Dad Vouches for ‘Sticker Hack’ That Works Wonders in Making His Toddler Eat Her Fruits and Veggies

It’s a universal truth that kids are attracted to cartoons but a father from Utah, Levi Jensen (@emilyxlevi) has found an innovative way to utilize his daughter’s love for cartoons. To get his 2-year-old daughter, Aria to munch on healthy vegetables he used the "sticker hack." In a video shared on Instagram, the father demonstrates how applying kid-friendly stickers encouraged his daughter to choose a healthy snack from a bowl of vegetables. In the initial seconds, Jensen attached stickers to a handful of fresh fruits and vegetables. He pasted a sticker of Winnie The Pooh on a yellow banana, a Bambi sticker on a pack of cherries, and Elsa and Anna from Frozen on a red bell pepper.

The father waited patiently as his toddler skimmed through her options. Intrigued by the red bell pepper with Elsa on it, his daughter picked up the vegetable and took a bite. Jensen attempted to create a comparison between parents and food marketers as the latter have benefitted from this trick for years. “Did you know that putting characters on food products drastically influences a child’s taste preferences and snack selection? (Cited from the Journal of Pediatrics),” the father wrote in the caption. He also pointed out that marketers have lured children towards processed foods using such hacks when they should really be used for healthier food options. “So why not use this to make healthier food options more attractive to our kids?” Jensen concluded.

The video has since gone viral and amassed over 11 million views. Several users were surprised by the hack and shared their insights under the post. “OMG! I'm dead. why have I never thought about this,” one fan @alyss.gomezz wrote while another @plants_by_people echoed Jensen’s trick. “Ha ha ha, I did it with my son with car stickers! This brought back my memories,” they shared. The fans were generally undivided on the potential of the sticker hack with most calling it a “smart” tactic to feed kids. Earlier this year, Aria’s mother, Emily Jensen detailed how her daughter had adapted to new vegetables, thanks to the trick. It is a "super easy and affordable way to make eating nutrient-dense foods more fun and exciting for kids,” Emily told TODAY. 

She recalled that a Little Mermaid sticker had changed her mind about eating cucumbers. “She likes them now. All it took was Ariel!” she quipped. Similarly, another mom went viral in 2020 after she explained how stickers had influenced her 3-year-old son to eat more vegetables. Jane Stine wrote in a Facebook post, “Bring your own stickers to the grocery store and start sticking. Today we’re having Winnie the Pooh brand spaghetti squash. It goes perfectly with Toy Story broccoli.” 

While the trick was impressive, researchers at the University of Ottawa offered scientific backing on the behavioral pattern in a 2023 study published in the National Library of Medicine. “We know that children are particularly vulnerable to the cute cartoon animals and superheroes that advertisers use to entice kids to pester their parents to buy food products,” Dr. Monique Potvin Kent, the lead author of the study, stated. She was not particularly impressed by the determined observations of the study, hinting that “it’s not good news” as marketers have been abusing the strategy for years now leading to unhealthy food habits amongst children. 

You can follow @emilyxlevi on Instagram for more interesting tips and recipes focused on family-centered health.