Researchers at Durham University took 4D ultrasounds of 100 pregnant women at 32 and 36 weeks, 20 minutes after consuming tablets filled with either carrot or cabbage powder. They found that fetuses whose mothers had taken the carrot tablets appeared to make “smiley faces” immediately afterwards. But scans of women who took the cabbage tablets showed their babies making “crying faces”. Comparing the two groups of women with others in a control group who had not consumed anything showed that exposure to a small amount of taste was enough to stimulate a response. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, is the first in the world to examine how babies react to taste and smell before they are born. It is believed that they can experience the taste of their mother’s food by inhaling or swallowing amniotic fluid in the womb. The results of the study could mean that mothers can influence their babies’ taste preferences before they are born, encouraging them to eat healthily and avoid ‘fuss with food’. Image: 4D scan of a fetus showing a neutral face (top) and the same fetus showing a cry response (bottom), after exposure to the taste of cabbage Postgraduate Beyza Ustun, who led the research, said: “Our study is the first to look at these reactions before birth. “It was really amazing to see the reaction of the unborn babies to the flavors of cabbage or carrot during the scans and to share those moments with their parents.” Read more from Sky News: Alien water found in meteorite New malaria vaccine could cut deaths by 70% Research co-author Professor Jackie Blissett, from Aston University, added: “It could be argued that repeated prenatal exposures to taste may lead to preferences for those tastes that are experienced postnatally. “In other words, exposing the fetus to less ‘liked’ tastes, such as cabbage, may mean that they are habituated to those tastes in the womb. “The next step is to examine whether fetuses show less ‘negative’ responses to these tastes over time, resulting in greater acceptance of these tastes when babies first taste them outside the womb.”
