Child food neophobia - a rejection or avoidance of novel foods by children can affect the quality of children's diets and lead to serious eating disorders. Scientist began to search for effective ways to reduce such symptoms. These interventions were linked to the development of sensory perception, mainly by referring to the senses of sight, taste, and touch. However, little is known about the effect of olfactory training on reducing this echildhood problem.
The present study investigated whether and how child food neophobia can be reduced by olfactory training. The study involved 326 children aged 4-9 years (M=6.15, SD=1.31; 52% girls). Children first took part in an assessment of their level of child food neophobia , olfactory identification skills , and interest in and use of odors. Subsequently, 130 children from the experimental group participated in a standard 12-week olfactory training (Hummel et al., 2009).
After the training period, we observed some increase in odor identification scores in the experimental group (F(1,289)=3.85; p=.051), but food neophobia did not change as a result of olfactory training (p>.05). These results suggest that although food neophobia can be reduced through some sensory channels, olfactory training alone does not appear to be that effective.