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Charlotte Lozier Institute

Phone: 202-223-8073
Fax: 571-312-0544

2776 S. Arlington Mill Dr.
#803
Arlington, VA 22206

The
Voyage of Life

The Newborn Senses: Taste & Smell

Dive Deeper

Newborns outperform adults at a variety of smell tests. For example, newborns detect odor components in human sweat better than adults do.1 Other research has shown that babies recognize the smell of amniotic fluid and prefer to nurse from a breast that has been moistened with their own amniotic fluid.2 In a different study, newborns (sometimes just hours old) were allowed to smell different samples of breastmilk. Some samples came from their own mothers and other samples came from different nursing mothers. The babies tried to suck and nurse more in response to their own mothers’ odors. Just as interesting, the babies who had more than 50 minutes of skin-to-skin contact were better at recognizing their mother’s milk than babies who had less skin contact.3 Finally, the scent of breast milk seems to have a calming, painkilling effect on newborns. However, this only worked if the breast milk came from their own mother.4

How exactly does an infant process odors? When researchers presented newborns between 1 and 6 days old with unfamiliar odors, the odors activated the same regions of the brain that are active in adults.5

Infants are better at smelling than adults. In fact, after less than an hour of time spent with mom, newborns prefer their mother's breastmilk and amniotic fluid compared to another mother's milk or amniotic fluid. Infants are also good at tasting, however, their salt receptors take more time to develop than all the other flavor receptors. (Image Credit: Science Source) 6
How do newborns respond to flavors?

Flavor comes from the combination of odor and taste information. Taste information comes from taste buds that detect five different taste dimensions — sweetness, saltiness, bitterness, sourness, and umami, also known as savoriness. A newborn responds to all of these taste dimensions except saltiness. Infants younger than 4 months display little preference for water or salt solutions. In contrast, babies from age 4 to 24 months prefer salty water, while children from age 2½ to 5 years old prefer pure water over saline.7 Researchers believe that the salt taste receptors simply have not matured before 4 months of age.

(Image Credit: Science Source)

As for the other flavors, newborns react negatively to most bitter substances, and will also pull away and grimace when given a sour substance.8 In contrast, newborns particularly enjoy sweet things. In fact, when babies drink sugar water immediately before a painful procedure, such as a heel prick or circumcision, they cry less. Newborns also appear to enjoy the savory taste.9 Both of these flavors are readily found in breastmilk.

A newborn’s sense of taste has practical consequences. Evidence shows that the flavors in a mother’s diet get passed through the amniotic fluid in utero and the breastmilk after birth. Flavors peak in the breastmilk about 1½ to 3 hours after mothers eat the flavorful foods.10 The earlier the baby gets exposed to a certain flavor, the more accepting they are of that food later when parents introduce solid foods to their children.

Back to The Voyage of Life
Sources
  1. Helene M. Loos et al., “Responses of Human Neonates to Highly Diluted Odorants from Sweat,” Journal of Chemical Ecology 43, no. 1 (January 1, 2017): 106–17, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10886-016-0804-x.
  2. Varendi, H., R. H. Porter, and J. Winberg. “Attractiveness of Amniotic Fluid Odor: Evidence of Prenatal Olfactory Learning?” Acta Paediatrica 85, no. 10 (1996): 1223–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1651-2227.1996.tb18233.x.
  3. K. Mizuno et al., “Mother-Infant Skin-to-Skin Contact after Delivery Results in Early Recognition of Own Mother’s Milk Odour,” Acta Paediatrica (Oslo, Norway: 1992) 93, no. 12 (December 2004): 1640–45, https://doi.org/10.1080/08035250410023115.
  4. Shota Nishitani et al., “The Calming Effect of a Maternal Breast Milk Odor on the Human Newborn Infant,” Neuroscience Research 63, no. 1 (January 1, 2009): 66–71, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neures.2008.10.007.
  5. Adam-Darque, Alexandra, Frédéric Grouiller, Lana Vasung, Russia Ha-Vinh Leuchter, Philippe Pollien, François Lazeyras, and Petra S. Hüppi. “FMRI-Based Neuronal Response to New Odorants in the Newborn Brain.” Cerebral Cortex 28, no. 8 (August 1, 2018): 2901–7. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhx167.
  6. Liem D. G. (2017). Infants' and Children's Salt Taste Perception and Liking: A Review. Nutrients, 9(9), 1011. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu9091011
  7. Gary K. Beauchamp, Beverly J. Cowart, and Marianne Moran, “Developmental Changes in Salt Acceptability in Human Infants,” Developmental Psychobiology 19, no. 1 (1986): 17–25, https://doi.org/10.1002/dev.420190103.
  8. J.E. Steiner, Taste and Development: The Genesis of Sweet Preference (National Institutes of Health, 1977).
  9. Gary K. Beauchamp and Paul Pearson, “Human Development and Umami Taste,” Physiology & Behavior, Umami: Proceedings of the Second International Symosium on Umami, 49, no. 5 (May 1, 1991): 1009–12, https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(91)90215-A.
  10. Catherine A. Forestell, “Flavor Perception and Preference Development in Human Infants,” Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism 70, no. Suppl. 3 (2017): 17–25, https://doi.org/10.1159/000478759.
See Full Bibliography

All images and illustrations on The Voyage of Life were reviewed by credentialed scientists for accuracy.

Medical art animation was used to provide a schematic representation of fetal development, with some features, including timing, not to scale. The animation was chosen as an ethically uncompromised guide to fetal development. There are many real human images at each developmental age showing the most accurate fetal forms throughout development. A concerted effort was made to use images and material in which the human embryo or fetus did not undergo any known harm.

Page last updated on October 21, 2022