The Good Tastes Study: Young Children's Food Acceptance Patterns

During a single visit, four versions of a kale puree will be made with 1) no added sugar or sodium; 2) 1.2% added sugar; 3) 1.8% added sugar; and 4) 0.2% added sodium to mask bitterness. First, a familiar food will be offered to provide baseline data. Then each of the four versions of the novel kale puree will be offered to the infant by their caregiver, and the order the kale versions are presented will be randomized. The salt version will always be offered last to control for the effects of a very different taste exposure (salt vs. sweet) and to try to avoid any significant carryover effects of salt taste on sweet perception. Feeding interactions will be video recorded for behavioral coding of infant responses to each bite. Additionally, infant and caregiver heart rate and skin conductance will be monitored to assess physiological responses in each participant throughout the feeding interaction. Several measures will be observed in order to test predictors of infant food acceptance, caregiver perceptions of infants' responses, and physiological responses in infants and caregivers. These include: * Demographic measures * Observed caregiver height and weight * Observed infant length and weight * Child developmental stage using Ages and Stages screening tool * Caregiver neophobia * Caregiver preferences for and intake of fruits and vegetables * Infant feeding history and food experience * Eating behaviors using the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire for Toddlers * Infant behavior using the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised (Garstein \& Rothbart 2003 Infant Behav Dev) * Caregiver feeding persistence