Teaching Children to Eat Healthy may Well Start from the Womb

This is a good tip for all those pregnant women to help their unborn children develop a preference for healthy food like vegetables and fruits. The good way to inculcate healthy eating may well start from the womb, researchers said as the type of food a woman consumes during her pregnancy, has an impact on the taste the child develops later on in life.

Many mothers struggle with getting their children to eat healthy green vegetables and the secret to this is to ensure that they eat well themselves, especially when they are pregnant.

"The good news is research shows that babies and their palates can learn very early on about good food, even before their first mouthful," said Julie Mennella, a developmental biologist at the Monell Chemical Senses Centre in Philadelphia.

"Even before a child eats their first mouthful of food, they are learning about flavor through the amniotic fluid in the womb, and later through their mother's milk. Regardless of whether a child is breast or bottle-fed, it can still learn as soon as it starts to wean. If they are repeatedly exposed to fruit and vegetables early on, then they soon begin to accept these foods. Eat a variety of healthy foods that you enjoy while pregnant and breastfeeding and once your child starts eating solid foods give them repeated opportunities to taste these foods so they can grow to learn to like its tastes," she added.



Source-Medindia