Incredible!

It's the vegetable that makes babies smile in the womb

A study conducted on 100 pregnant women examined the culinary preference of babies - kale or carrots?

Here are the researchers' surprising and cute findings

Voila system!

health

09/22/2022

Thursday, September 22, 2022, 11:12 am Updated: 12:45 pm

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Baby clapping in the womb (You Tube)

Do you want your baby to smile in the womb?

New research shows that it's possible and totally up to you.

Researchers have found that babies in the womb react to what their mothers eat - contorting their faces when they smell and taste different greens like kale, but smiling at carrots.

In the study, the scientists uncovered evidence that babies react differently to different smells and tastes while in the womb by recording their facial expressions.

Researchers at Durham University took 4D ultrasound scans of a hundred pregnant women to investigate how unborn babies reacted after being exposed to flavors from foods eaten by their mothers.

Fetuses exposed to carrots showed more "laughing face" responses, while those exposed to kale showed more "crying face" responses.

The research, published in the journal Psychological Science, could advance the understanding of how human taste and smell receptors develop.

Experts also believe that what mothers eat during pregnancy may affect the taste preferences of babies after birth, and that this may have implications for healthy eating habits.

Crying face of a fetus exposed to kale (photo: official website, Fetal and Neonatal Research lab, Durham University)

During the study, mothers were scanned at 32 and 36 weeks of pregnancy to see fetal facial reactions to the flavors of kale and carrots, as part of the study.

They received a single capsule containing about 400 mg of carrot or 400 mg of powdered kale about 20 minutes before each scan and refrained from eating anything with flavor for an hour beforehand.

Facial responses seen in both groups showed that exposure to just a small amount of carrot or kale flavor was sufficient to elicit a response.

Can embryos taste?

It is commonly thought that fetuses experience taste by inhaling and swallowing amniotic fluid in the womb.

"A number of studies have suggested that babies can taste and smell in utero, but they are based on postnatal results whereas our study is the first to see these responses before birth," said the study leaders, "as a result, we think that this repeated exposure to flavors before birth can help establish preferences Food after birth, which can be important when thinking about healthy eating."

Laughing face of a fetus exposed to carrots (photo: official website, Fetal and Neonatal Research lab, Durham University)

"It was really amazing to see the reaction of unborn babies to the taste of kale or carrots during the scans and to share these moments with their parents," said Professor Nadja Raisland, who heads the Laboratory for Fetal and Neonatal Research, adding that: "This latest research may have implications are important for understanding the earliest evidence of the fetus's ability to sense and distinguish between different tastes and smells from the foods ingested by their mothers."

According to the researchers, "it can be argued that repeated exposures to flavors before birth may lead to preferences for those flavors experienced after birth."

In other words, exposing the fetus to less 'favorite' flavors, such as kale, may cause it to become accustomed to those flavors in the womb.

"The next step is to examine whether fetuses show less 'negative' reactions to these flavors over time, resulting in greater acceptance of these flavors when babies taste them for the first time outside the womb," they added.

• health

Tags

• babies

• baby food

• Passes

• Uterus

• Carrot

• Kyle

• The pregnancy