App review: ABC Food

I've been dealing with a picky eater lately, so I'm on the lookout for tools to teach my toddler that food is fun and interesting. ABC Food for iPad and iPhone is one of the new apps I'm trying out.

The developers say the app is for children of all ages. It is visual enough for infants to enjoy the pictures—providing you allow your infant to play with your Apple device, that is. It is also packed with educational activities for toddlers and older children.

The app has food categorized by letter. When you touch a letter, you are presented with a few choices for foods that begin with that letter. When you choose a food, it is displayed full-screen with a beautiful high-res image. A child's voice clearly says the name of that food. "C... cheese!" (See the embedded video demo, below.)

On the page with the image of the food is also an activity. A cartoon of a little girl dressed as a chef asks your child to interact with the food. She may say something like, "Can you help me slice the strawberry?" or "Can you help me break open the garlic?" The tasks are not hard. You just wave your finger across the image and the task is accomplished. No cutlery required, thankfully!

The letters that spell out the name of the food are also interactive. When you touch another letter, you get a new choice of words that begin with that letter.

There are over 70 different types of food represented in this app. Some are accompanied by multiple images, and some have video animations of the foods with songs and rhymes. You need an Internet or mobile connection on your device if you want to play the videos, however, because they do not cache on your phone. They will be called up from YouTube when you want to play them, which allows the app to take up less space on your phone.

Peapod Labs makes a similar app called ABC Go, which features images and words of motion-related words like "tractor" and "kayak." The images are less beautiful, I gotta say and the activities not as fun. And it's not that my son lacks interest in motor vehicles! But it's food I want him to learn to appreciate. For that reason alone, I was more than willing to fork out $1.99 for ABC Food.

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—Natali Morris