Effects of familiarization on odor hedonic responses and food choices in children with autism spectrum disorders.

Luisier et al. (2019) asked a simple question: can we make kids with autism like a new food just by letting them smell it many times?

They worked with children with autism for five weeks. Each child smelled the same neutral food odor over and over.

Later the kids could pick snacks. The team counted how many chose the food that carried the now-familiar smell.

Sixty-eight percent of the children picked the food with the familiar smell. That means more than two out of every three kids now liked, or at least tolerated, the new food.

The smell alone, without any bites or rewards, shifted their choice.

Hrdlicka et al. (2011) and Doi et al. (2020) showed that kids with autism often rate food odors lower and show less smell awareness than peers. Anne-Claude’s team built on those findings by testing whether extra smell exposure could close that gap.

Legiša et al. (2013) found that autistic kids feel and show emotion to smells the same way peers do, but they struggle to name those feelings. The new study sidesteps the naming problem by simply letting the child choose a snack, a non-verbal outcome.

Penrod et al. (2012) and Meier et al. (2012) used high-probability bite sequences to expand food intake. Anne-Claude offers an even simpler antecedent: just smell, no bite required.

If you serve a picky client who gags at new foods, start with the smell alone. Put the new item in a small cup with a lid that has a tiny hole. Let the child sniff it for two seconds before every session for a month. Track if the child later picks that food from a choice array. You may get two-thirds of the way to acceptance without any stress or escape extinction.