Can My Baby Taste Before She’s Born?
Image: Shutterstock
Pregnancy plays an important role in your baby’s development in more ways than one can imagine. If you want your little one to have a varied food palate, we suggest that you work towards it while they are in the womb. Many parents struggle with feeding their babies after they are born. Asking your little ones to eat their veggies seems like a never-ending battle for every mom. But what if you could influence your baby’s food preferences way early, say when you are pregnant? We bet you never thought that the tastes and flavors you crave during pregnancy will be affecting your baby as well.
Research has shown that mothers play a vital role in shaping their baby’s food preferences. It’s a known fact that the food you eat during pregnancy nourishes your baby but it plays a far more important role once they are born (1).
At 21 weeks of gestation, the baby weighs as much as a can and by then, their sense of taste has developed. A developing baby in the womb swallows several ounces of amniotic fluid every day. This fluid includes tastes and flavors of foods and drinks that the expectant mother has consumed in the last few hours.
According to Julie Mennella who studies at the Monell Chemical Senses Center, flavors of carrot, garlic, mint, anise, and vanilla were found to be transmitted to the mother’s milk as well as the amniotic fluid. Julie says that she is yet to find a taste that hasn’t been transmitted to the mother’s uterus.
How The Scent Of Amniotic Fluid Varies Among Mothers
To determine the transmission of flavors from the mother to their amniotic fluid, a group of women was given sugar capsules or garlic capsules. Researchers then took a sample of their amniotic fluid and presented it in front of a panel of people. They were asked to smell the samples to figure out what these women ate. The panel was easily able to identify the samples of women who ate garlic from its strong scent (2).
The idea originated from dairy farmers who in the early 1960s and ‘70s conducted experiments on how the cow’s diet influenced the flavor of milk. Cows that grazed on wild onion and garlic had a distinct flavor in their milk compared to the rest.
Julie says that just like cows, the breast milk and amniotic fluid is flavored by a mother’s diet. But what’s more interesting is that babies form memories of these flavors while in the womb. This results in their preferences for certain foods and odors after birth and could last a lifetime. In simpler terms, if you want your baby to eat spinach or carrots, it’s best that you consume these foods while pregnant so that your baby has a far greater chance of liking it.
Introducing Flavors Before Birth
To test this theory, three groups of women followed different diets to see the impact it has on their babies. The first group of pregnant women was asked to consume carrot juice daily while pregnant. The second group of women was asked to drink it while they were breastfeeding, and the third group of women avoided consuming carrots both during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Then when their babies transitioned to a more solid diet, each group of babies was given cereal made with carrot juice or water (3).
It was found that babies who had previous exposure to carrots either via mother’s milk or amniotic fluid ate more of carrot flavored cereal and were less fussy about it when compared to the other group of babies.
When we think about it, it is probably nature’s way of introducing different food cultures to babies while they are still in the womb. This explains how an Indian baby’s palate will be more suited to Indian flavors and tastes whereas a Chinese baby will be more accepting of Chinese foods and flavors once they are born.
Community Experiences
Join the conversation and become a part of our vibrant community! Share your stories, experiences, and insights to connect with like-minded individuals.
