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Photo: FETAP Study / Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab / Durham University
Can children taste something in the womb?
Research from Durham University in the UK suggests that the taste buds of fetuses late in pregnancy are already developed enough to respond differently to different tastes.
The researchers took 4D ultrasound images of 100 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 40.
They were examined at 32 and 36 weeks' gestation and had recently taken capsules containing either cabbage or carrot powder.
About 20 minutes later, the ultrasound images showed that the unborn babies tended to grimace when they tasted cabbage and smiled when they tasted carrots.
Previous studies also suggest that babies can already smell and taste in the womb.
“However, these assumptions are based on examinations after birth.
Our study is the first to examine children's reactions directly in the womb," the researchers write on the university's website.
They continue to assume that the mother's diet influences the taste preferences of the children and could therefore also influence later healthy eating habits.
The sense of smell and taste are related.
It is thought that fetuses can taste from inhaling and swallowing amniotic fluid.
Study co-author Nadja Reissland said the current study may now provide important clues as to how unborn babies might distinguish different tastes and smells ingested by their mothers.
Another study author, Benoist Schaal, said: "If we look at the facial responses of the examined fetuses, we can assume that a number of chemical stimuli enter the environment of the fetus through the maternal diet." This could have important implications for understanding the development of our taste and smell receptors.
The results could also be important in relation to dietary recommendations for pregnant women.
The researchers now want to continue to monitor the children they have examined and also to examine them after they are born.
They want to find out whether the experience of different tastes in the womb has an effect on later taste formation.
The scientists suspect that there is a connection between the tastes that children experience in the womb and what they later perceive as tasty or not tasty.
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