(ANN/THE STAR) – Mothers who want their toddlers to eat their greens should consume these food items during the late stages of pregnancy, researchers have said.
It comes from a study indicating that newborns exhibited a favourable reaction to the smell of foods they encountered in the womb.
The research, led by Durham University in Britain, studied the facial expressions of three-week-old babies whose mothers had regularly taken either kale or carrot powder.
Infants who were exposed to carrot capsules consumed by their mothers demonstrated a positive reaction to the scent of carrot. Similarly, those who consumed kale powder capsules during pregnancy responded positively to that vegetable’s scent.
Developmental psychologist Professor Dr Nadja Reissland, an expert in foetal and neonatal research whose study of the effect of smoking on unborn babies hit the headlines in 2015, was a lead author on this study.
She 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.”
She mentioned that there was a tendency for weaning infants to be given sweeter foods, like mashed carrot, pears or bananas, but infants exposed to more bitter greens might acquire a preference for healthy, more bitter greens if the mother consumed them during pregnancy.
Prof Reissland said: “If the mother eats the bitter, healthy greens, that might get their children to like and accept them later.”
Unborn babies have a very sensitive sense of smell, she added.
This research involving 32 infants from the north-east of England built on a 2022 study where 4D ultrasound scans displayed foetuses smiling after their mothers consumed carrots and grimacing upon exposure to kale.
For the latest study, the infants were provided swabs of either carrot or kale to smell, but nothing was put in their mouths since they were too young for taste exposure.
Scientists then analysed the video to observe the infants’ reactions and compared these reactions with those noted prior to birth to understand the impact of repeated flavour exposure in the last trimester of pregnancy.
The research team discovered that from the foetal to newborn period, there was a heightened occurrence of “laughter-face” reactions and a reduced occurrence of “cry-face” responses to the smell the infants had encountered before birth.
Study co-lead author Dr Beyza Ustun-Elayan said: “Our research showed that foetuses can not only sense and distinguish different flavours in the womb, but also start learning and establish memory for certain flavours if exposed to them repeatedly. This shows that the process of developing food preferences begins much earlier than we thought – right from the womb. By introducing these flavours early on, we might be able to shape healthier eating habits in children from the start.”
