New research indicates that mothers hoping to encourage their toddlers to eat more vegetables should consume these foods during the later stages of pregnancy.
This follows a study which found that newborns responded positively to the scents of kale or carrot if they had been exposed to them in the womb.
Led by Durham University, the research observed the facial expressions of 32 babies at 32 and 36 weeks, as well as three weeks after birth. These babies’ mothers had regularly taken either kale or carrot capsules.
Professor Nadja Reissland, an expert in foetal and neonatal research and lead author on this study, said: “Our analysis of the babies’ facial expressions suggests that they appear to react more favourably towards the smell of foods their mothers ate during the last months of pregnancy.
“Potentially this means we could encourage babies to react more positively towards green vegetables, for example, by exposing them to these foods during pregnancy.”
But, when and how do babies taste and sense flavours in the womb?
How do babies sense flavours in the womb?
The main way foetuses experience flavour is through amniotic fluid.
“In the womb the foetus is based in amniotic fluid,” explains Reissland. “Originating from their mother, it gets into the womb and there in the fluid you find the flavours of what the mother eats.
“In our study we gave mothers around 20 minutes before the scan either a capsule filled with carrot powder or a capsule filled with kale powder, reaching the foetus around 25 minutes later.”
How early on in pregnancy do foetuses develop these senses?
A foetus’ sense of flavour begins to develop quite early in pregnancy.
“We knew that when we recorded them at 32 and 36 weeks by then the ability to sense flavour had definitely been established, because it’s in the first trimester that the taste buds start to develop and function, around 12-14 weeks,” says Reissland. “This is much earlier than we exposed the foetuses to in our study because we wanted to make sure they would be developed enough to savour it.”
Foetuses are also very sensitive to smell very early on.
“Smell happens very early, and foetuses have a more developed smell sense than adults normally have,” says Reissland. “They can detect subtle differences in smell much more so than adults normally can.”
What type of diet is recommended for pregnant mothers?
“What the mother eats definitely has an impact on how the foetus develops. So, mothers should eat a healthy and varied diet,” advises Reissland. “One way of potentially getting babies to like greens is to give mothers some capsules of that, and it might have an effect on how after birth, babies react to it.
“We only tested on tiny babies so a follow up study would be important with older children.”
Laura Southern, nutritional therapist at London Gynaecology agrees that a balanced varied diet is key, and suggests eating more protein-rich foods.
“Protein-rich foods support blood sugar balance and also essential building blocks for the growing baby,” explains Southern. “Protein is essential in pregnancy because it’s used for growth and building.
“Pregnant women need to ensure they’re including protein at each meal – nuts, seeds, legumes, eggs, meat, fish, dairy and soya.”
How do other factors impact food preferences post-birth?
“There are so many influences, including the food culture, like whether they eat together as a family, for example,” says Reissland. “Also, whether the parents themselves have food-related problems plays a role and also how stressed and depressed the mother is.
“If the mother is in a completely stressed state and has to feed the child and the child doesn’t want to eat, it will be very difficult to get that food into the child’s mouth – which might lead to maternal increased stress during meal times and potentially leading to fussy eating.”
How can parents help broaden their baby’s palate?
“By giving them a wide variety of flavours after birth (e.g. through breastmilk when the mother herself eats a varied diet), but what we also found was that starting prenatally might help,” says Reissland. “Additionally, foetuses are learning about the food culture through their mother’s diet, so they are prepared for it after birth.
“This something we did not study, but we would like to look at in a future study.”
