You Are What Your Parents Eat: Parental Influences on Early Flavor Preference Development

To understand the development of children's flavor preferences, it is important to consider the context of the feeding environment. Although children are predisposed to prefer sweet-tasting foods and beverages and to avoid bitter-tasting foods such as dark-green vegetables, parents can play a central role in shifting these innate food acceptance patterns throughout development. Beginning before birth, the fetus detects the continually changing flavor profile of amniotic fluid, which reflects the mother's diet. After birth, if mothers choose to breastfeed, these sensory experiences continue. Through this process of familiarization, women who maintain a healthy diet throughout pregnancy and lactation prepare their infants to like healthful foods. Upon the introduction of solid foods, repeated exposure to a variety of healthful foods promotes acceptance for these foods and for novel foods. In addition to providing sensory exposures to a range of healthful foods, parents can shape children's flavor preferences by modeling healthy eating behaviors and by creating supportive feeding environments. The degree to which parents engage in these practices is influenced by demographic and societal characteristics. Considering the context in which children and families live will encourage the development of evidence-based strategies that more effectively support children's healthy eating habits.