Pregnancy diet affects baby's future palate?
Categories: Pregnancy & birth, Eating & nutrition, Development
When I was heavily pregnant last summer, I hobbled to the farmer's market by my house every Saturday morning. Once I got admonished by a particularly cantankerous farmer for trying to buy honey for my tea (which, it turns out, is probably nonsense) but mostly people quietly stared at me and my girth and parted swiftly out of my way before I crushed them like a giant wrecking ball.My mission was precise and determined: to buy as many crates of strawberries, raspberries, and cherries that I could carry on my built-in belly shelf. And then to go home and eat as many of them as possible. I couldn't stop. In the last month of my pregnancy I subsisted almost entirely on fresh raspberries. If I was feeling particularly daring, I'd sometimes add a little cream.
This weekend I enjoyed taking Nolan with me to the market, and it is so much more comfortable with him riding on my back instead of inside me. I still bought a lot of berries, but I scaled it down a little, and was interested to see what Nolan would think of these new delicacies.
Well I've never seen anything like it. Nolan has always liked to eat, but he stuffed as many strawberries and raspberries in his mouth as possible and then held out sticky red hands for more. His eyes were wide with excitement and he clapped like someone who had found the Holy Grail, finally, thank heaven and I thought: he is acting just l did last summer.
From the way Nolan devours berries, I wonder if my pregnant penchant for them somehow translated to him. What do you think? Do your babies love to eat what you craved in your pregnancy?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Eden 7-12-2006 @ 10:24AM
It's the only explanation I have for why my daughter eats all her broccoli in a restaurant while a cheeseburger gets cold & goes to waste ;)
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thordora 7-12-2006 @ 10:29AM
Same here with the berries. Vivian sat and ate an entire bowl the other day (with some stunning effects on her butt I might add.)
I think there's some truth to it....
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Emily 7-12-2006 @ 10:40AM
All I have to add is that berries are all I think about, all day, every day and I'm about six months along. Yesterday I suggested we plant some kind of berry bush in the backyard because this is getting to be kind of an expensive habit. ($2.99 for a half-pint of raspberries?!)
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Lea 7-12-2006 @ 10:40AM
I wish this were more true for us. When I was pregnant with Baby A, I wanted meat, peanut butter, and eggs, eggs, and more eggs. I had to force myself to eat fruit for the vitamins and fiber.
Now A (age 2) likes peanut butter, but she eats a little chicken maybe once a week, and she will go far out of her way to avoid eggs, or anything that's touched an egg. (She's not allergic...she eats eggs just fine in things like French toast.)
Can't really complain, though. She eats all kinds of fruit and vegetables, dairy, and good grains.
Kristin, I think you and I could singlehandedly refute the old wives' tale of craving fruit = baby girl, craving protein = baby boy!
- L
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Meredith 7-12-2006 @ 10:41AM
I ate sushi twice a week with my Vivienne. I was elated when she started asking for it as well!
If we go eat and I get sushi, she insists on eating at least 4 of my rolls. Patrons of our restaurant alwas comment on watching a 3 yr old eat eel and how they can't imagine it.
I think it is pretty cool.
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Lea 7-12-2006 @ 10:48AM
May I ask a quick off-topic question: When you give your two- or three-year-old sushi, do you give them the whole roll? Our daughter is interested, but I was too nervous to give her the whole roll (heck, sometimes one is too big for me), and when I cut it, of course, it was far less appealing.
- L
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Tracy 7-12-2006 @ 11:01AM
I had a HORRIBLE sweet tooth throughout my entire pregnancy. My son is now 10 months old, and much prefers his veggies to anything else. I have not oofered him any sweets, other than fruits, but I am crossing my fingers that he will not have my sweet tooth.
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Liz 7-12-2006 @ 11:11AM
my goodness I hope he doesnt want the Velveeta that I had to have while pregnant! I hope he goes for my other craving.. Apples.
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kyrie 7-12-2006 @ 11:15AM
yes! i ate nearly nothing but curry with my first pregnancy, and it is one of my 13 month old's favorite foods, even though it is crazy spicy!!!
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Kate 7-12-2006 @ 11:23AM
I ate an absurd amount of (sweet)peppers and onions when I was pregnant. My son (now 2 1/2) ADORES onions and has loved them since he first tried them at about 10 months - he's actually turned down ice cream in favor of "more onionies, please mommy."
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Caitlin 7-12-2006 @ 11:35AM
My standard meal when I was pregnant was homemade mac and cheese with ham. I've only made it a few times since Paul was born, but he won't go near it. I never really had any cravings when I was pregnant with him, though.
The texture or smell of most fruits just squicks me out, so the no sugar added fruit juice is about as close as I get to the real thing. However, Paul loves fruit and would rather have it over just about anything else. I have to really watch him when we go hiking and run across wild blackberries or strawberries or he'd eat those too.
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mckenna 7-12-2006 @ 11:38AM
I was a vegetarian for 10 years. But during pregnancy I craved meat so I decided to give in to it. My son is a total meat eater, and doesn't eat much veggies even though I ate lots of them too(I've loved them since I was a kid). I also had a sweet tooth during pregnancy, and he loves fruit. His cousin introduced him to punch and soda this last weekend (we don't keep any in the house). He loved it, of course, and squalled when I said enough. I don't know what it all means, but it's interesting.
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Sabrina 7-12-2006 @ 12:07PM
My mom swears by it. She says all she ate when she was pregnant with me is Mint Chocolate Chip Icecream and its most definitely my favorite flavor. The world is at peace when I'm eating it. :)
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K 7-12-2006 @ 12:11PM
I know my mom ate tons of hot stuff and cucumbers throughout her pregnancy with me. To this day, I refuse to eat cucumbers and have an extremely low tolerance for hot foods. So I guess it varies!
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Franni 7-12-2006 @ 12:31PM
During pregnancy, I could not STAND even the smell of vegetables. My daughter's diet is almost exclusively vegetables if I don't step in with some chicken.
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Sadie 7-12-2006 @ 1:01PM
As far as sushi, when we take our youngest 2 out (the older 3 kids won't touch it), we do give them an entire roll on their plate ~ and they demolish them. We don't even tell them it is proper etiquette to eat the roll in one bite, KWIM? They are 2y/o and 4 y/o. They'll take a pinch of rice, then the piece of seaweed, a chunk of meat, the little tiny spears of carrot, etc.
Now, as far as the kids eating what I craved during their pregnancies... Nope. None of them will touch liver or chili cheese fries, LOL.
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Nancy Toby 7-12-2006 @ 5:58PM
Um, do you mean palate or palette?
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Kristin 7-12-2006 @ 6:15PM
Sorry Nancy, I made a spelling error. I think you may have guessed which one I meant. I fixed it and apologize for the oversight!
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Nancy Toby 7-12-2006 @ 6:35PM
LOL, no problem - actually palette kind of makes sense when you're talking about an array of different choices!!!
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adymommy 7-13-2006 @ 9:11AM
When I was pregnant with my first child I couldn't even look at a green pepper without feeling sick, which was odd for me because I LOVE peppers. It has been 3 years and she hasn't touched a green pepper-can't even eat anything that had pepper in it or on it the flavor is just to strong for her, I guess.
Very strange how they make us eat somethings and hate others and then it sticks with them.
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