SC - Babies have taste buds!!!

[Ron and Laurene Wells]

>Date: Mon, 28 Feb 2000 13:42:40 -0500
>From: micaylah <dy018 at freenet.carleton.ca>
>Subject: Re: SC - Re: OMIGOD- HAPPY MEALS AT CROWN TOURNEY
>
>Doesn't this go back to a previous thread several months ago on
>capitulating to children's whims and not encouraging them to be
>adventurous with their taste buds?
>
>
>I recently read that babies are basically born without taste preferences
>(i.e.: no taste buds) and develop these in the first five years of their
>life.

I'm sorry, but even though this thread is several weeks old (I'm trying 
really hard to catch up!) I feel that I MUST comment on this!  Babies most 
certainly DO have taste buds!!  They have about TEN TIMES as many taste 
buds as adults have, by the age of 6 I think the number of taste buds are 
down to half that, and by age 10 (I think, the exact age level escapes me) 
they have only Twice as many as adults.  At puberty, the tastebuds have 
reached their adult number.  The big difference is that babies taste buds 
are almost entirely attuned to Sweet (as oppose to sour, bitter and salt; 
the other 3 of the 4 flavors that the tounge detects) so that they will 
crave their mother's milk.

>Given these parameters, I could not, and will not, condone this
>behavior. I am sorry, good lady, to disagree with you on this but I
>would be encouraging my children to experiment and not bow down to their
>unhealthy worship of the almighty sodium crap served by these places.
>Not a good example to set imo.

It is true that introducing new and varieties of foods throughout childhood 
helps children to develop tastes for different foods.  A variety of foods 
should be offered every day.  I saw a program on TLC once that their 
research seemed to indicate that "We like we eat" rather than "We eat what 
we like" meaning that we develop a preference for food flavors that we are 
exposed to.
    However, when you have a child who actually WILL refuse to eat anything 
for three meals in a row, who will become VERY cranky and disagreeable from 
the hunger, and when we are NOT impoverished and actually have the means of 
feeding him something he WILL eat, YES!!!  WE FEED HIM!!!  We do NOT live 
in Ethiopia!  We live in America!  Even when we were homeless, living in a 
16' camp trailer we had more food than impoverished citizens in 3rd world 
countries have.  We do NOT have to watch our children starve, or listen to 
their cries because we DO have food!  And you know what?  My oldest is 6 
now, and he does still complain about many foods, but he is growing out of 
it.  He is starting to try new foods.  And I have faith that his younger 
brother will do the same thing in time.  I have come to the conclusion that 
the habit of picky eaters in preschool and early elementary years stems 
from an instinctive skill of self preservation, namely "Don't eat the weird 
stuff, it will kill you!".  As they get older they will eat new foods.  And 
I am told (and remember somewhat from my younger siblings) that when they 
reach puberty they will in fact go through growth spurts which leave them 
so ravenous that they will barely take to taste their food, much less 
complain about what it looks like!
    So I'm not going to worry about my kids, or anyone else's kids who are 
picky, or selective eaters.  Nobody has all the answers and EVERY CHILD IS 
DIFFERENT!!!  I have 2 children who are picky eaters while my baby will eat 
just about anything I give him.  I think it has less to do with what you 
feed them when they are young, and more to do with individual 
personality.  People who have children that are picky eaters should not be 
made to feel ostracised from events, or criticised by people who "have all 
the answers".  It is nice for us to find a plate of cheese and crackers, 
and maybe boiled eggs, or carrot sticks and dip, and sliced (or broken) 
bread when we go to feasts.  The kids will eat these things, enough to feel 
like they have participated, and if they are still hungry when we get home 
they can have a PB&J before they go to bed, or just a large breakfast in 
the morning.

     Thanks for listening.  I'll get of my soap box now.  it's way past 
time to go to bed anyway.  GRIN!  Still don't know if I'm going to get to 
go to Irish Feast this weekend in Longview.  No one will send me directions 
to the site!!!

- -Laurene

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