Getting children to eat their vegetables starts in the womb, researchers suggest

A toddler exposed in the womb to kale and an infant to carrot. Both react happily (top) to the smell of the vegetable given pre-birth but (below) with disgust to the vegetable they had not been exposed to. Composite: Durham University

It is an age-old battle with small children that most parents will recognise: please, please, eat your vegetables.

Some will read them books with titles such as The Boy Who Loved Broccoli. Others have been known to smother veg in tomato ketchup, or mix avocado and fruit with Greek yoghurt and call it icecream. Or resort to plain bribery.