Sesame Street: Encouraging Children to try New Foods

Photo by Eli Pluma

Sesame Workshop offers a video to watch together with your child to encourage them to try new foods.

The video encourages children to try unfamiliar flavours, and parents to employ patience and persistence. “Children may not want to try new things the first time (or even the twentieth time!) but keep at it. It takes time. Encourage kids to try a small bite of new foods, and point out others’ choices (“Your older sister had to try okra thirteen times before she liked it, but look how much she likes it now!”).

The 30-second video runs with a punchy song, “Try It!”, that to sing along with and sing together when trying something new to eat.

Other related resource materials on the site include:

Let’s Eat Together: a video celebrating the joy of eating together and trying new things.

A Sesame Street episode “Elmo Runs the Race” together with ways to extend the learning at home.

Taste Test: A printable page to help “choosy eaters” try new foods.

Healthy Together: Whole-family activity pages exploring new ways to build healthy habits and take care of yourselves as a family.

Sun’s Up, Sun’s Down: A storybook about all the healthy habits that make up our daily routines.

“Our Family’s Pizza”. A worksheet helping Rosita’s family practice making healthy choices by picking out pizza toppings.

Super Tasters: A storybook where Sesame Street friends from around the world try new foods together.