Developing baby’s taste
This week, your baby is just about ready to be born. All his senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste — are activated. The development of taste and smell starts in utero. Unborn babies swallow amniotic fluid, which is flavored by what you eat. Some tastes become familiar even before birth and influence the formation of food preferences in childhood [1], and possibly throughout life [2].
The most memorable flavors are alcohol, as well as carrots, celery, anise, cumin, garlic, mint. To a somewhat lesser extent — broccoli and beets [1, 3]. If you eat aromatic vegetables now and continue after giving birth, the baby will react more favorably to them during breastfeeding as the taste and smell in your milk will be familiar to him.
Experiments have shown that this can help with the introduction of complementary foods after a few months. In one experiment, mothers who ate carrots and drank carrot juice in the last weeks of pregnancy and in the first month of breastfeeding, added carrot juice to cereals when introducing their babies to their first foods. The baby took well to the new dish [3].
There is a belief that aromatic additives such as spices in the mother's diet facilitate weaning [2]. If during pregnancy you often ate fragrant food such as garlic or curry, then adding garlic or curry to baby food subsequently helps your baby connect with the outside world. He understands that something stable and familiar is not only in his mother, but also outside her.
What will smell and taste like family for your baby?
