Elsevier

Appetite

Volume 3, Issue 2, June 1982, Pages 139-152
Appetite

Dietary experience and sweet taste preference in human infants

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-6663(82)80007-XGet rights and content

Taste preferences for sucrose solutions and water were studied in 199 human infants at birth and 140 of the same infants at 6 months of age. Taste preferences were determined by allowing ad libitum ingestion of sucrose solutions and water during brief presentations. At 6 months, 7-day dietary records for the infants were obtained from the mothers. According to the dietary records, many infants (27%) were fed sweetened water (water plus table sugar, honey or Karo syrup) by their mothers. Compared with infants not fed sweetened water, the infants fed sweetened water ingested more sucrose solution but not more water during the brief taste tests conducted at 6 months of age. Those infants not fed sweetened water exhibited a diminished intake of sucrose solution relative to water at 6 months of age. In contrast, infants fed sweetened water at 6 months maintained the same level of intake of sucrose solution relative to water as existed at birth. The data obtained also revealed relationships between intake of taste solutions and whether the infant was breast or bottle fed, whether the infant was black or white, and birth weight of the infant. None of these factors interacted with the sweet water feeding history variable. These data suggest that the experience of consuming sweetened water maintains the preference for sucrose solutions whereas an absence of this experience results in a depression of preference. Experimental studies are needed to investigate this phenomenon further.

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