Baby’s preferences

Infants generally prefer sweet smells and they detest bitter or acidic smells. Babies may breathe deeply to catch smell of banana, sugar, or milk. They likewise will turn their head away when introduced to pungent smells like that of vinegar or alcohol.

Scent of mother’s skin and milk

It is amazing that after a week to ten days, a baby can recognize the smell of mother’s milk. He will turn toward his mother’s nursing pad and will avoid nursing pads of other nursing mothers. Isn’t this amazing, yes, they have special affinity toward mothers and they do exhibit it in various subtle ways.

In fact, the breastfed baby who resists taking formula from his mother is not turned off by the taste. He smells her milk as she holds him, and that familiar odor "means" food. By five days of age, experiments have shown, babies have learned this. When a milk-soaked nursing pad and a clean unused one were held on alternate sides near a baby's cheeks, he turned his head to the milk pad. By ten days of age, babies differentiated between two milk-soaked pads one of the mother's, the other of another nursing mother and rapidly turned to select their own mother's. What a sensitive distinction this is!

Scent of the father

Baby have strong smelling sense and they may respond to smell of their fathers. A breastfed baby often stirs up a real fuss when mother occasionally tires to give him a bottle. He may flatly refuse to take it even though he's obviously hungry. But if father settles down with the baby, he will usually take the whole feeding as smoothly as though it is his regular fare at every meal. An older breastfed baby may really be resisting the switch to bottle-feeding. But with a newborn there's a different reason connected with sense of smell and touch of father.