Your tot’s taste buds start forming around week 11, right where their tongue will grow. Eventually, these will differentiate between five tastes: sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami. By around week 16, taste pores (small surface pits on the surface) will have developed on their tiny tongue, which lets them experience their first taste: salty amniotic fluid. Throughout the rest of your pregnancy, molecules of the food you eat make their way into your baby’s amniotic fluid, via your blood and the placenta.
At around week 28, your baby’s taste buds are fully mature, giving them stronger flavors of everything you eat. Scientists believe that babies begin to show a preference for sweet flavors in the womb by swallowing more amniotic fluid when it is sweet, and less when it is bitter. Studies have also shown that mothers who eat a lot of certain foods have babies who enjoy those same foods after they are born, so if you want your kid to be a veggie lover, stock up on the green stuff.