I was juuust eating a tuna sandwich, thinking how long it’s been since I last had one, and realizing how I’m pretty much the only person in the family who eats canned tuna regularly.
Mom claims a long time ago, I got my love of tuna from her… While she was pregnant she constantly craved tuna.
Is she right?
This comment is only somewhat on topic, but enough so that I believe it might help you out.
I read (sorry, no cite) that the reason kids are fussy eaters is that genetically young children are programmed to choose one or two things they like a lot and stick with them because they are proven safe. Less wandering off and eating poisonous berries when you know the green leafy plant is good. After a while you’re old enough to know from society what is good and what isn’t, so your likes of food are allowed to grow.
This (might) help you out in some way or another.
Every once in a while I’ll bump one of my zombie topics that didn’t get much of a response. I don’t know if this can be answer factually, but I’d love to read any tries.
Obviously the third word in the OP question should be “pregnant.”
Well, anecdotally my mom loves mushrooms, bivalves [oysters, clams, mussels, scallops] and coconut. I happen to be seriously allergic to all of them. I can remember her saying that she had a serious jones for mushrooms when she was pregnant with me.
I would have to say that my favorite foods include artichokes, asparagus, brussels sprouts and lima beans, all of which she particularly dislikes. Only reason they were served when I was growing up was my dad liked them.
Not sure if that is any help…
Not pregnancy exactly, but I heard claims from pro-nursing types that breastfed babies are less picky eaters when they go on to solids because breastmilk doesn’t always taste exactly the same due to variations in Mom’s diet, but formula does. I wouldn’t know, personally.
A friend got pregnant with first baby. First-time mother, ate very carefully, no spicy things, no chocolate, and cut out all caffeine. A fairly bland and limited diet equaled a child who eats a very bland and limited diet.
Second pregnancy was much more relaxed, mum ate a much wider variety of foods. Second child? Will try pretty much any food offered her.
I’m going the unproven theory that first babe’s breastmilk came only in one flavour, second baby’s milk was variable and more “seasoned”.
As a WAG, I’d say “impossible”. :dubious:
But of course the child’s upbringing will instill food likes and dislikes.
By the time nutrients reach the baby via the placenta they’ve been broken down by the digetsive system into forms that the body can use. I can see no reason that the actual flavors of the foods would remain intact to imprint on the developing baby.
Anecdotally, my firstborn now shuns any food that is remotely spicy. While pregnant with her, however, I made regular lunch trips to a local indian place, and when I wasn’t there I was at the nearest mexican restaurant. The spicier the better!
Apparently the amniotic fluid itself changes in taste , and of course the embryo is constantly tasting and swallowing her own amniotic fluid. It’s speculated that perhaps a varied diet teaches an embryo some of the “safe” tastes of her post-natal environment even before breastmilk is involved. So it would seem logical (although it might be bunk) that a varied diet while pregnant would “teach” more varied flavors.
My theory is that sometimes it works the other way 'round. With my son, I craved tomato products - pasta sauce, barbeque sauce, and even raw tomatoes and ketchup, which I’m not a big fan of otherwise. Sure enough, he’s 14 now and his go-to food if he gets to choose always involves something tomatoey. My taste for them went away after his delivery.
Repeat, 13 years later, for my pregnancy with my daughter and cheese. I’m not a big cheese person, until pregnant with her and I couldn’t get enough. She loves it, I’ve gone back to indifferent.
Perhaps their bodies crave certain things to fill a nutritional need and somehow chemically transmit that need to Mom, who develops a temporary craving for the food on her embryo’s behalf. Certainly Old Wives have said for years that if you crave something that’s not dangerous, you should eat it, as it’s your body telling you the baby needs it right now.
My WAG is that no, what you eat during pregnancy does not influence the child’s likes/dislikes. I do remember reading a while back (no cite, but if you want one, I am sure I could dig it up) that craving specific food (IIRC, salty) does indicate whether or not the child will have problems with low iron. There was some good study information in the article, and based on my own experiences with my kids, it did seem to hold true.
I think mostly what we eat during pregnancy is what we enjoy eating. Our children learn to enjoy foods because we feed those foods to them. My kids both love cheese, is it because I ate cheese during my pregnancies? No, even though I did, it’s because I have always had a variety of cheeses available to them for enjoyment.
I like the thought of curry flavored amniotic fluid. 
Pan fried?
If it was true then my son would be addicted to Taco Bell. My wife had morning sickness (hah, she had it morning, noon and night) right up to the day of delivery. She would be in the bathroom, puking her guts out and place an order with me for a burrito and a couple tacos. She told me that she knew she would be hungry later and Taco Bell was theonly thing that would stay down.
My son absolutely detests Taco Hell, as he calls it.
Interesting question, dunno the answer. Foods can definitely sensitize the baby - I’m convinced that the peanut butter I ate in such quantities while nursing Dweezil (since everything else I ate seemed to worsen his already-dreadful colic) led to his peanut allergies. I also ate PB while pregnant with him.
Also I remember eating a lot of chili while pg with him, not so much while carrying Moon Unit. Dweezil loves spicy foods, Moon Unit runs screaming from them.