👶 Baby Sensory Milestone Series: Taste and Smell 👅

Taste, Smell and Memories...let's take a deeper look!

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In this series of blogs I am looking at our baby’s senses, how they develop, and how this sensory development can be closely linked to other areas of your baby’s development and meeting milestones, particularly across their first 1000 days (which is conception to 2 years of age). In these early days, all new experiences and exposures are forging neural pathways in the brain that will inform behaviors for the rest of your little ones lives!

That’s why in sensory classes, such as Wriggle and Roll, they are carefully designed to stimulate ALL the senses. In this article I am going to look at taste and smell together because they are so closely linked. This may not seem an obvious one when we think of sensory classes but we are stimulating taste and smell more than you think- even with so much close time and bodily contact with grown up they are learning to identify your unique smell! 

And importantly, smell and taste have an extemelly strong connection to emotion. When you think of a special memory, how often is smell and taste part of it? I know it is a big part for me when I remember going to my Nan's house after school as a kid!

Let’s start with a fascinating fact I just recently learned: Our sense of smell is actually responsible for about 80% of what we taste!!!

With our sense of taste alone, essentially what the taste buds on our tongue pick up, we are able to identify sweet, salty, sour, bitter and the newly discovered “umami” (or savory sensation), but that’s it, a mere 20%! Any other subtleties of flavours, actually come from smell (which is why when we have a congested nose and no sense of smell food typically seems tasteless or at least bland!)

So where does the development of these senses all beginning?

Let's start by looking at taste! Did you know...

👅 By 9 weeks Baby has their first tiny tastebuds!!!!

👅 Throughout gestation, baby breathes in and swallows the amniotic fluid they are surrounded by which is flavoured and influenced by the food Mum is eating!

👅 Then, as a newborn our little ones sense of taste is very sensitive. They can recognise sweet v sour but prefer sweet (i.e breast/formula milk)

👅 At 3 months (approximately) baby has found how to bring their hand to their mouth and with it you will likely notice starting to put objects to their mouth, gumming them, licking them etc. Often people think that this must be due to their baby teething (I know I did) but in fact it’s due to the high level of sensors in and around the mouth so it’s actually their way of learning about things- isn’t that just amazing!

👅 And at 6months+ baby is likely ready to start experiencing their first tastes! This can result in MANY funny faces so don’t forget the camera!

And now let’s talk about smell...👃 What I think is interesting about smell, is that smells can evoke powerful memories right back to childhood even when we are adults! I don’t know about you but sometimes I will smell something and it will take me right back in time! Or at least it will give me the strong sense of a memory, even if I can’t pinpoint exactly the point in my history the smell comes from!

So where does it all begin? Well...

👃 By 10 weeks gestation the receptors that baby will use to detect smells have in fact already formed and as a nerwborn baby will be familiar with its mothers unique sent.

👃 TOP FACT: Ever wondered why it’s so tempting to smell a newborns head? When parents cuddle their babies, and they can smell eachother’s unique scent, it has been shown that both experience higher levels of the hormone ‘oxytocin’, i.e the love hormone.

👃 By 1 month baby is getting used to different smells but will likely still find strong, unfamiliar, aromas overpowering

👃 By 3 months, baby can use sense of smell as a way of telling the difference between the people they know and strangers

👃 And at 6months as we already discussed smell plays a big part as baby tries their first foods

So how to stimulate baby’s taste and smell senses at home?

As discussed, positive sensory experiences and exposure will help your baby in their overall development and taste and smell are no different. Here are some things you can do at home:

👶 Do you need any excuses for a lovely cuddle? I don’t think so, but here’s one anyway- remember what I said above about how babies oxytocin levels rise when they smell you? And by ‘you’ I just mean your natural scent as everyone has, you don’t want to necessarily overpower them with perfumes etc.

👶 Use a baby safe, natural, essential oil blend for massaging. If you want to do this as a relaxing massage, lavender can be a good scent. Just be sure the oil you choose is newborn/baby safe

👶 When you start to introduce first tastes, consider as many varieities as possible, but you may want to start with savoury first with the likes of green vegetables so that it is not such a surprise to baby as going sweet first and then savoury!

👶 And in terms of Wriggle and Roll. I always say that class should be enjoyed in a relaxed way, it is not a test, or a competition, you join in when baby is enjoying, and take a quiet moment to feed and cuddle them whilst class continues when they need you to.

👶 And if I’m lucky enough to see you in some of my in person classes we sometimes have some subtle scents as part of the class such as lemon.

For those of you still reading, thank you. I would love to know-

What is the first smell memory you have!? Mine is the lavender cologne my grandmother used to have on her handkerchief.