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- Kids like to be able to choose what they are going to eat
- It's easy to forget what kids like (especially when dealing with multiple kids)
Choosey Susie
Choosey Susie is a 9-year-old who goes to an elementary school in upstate New York. Her family eats together every night, but she doesn’t always like what they have for dinner. When she was younger, she used to make faces and refuse to eat certain things (and sometimes still does). Sometimes instead of complaining she makes her own food to eat, like peanut butter sandwiches. Susie is quick to judge certain foods. For instance, if she hears that anything is made of squash, she will refuse to eat it even if it tastes completely different from the foods she is used to. Susie is also very competitive, so when her two older brothers dare her, she will be more willing to try new things (although this doesn’t always work). She has certain foods that she eats all the time, and admits that she is not very adventurous.
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- Some kids are receptive to incentives/competitions for trying new foods
- Kids like to have some control over what they are eating
- Kids can get into ruts and may not know what other foods are out there
- Kids judge food for reasons other than taste, such as texture, the name, their preconceived notions, and how it looks
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- Need some way of keeping track of what their kids like/don't like
- Want to be able to tailor meals to multiple kids if necessary
- Would like some way of getting their kids to try new foods
- Want to eat some new foods themselves instead of having to make the same things all the time
- Want some help in finding new meals that fit what their kids like
- Want to give their kids some control over what they are going to eat, so they will be more likely to eat it
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- Want to have control over what they eat
- Don't want to be forced into trying anything
- If they don't like something, they don't want to eat it again
- Wish their parents would stop making things they don't like
Summary
Our solution to this problem, which has yet to be defined, will probably end up focusing more on the parents than the children. This is partially because children who are picky eaters might remain picky eaters later in life, whereas this is really only a problem for parents of smaller children because at that age the children depend on their parents to provide. We talked to parents and found that once children grow over a certain age, their parents tended to let their kids be more independent. If we focus on a solution for the parents, we have a better-defined set of needs and also a more stable user population.