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Toddler Tastes Study

NCT06877468 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 41

Last updated 2026-01-05

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The goal of this study is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of two food preference learning approaches for toddlers that could serve as alternatives to mere repeated exposure to new or previously disliked foods. The target population is toddlers who score higher on food fussiness.

The study is a two-group randomized controlled trial. Families will be randomized to 1 of 2 study groups: associative conditioning, or the child tasting vegetables alongside a palatable dip, or modeling, in which the child and parent taste vegetables together. Both groups will attend two laboratory visits, one before and one after a 4-week exposure period, and will be asked to complete 8 vegetable tastings in accordance with their assigned condition across the 4 intervention weeks.

Key questions to be addressed are:

* summarizing the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention strategies
* assessing whether children's liking and intake of the target food increase from baseline to post-intervention

Conditions

  • Dietary Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Associative conditioning

Child is offered a vegetable to taste with a palatable dip, over 8 occasions. Vegetable is served at home by parent/caregiver following standard script.

BEHAVIORAL

Modeling

Child is offered a vegetable to taste while their parent/caregiver also tastes it and models enjoying it, over 8 occasions. Vegetable is served at home with parent/caregiver following standard scripting.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS)

    collaborator NIH

  • State University of New York at Buffalo

    lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Months
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2025-03-19
Primary Completion
2025-07-29
Completion
2025-07-29

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06877468 on ClinicalTrials.gov