What My Craziest Pregnancy Cravings Could Mean for Baby
Photo: In Depth Info / The BumpMy kids love black olives, mustard, and lemons. Weird, right? Not to me.
See, I always suspected this may have something to do with the salty, sour, and spicy foods I craved while I was pregnant with each of them. But I’d never heard of any science to back that up – until now.
I recently read about some studies that showed babies’ taste preferences can be affected for life by what their mother did or didn’t consume while pregnant.
Babies of moms who suffered from extreme morning sickness seemed to crave salt more than other babies, because they were dehydrated in the womb. Babies of moms who consumed lots of carrot juice while pregnant showed a strong preference for carrot-flavored cereal, while babies who weren’t exposed to carrots could take it or leave it. It’s all making sense now…
I remember early in my first pregnancy, I was still in that stage of feeling exhausted and nauseous most of the time. But one day, I was propelled off the couch with a sudden urgency to make… spinach dip. From that day on, I probably tried half a dozen recipes. I couldn’t get enough of the stuff. Interestingly, I am a vegetarian, so craving iron-rich foods like leafy greens makes total sense.
I don’t have a good explanation for the cinnamon candies, though. I was obsessed with those red hot hard candies, for some reason. I would buy them by the bagful at the drugstore. And I also drank a LOT of lemonade. And then there were the sour cream and onion potato chips…
The funny thing is, when I was pregnant I didn’t think I had any crazy cravings. When people would ask me I’d laugh, “Oh, you mean like pickles and ice cream? Nah.” Apparently I didn’t think that my consuming vats of spinach dip, red hots, and lemonade was out of the ordinary.
And I still can’t explain why my kids won’t touch spinach.
Did you have any weird pregnancy cravings?
Plus, more from The Bump:
Weird Pregnancy Cravings — Decoded
Craziest Things Moms Craved During Their Pregnancies
Most Common Pregnancy Symptoms
The Knot Blog
The Nest Blog
[...] more about my weird pregnancy cravings — that I totally didn’t think were weird at the time — at TheBump.com. Got any of [...]
My weirdest craving was wasabi peas. How is that for random?! I would eat bags of them. I also wanted watermelon all the time and anything sour… my kids don’t show preferences for those things though!
Me too with the watermelon! Especially when I was pregnant in the summer.
I’m due on Valentines day! I mostly have eaten a lot of pizza. Off and on I have also craved tacos and chicken quesadillas from taco bell with extra jalapeno sauce! Oh and lots of pumpkin spiced stuff
My grandma told me awhile back that when she was pregnant with her first child she loved strawberry ice cream with sauerkraut and fritos with pepsi lol.
My wife craved spicy foods. Anything she could get her hands on. Chili, tacos, burritos, and in the absence of all of those, hot sauce. Both my kids love Mexican food. Coincidence?¿Por qué no lo creo.
Potatoes in just about any form. I’ve never heard that one.
I haven’t had cravings for anything weird or for foods that don’t usually “go” together. My big craving is fruit! Strawberries, blueberries, canteloupe, and watermelon. Especially the watermelon.
My husband and I went to his work party over the weekend and there was an appetizer/cocktail hour…I pigged out on watermelon and strawberries and passed up all the other stuff.
[...] the anemia — or low iron — makes sense. I think that’s why when I was pregnant I had crazy cravings for spinach dip. I do take a multivitamin, one of the kid’s Flintstones chewables, when I [...]
[…] imagine how insane it must feel to a woman who is actually pregnant? No pregnant woman is immune to crazy pregnancy cravings, and most of these cravings are stuffed full of fat and calories. And pregnancy cravings may not […]