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ELECTRONIC ARTICLE: Julie A. Mennella, Coren P. Jagnow, and Gary K. Beauchamp Prenatal and Postnatal Flavor Learning by Human Infants Pediatrics 2001; 107: e88 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]

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Carrot taste and baby's face: Where are the across-group comparisons?

Stephen L Black   (17 July 2001)

Carrot taste and baby's face: Where are the across-group comparisons? 17 July 2001
Stephen L Black, Professor Bishop's University, Lennoxville, QC Canada Send letter to journal: Re: Carrot taste and baby's face: Where are the across-group comparisons? sblack{at}ubishops.ca Stephen L Black	Mennella et al.1 provided an intriguing demonstration that prenatal and early post-natal experience with carrot flavor changes the response of infants to carrot-flavored cereal compared with unflavored cereal. However, I was surprised that they did not carry out across-group comparisons on their data, contrasts that could potentially strengthen their conclusions. My curiosity led me to do the analysis. I used the proportionate response of each baby to the cereals (carrot /carrot plus unflavored), a statistic which the authors noted was particularly informative. They reported this data both in Table 2 and Figure 2, but did not analyze it. I did so using unpaired 2-tailed t-tests. The group (CW) receiving prenatal flavor experience showed proportionately fewer negative facial expressions to carrot than the no flavor (WW) group (t(27) = 2.40, p = .02), as did the group (WC) experiencing the flavor in breast milk (t(29)= 2.37, p= .02). For mothers’ perception of the infant’s enjoyment of the feed, the prenatal group received proportionately higher enjoyment ratings than the no flavor group (t(27) = 2.13, p= .04) while the comparison between the lactation group and the control was not significant. Across-group comparisons for cereal intake or length of feeding were not significant. Thus this analysis supports their claim that both prenatal and exposure during lactation “enhanced the infants’ enjoyment of that flavor”. Nevertheless, this claim should be accepted cautiously given that they did not report increased facial expressions of enjoyment nor find increases in intake or length of feed. Also, their design does not allow investigation of an alternative interpretation. It is possible that early exposure to a salient flavor such as carrot may predispose the infants to prefer flavored over unflavored food in general rather than to induce a specific preference for the carrot flavor experienced. Thus it would be informative to include a control group tested with a different salient flavor which the babies had not previously experienced. Overall, the research shows promise in helping us understanding how dietary preferences develop, and I look forward to further work on this topic. Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Department of Psychology Bishop’s University Lennoxville, QC J1M 1Z7 Canada sblack@ubishops.ca REFERENCES 1. Mennella JA, Jagnow CP, Beauchamp, GK. Prenatal and postnatal flavor learning by human infants. Pediatrics, 2001;107: E88