Nursery-based cooking programme reduces food fussiness in young children

Children aged three to fiveyears-old involved in a nursery-based cooking skills the Big Chef Little Chef (BCLC) programme were found to be less fussy and more willing to try green vegetables at the end of the study. The results of this quasi-experimental study evaluated by the University of Glasgow and published in the journal Nutrients - found that that there was a significant increase in willingness to try green vegetables, indicating the potential success of programmes such as Big Chef Little Chef (BCLC) to have positive effects on preschool children's diet and eating behaviours. In previous research in the UK, children described as 'very choosy' with food at three-years-old were found to consume significantly less fruit and vegetables at both 10 and 13-year-old compared with those who were not identified as choosy with food. Researchers know that repeated exposure is an effective method for increasing consumption of a target vegetable in preschool aged children; and child involvement in meal preparation has previously been associated with a higher preference for vegetables and an increased willingness to try unfamiliar food items. While cooking programmes involving parents and school aged children have shown improvements in fruit and vegetable intake in families, researchers did not know how this impacted children's fussy eating behaviours in early years. The BCLC programme for fussy eaters consisted of interactive sessions with parent/carers and their nursery-aged child for 1.5h once a week over four weeks.