Babies respond “more favorable” to food mothers eat, university at Durham – bbc.com

Babies “respond more favorably” to the smell of food that their mothers ate in late pregnancy, researchers suggest.

This is followed by a study led by the University of Durham, which found that newborn babies show a positive response to the smell of foods to which they were exposed in the womb.

Researchers have studied the expression on the face of three -week babies whose mothers regularly took either cabbage or carrots while they were pregnant.

Prof. Naja Reidland, a leading author, said: “Potentially, this means that we could encourage babies to react more to green vegetables more positively, for example, by exposing them to these foods during pregnancy.”

The study included 32 babies, mainly from the northeastern part of England, including Durham, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.

Researchers said babies that were exposed to carrot capsules consumed by their mothers were noted to respond favorably to the smell of carrots.

In the same way, those whose mothers have taken cabbage powder while pregnant responded positively to the aroma of this vegetable.

The research team found that from the fetus to the newborn period there was an increased incidence in the reactions of “laughing” and the decreased incidence in the “crying” reactions of the smell that babies experienced before birth.

Prof. Reisland said unborn babies have a very sensitive sense of smell.

The author of the ratio of research, Dr. Baisa Ustun-Elayan, added the findings that suggest that the process of developing food preferences begins “from the womb”.

“At the beginning of these scents, we may be able to form more healthy eating habits in children from the beginning,” she said.

The study, published in Appetite, also included scientists at Aston University and academics in France.