Taste Development in Newborns

Newborn babies will already have a sense of taste. The organ of taste is formed very early during intrauterine life. Sweet, salty, sour, bitter ... the four basic tastes have no secrets for him. Some researchers believe that even at this age the child has his first taste preferences.

Located on the tongue and the back of the throat, the taste receptors are capable of distinguishing the basic tastes. From birth, the baby displays taste preferences that define the experience.

Intrauterine life

The gustatory and olfactory abilities of detection and discrimination of newborns were nearly equal to those of adults. The organ of taste (taste buds of the tongue) is formed very early during intrauterine life. From this age of life, the child prefers sweet taste. The more the amniotic fluid is sweet, the more the foetus drinks from it. If the mother has diabetes, the newborn risks growing more from excessive flow of blood sugar.

Infants

The infant, confronted experimentally by basic flavours (sweet, salty, sour and bitter) expresses his pleasure or anger by obvious expressions. Jacob Steiner, Israeli psychologist and physiologist, has conducted tests with thousands of newborns where he showed that the expressions of pleasure or repulsion accompanying different sensations were part of the genetic background.

TGV Tests

TGV Tests which he developed are practiced on babies being less than six hours, who have never taken a meal. The test starts by giving the baby a drop of boiling water, demineralised at room temperature. This helps to note the responses to olfactory stimulation. In the second test the baby is given a sugar solution. Here the baby then expresses his contentment by mimicry. In the third test lemon juice is given. The newborn reacts by pinching his lips. In the last and forth test a bitter quinine solution is used. The baby then glues his tongue against the palate leaving him with a sad facial expression.

Using aliphatic alcohols that differ between themselves by the number of carbon radicals and their degree of concentration, it was possible to reveal the same relationship in adults between variations of these factors and intensity of the newborn response.

Galactogene plants are plants that give a tasteful milk mother: cumin, fennel, anise, etc.. As milk has a good taste, the baby suckles more vigorously and we know that the suction causes the increase of milk. Many researchers agree that the subsequent infant tastes are related to the taste of milk from the mother, itself dependent on her eating habits.

Sources:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science