. Many dishes can be adapted during the complementary feeding phase so you can prepare a parent’s portion and a child’s portion from the same meal. Simply take out your child’s portion before seasoning and, if necessary, cut it into smaller pieces. Then season your own portion separately so the meal isn’t too salty or spicy for your child.

At around two years old, your child can usually eat at the family table much like the grown-ups. Fancy recipes aren’t necessary: as long as you focus on a healthy, varied diet, your little explorer (prepared appropriately for their age and in suitable portions) can eat the same foods as the rest of the family. You should still use salt, sugar, and processed foods sparingly when your child is eating with you. Hard foods (such as nuts or raw root vegetables) that they can’t chew yet, or foods that could cause choking—like fish with bones, hard candies, and chewing gum—aren’t suitable yet. It’s also important that your toddler drinks enough during meals.

9 Tips for Eating with Toddlers

1. Lead by example

If your child regularly sees Mama and Papa eating fresh foods, they’ll soon become curious and reach for carrots, cucumbers, or broccoli themselves.

2. Involve your child in the preparations

Show your little one new foods and ask what they feel like eating. When they’re allowed to help decide what goes on the table, mealtime becomes more enjoyable. There are also many ways to involve your child in preparing meals. From tearing up salad leaves to setting the table, they’ll be proud to have contributed, too.

3. Create eating rituals

Eat together with your child in a familiar, calm environment and without distractions from phones or other media. Food enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere is naturally associated with positive feelings, making your toddler more open to trying it.

4. Offer vegetables as finger food

Offer a plate with bite-sized pieces of vegetables at every meal—or even in between. This encourages your child to try different types of vegetables without pressure.

5. Offer your child food prepared in different ways

If your child completely refuses certain foods, try offering them prepared in a different way. Many vegetables, for example, can be served raw, finely grated, cooked, fried, as a dip, pureed into soup, or blended into smoothies. Texture and mouthfeel also have a significant influence on whether children like a food or not.

6. Let your child decide for themselves how much they eat

Even if the amount your child eats varies from time to time, self-directed eating helps them learn to listen to their natural hunger and fullness cues. Bans and coercion, however, are often unhelpful—or can even backfire—leading to a complete refusal to eat afterward.

7. Offer visual appeal

The eye eats, too: a beautifully arranged plate can make your little explorer more eager to eat. Red, yellow, and orange foods (for example, bell peppers or tomatoes) can also stimulate the appetite.

8. Be patient and offer food repeatedly

A new food may need to be offered up to 16 times before it’s accepted as familiar and tasty. Be patient, and offer foods repeatedly and naturally, without pressuring your child to eat. Parents of young children know: what’s unpopular today can be a favorite tomorrow.

9. Stay calm

Toddlers’ hunger and appetite can vary greatly. It can certainly happen that they eat less for a while or only accept certain foods. Usually, they’ll naturally make up for it over the next few days. So try to stay as calm as possible in these situations—your little explorer will most likely return to their usual eating habits on their own.

Did you know that dietary preferences can change throughout a lifetime? Some parents see their child’s first foods as a welcome opportunity to reconsider—and possibly adjust—their own eating habits in order to model a healthy, balanced diet. As long as you lead by example and approach your child with patience, a true little connoisseur will surely be sitting at the table with you very soon. We wish you and your little explorer a good appetite!