Sensitive Periods in Human Flavor Learning

Monell Chemical Senses Center97 enrolled

Overview

The goals of the proposed research are to specify the timing and consequences of the sensitive period for flavor learning in infants who are being breastfed or formula fed. The investigators will conduct a randomized within- and between-subject study of women and their infants during a 15-month window.

This is a randomized clinical trial on both breastfeeding and formula feeding infants to determine the effects of the timing of flavor experiences on subsequent food acceptance in both members of the dyad.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

OTHER

Masking

TRIPLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Development

Interventions

Timing of Diet and Flavor ExperienceOTHER

Groups differ in the timing and duration of exposure to flavored food experience.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 2 WeeksMax age: 3 WeeksHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Healthy, term infants and their mothers * Infants 2 wks (+/- 2 wk of age) * Mothers and infants exclusively breastfeeding or exclusively feeding a cows-milk based formula * Mothers must be older than 18 years of age Exclusion Criteria: * Infants who were preterm or have medical conditions that interfere with feeding or eating * Mothers who had gestational diabetes or are diagnosed with a major illness requiring treatment or surgery * Mothers who will be going back to work full-time before the infant is 4 months old * Mothers who are allergic to any vegetables * Subjects will not be excluded because of economic status, gender, race or ethnicity.

Locations (1)

Monell Chemical Senses Center

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Vegetable Flavor Acceptance [Infants' Intake]

Taste testing conducted on infants to determine acceptance of plain cereal, carrot-flavor cereal (exposed flavor for intervention groups) and broccoli-flavored cereal (novel flavor for all groups) after weaning, which occurred at \~ 8 months of age. Outcomes included intake (in grams).

Time frame: 6- to 10-month-old weaned infants (3 separate test days )

Taste Liking Ratings of Vegetable Flavors [Mothers].

Psychophysical testing conducted on mothers to rate their taste of carrot, beet, celery, mixed vegetable (exposed flavors for intervention groups) and apple juices using the hedonic gLMS (hedonic general labelled magnitude scale). Ratings on the scale range from -100 (strongest imaginable dislike) to 0 (neutral) to 100 (strongest imaginable like).

Time frame: Monthly, 0.5 to 4.5 months

Vegetable Flavor Acceptance (Infants' Rate of Feeding)

Time frame: 6- to 10-month-old weaned infants (3 separate test days)

Secondary Outcomes

Maternal Perceptions

Mothers rated infants' enjoyment of the taste of the cereal (9-point scale); aratings range from 1 (extreme dislike) to 9 (extreme like).

Time frame: 6- to 10-month-old weaned infants (3 separate test days)

Growth of Infants

At each visit, infants were weighed and measured to monitor normal growth. These anthropometric data were converted to weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ) using World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards. The Z-score expresses the anthropometric value as a number of standard deviations or Z-scores below or above the reference mean or median value. Normal range for Z score is -2.0 (minimum) to 2.0 (maximum).

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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