Mothers Diets During Pregnancy Affect Eating Habits of Offspring

Women who eat a varied diet during pregnancy could be less likely to have a child who is a fussy eater.
These are the findings of a decade long French research study. Scientists have discovered that smells and tastes babies are exposed to within their first few weeks and months of life remain linked with the foods and scents we develop a liking for.
In certain cases, babies seem to get a taste for those foods their mothers eat in the womb.
As the brain is being formed during pregnancy, the womb is quite permeable.
In an experiment, Dr Schaal and his team gave specific women aniseed-flavoured sweets and biscuits which they then ate over the last few days of pregnancy, whilst other pregnant women ate their usual foods.
Once the babies whose mothers had eaten the aniseed flavoured sweets and biscuits were born, the scent of aniseed was wafted past their faces and they turned towards the smells and appeared smile according to the researchers.
The study did not continue to discover whether or not the babies liked the taste of aniseed.
Other experiments have demonstrated that babies do react positively to smells, ranging from carrots and garlic, if their mothers have sniffed them before giving birth.