Glossary · Behavior
Repeated exposure
The habit of offering a new food again and again, since many children need 8–15 tries or more before they eat it. Seeing, touching, smelling or licking a food all count as tries, and pressure to finish a portion tends to slow things down.
What it looks like in a real week
Repeated exposure is a habit, not one big moment. Say you want your child to get used to green beans. You might put three green beans on the plate on Monday, stir chopped beans into pasta on Wednesday, eat them yourself on Friday, and let your child help snap them on Sunday. None of these need a swallowed bite to count. The goal is for the food to feel ordinary.
Keeping it low pressure
- Keep the portion of the new food tiny, so an untouched piece is no big deal.
- Serve it next to one or two foods your child already eats.
- Skip the big praise for eating and the sighs for refusing.
- Change the form: raw, roasted, mashed, in a soup or baked into a muffin.
- Let your child put it aside on the edge of the plate if they want.
Why it takes so long
Every calm meeting makes a food a little more familiar. Some children come around after a few tries, others take many more, and a food that was ignored for months can suddenly become a favorite. A no today is just today's answer. Keep a short note of what you offered, so a long run of refusals feels like progress rather than failure. If you're worried about how your child is eating or growing, ask your pediatrician.
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References
Related terms
Miriel uses this concept across food scans, meal plans, and AI Coach responses where it is relevant to a child's profile. For the underlying clinical and scientific basis, see the research page.