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Parents want children not to be picky eaters, and like adults, they eat everything.
Children also don’t understand why parents like broccoli, bitter gourd, bitter wild vegetables, and other strange foods.
The “generation gap” of food between parents and children is determined by the taste system.
Baby’s sense of taste, combined with their own natural curiosity, can help them explore a vast world.
This article will tell you about the evolution of our sense of food and taste.
Baby’s taste development
Baby’s sense of taste begins to develop in the womb, and by week 9 of pregnancy, their mouth, tongue and first tiny taste buds are formed.
The amniotic fluid in the womb surrounds your baby, and they swallow this fluid naturally, which helps their lungs and digestive system develop.
The food that pregnant mother eats, and the taste of what she drinks, passes through the blood into the amniotic fluid; when the baby swallows the amniotic fluid, they experience each flavors.
Babies can smell them too, so whether you’re eating sweet, salty or spicy, your baby will taste it with you.
After birth, babies have very sensitive taste buds that recognize sweet and sour tastes, but prefer sweet, which is one reason they like the taste of breast milk .
The senses of taste and smell are linked, and babies are born with a developed sense of smell, they can smell milk and breastmilk, and even their own mother’s. The difference between breast milk and the breast milk of someone else’s mother.
Baby’s sense of taste is well developed at birth, but as babies grow, their responses to different tastes change.
→Newborn to 3 months, sensitive period of taste buds
At this stage, a baby’s sense of taste is very sensitive and, in fact, as a baby, their taste buds are distributed in their mouths more than an adult’s. wider.
A newborn’s taste buds can be found in common places like the tonsils and tongue.
In the first trimester, your baby can distinguish between sweet and bitter, and they prefer sweet items, such as breast milk the taste of.
These taste bud differences also make children highly sensitive to bitterness, and while this may make children reluctant to eat vegetables, it also has a important role.
Our bitter taste receptors, which help us detect toxic compounds, and the more sensitive a child is to bitter taste, the less likely they are to eat something that could poison them.
Essentially, a child’s taste buds are a useful safety mechanism.
→3 to 6 months, exploring the food period
By 3 months, your baby’s tongue has grown, and you may notice that they’re putting things in their mouths, such as toys or blankets, indicating they’re Use your tongue to try to understand different textures and flavors.
Don’t dissuade your baby from putting things in their mouths, as long as they are safe, this is a great learning opportunity.
However, make sure to baby protection at home to avoid suffocation and poison.
→6 to 12 months, explore solid foods
When you start introducing solid foods after 6 months of only breast milk or formula, the new flavors will surprise your baby, there are hard foods like this, and the taste is really good Not bad?
Baby will be a little hesitant about new tastes and textures at first, and will try it out very carefully. If he doesn’t like it for the first time, you can let him eat more and try. Generally, it is recommended to try 8 New foods around the time.
By around 7 or 8 months, your baby will be able to try finger foods (foods that can be grasped or pinched with their hands).
This is a great opportunity for them to try new flavors by giving them a variety of soft fruits or vegetables to explore different textures.
→Started to be picky eaters, very close to mother
Babies tend to like the taste of foods they have been exposed to in the womb.
Also, they will immediately love the taste of some foods and dislike certain foods at the same time.
They will mimic adults’ reactions to food, so it’s best not to show food aversion in front of them, especially if you’re trying to encourage them to eat healthy when food.
The types of foods your baby likes as they grow up may also depend on breastfeeding.
Studies show that different food molecules in breast milk can positively affect your baby’s taste buds and make them more sensitive to eating different foods as they age. Food is more open.
Be careful of processed foods with salt and sugar during this time, young kidneys can’t handle too much salt, and sugar can lead to tooth decay.
If your baby is exposed to processed foods too early, they may start to like them more and become more picky eaters.
Suddenly one day, I want to eat everything
A baby’s mouth is used as a way to explore, learn and understand the world around you.
For babies, the mouth is more sensitive than the fingers, the entranceIt gives your baby a more convenient way to learn about different textures and flavors, both food and non-food.
That’s why babies pick up toys, books, and other items and like to put them right in their mouths.
It’s important to note that babies can and will put anything in their mouths, which means you need to be extremely vigilant when playing with your baby.
Do not expose your baby to anything sharp, dirty or otherwise dangerous.
You can help babies learn by providing age-appropriate toys in different textures and colors to explore with their mouths.
When babies are 12 to 18 months old, they use their mouths to explore and understand objects less often, eventually stopping.
Childhood begins to like whole foods
Children actually prefer whole foods to processed foods.
Rated them better for deliciousness, safety, and desirability.
New research finds that this food preference also exists in early and middle childhood.
Researchers from the Universities of Edinburgh and Yale studied 137 children between the ages of 6 and 10.
They were given 3 apples and told them that one was grown on the farm, one was made in the lab, and the other was grown on a tree in the lab.
Researchers found that children and adults preferred farm-grown apples to those grown in the lab.
In the second study, 85 children between the ages of 5 and 7, and 64 adults, were shown 4 different orange juices.
One described as farm fresh, one with no information about it, one with chemicals removed, and one with added chemicals.
Researchers found that the naturalness of the juice had a significant impact on participants’ choices.
Both studies show that both adults and children like whole foods
These findings suggest that natural foods are good, a belief that can be built at age 5 and younger,
Researchers say.
This time period is important, If you want to reduce your child’s consumption of processed foods, parents should lead by example by eating less processed foods and drinking less beverages.
Otherwise, the children at home may be kidnapped and troubled by processed food for the rest of their lives.
Key Thin Dragon Says
If a child prefers fruits and sweets to vegetables, it is normal. Fruits are sweeter and vegetables are bitterer. Children are naturally sensitive to bitterness, which is determined by genes.
Children’s sense of taste is far more developed than that of adults.
However, with the guidance of adults, you can gradually start to like natural foods, and gradually accept foods with a little peculiar smell, but you need to try slowly, don’t force them to eat blindly.
It’s normal to be picky eaters, but it’s not normal to not be picky eaters. Few children are born to like bitter gourd.
Only adults can accept food with a particularly bitter taste, and even enjoy it. In fact, bitterness is the taste of plants to protect themselves, and it is not recommended to eat more. Related reading→Eating too much bitter gourd may damage the liver and kidneys, these people should pay special attention to…
In special time periods, try to let children eat less processed foods and develop a good habit of loving natural foods.