If you’ve offered cucumber again and again, only for it to sit untouched on your child’s plate, you might be wondering whether there’s any point offering it anymore. Maybe they just don’t like cucumber? Maybe you should stick to the foods you know they’ll eat?

Or perhaps you’ve heard the familiar advice to “just keep offering it.” But what does that actually mean? How many times do you have to offer a food before your child will try it, and does repeatedly putting broccoli on their plate really make a difference?

This is where repeated food exposure comes in. It’s one of the strategies we can use to help picky eaters become more familiar and comfortable with new foods, but it is about much more than repeatedly asking a child to take a bite.

In this blog, I’ll explain what repeated food exposure actually means, what the research tells us about how many exposures children might need, and what counts as an exposure. I’ll also share some simple ways you can use it at home without adding more pressure to your mealtimes.

What is repeated food exposure?

Repeated food exposure simply means giving your child regular opportunities to experience a food over time. The important word here is experience, because exposure doesn’t necessarily mean eating.

Your child can become familiar with food by seeing it on the table, watching you eat it, helping you buy or prepare it, touching it, smelling it and eventually tasting it. All of these experiences can help a food become less unfamiliar over time.

As parents, we naturally focus on eating because that’s the end result we want to see. But there can be lots of important learning before a child gets anywhere near taking a bite.

Research supports the use of repeated exposure too. A 2019 systematic review looked at 21 studies and found moderate evidence that tasting a fruit or vegetable once a day for 8 to 10 or more days can increase acceptance of that food in infants and toddlers aged 4 to 24 months.

The key thing to remember is that this doesn’t mean your child should eat a food after exactly 8 or 10 exposures. Some children will need fewer opportunities and others will need many more, particularly children who are naturally cautious around food or have sensory differences.

How many times do you have to try a food before you like it?

This is probably the question you’re really here for. You may have heard that children need to try a food 10 times before they’ll like it, while other advice says 15 or even 20 times. Unfortunately, there isn’t a magic number. The research tells us that repeated food exposure can increase food acceptance, but it doesn’t give us a countdown that works for every child.

Some children may accept something after only a few opportunities. Other children may need to experience that same food many times before they’re even comfortable touching it, never mind putting it in their mouth. So rather than keeping a tally and thinking, “Right, that’s broccoli exposure number eight,” I encourage parents to look at something much more useful:

Is my child becoming more comfortable with this food?

Perhaps the broccoli used to be pushed straight off the plate and now it can stay there. Maybe your child wouldn’t touch a strawberry before, but they’ll now help you chop one.

Those small changes matter. They’re signs that your child is learning, even if they aren’t eating the food yet.

Why does repeated food exposure help picky eaters?

Imagine someone puts a completely unfamiliar dish in front of you. You don’t recognise the smell, you’re not sure what the texture will feel like and you have no idea what will happen when you put it into your mouth. You might happily dive straight in, but you might also feel a little cautious.

Now imagine experiencing that same food several times. You see someone else eating it, smell it cooking, help prepare it and eventually touch or taste a small amount. It isn’t quite so unfamiliar anymore.

This is why repeated food exposure can be so helpful for picky eaters. Familiarity can help build confidence around food, and that confidence can make exploring it feel more manageable.

Children are also experiencing much more than flavour when they eat. They’re noticing the smell, colour, temperature and texture, whether it’s wet or dry, crunchy or soft, and even whether today’s version looks the same as the one they saw yesterday.

For a child with sensory sensitivities, those differences can be particularly important. So when your child refuses an unfamiliar food, it doesn’t always mean “I don’t like this.” Sometimes it simply means “I don’t feel comfortable with this yet.”

What actually counts as food exposure?

This is where I think parents can breathe a little easier, because repeated food exposure doesn’t only happen at the dinner table. There are lots of ways children can learn about food without having to eat it.

Imagine you’re working on strawberries. Your child might see them in the supermarket and help put the punnet into the trolley. At home they could wash them, pull off the leaves, cut one with a child-safe knife, smell it or squish one while you’re baking.

Another day, they might watch you eat a strawberry or be happy to have one sitting on their plate. Eventually they might touch it to their lips, lick it or take a tiny bite.

None of those earlier experiences were wasted because your child didn’t eat the strawberry. They’re all opportunities to build familiarity with food. If you want some sensory play ideas then these will all help build familiarity

Why repeated food exposure became so important to me

This was something I came to understand much more deeply through my own experience as a parent. Despite being a nutritionist and having years of experience supporting families, my own son struggled with food.

He refused many foods, showed real disgust around some foods and sometimes even ran away from the table. I remember thinking, “Why is this so difficult when I teach other parents about nutrition?”

One of the biggest shifts came when I stopped focusing solely on what he was eating and started thinking about what needed to happen before eating. While running toddler cookery classes, I noticed children were often much more willing to interact with foods when they could touch, smell, prepare and explore them without being expected to eat them.

I started doing more of that with my own son too. Once I understood his sensory preferences, particularly his preference for dry, crunchy foods, his reactions around food started to make much more sense.

Instead of asking, “How do I get him to eat this?” I started asking, “How can I help him feel comfortable enough to explore it?”

That change has shaped so much of how I support families today. Children need to feel safe and comfortable with foods before they can eat them, and sometimes there are lots of little steps involved in getting there.

Repeated food exposure is NOT the same as repeated pressure

This is a really important distinction. Putting broccoli on your child’s plate ten times while repeatedly asking them to take a bite isn’t the kind of repeated food exposure we’re aiming for.

Pressure can be surprisingly subtle. Saying “Just try one bite”, “You’ll like it if you try it” or “One bite and then you can have pudding” may feel like gentle encouragement to us, but for a child who is already unsure about the food, it can make eating feel even harder.

Repeated food exposure should give children opportunities to explore food without feeling that eating is expected of them. You provide the opportunity and your child decides what they feel comfortable doing with it.

So serve the food, eat your own meal and talk about your day. Taking some of the attention away from how much or what your child is eating can help make mealtimes feel calmer for everyone.

What does progress with repeated food exposure actually look like?

One of the biggest reasons parents give up on repeated food exposure is because they think it isn’t working. They’ve offered the carrot again and again and their child still hasn’t eaten it.

But let’s look a little closer. The first time you offered the carrot, perhaps your child wouldn’t allow it on their plate. The next time, they tolerated it at the edge of the plate, and a few exposures later they picked it up to move it.

Eventually they smell it. Another day they lick it, and a few weeks later they take a tiny bite before spitting it out.

It would be very easy to think, “We’ve been offering carrots for weeks and they STILL won’t eat them.” But your child has actually moved from being unable to tolerate the carrot on their plate to putting it inside their mouth. That’s progress.

Eating is learned, and just like learning to read, write, swim or ride a bike, there can be lots of little steps before the final skill feels easy.

What are good foods for picky eaters?

Another question parents often search for is “foods for picky eaters.” And I completely understand why. When your child is living on the same small rotation of familiar foods, a list of magical foods they’ll suddenly eat sounds very appealing.

Unfortunately, there isn’t one universal list of foods for picky eaters. What feels safe and predictable to one child might feel completely unacceptable to another.

Instead, look at the foods your child already enjoys and ask yourself what they have in common. If your child happily eats alot of beige foods such as crackers, toast, breadsticks, dry cereal and chicken nuggets, for example, you might notice that most of those foods are dry, crunchy or firm, mild in flavour and fairly predictable from one serving to the next.

That information can be really useful. Rather than jumping from a cracker straight to steamed broccoli, you can look for opportunities to explore foods with some similar characteristics and gradually build from there.

This doesn’t mean hiding vegetables inside their favourite foods or trying to trick them into eating something new. It’s simply about using what you already know about your child’s preferences to make repeated food exposure feel manageable.

5 realistic ways to use repeated food exposure at home

You don’t need complicated food activities or hours of extra time to start using repeated food exposure. Small opportunities during everyday family life can make a difference.

1. Keep portions tiny

A whole serving of an unfamiliar food can feel overwhelming. Instead, start with one pea, one small piece of carrot or a tiny spoonful of sauce.

Remember, the aim is to create an opportunity to explore, not to get your child to finish a portion. Starting small can also reduce food waste, which I know is another frustration when you’re regularly offering foods that don’t get eaten.

2. Involve them before mealtimes

Some of the best repeated food exposure can happen away from the dinner table. Your child could help choose vegetables at the supermarket, wash carrots, tear lettuce, smell herbs or stir ingredients while you’re cooking.

This takes away the immediate expectation to eat. They’re simply getting to know the food in a different and often much more relaxed environment.

3. Let them see you enjoy a variety of foods

Children learn so much by watching us. You don’t need to dramatically announce how delicious the broccoli is or ask whether they’d like to try yours every time you take a bite.

Simply let them see different foods being a normal part of family life. You might occasionally describe something naturally, such as “This apple is really crunchy today,” and then carry on with your meal.

4. Keep mealtimes relaxed

Children are generally more able to explore when they feel calm, so try to make mealtimes about more than what your child is eating. Talk about nursery, school, what you did that day or something funny that happened.

That doesn’t mean every family meal has to be wonderfully calm and connected. Real family life is messy, and some evenings are going to be chaotic.

Perfection isn’t the goal here. Creating regular opportunities for food to feel safe and familiar is far more important.

5. Notice curiosity, not just eating

Try not to make eating the only measure of success. Your child touching the mushroom, smelling the broccoli or helping you stir a sauce are all interactions with food.

You don’t need to make a huge fuss about these moments either. Simply recognising them yourself can help you see that progress is happening even when the amount eaten hasn’t changed.

Every positive food experience helps build familiarity over time.

What if you’ve offered a food 20 times and your child still won’t eat it?

First, don’t panic. Instead of focusing only on whether your child eats the food, look for changes in how comfortable they are around it.

Will they tolerate it nearby now? Can they touch or smell it? Will they help prepare it? Have they progressed to tasting it and perhaps spitting it out?

If you’re seeing movement, however small, your child may simply need more time. There isn’t a deadline for learning to like a food.

However, if there has been no progress at all or your child becomes very distressed around food, simply repeating the same exposure indefinitely may not be the answer. Some children have sensory, feeding or other difficulties that need a more individual approach.

It’s worth seeking professional support if you’re concerned about your child’s growth or nutritional intake, their range of accepted foods is becoming increasingly restricted, they struggle with chewing or swallowing, frequently gag or choke, or eating causes significant distress.

Repeated food exposure is a useful strategy, but it isn’t a substitute for understanding why a child is struggling to eat.

Should you keep offering a food your child refuses?

In many cases, yes, but without turning it into a battle. You can continue providing small, manageable opportunities for your child to experience the food while serving it alongside foods they already feel comfortable eating.

Remember that progress isn’t always linear either. Your child might eat strawberries one week and refuse them the next, or lick something several times and then suddenly decide they don’t want it near them.

That’s okay. Learning doesn’t always move neatly forwards, and one refusal doesn’t mean you’re back at the beginning.

The biggest thing I want you to remember about repeated food exposure

If there’s one take-home message from this blog, it’s this:

Children need to feel safe and comfortable with foods before they can eat them.

Repeated food exposure gives children opportunities to build that familiarity. Sometimes that means tasting, sometimes it means touching or smelling, and sometimes success is simply allowing that piece of cucumber to sit on the plate without immediately needing it removed.

So rather than counting bites or obsessively counting exposures, look for comfort, curiosity and progress. Keep offering opportunities, keep the pressure low and give your child time.

Frequently asked questions about repeated food exposure

How many times do you have to try a food before you like it?

There isn’t an exact number that applies to every child. A systematic review found moderate evidence that tasting a fruit or vegetable once a day for 8 to 10 or more days can increase acceptance in infants and toddlers aged 4 to 24 months, but this shouldn’t be interpreted as a guarantee that a child will like a food after ten tries.

Some children will need fewer exposures and others considerably more. Rather than counting, look for signs that your child is becoming more comfortable with the food.

What is repeated food exposure?

Repeated food exposure means giving your child multiple opportunities to experience a food over time. This might include seeing, touching, smelling, preparing and eventually tasting the food.

The aim isn’t to force your child to eat it. It’s to help an unfamiliar food gradually become more familiar.

Does looking at food count as exposure?

Yes. Seeing a food, having it nearby and interacting with it can all be part of becoming familiar and comfortable with food.

Research into food exposure also distinguishes between taste exposure and non-taste exposure. Tasting is an important part of learning to accept flavours, but meaningful food exploration can start long before a child is ready to take a bite.

What foods are best for picky eaters?

There isn’t one list of foods that every picky eater will accept. Instead, look at the tastes, textures, smells, colours and appearance of foods your child already feels comfortable eating.

Those preferences give you clues about where to start. You can then gradually offer opportunities to explore foods that share some familiar characteristics while working towards more variety.

Should I keep offering a food if my child doesn’t eat it?

Usually, you don’t need to remove a food forever simply because your child has refused it. Continue offering small amounts from time to time without pressure and alongside foods they already feel comfortable eating.

If the food consistently causes significant distress, however, or your child’s range of accepted foods is becoming increasingly restricted, seek professional advice rather than continuing to push exposure.

What if repeated food exposure isn’t working?

Look beyond eating first. Your child might be becoming more comfortable seeing, touching, smelling or preparing a food even though they’re not ready to eat it.

If there is no progress despite repeated opportunities, or your child experiences significant anxiety or distress around food, repeated food exposure alone may not address the reason they’re struggling. That’s when more individual support can be useful.

Want to make mealtimes feel a little easier?

If you’re reading this thinking, “This makes sense, but I still don’t know how to make our mealtimes less stressful,” I’ve created a free Drama Free Mealtimes Guide for parents to help. Inside you’ll find simple, realistic strategies you can start using at home to reduce pressure, encourage food exploration and make family mealtimes feel calmer.

Download the free Drama Free Mealtimes Guide

Because helping your child learn to eat isn’t about creating the perfect plate. It’s about giving them the time, confidence and support they need to explore food at their own pace.