Babies in the Womb Smile When Moms Eat Certain Products but Frown When They Eat Other Ones, Study Finds

Babies enter this world with a full sensory system, having sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. But their senses actually develop just a few weeks after conception, and they can do so many things in mom’s womb. They’re smiling, crying, peeing, listening to you and, actually, they already may like or dislike what you eat. Keep reading to learn what your baby is experiencing when you decide to bite into some products that you love, and whether babies and moms have the same food preferences from the start.

Babies start exploring their tongue by doing a really strange thing.

The unborn baby’s first movements are involuntary, and it’s not until around week 16 that they have their first “conscious” movements. They can move 50 times or more each hour, flexing their body, they move their head, face, and limbs. This is the way babies explore their warm, wet home. While having an ultrasound, a mom-to-be may see a cute picture of her child sucking their fingers in the womb, and this can happen in the 10th week.

But apart from these actions, babies can perform some strange activities. Moms can be a little bit at a loss when they go to have their ultrasound and see that their tiny son or daughter is literally licking the placenta. Specialists say they’re licking the uterine wall, and it’s just as normal as, for example, “walking” around the womb and pushing off with their feet.

It’s not only how mom feels but what mom eats that makes a baby feel a certain way, and it even impacts their DNA.

Pregnant women may have heard this thousands of times: What you eat during the 9 months of pregnancy can have a substantial effect on your child’s health. But the relationship between a baby’s and a mom’s nutrition goes even further. Researchers claim that if a pregnant woman eats a diverse diet, the baby may be less picky with the foods they choose.

But, what is more, mom’s eating habits may influence her baby even before she knows she’s pregnant. Scientists discovered that dietary habits seem to change whether certain genes are turned on or off in that earliest stage of a baby’s development.

Even in the womb, babies can “tell” mom that they can’t stand that broccoli or kale.

With a new breakthrough in science, parents-to-be get an even bigger chance to understand what their babies like or dislike. Recent research has revealed that babies in mom’s womb make grimaces when their mothers ate kale, but peacefully smiled after they ate carrots.

The study examined healthy fetuses of 100 women between the ages of 18 and 40 who were between their 32nd and 36th weeks of pregnancy. The babies that consumed the carrot appeared to be smiling, while those exposed to kale frowned and showed grimaces.

Nadja Reissland, a co-author of the study and head of the Fetal and Neonatal Research Lab at Durham University, said, “We are the first ones who could actually show on an ultrasound scan the facial expressions in relation to the food which the mother has just consumed.” In addition, she stated that she hopes that the new study could help people’s “understanding of how exposure to flavors in the womb affects eating habits later in life.”

What is the thing that your baby did on an ultrasound that made you giggle or say “Aww”? Do you believe that your food preferences influence your child? Do you have any examples from your own family?