Follow Up Study to Assess Sustainable Acceptance of Food in Children After Early Exposure to a Specific Food Substance to Mothers During Antenatal or Postnatal Period

OBJECTIVES: 1. To assess whether maternal exposure to a specific food substance (spinach in our study) either antenatally or postnatally and repetitive exposure of the same in their children produces sustained acceptance of the same food. 2. To assess if the same information was dissipated among the peer groups of the mothers -Ripple effect. METHODS: Mothers recruited in our hospital for the randomized control trial assessing food acceptance in infants after the specific food exposure to mothers in the antenatal or postnatal period were re-enrolled in this study (following earlier study submitted to ASN). They were divided as Group A, Group B and Group C. Group A mothers were exposed to diet containing 200 grams spinach per meal 3–4 times in a week in their third trimester of pregnancy, Group B mothers were exposed to the same diet in the first three months immediate postnatal period and Group C mothers served as controls with no intervention. Informed consent was obtained from the parents and data was collected through phone calls by the principal investigator. The study was questionnaire based and focused on details of the child's diet and also assessed the ripple effect of the earlier study. RESULTS: In our study, the liking for spinach (in terms of consumption frequency of at least 3 times a week) was significantly better among children of Group A mothers 88.9%, 66.7% in children of Group B mothers compared to the control group of 27.8% with significant p-value of < 0.01. The results were similar in children of Group A and B mothers for the acceptance of other green leafy vegetables though the mothers were not exposed to the same in our previous study. Weight for age was significantly better in children of group A and group B. 44.4% of study subjects in these two groups were plotted between 50th −85th percentiles on WHO growth chart. The ease of feeding spinach and other green leafy vegetables was better in children of group A and B mothers compared to controls. 66.1% of the mothers were happy to propagate the knowledge of benefits of early exposure of specific food and better acceptance by their children to their peers (ripple effect). CONCLUSIONS: Our study concludes that antenatal and postnatal exposure was beneficial. It also showed that early exposure to spinach showed ripple effect on acceptance of other green leafy vegetables in a sustained manner. FUNDING SOURCES: None.