Taste
and Smell
Much
less attention has been given to the senses of taste and
smell by experts in child development than to the other
senses. We do not therefore know so much about them, but
this does not mean they are not important. Just consider:
· The word `taste' also means a person's own particular
preference for things. · Parents can have battles with their
children for years over particular foods because the children
do not like the taste or the smell. · A bad smell is one
of the most revolting experiences people can have literally
making them sick. · Pleasant smells have a powerful effect
in attracting people to each other.
New
babies can tell the difference between drinks of different
degrees of sweetness - they suck most eagerly at the sweetest
drink. But since sugar is harmful for children's teeth,
an apparently inborn taste for sweetness does not mean a
child should be fed on sweet things. Breast milk is sweet
and babies obviously like it, but the sugar (lactose) in
it is not harmful to teeth. Babies do not like and spit
out sharp or acid tastes.
When
you begin introducing solids to your baby, you should aim
for a variety of tastes in what you give him so that he
gets a balanced diet and learns to develop his own tastes.
Also see "Feeding
Your baby" and "Feeding
the under fives" for more about starting to feed
your baby solids and about the problems of food battles
and food faddiness.
There is
evidence that new babies can tell their own mother's smell
from that of other mothers. A paediatrician who studied them
noted that they turned their heads much more often to a breast
pad used by their own mothers than to pads worn by other women.
A new baby with limited vision, hearing and understanding
of the world may rely on smell as a source of information
about where he is and who he is with and also as a source
of comfort. A baby may refuse to feed because his mother smells
different, perhaps because she is using scented soap. Mothers
sometimes comment enthusiastically on the special smell that
their own babies have. Parents can tolerate the smell of their
own baby's nappies, but find it very difficult to change another
baby. It does seem, therefore, as if we use smell as part
of the process that helps to attach parents and babies to
each other.
