Research results reveal dinner time deadlock

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Feeding the Family

Published on Saturday, 25 March 2023 16:08

Last Updated on 27 March 2023

Monica Costa

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Nearly 8 in 10 parents struggle to get their child to eat healthily at dinner time and just 14% of parents manage to get 5 fruit or veg into their child’s diet daily, according to research commissioned by developers behind a brand-new game, Teach Your Monster:  Adventurous Eating.

Getting children into healthy eating habits can feel like a never-ending battle, with new research showing that two-thirds of parents end up arguing with their child over mealtimes an average of twice a week.  A quarter admitted that they had given up even trying to get their child to try new things, and almost half said they feel like they have wasted food.

While parents are desperate for their children to be more adventurous and eat a wide variety of meals, 83% said they ended up cooking the same meals for them over and over.

Dreams of their children enjoying cottage pie, curries, soups or even a Sunday Roast have gone out of the window, with many reporting that their child would turn their nose up at anything new – causing 50% of parents to feel embarrassed by their child’s diet.   

Mealtime anxiety was something experienced by most of the parents polled with 67% saying they often had arguments with their kids, 57% negotiating over how much of something they will eat, and 18% of parents saying they often felt upset that their child wouldn’t even try the meal they had cooked for them.

To help directly tackle the challenges around fussy eating, not-for-profit educational games organisation, Teach Your Monster:  Adventurous has released a new game to encourage 3 to 6 year olds to try new fruit and vegetables in a fun, tactile and engaging way.

Combining top-quality game design and essential learning, Teach Your Monster: Adventurous Eating is a fun-packed game for children that makes trying a rainbow of fruit and vegetables a little less scary and a lot more exciting.  Children create their own monster in the game, and guided by Bub and friends; they embark on a journey to explore different foods using all five of their senses; touch, smell, hearing, sight and taste.  The game features more than 40 fruit and vegetables from various cultures, including many everyday staples such as apples, potatoes, and peas.

Teach Your Monster: Adventurous Eating is available to download for iOS devices via the Apple App Store, Android devices via Google Play and Kindle devices via Amazon for £2.49. Children can also play for free via any compatible web browser at www.teachyourmonster.org/adventurous-eating

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