How many times should you offer a new food? What the research on repeated exposure shows

Wardle, J., Cooke, L. J., Gibson, E. L., Sapochnik, M., Sheiham, A., & Lawson, M. (2003). Increasing children's acceptance of vegetables; a randomized trial of parent-led exposure. Appetite, 40(2), 155–162. doi:10.1016/S0195-6663(02)00135-6

Who was studied: 156 parents of children ages 2 to 6 in the UK. Each child had a "target" vegetable chosen at a first taste test.

Design: Randomized controlled trial at home, with three groups

What they found: Parents in the exposure group gave their child a taste of the target vegetable every day for 14 days. A second group got nutrition advice and a leaflet, and a third group got nothing more. At the follow-up taste test, the exposure group showed bigger increases in liking, ranking, and eating the vegetable than either other group, and it was the only group with significant increases on all three measures.

Wardle, J., Herrera, M.-L., Cooke, L., & Gibson, E. L. (2003). Modifying children's food preferences: The effects of exposure and reward on acceptance of an unfamiliar vegetable. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 57(2), 341–348. doi:10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601541

Who was studied: 49 children from three elementary (primary) schools in London.

Design: Randomized controlled trial over 2 weeks, with three groups

What they found: In eight daily sessions, children in the exposure group were offered a taste of sweet red pepper and told they could eat as much as they liked. Children in the reward group could pick a sticker if they ate at least one piece. Exposure increased both liking and eating compared with the control group. The reward group fell in between and did not differ significantly from either the exposure or the control group.

Caton, S. J., Ahern, S. M., Remy, E., Nicklaus, S., Blundell, P., & Hetherington, M. M. (2013). Repetition counts: Repeated exposure increases intake of a novel vegetable in UK pre-school children compared to flavour–flavour and flavour–nutrient learning. British Journal of Nutrition, 109(11), 2089–2097. doi:10.1017/S0007114512004126

Who was studied: 72 children ages 9 to 38 months from UK nurseries.

Design: Randomized trial comparing three versions of a new vegetable

What they found: Each child was offered artichoke purée ten times: plain, sweetened, or with added energy. Intake of artichoke rose in all three groups to the same extent, and the increase was still there up to 5 weeks later. Five exposures were enough to raise intake compared with the first one. Adding a sweet taste or extra calories did not add to the effect of repetition.

Spill, M. K., Johns, K., Callahan, E. H., Shapiro, M. J., Wong, Y. P., Benjamin-Neelon, S. E., Birch, L., Black, M. M., Cook, J. T., Faith, M. S., Mennella, J. A., & Casavale, K. O. (2019). Repeated exposure to food and food acceptability in infants and toddlers: A systematic review. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 109(Suppl. 7), 978S–989S. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqy308

Who was studied: 21 studies (19 controlled trials and 2 cohort studies) published from 1980 to 2015, in infants and toddlers ages 4 to 24 months.

Design: Systematic review carried out for the US federal nutrition evidence process

What they found: The review graded the evidence as moderate that tasting a vegetable or fruit, one food per day, for 8 to 10 or more days is likely to increase how readily infants and toddlers accept it. The effect is likely to carry over to other foods in the same category, but not to foods from a different category. Most of the studies used vegetables.

Birch, L. L., McPhee, L., Shoba, B. C., Pirok, E., & Steinberg, L. (1987). What kind of exposure reduces children's food neophobia? Looking vs. tasting. Appetite, 9(3), 171–178. doi:10.1016/S0195-6663(87)80011-9

Who was studied: 51 children ages 2 to 5.

Design: Experiment comparing looking at new fruits with tasting them, 5, 10, or 15 times

What they found: Children came to like the look of fruits they had seen more often, but only the fruits they had actually tasted became better liked for taste. Looking alone did not raise taste liking.

The core finding comes from randomized trials: children who were offered repeated tastes of a vegetable ate or liked it more than children who were not. But the trials are small (49 to 156 children), they test one food over a few weeks. The 2019 systematic review covers only infants and toddlers. None of these studies was designed to find the exact number of tries a child needs, which is one reason the advice to parents varies.

• They don't show that a set number of tries, whether 8, 10, 15, or 20, works for every child. The trials report group averages, not a number for each child.
• They don't show what happens over months or years at home. Most trials measured liking or intake within weeks.
• They don't show that repeated exposure makes a child like every food. The trials used one target food at a time, mostly vegetables.
• The infant review doesn't tell us how the numbers apply to 5- to 7-year-olds; the trials with older children are fewer and smaller.

Ask three trusted sources how many times you should offer a new food, and you may get three answers. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030, in their section on introducing food to infants and toddlers, say "it may take 8 to 10 exposures" before a young child is willing to try a new food. The American Academy of Pediatrics' parent site, HealthyChildren.org, gives several figures on different pages: a 2018 page on picky toddlers says it can take "as many as 10 or more times" tasting a food; a page updated in September 2026 says it "can take 13 or more exposures" to a new food; a 2024 "Ask the Pediatrician" answer says it "can take children 15-20 tries to like a new food"; and a 2016 page on 3-year-olds mentions "up to 15-20 repeated exposures." A 2019 review by Caroline Taylor and Pauline Emmett, summarizing advice for caregivers, mentions that 10 to 15 positive experiences may be needed.

These numbers may partly reflect different outcomes. The Dietary Guidelines speak of a child being "willing to try" a food, two AAP pages speak of a child coming to "like" it, and others speak of a child "accepting" it. The 8 to 10 figure also matches the conclusion of the 2019 systematic review of infants and toddlers, where 8 to 10 or more days of tasting made a food more acceptable. And the studies themselves counted differently: some measured how much children ate, others asked them to rate how much they liked it.

No study has tested 8 against 15 against 20 tries head to head. In one trial (Caton 2013), intake had already risen by the fifth exposure compared with the first taste. In the two Wardle trials, children tasted a vegetable 8 or 14 times. The practical reading is that the numbers are a reminder to keep going, not a deadline.

In the trials, an exposure meant a taste. In the larger Wardle study, parents offered a small taste of the target vegetable every day for two weeks. In the school study, children were offered a taste of red pepper and told they could eat as much as they liked. In the Caton study, toddlers recruited from nurseries were offered artichoke purée.

Seeing a food on the table, helping to wash it, or touching it may help a child get familiar with it, and many feeding guides suggest these steps for children who won't taste yet. But the trials above tested tasting, so they tell us most about that. The AAP's 2026 page counts more as an exposure: having the food on the plate, touching, smelling, licking, chewing and politely spitting it out, and eating it. An older study points the same way. In 1987, Leann Birch and colleagues showed or gave tastes of new fruits to 51 children ages 2 to 5, five, 10, or 15 times. The more often children had seen a fruit, the more they liked how it looked; but only the fruits they had actually tasted became better liked when it came to taste.

The sources also differ on spacing. The trials offered the food daily or almost daily. The AAP's page on picky toddlers suggests, to reduce waste, offering new foods in small amounts and waiting at least a week or two before offering the same food again. Both approaches involve repeated offers; the research doesn't tell us which spacing works better at home.

Many families use a rule such as "one bite" or offer a treat for eating vegetables. The Wardle school trial tested a simple version of this: a sticker for eating at least one piece of pepper. Children in the reward group ended up between the exposure group and the control group, and their results did not differ significantly from either.

The AAP's parent guidance goes further. It advises against bribing children with treats for eating other foods, because it can make the "prize" food more exciting and the new food a chore, and it warns that pressuring kids to eat, or punishing them if they don't, can make them dislike foods they might otherwise like. That advice is based on expert consensus and observational research rather than a single trial.

A gentle invitation to taste is different from pressure. In the school trial, children were told they could eat as much as they liked. No trial we found tested forcing a bite, so the research can't say whether a "one bite" rule helps or hurts; the AAP advises against pressure.

Most of the evidence comes from younger children. The systematic review covered only ages 4 to 24 months, and the Caton trial included children up to about 3. The larger Wardle trial included children ages 2 to 6, and the school trial included elementary-school-age children, so the approach has been tested beyond toddlerhood, but in fewer and smaller studies.

Older children bring other things to the table: firmer habits, more opinions, and more awareness of being watched. In a large Dutch study, mothers reported picky eating less often at age 6 than at age 3, though some children stayed choosy. Repeated, low-pressure tasting is one of the strategies that reviews of picky eating recommend, along with eating together and modeling the food yourself. For the bigger picture on choosy eating, see our review of picky eating research.

How many times does a child need to try a food before they like it?

There's no fixed number. US guidance ranges from 8 to 10 exposures (Dietary Guidelines) to 10 or more, 13 or more, and 15 to 20 tries on different AAP pages. In the trials, children tasted a food 8 to 14 times (10 in the Caton study), and on average liking or intake rose. Treat the numbers as a reason to keep offering, not a target.

How many times to offer new foods until acceptance?

The Dietary Guidelines say it may take 8 to 10 exposures before a young child is willing to try a new food, and AAP pages give higher numbers for coming to like or accept it. The trials used small, repeated tastes, offered daily or nearly daily. Treat any number as a reason to keep offering, not a deadline.

Should I make my child take one bite?

You can invite a taste, but no trial we found tested forcing one. In one school trial, children were told they could eat as much as they liked, and a sticker reward did not differ significantly from plain repeated tasting. The AAP advises against pressure, warning that it can make children dislike foods they might otherwise like.

How long should I wait before offering a food again?

Sources differ. The trials offered the same vegetable daily or nearly daily for one to two weeks. The AAP's page on picky toddlers suggests waiting at least a week or two before reintroducing a food, partly to reduce waste. Either way, the food comes back again; the research hasn't shown that one schedule works better.

"Not yet" is a phrase children practice in Not Yet (lesson 17): a mistake is practice, not a verdict. At the table it works the same way — "I don't like it yet" leaves the door open for the next small taste.

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• Picky Eater? What Helps a Child Who Eats Only a Few Foods
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• Food for Kids 4–8: Snacks, Lunches, Dinners, and Picky Eating
• Picky eating in children: what the research says about how common it is and how long it lasts