THE HUMAN INFANTS RESPONSE TO VANILLA FLAVORS IN MOTHERS MILK AND FORMULA

The mammalian infant experiences a variety of flavors prior to weaning because volatile compounds, such as vanilla, are transferred from the mother's diet to her milk. Following nursing mothers' consumption of vanilla flavor, their infants breast-fed longer and consumed more milk as compared to when their mothers consumed the diluent alone. Consist ent with these findings, the bottle-fed infants' responses to vanilla- flavored formula were altered relative to their responses to the unfla vored formula. In a short-term preference test, experimentally naive i nfants sucked more vigorously when feeding the vanilla-flavored formul a. In a second test that encompassed an entire feeding, they spent mor e time feeding initially when the formula was flavored with vanilla. T his differential responsiveness to the vanilla-flavored formula was ab sent following these two exposures to vanilla, however. These data sup port the hypothesis that flavors, either consumed by the mother and tr ansmitted to her milk or added to formula, are detected by the infant and serve to modulate feeding. They also suggest that experience with a flavor in milk alters the infant's responsiveness to that flavor dur ing subsequent feedings. It is hypothesized that under the natural con dition of breast-feeding, infants become familiar with the flavors con sumed by their mothers, and such experiences may impact on later food and flavor acceptability and choice.