Children's Food Preferences are set by pregnant mother's diet

Children's acceptance of a healthy diet is influenced by their mother's diet while they are in the womb and during breast feeding. Repeated exposure to a variety of foods in the mother's diet is necessary.

Food preferences may start during pregnancy. "... taste buds form in the seventh-week of gestation, and during pregnancy the amniotic fluid acquires the odor of the food consumed by the mother", reports Catherine Forestell, from the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

FoodNavigator reported on a study from University College and Kings College London and British charity Cancer Research UK that concluded that "... a child's taste for protein-rich foods like meat and fish is inherited, but taste for vegetables and desserts are influenced."