How Do I Know the Baby Is Eating in the Womb
© 2009 – 2018 Gwen Dewar, Ph.D., all rights reserved
Opportunities for prenatal learning
A fetus begins swallowing amniotic fluid at effectually 12 weeks, and by 28 weeks, an unborn infant is developing a powerful sense of odour (de Vries et al 1985).
So might babies larn about odors and flavors before they are born?
The phenomenon has been documented in rodents and rabbits (Bilko et al 1994; Hepper 1988). And in that location's evidence for prenatl learning in humans as well.
For case, babies recognize the smell of their own amniotic fluids immediately after birth. Given the pick, newborns accept shown a preference for breasts that have been dabbed with fluids from their amniotic sac (Varendi et al 1996).
Simply babies lose their preference for the scent of amniotic fluid within a few days subsequently birth. What most long-term effects? Tin prenatal learning influence baby behavior weeks–even months–later birth?
The evidence suggests that information technology can. And that might mean that a mother's diet during pregnancy can shape the food preferences of her children — for expert or for ill.
In one experiment, Julie Mennella and her colleagues asked 46 pregnant women to follow ane of iii regimens:
- Potable carrot juice during the pregnancy, and stop afterward the babe is born
- Avoid acquit juice during the pregnancy, but begin drinking it subsequently the babe is born
- Avert carrot juice before and after the pregnancy
The "carrot juice only during pregnancy" conditionpermitted researchers to exam for the effects of flavored amniotic fluid.
The "carrot juice merely after pregnancy" conditionallowed researchers to exam for the effects of consuming breast milk that may carry the season of carrots.
More than than five months later the babies were born–when the babies were just starting to eat cereal, their offset solid foods–the researchers tested the infants' flavor preferences. They gave the babies ii kinds of cereal, evidently and carrot-flavored. Would the babies exposed to carrotsin utero prefer carrot-flavored cereal? They seemed to.
Compared with their reactions to plain cereal, the prenatally-exposed babies made fewer negative facial expressions while they ate carrot-flavored cereal(Mennella et al 2006).
The results were similar for the babies who had been exposed to opens in a new windowcarrot-flavored breast milk. But there was no effect observed for babies whose mothers had never drank carrot juice.
So it seems that prenatal learning virtually food could help babies develop healthful dietary preferences: Make babies familiar with lots of fruits and vegetables during gestation, and they'll more positively inclined to try these foods when they begin eating solids.
It won't, by itself, ensure that your child volition grow upwards eating high-quality foods (Ashman et al 2016). But information technology may give children a good head start.
What almost bad influences? Could babies develop a liking for booze, or for sugary, high-fat foods?
Experiments on rodents confirm there is a dark side to prenatal learning well-nigh nutrient.
For example, studies show that rodents exposed to alcoholin uteroare more attracted to alcohol-tainted water after they are born. In fact, newborn rats show as much attraction to the odor of alcohol as they exercise to the smell of their own amniotic fluid (Abate et al 2008).
For obvious reasons, no one has ever washed a comparable experiment on humans. But researchers take tested the reactions of infants to the odors of alcohol, and discovered a disturbing issue:
The more than ofttimes a mother drinks alcohol during her pregnancy, the more pleasure her newborn babe volition show in response to the odor of booze (Fass 2001; Faas et al 2015).
Moreover, epidemiological studies accept found a link between fetal alcohol exposure and alcoholism later in life–even when researchers controlled for genetics and postnatal environmental factors (see Abate et al 2008 for a review).
Then in addition to the dangers that booze poses for fetal health and brain development, it appears that prenatal alcohol exposure might requite babies a taste for alcohol.
What well-nigh "junk" food, the term that we sometimes give to foods that are high in fat or sugar?
Research on rats suggests that a pregnancy diet of high-fat, loftier-sugar foods (including potato chips and jelly doughnuts) might affect the nutrient preferences of babies (Bayol et al 2007).
And other studies accept constitute that feeding significant rats high-fat, high-sugar "junk" food — like cookies, cheese puffs, sweetened breakfast cereals, and processed meats — contradistinct the advantage organisation of their offsprings' brains.
Compared to rat pups whose mothers ate a standard, healthful nutrition, the "junk food" pups adult opioid-signalling (reward) pathways that were less sensitive to junk food triggers. As a result, these pups would have to eat more sugary, loftier-fat food to get the same "rush" of dopamine that makes eating such food and so pleasurable (Ong and Muhlhausler 2011; Gugusheff et al 2013).
Only in these studies, rat mothers ate their "junk" nutrient every twenty-four hours throughout their pregnancies.
It should also exist noted that the carrot juice study involved the daily consumption of carrot juice.
If the women had drunk carrot juice simply 2-3 times a month, would their babies have responded the same manner?
We just don't know. Merely I suspect that significant women eating otherwise healthful diets don't accept to worry that the occasional jelly doughnut will program their babies to love deep-fried food. Frequency and dosage matter.
More reading
What else do babies learn in the womb?
Studies reveal that newborn babies can distinguish their mothers' voices from those of other women. And experiments have shown that babies are also born with a preference for certain spoken language rhythms–those matching the language of their mothers. So it seems that fetuses are listening to their mother'due south voices before they are born.
Y'all tin read more nearly opens in a new windowthese clues to prenatal learning in my article "The social world of the newborn."
If you're interested in what newborns perceive around them, run across this guide to their senses of sight, touch, gustatory modality, and scent.
And more for information about what shapes baby's feeding preferences, see my article near opens in a new windowflavors in breast milk and formula too as this article about opens in a new windowgetting babies to eat new foods.
References: Prenatal learning about nutrient
Abate P, Pueta Yard, Spear NE, and Molina JC. 2008. Fetal learning nearly ethanol and later ethanol responsiveness: testify against "safe" amounts of prenatal exposure. Exp Biol Med (Maywood). 233(2):139-54.
Ashman AM, Collins CE, Hure AJ, Jensen M, Oldmeadow C. 2016. Maternal diet during early on childhood, but non pregnancy, predicts diet quality and fruit and vegetable acceptance in offspring. Matern Kid Nutr. 12(three):579-xc.
Bayol SA, Farrington SJ, and Stickland NC. 2007. A maternal 'junk food' diet in pregnancy and lactation promotes an exacerbated taste for 'junk nutrient' and a greater propensity for obesity in rat offspring. Br J Nutr. 98(4):843-51.
Bilko A, Altbacker Five, and Hudson R. 1994. Transmission of food preference in the rabbit: The means of information transfer. Physiology and Behaviour 56: 907-912.
de Vries JIP, Visser GHA, and Prectl IIFR. 1985. The emergence of fetal behaviour II. Quantitative aspects. Early Homo Devel 12:99-120.
Faas AE, March SM, Moya PR, Molina JC. 2015. Alcohol odor elicits appetitive facial expressions in human being neonates prenatally exposed to the drug. Physiol Behav. 148:78-86.
Faas AE, Resino CF, Moya PR. 2013. Neonatal responsiveness to the odor of amniotic fluid. Arch Silver Pediatr. 111(2):105-9.
Faas AE, Spontón ED, Moya PR, Molina JC. 2000. Differential responsiveness to alcohol odor in homo neonates: effects of maternal consumption during gestation. Alcohol. 22(1):7-17
Gugusheff JR, Ong ZY, and Muhlhausler BS. 2013. opens in a new windowA maternal "junk-nutrient" nutrition reduces sensitivity to the opioid antagonist naloxone in offspring postweaning. FASEB J.27(3):1275-84.
Hepper PG. 1988. Adaptive fetal learning: prenatal exposure to garlic affects postnatal preference. Animal Behav 36:935-six
Mennella JA, Jagnow CP, Beauchamp GK. 2001. Prenatal and Postnatal Flavor Learning past Human Infants. Pediatrics. 107(6):E88.
Ong ZY and Muhlhausler BS. 2011. Maternal "junk-food" feeding of rat dams alters nutrient choices and evolution of the mesolimbic reward pathway in the offspring. FASEB J. 25(7):2167-79
Varendi H, Porter RH, Winberg J. 1996. Attractiveness of amniotic fluid scent: prove of prenatal olfactory learning? Acta Paediatr. 85(10):1223-7.
Content of "Prenatal learning" terminal modified four/2018
prototype of baby eating solids past opens in a new windowYoshihide Nomura/flickr
Source: https://parentingscience.com/prenatal-learning-about-food/
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