OLFACTORY ENRICHMENT DURING BOTTLE FEEDING

DESCRIPTION: The olfactory experience of bottle-fed infants is impoverished compared to the varied olfactory stimulation that breast-fed infants are known to normally receive from breast milk. This reduced olfactory experience may partially explain the reduced acceptance of solid foods at weaning in bottle-fed infants, and in particular, their acceptance of fewer vegetables than breast-fed infants. We propose to test a device and method, the Flavor Palette, that can be used by parents to easily provide enhanced olfactory stimulation during bottle-feeding - ameliorating the impoverished experience of formula-fed rearing and enriching the olfactory environment of the developing infant. Our study will determine if infants who received a variety of food-related odors in the context of bottle-feeding will, at weaning age, accept vegetables more easily than infants who received only their standard formula. Our product offers parents a method to conveniently enrich variety in the olfactory environment of their formula-reared infants, potentially reducing finickiness, improving feeding behavior, and assuring the introduction of healthy foods, thus contributing to their children's long term growth and development. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Each year, over 3 million mothers in the U. S. formula-feed their infants in the period before the introduction of solid food. Our product (patient in process) would be marketed as a companion to infant formulas. It would be embraced by parents wishing to provide their formula-fed infant with an enriched experience of feeding-related odors -- like those received from breast milk -- and anxious to promote healthy eating habits in their developing child.