Question
Should kids get a reward, such as a dessert, for trying new foods?
Answer
Due to what I know and what I learned from Dr. Kay Toomey, it is more important learning about and expressing interest in new and different foods. We do not set it up to say, "If you eat this, then you can have this (i.e. sweet food)." We provide a "family-style" meal where everyone has a variety of foods on their plate and give them a chance to experiment and watch while others eat the different types of food.
When we do feeding evals and treatments with children, we eat what they eat. It can be playful, fun and messy and get on our hands and faces. For example, we can take a carrot. We chop it up very small with a chopper and have them touch and smell it. After exploration with this food, we can move to then move to a food with a different texture like a cracker or pudding and do the same things. It is ok to introduce sweet foods into their feeding experience, but I do not think it is recommended to treat this as a reward.
To completely answer the question, one would need to refer back to the highly-recommended feeding program literature.
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