How does the development of taste in children arise.

Taste is the most important and most developed of the senses in infants. Combined with their innate curiosity, it helps them explore the world. Even before the introduction of solid foods, the sense of taste shapes preferences for different flavors and textures.

Taste development: when does it start?

As many parents know, giving their children proper nutrition can be a real challenge. Children are born with a biological propensity to prefer sweet flavors and avoid bitter ones; and in today's society, where there is an abundance of sweet flavors and refined sugars, drinks and junk food, this can be a problem.

Hence, it is of great importance to develop healthy eating habits. Studies show that the earlier you start, the more children will get used to enjoying different flavors and eating healthy foods.

But how exactly does the sense of taste, which is so important in children, work?

The sense of taste begins to develop very early. Since intrauterine life, the fetus experiences different flavors: some preferences seem to be innate. Sweet and savory foods tend to be accepted more easily by infants, who reject bitter tastes instead.

The flavors are transmitted from the mother to the fetus through the amniotic fluid and, after birth, with the mother's milk. For this reason, mothers who vary their diet and eat healthy foods during pregnancy and breastfeeding allow their children to "inherit" these preferences. Weaning will also be easier, with the introduction of more varieties of foods, including vegetables.

How does taste development take place?

During the first 4 years of life, children switch from a diet consisting mainly of liquids to one characterized by solid foods.

Newborns are quite happy to accept new foods, but begin to reject them in the first years of life. From this point of view, babies who take breast milk seem to have fewer problems than those who are formula-fed. Exposure to different flavors, in fact, is influenced by the food eaten by the mother (breastfeeding accustoms babies to different flavors).

Children accept new foods through a variety of different experiences they have had in different social contexts. The variety of foods a child eats has a strong influence on the repertoire they will have later in life. In this sense, the foods that parents eat are often predictive of what their children will prefer.

The development of taste from 0 to 12 months

From birth to 3 months, newborns are able to discriminate between sweet and bitter flavors; from an early age, children have sensors to recognize a great variety of tastes, but still prefer sweet flavors. From 3 months up to 6 months, babies begin to experiment with different varieties of tastes; this is also because it is the age in which they put objects and hands in their mouths.

What goes from 6 to 12 months is an important stage because weaning begins, with the introduction of solid foods. Already at 5 months, the baby accepts more savory tastes. In this phase, it can happen that children object to refusal to some foods; it is advisable to try several times and not give up, to get them used to a varied and healthy diet.

Often sight or touch can help you approach different foods. Children can experience the consistency of new foods for themselves, tasting them after having brought them to their mouths; they are also enticed by different colors, able to convince them to explore new flavors.

How does the taste change over time?

The taste can change over time, it develops with the daily habit, the one that happens in the family. The reason children love or hate certain flavors is always a combination of established habits and personal preferences. It is also possible that, as you grow up, a food that was previously detested is subsequently appreciated.

What matters most is the environment in which convivial moments take place, which shapes the diet and will have an impact on future preferences in terms of food. The aversion or preference for certain foods often has a close relationship with the family habits of the parents. For example, in the case of a vegetarian mother, the child will most likely develop a strong repulsion for meat (therefore of social derivation and not of individual taste), which he would not have in the presence of a mother who also eats meat. Parents therefore have a decisive role in helping to shape the taste of their children until adolescence. The taste is mostly stable, and can last forever. For this reason, it is advisable to pay attention, from early childhood, to the composition of the meals and also to the atmosphere at the table. Arguing when eating could negatively affect children. Furthermore, it is advisable to leave children a certain margin of choice in food, without demonizing the aversion, even if only temporary, for some foods.

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