Thoughts on the "One Bite Rule" in Feeding Children

I'll admit it, in my 13-plus years as a mom so far, there have been many times when I've tried to force my children to "just try one bite" of a new or unfamiliar food. Most of those times were earlier on in my motherhood career and most were before I was familiar with the division of responsibility in feeding. It seems very logical that you cannot know whether or not you like something until you try it - so try it! I frequently see advice given in many parenting articles on the topic of children's eating which encourages parents to use "the one bite rule," which basically means, make your children have at least one bit of a food before you allow them to reject it.

I've learned, however, that you have to apply this rule with EXTREME CAUTION! Forcing your children to eat anything violates the division of responsibility. You're not allowing children to decide the whether or the how much of eating something if you impose a rule that they must have one bite. With my oldest daughter, who is also my pickiest eater, we have a history with some unpleasant power struggles of trying to get her to try new foods. No one ever won those battles. She has tried many more things when she has not been pressured and instead followed her own initiative. She is very strong-willed and also very sensitive to tastes, smells, and textures. When we added an authoritarian approach to feeding her and making her try new things, her reaction was to become more oppositional and to try fewer foods. With my other two daughters, however, suggesting that they try new foods has not been a huge issue. I can afford to be a bit more forceful in my suggestions to them because it doesn't appear to affect their eating behaviors. I'm also (usually) mindful to respect their rejection of my suggestions. My youngest will ask, "Do I have to try this?" with the comfort of knowing that my answer will be "No."

So before you follow someone else's advice and enforce a "one bite rule," I suggest that you really take a good look at your child and your own history with them around food. Do they have sensory issues which affect their experience of foods? Do they have oppositional temperaments? Have you already experienced multiple, intense battles with them over food? If so, you may be complicating an already complicated situation by making them put something in their mouths that they do not want there. I have looked, but not yet found, any empirical research specifically addressing the application of "the one bite rule," but I think the research will need to consider child personality and sensory perception as well as parenting practices to truly answer the question of whether making children try one bite influences their eating behaviors. I would expect there to be a variety of responses to this rule based on several parent and child variables.

The research does show that children are more likely to eat in emotionally positive environments. Also forcing a child to eat will decrease the likelihood that a child will like that food.* For now though, to make the experience of being together at the table enjoyable for everyone in the family and to make the process of learning how to eat joyful for your children, keep exposing them to new and different foods. The exposure may start out as merely seeing the food on the table, but over time, they will likely progress to putting it on their plates (but maybe not eating it) to eventually eating it (maybe!).

*Benton, D. (2004). Role of parents in the food preferences of
children and the development of obesity. Int'l J of Obesity, 28,
858-869.