Intrauterine growth restriction and the fetal programming of the hedonic response to sweet taste in newborn infants.
In plain language
Differences in the response to sweetness are detectable on the first day of life
If prenatal development influences food reward, signs of that influence might be present before a child has accumulated experience with ordinary foods. This small study examined newborns’ facial responses to sweetness in relation to their growth before birth.
Observing the earliest response. Sixteen preterm infants were studied on their first day of life. Ten received a small amount of sucrose solution and six received water. Their responses were filmed and scored for positive taste-reactivity movements, an observable indicator used to study the pleasurable or hedonic response to a taste. Fetal growth was expressed relative to expected birth weight for gestational age.
Poorer growth was associated with fewer positive responses to sweetness. Among infants receiving sucrose, greater fetal growth was strongly associated with more positive responses during the first fifteen seconds. The corresponding relationship was not found in the water group. The finding suggests that the association concerned the response to sweetness rather than a general relationship between growth and all facial movements.
The direction is important: infants with more restricted growth showed a lower measured positive response, not a stronger visible enjoyment of sweetness. The authors proposed that altered reward sensitivity at birth might be related to later differences in preference for highly palatable foods. That later step was not tested in these infants.
The study places a possible developmental influence on food responsiveness at the very beginning of postnatal life. Its small sample and brief observation make it preliminary evidence. A larger study, followed over time, would be needed to determine whether the neonatal response persists, predicts later food choices or contributes to metabolic outcomes.
Original abstract
Intrauterine growth restriction is associated with increased risk for adult metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease, which seems to be related to altered food preferences in these individuals later in life. In this study, we sought to understand whether intrauterine growth leads to fetal programming of the hedonic responses to sweet. Sixteen 1-day-old preterm infants received 24% sucrose solution or water and the taste reactivity was filmed and analyzed. Spearman correlation demonstrated a positive correlation between fetal growth and the hedonic response to the sweet solution in the first 15 seconds after the offer (r = 0.864, P = 0.001), without correlation when the solution given is water (r = 0.314, P = 0.455). In fact, the more intense the intrauterine growth restriction, the lower the frequency of the hedonic response observed. IUGR is strongly correlated with the hedonic response to a sweet solution in the first day of life in preterm infants. This is the first evidence in humans to demonstrate that the hedonic response to sweet taste is programmed very early during the fetal life by the degree of intrauterine growth. The altered hedonic response at birth and subsequent differential food preference may contribute to the increased risk of obesity and related disorders in adulthood in intrauterine growth-restricted individuals.
Reproduced from the original publication under Creative Commons Attribution (version unspecified in archived XML). Wording unchanged; layout and typography normalized.
Ayres C, Agranonik M, Portella AK, Filion F, Johnston CC, Silveira PP. Intrauterine growth restriction and the fetal programming of the hedonic response to sweet taste in newborn infants. International journal of pediatrics. 2012:657379.
Read the original publication and abstractDOI: 10.1155/2012/657379