How A Mother’s Diet Affects Her Unborn Baby?

“You are what you eat” is a saying that holds good for everybody including (unborn) babies.

A good nutrition is the best gift a mother can offer to her unborn child. That’s true, a mother’s diet before and during pregnancy has a long-term effect on different aspects of her baby’s growth and health in general, and the health of his brain and nervous system in particular. Omega 3 fatty acids come on top of the most efficient nutrients for promoting brain and nervous system development.

Moreover, a mother’s nutritional choices during pregnancy may affect her baby’s experience with food and determine the tastes and smells that will make his preferences in life, and that’s due to the fact that a baby in the womb can taste the food that his mother eats, thanks to his ability to absorb the amniotic fluid that surrounds him as of the twelfth week of pregnancy, and his developed sense of smell as of the twenty eighth week. In other words, a mother’s good nutrition during pregnancy can affect the way her child’s brain process the different tastes and smells, causing him to be attracted to some and repulsive to others.

So if you consume a large quantity of pickles and potato chips, your baby will be a huge fan of salt. Same goes for sweets and candies. If you eat lots of them during pregnancy, sugar will certainly be the core of your child’s life, and your child will be more prone to obesity and dental decay… That said, we recommend that you enrich your daily diet with healthy foods including fruits and vegetables, to help your baby get used to their tastes, like eating them more than anything else when he grows up, and thus keep him away from the negative effects of consuming lots of fast food, processed food and sources high in unhealthy fats and sugars, such as diabetes, obesity and hypertension.

It’s true that the nutritional choices made during pregnancy affect the mother and baby as well as play a major role in determining her child’s dietary habits and health condition, but they are not the only factors, as the mother’s diet during breastfeeding, her lifestyle and the types of foods she offers her baby during the weaning stage and till he’s one year old, affect in turn his habits, life style and health. That’s why, you better be careful and wise about what you do and what you eat from the moment you decide you want to conceive and till further notice!

Read More: Does What A Mother Eat Or Do Determine Her Child’s Gender?