Flavor Programming and Childhood Food Preferences

Programming of flavor preferences and aversions occurs in childhood through exposure to flavors and conditioning of response to particular flavors through associations with the various internal and external consequences of their consumption. A number of factors contribute to the development of flavor preferences. Certainly, there is an innate competent. Research indicates that sweet flavors are universally preferred by children, even shortly after birth. Further, a common preference for salty flavors tends to develop around 4 months of age. Genetics may also play a role. For instance, children of overweight parents have demonstrated decreased ability to detect sweetness compared to other children and thus may require sweetness in greater intensities amounts in order to be sated. However, environment and early experience play a significant role in the development of flavor preferences, which has an effect on food preferences later in life.

[Page 282]Research demonstrates that flavor learning begins during fetal development. Tastes, smells, and flavors from a mother's diet are transported to a child through amniotic fluid. Researchers have demonstrated that odors from certain foods and flavors in a mother's diet, such as garlic, are detectable to human smell in the amniotic fluid. Through this early exposure, a child habituates to the diet of the mother and learns what foods and flavors are safe and preferable. A connection between mother's diet throughout pregnancy and subsequent child preferences has been established. For instance, infants whose mothers drink carrot juice during pregnancy exhibit more acceptance and enjoyment of carrot-flavored cereal at 6 months. This suggests that mothers should be encouraged to eat a varied diet during pregnancy in order to expose the fetus to various flavors. This may lead to greater acceptance of a wide variety of foods as a child, which is important as greater dietary variety is often an indicator of satisfactory nutrient intake.

Early infancy, during breast- or bottle-feeding, appears to be another critical period for the development of flavor preference. Breastfed infants continue to be exposed to a variety of flavors from mother's diet through breast milk. Flavors transmitted through breast milk affect the infant's suckling patterns and appear to have an effect on food preferences in childhood. Researchers have demonstrated increased suckling in response to the flavor of garlic or vanilla in mother's breast milk. Further, flavors eaten by the mother during the breastfeeding period are typically preferred by the child when exposed to the same flavors in solid food.

Bottle-fed infants do appear to orient to flavors associated with their particular formula as well. For instance, those fed with bitter-tasting formula solutions are more accepting of bitter and sour flavors later in childhood. However, breast-fed infants are more accepting of a wide variety of foods later in life. This is presumably because they are exposed to a greater variety of flavors in breast milk, as opposed to bottle-fed infants, whose exposure is limited to the unique flavors of the formula they are fed. The belief that breast-feeding will expand the child's diet repertoire later in life, coupled with knowledge of the health benefits conferred by breastfeeding, leads many to argue for mothers to breastfeed their children.

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