Food is a great resource in maintaining health and thwarting diseases, and it is imperative to study their impact based on the context of ingestion. Brain growth and development start right at conception. This is the time when the male and female gametes meet and form a single cell to begin human life. This means that the brain cell growth of a baby starts very early in pregnancy. This awareness is critical because, right before conception, a woman needs to have a well-balanced diet with all the essential nutrients to prepare her body. This nutritional preparation is important because the mother’s body undergoes several changes during pregnancy to enable her to successfully nurture and grow the seed in her womb to a perfectly healthy human being.

A research team led by Dr. Vidya Seshan, from SQU’s College of Nursing, reviewed relevant research findings to understand the contribution of maternal nutrition on the food preferences of children in later life, and to examine the existence of a link between foetal exposures in the intra-uterine life and the eating pattern of children after birth.

The team retrieved six articles from major databases, including Scopus. Key words, including food preferences, food choice, acceptance of food, pregnant women, toddlers, and food culture, were used to identify appropriate articles.

The results revealed a very strong connection between the exposure to flavours during the prenatal and postnatal period and food preference and acceptance in children in later life. Olfactory and gustatory exposure to flavours during the prenatal period through maternal diet, and during the postnatal period through breast milk and weaning foods, determines food preferences in childhood. Since prenatal and postnatal exposures to different flavours determine the extent to which a child develops food preferences, these can be used as a baseline to ascertain the positive nutritional status of children later in life. This knowledge can also be used to improve the development of good nutritional habits in children.

Food preference in children depends on the interplay between genetic and environmental factors. Exposure to flavours during the prenatal and postnatal periods through amniotic fluid, breast milk and weaning foods has been identified as a possible influence on food preference and acceptance in children. Therefore, maternal nutrition has a strong influence on a child’s food preference early in life.