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Here are some strategies you can use to introduce news foods to your child

• Repeated exposures
  Research shows that the best strategy to overcome these food neophobia is exposure and repeated experiences. It may take up to 20 exposures, in a stress-free environment, for a child to accept a new food.
  
  Try serving food in different ways, either in the way it is cooked or presented, for e.g. raw carrot can be cut into sticks or cooked carrots into coins, to make it more fun to eat.
  
• Be a good role model
  Children are great imitators. If your child sees you eating a food, he is more likely to be interested and keen to try it. Children will need role-modelling and lots of encouragement from parents to try a new food.
  
• Avoid forcing your child by bribing or threatening
  Children may eat in order to get a reward or to escape punishment but that does not mean they like the food. In fact, they may end up disliking the food even more! Forcing children to eat may also start a lifelong habit of overeating.

However, if neophobia persists over time, it is important for parents to observe if the child has difficulties with the skills necessary for eating the new food and seek professional help. These skills include, but are not limited to, oro-motor skills for chewing and the sensory processing skills to accept the sensory experience that the new food provides.
Learn more about fussy eating (or food neophobia) in children.

Ref: N18