Monday, September 6, 2010

CSIRO research – parental pestering pays (aka the carrot challenge)

I’m still working my way through the very informative but very long-winded CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids. As I dragged myself through it, I stumbled across a very interesting fact – research from the UK has shown when child were offered a food every day for two weeks, 'liking' improved in 62% of children.

Admittedly I’m a bit dubious about this stat after further consideration. My first instinct was – “great, I’ll just give Leo cauliflower every day for two weeks and then he will like it”. After further thought, I figured that if I offer Leo cauliflower every day for two weeks then he might like it a little bit more than he did before. After further thought still I realised that there is a 40% chance that this experiment will lead to no change at all.

Nonetheless, I have embarked on a two week carrot challenge. Gaz and I are going to offer Leo carrots every day for two weeks and see if he likes them a little bit more in the end.

This experiment is now in it’s third day and Leo now says “Mummy and Daddy like crunchy carrots” but he has not yet put one in his mouth. That said, I have had great success hiding carrots in muffins, soups, Bolognese sauce etc etc. If all else fails, I can still play carrot ninja.

No comments:

Post a Comment