Mother’s feeding practices may influence children’s reluctance to try new foods: NIN study

A recent study by researchers at the ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) has found that a mother's knowledge, attitude, and feeding practices can significantly influence a child's willingness to try new foods, highlighting the need for stronger nutrition counselling for caregivers during early childhood. Conducted in Hyderabad, the study examined 150 mother-child pairs and found that nearly 77% of children showed moderate levels of food neophobia, while 11.3% displayed high levels and 12% had low levels.

The researchers observed that children whose mothers demonstrated moderate levels of nutrition-related knowledge and positive feeding practices had lower food neophobia scores than those whose mothers had lower scores. The findings underscore the importance of everyday feeding behaviours and suggest that caregivers should repeatedly offer a variety of foods without pressure, create positive mealtime experiences, and respond supportively when children reject unfamiliar foods.

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