Effect of Maternal Multivitamin Supplementation on the Mental and Psychomotor Development of Children Who Are Born to HIV-1–Infected Mothers in Tanzania Maternal supplementation with very-long-chain n-3 fatty acids during pregnancy and lactation augments children's IQ at 4 years of age. A Docosahexaenoic Acid-Functional Food During Pregnancy Benefits Infant Visual Acuity at Four but not Six Months of Age Effect of iron supplementation during pregnancy on the intelligence quotient and behavior of children at 4 y of age: long-term follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Effect of zinc supplementation of pregnant women on the mental and psychomotor development of their children at 5 y of age. Essential n-3 fatty acids in pregnant women and early visual acuity maturation in term infants. Maternal consumption of a docosahexaenoic acid-containing functional food during pregnancy: benefit for infant performance on problem-solving but not on recognition memory tasks at age 9 mo. Effects of prenatal food and micronutrient supplementation on infant development: a randomized trial from the Maternal and Infant Nutrition Interventions, Matlab (MINIMat) study. Mental and psychomotor development in Indonesian infants of mothers supplemented with vitamin A in addition to iron during pregnancy. Cognitive assessment of children at age 2½ years after maternal fish oil supplementation in pregnancy: a randomised controlled trial Effect of iron supplementation during pregnancy on the behaviour of children at early school age: long-term follow-up of a randomised controlled trial. Supplementation of fish-oil and soy-oil during pregnancy and psychomotor development of infants. Zinc supplementation during pregnancy and effects on mental development and behaviour of infants: a follow-up study Effects of Maternal Multimicronutrient Supplementation on the Mental Development of Infants in Rural Western China: Follow-up Evaluation of a Double-Blind, Randomized, Controlled Trial The Bacon Chow study: maternal nutritional supplementation and infant behavioral development. Maternal docosahexaenoic acid supplementation during pregnancy and visual evoked potential development in term infants: a double blind, prospective, randomised trial Effect of Supplementing Pregnant and Lactating Mothers With n-3 Very-Long-Chain Fatty Acids on Children's IQ and Body Mass Index at 7 Years of Age CONSORT 2010 Statement: updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials
OBJECTIVES . To determine the association between maternal multivitamin supplementation and the mental and psychomotor development of children who are born to HIV-1–infected mothers in Tanzania , as secondary endpoints in a r and omized trial that investigated the effect of maternal multivitamin supplementation on HIV-1 vertical transmission and progression . METHODS . The Bayley Scales of Infant Development , 2nd Edition , were administered at 6 , 12 , and 18 months of age to a subset of children ( N = 327 ) . We assessed the effect of vitamin A and multivitamin ( vitamins B , C , and E ) supplementation using linear regression models and Cox proportional hazard models for the Mental Development Index , the Psychomotor Development Index , and raw scores separately . RESULTS . Multivitamin supplementation was associated significantly with a mean increase in Psychomotor Development Index score of 2.6 ( 95 % confidence interval : 0.1–5.1 ) . Multivitamins were also significantly protective against the risk for developmental delay on the motor scale ( relative risk : 0.4 ; 95 % confidence interval : 0.2–0.7 ) but not on the Mental Development Index .  Vitamin A supplementation had no significant effect on these outcomes . CONCLUSIONS . Maternal multivitamin supplements provide a low-cost intervention to reduce the risk for developmental delays among infants who are born to HIV-positive mothers in developing countries OBJECTIVES Docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA ; 22:6 n-3 ) and arachidonic acid ( AA ; 20:4 n-6 ) are important for development of the central nervous system in mammals . There is a growth spurt in the human brain during the last trimester of pregnancy and the first postnatal months , with a large increase in the cerebral content of AA and DHA .  The fetus and the newborn infant depend on maternal supply of DHA and AA . Our hypothesis was that maternal intake of DHA during pregnancy and lactation is marginal and that high intake of this fatty acid would benefit the child . We examined the effect of supplementing pregnant and lactating women with very-long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids ( PUFAs ; cod liver oil ) on mental development of the children , compared with maternal supplementation with long-chain n-6 PUFAs ( corn oil ) . METHODS The study was r and omized and double-blinded . Pregnant women were recruited in week 18 of pregnancy to take 10 mL of cod liver oil or corn oil until 3 months after delivery . The cod liver oil contained 1183 mg/10 mL DHA , 803 mg/10 mL eicosapentaenoic acid ( 20:5 n-3 ) , and a total of 2494 mg/10 mL summation operator n-3 PUFAs . The corn oil contained 4747 mg/10 mL linoleic acid ( 18:2 n-6 ) and 92 mg/10 mL alpha-linolenic acid ( 18:3 n-3 ) . The amount of fat-soluble vitamins was identical in the 2 oils ( 117 micro g/mL vitamin A , 1 micro g/mL vitamin D , and 1.4 mg/mL dl-alpha-tocopherol ) . A total of 590 pregnant women were recruited to the study , and 341 mothers took part in the study until giving birth . All infants of these women were scheduled for assessment of cognitive function at 6 and 9 months of age , and 262 complied with the request . As part of the protocol , 135 subjects from this population were invited for intelligence testing  with the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children ( K-ABC ) at 4 years of age . Of the 135 invited children , 90 came for assessment . Six children did not complete the examination . The K-ABC is a measure of intelligence and achievement design ed for children aged 2.5 years through 12.5 years . This multisubtest battery comprises 4 scales : Sequential Processing , Simultaneous Processing , Achievement ( not used in the present study ) , and Nonverbal Abilities . The Sequential Processing and Simultaneous Processing scales are hypothesized to reflect the child 's style of problem solving and information processing . Scores from these 2 scales are combined to form a Mental Processing Composite , which serves as the measure of intelligence in the K-ABC . RESULTS We received dietary information from 76 infants ( 41 in the cod liver oil group and 35 in the corn oil group ) , documenting that all of them were breastfed at 3 months of age . Children who were born to mothers who had taken cod liver oil ( n = 48 ) during pregnancy and lactation scored higher on the Mental Processing Composite of the K-ABC at 4 years of age as compared with children whose mothers had taken  corn oil  ( n = 36 ; 106.4 [ 7.4 ] vs 102.3 [ 11.3 ] ) . The Mental Processing Composite score correlated significantly with head circumference at birth ( r = 0.23 ) , but no relation was found with birth weight or gestational length . The children 's mental processing scores at 4 years of age correlated significantly with maternal intake of DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid during pregnancy . In a multiple regression model , maternal intake of DHA during pregnancy was the only variable of statistical significance for the children 's mental processing scores at 4 years of age . CONCLUSION Maternal intake of very-long-chain n-3 PUFAs during pregnancy and lactation may be favorable for later mental development of children Within the visual system , docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA , 22:6n−3 ) is an important structural component for retinal photoreceptors and cortical gray matter . There is a marked decrease in neural DHA accumulation in the face of DHA deficiency . DHA is accumulated at an accelerated rate during pregnancy , especially in the third trimester . However , pregnant women in the US and Canada have dietary DHA intakes that are significantly below the optimal level . The main objective of this study was to determine whether a DHA-functional food during pregnancy would benefit infant visual acuity at four and six months of age measured behaviorally using the acuity card procedure ( ACP ) . In a r and omized , longitudinal , double-blinded , and placebo-controlled trial , 30 pregnant women received either the DHA-functional food ( n = 16 ) or the placebo ( n = 14 ) . There were significant main effects for visual acuity at four months of age ( P = 0.018 ) . The mean acuity scores were 3.8 ± 1.1 cycles/degree in the DHA group versus 3.2 ± 0.7 cycles/degree in the placebo group . At six months there were no group differences . Based on our results , we conclude that DHA supplemented during pregnancy plays a role in the maturation of the visual system BACKGROUND Iron supplements are often prescribed during pregnancy despite the lack of intervention trials that have assessed the effects of supplementation in pregnancy on childhood development . OBJECTIVE The objective was to determine whether iron supplementation during pregnancy influences  childhood intelligence quotient ( IQ )  in an industrialized country . DESIGN Pregnant women ( n = 430 ) were r and omly allocated to receive iron ( 20 mg/d ) or placebo from 20 wk gestation until delivery , and the women and their children were followed up over the long term ( 4 y ) . Seventy percent of these families participated in the follow-up . The proportion of women with iron deficiency anemia at the end of pregnancy was 1 % ( 2 of 146 ) in the iron group and 11 % ( 15 of 141 ) in the placebo group . The primary outcome was the IQ of the children at 4 y of age , as assessed by the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale . Secondary outcomes included child behavior and the general health of the mothers . RESULTS The mean IQ was not significantly different ( P = 0.980 ) between the children of the iron-supplemented mothers ( 109 + /- 11 ; n = 153 ) and the children of the mothers in the placebo group ( 109 + /- 11 ; n = 149 ) . However , the percentage of children with an abnormal behavior score was higher in the iron group ( 24 of 151 , or 16 % ) than in the placebo group ( 12 of 149 , or 8 % ) ; the relative risk was 1.97 ( 95 % CI : 1.03 , 3.80 ; P = 0.037 ) . There was no significant difference in the health of the mothers between groups , as assessed by the SF-36 Health Survey . CONCLUSIONS Prenatal iron supplementation that reduces the incidence of iron deficiency anemia from 11 % to 1 % has no effect on the IQ of the offspring at 4 y of age BACKGROUND A negative effect of prenatal zinc deficiency on brain function has been well established in experimental animals , but this association in humans is controversial . OBJECTIVE We evaluated the effect of prenatal zinc supplementation on the mental and psychomotor development of 355 children whose mothers participated in a double-blind trial of zinc supplementation that result ed in increased head circumference and birth weight .  DESIGN The children took 6 tests-the Differential Ability Scales , Visual Sequential Memory , Auditory Sequential Memory , Knox Cube , Gross Motor Scale , and Grooved Pegboard tests-at a mean age of 5.3 y. The scores were compared between the children of women who received a daily oral dose of 25 mg Zn during the second half of pregnancy and the children of women who received placebo . RESULTS There were no differences in the test scores of neurologic development between the 2 groups . We analyzed the scores in 4 subgroups on the basis of maternal body mass index , because the increases in birth weight and head circumference due to the supplementation occurred only in the children of women with a body mass index ( in kg/m(2 ) ) < 26.0 in the original trial . No differences in the scores were found between these subgroups . CONCLUSIONS Zinc supplementation of women in the latter half of pregnancy had no effect on the neurologic development of their children at age 5 y. It is not known whether our findings of no positive effect in the population with apparently inadequate zinc nutriture can be readily extrapolated to other population BACKGROUND Docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA ) is important to neural development . Whether DHA intakes are low enough in some pregnant women to impair infant development is uncertain . OBJECTIVE We sought to determine whether DHA deficiency occurs in pregnant women and contributes to poor infant development . DESIGN Biochemical cutoffs , dietary intakes , or developmental scores indicative of DHA deficiency are not defined . Infant development has a distribution in which an individual 's potential development is unknown . This was a r and omized intervention to establish a distribution of developmental scores for infants of women with DHA intakes considered to be above requirements against which to compare the development of infants of mothers consuming their usual diet .  DHA ( 400 mg/d ; n = 67 ) or a placebo ( n = 68 ) was consumed by the women from 16 wk gestation until delivery . We determined maternal red blood cell ethanolamine phosphoglyceride fatty acids , dietary intakes at 16 and 36 wk gestation , and infant visual acuity at 60 d of age . RESULTS We described an approach to identify DHA deficiency when biochemical and functional markers of deficiency are unknown . In multivariate analyses , infant visual acuity was related to sex ( beta = 0.660 , SE = 0.93 , and odds ratio = 1.93 ) and maternal DHA intervention ( beta = 1.215 , SE = 1.64 , and odds ratio = 3.37 ) . More infant girls in the placebo than in the DHA intervention group had a visual acuity below average ( P = 0.048 ) . Maternal red blood cell ethanolamine phosphoglyceride docosatetraenoic acid was inversely related to visual acuity in boys ( rho = -0.37 , P < 0.05 ) and girls ( rho = -0.48 , P < 0.01 ) . CONCLUSIONS These studies suggest that some pregnant women in our study population were DHA-deficient BACKGROUND There are few studies reporting on docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA , 22:6n-3 ) supplementation during pregnancy and infant cognitive function . DHA supplementation in pregnancy and infant problem solving in the first year have not been investigated . OBJECTIVE We tested the hypothesis that infants born to women who consumed a DHA-containing functional food during pregnancy would demonstrate better problem-solving abilities and recognition memory than would infants born to women who consumed the placebo during pregnancy . DESIGN In a double-blind , placebo-controlled , r and omized trial , pregnant women consumed a DHA-containing functional food or a placebo from gestation week 24 until delivery . Study groups received DHA-containing cereal-based bars ( 300 mg DHA/92-kcal bar ; average consumption : 5 bars/wk ; n = 14 ) or cereal-based placebo bars ( n = 15 ) . The Infant Planning Test and Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence were administered to infants at age 9 mo . The problem-solving trial included a support step and a search step . The procedure was scored on the basis of the infant 's performance on each step and on the entire problem ( intention score and total intentional solutions ) . Scores were generated on the basis of the cumulative performance of the infant on 5 trials . RESULTS Treatment had significant effects on the performance of problem-solving tasks : total intention score ( P = 0.017 ) , total intentional solutions ( P = 0.011 ) , and number of intentional solutions on both cloth ( P = 0.008 ) and cover ( P = 0.004 ) steps . There were no significant differences between groups in any measure of Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence . CONCLUSION These data point to a benefit for problem solving but not for recognition memory at age 9 mo in infants of mothers who consumed a DHA-containing functional food during pregnancy BACKGROUND Few data exist for the effects of multiple micronutrient ( MM ) or food supplementation to undernourished pregnant women on their offsprings ' development . OBJECTIVE We aim ed to compare the effects on infant development of early ( 8 - 10 wk gestation ) or usual ( approximately 17 wk gestation ) supplementation with food and MM , 30 mg Fe + 400 microg folate , or 60 mg Fe + 400 microg folate . DESIGN A large , r and omized , controlled trial of pregnancy supplementation was conducted in Bangladesh . A sub sample of infants ( n = 2853 ) were assessed on 2 problem-solving tests ( support and cover tests ) , the motor index of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development , and Wolke 's behavior ratings at 7 mo of age . RESULTS There were no significant effects of any intervention in the group as a whole . However , infants of undernourished mothers [ body mass index ( BMI ; in kg/m2 ) < 18.5 ] who received early food supplementation performed slightly but significantly ( P = 0.035 ) better on the support test than did infants of mothers who received usual food supplementation ( z score : 0.17 ; 95 % CI : 0.01 , 0.33 ) . There were no benefits in infants of higher- BMI mothers ( P = 0.024 for BMI x food interaction ) . Children of low- BMI mothers who received MMs had slightly better motor scores ( z score : 0.28 ; 95 % CI : 0.08 , 0.48 ) and activity ratings ( z score : 0.24 ; 95 % CI : 0.037 , 0.45 ) than did those who received 30 mg Fe + 400 microg folate , whereas other children did not benefit ( P = 0.05 for both motor scores and BMI x micronutrients and for activity and BMI x micronutrients ) . CONCLUSIONS Small benefits from early food and MM supplementation were found in infants of low- BMI but not of high- BMI mothers . However , the benefits were of doubtful functional importance , and longer follow-up is required to determine programmatic implication Maternal nutrition is important for fetal development , but its impact on the functional outcome of infants is still unclear . The present study investigated the effects of vitamin A and Fe supplementation during gestation on  infant mental and psychomotor development . Mothers of infants from five villages in Indonesia were r and omly assigned to supervised , double-blind supplementation once per week from approximately 18 weeks of pregnancy until delivery . Supplementation comprised 120 mg Fe+500 microg folic acid with ( n 94 ) or without ( n 94 ) 4800 microg retinol in the form of retinyl acetate .  Mothers of infants who participated in the national Fe+folic acid supplementation programme , but whose intake of supplements was not supervised , were recruited from four other villages ( n 88 ) . The mental and psychomotor development of infants was assessed , either at 6 or 12 months of age , using the Bayley Scales of Infant Development ( BSID ) . We found no impact of vitamin A supplementation on mental or psychomotor development of infants . In addition , infants whose mothers had received weekly Fe supplementation had similar mental and psychomotor indices as those whose mothers had participated in the governmental Fe supplementation programme . The study population was moderately Fe and vitamin A deficient . The size of the treatment groups was large enough to detect a mean difference of 10 points on the BSID , which is less than 1 sd ( 15 points ) of the average performance of an infant on the BSID . In conclusion , the present study did not find an impact of weekly supplementation of 4800 RE vitamin A in addition to Fe during gestation on functional development  of Indonesian infants . However , smaller improvements in development may be seen if studied in a larger and /or more deficient population Objective : To assess the effects of antenatal omega 3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid ( n-3 LC PUFA ) on cognitive development in a cohort of children whose mothers received high-dose fish oil in pregnancy . Design : A double-blind r and omised placebo-controlled trial . Setting : Perth , Western Australia , Australia . Patients : 98 pregnant women received the supplementation from 20 weeks ’ gestation until delivery . Their infants ( n = 72 ) were assessed at age 2½ years . Interventions : Fish oil ( 2.2 g docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA ) and 1.1 g eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)/day ) or olive oil from 20 weeks ’ gestation until delivery . Outcome measures : Effects on infant growth and developmental quotients ( Griffiths Mental Development Scales ) , receptive language ( Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test ) and behaviour ( Child Behaviour Checklist ) . Results : Children in  the fish oil-supplemented group ( n = 33 ) attained a significantly higher score for eye and h and coordination ( mean ( ( SD ) score 114 ( 10.2 ) ) than those in the placebo group ( n = 39 , mean score 108 ( SD 11.3 ) ; p = 0.021 , adjusted p = 0.008 ) . Eye and h and coordination scores correlated with n-3 PUFA levels in cord blood erythrocytes ( EPA : r = 0.320 , p = 0.007 ; DHA : r = 0.308 , p = 0.009 ) and inversely correlated with n-6 PUFA ( arachidonic acid 20:4n-6 : r = −0.331 , p = 0.005 ) . Growth measurements in the two groups were similar at age 2½ years . Conclusion : Maternal fish oil supplementation during pregnancy is safe for the fetus and infant , and may have potentially beneficial effects on the child ’s eye and h and coordination . Further studies are needed to determine the significance of this finding Although routine Fe supplementation in pregnancy is a common practice , its clinical benefits or risks are uncertain . Children born to mothers in the Fe group in a trial of Fe supplementation in pregnancy have been found to have a significantly higher risk of abnormal behaviour at 4 years of age than those born to mothers in the placebo group . The objective of the present study therefore was to determine whether Fe supplementation in pregnancy influences child behaviour at early school age . The study was a follow-up of children at 6 - 8 years of age after women ( n 430 ) were r and omly allocated to receive a daily Fe supplement ( 20 mg ) or placebo from 20 weeks gestation until delivery . The supplement reduced the incidence of Fe-deficiency anaemia at delivery from 9 % to 1 % . Child behaviour and temperament were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Question naire and the Short Temperament Scale for Children . Of the children , 264 ( 61 % ) participated in the follow-up . Mean behaviour and temperament scores and the proportion of parent-rated and teacher-rated abnormal total difficulties scores did not differ between the Fe and placebo groups . However , the incidence of children with an abnormal teacher-rated peer problems subscale score was higher in the Fe group ( eleven of 112 subjects ; 8 % ) than in the placebo group ( three of 113 subjects ; 2 % ) ; the relative risk was 3.70 ( 95 % CI 1.06 , 12.91 ; P = 0.026 ) . We conclude that prenatal Fe supplementation had no consistent effect on child behaviour at early school age in this study population . Further investigation regarding the long-term effects of this common practice is warranted Supplementation of docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA ) in infancy improves neuro-developmental outcomes , but there is limited information about the impact of supplementing pregnant mothers with DHA on the development of their infants . In a follow-up of a r and omized , double-blind controlled trial with 400 pregnant mothers , the effects of supplementation of fish-oil or soy-oil ( 4 g/day ) during the last trimester of pregnancy on psychomotor development and behaviour of infants at 10 months of age ( n=249 ) were assessed . The quality of psychosocial stimulation at home ( HOME ) and nutritional status of the subjects were also measured . There were no significant differences in the fish-oil group and soy-oil group in any of the developmental ( mean + /-SD mental development index : 102.5 + /- 8.0 vs. 101.5 + /- 7.8 , psychomotor development index : 101.7 + /- 10.0 vs. 100.5 + /- 10.1 ) or behavioural outcomes . It may , therefore , be concluded that supplementation of fish-oil during the last trimester of pregnancy does not have any added benefit over supplementation of soy-oil on the development or behaviour of infants in this population BACKGROUND Zinc deficiency is widely prevalent in developing countries . Zinc supplements given to Bangladeshi pregnant women have been shown to reduce infants ' infectious disease morbidity . We assessed these infants at age 13 months to establish the effect of antenatal zinc supplementation on infant development and behaviour . METHODS The study originally consisted of 559 pregnant women who were r and omly allocated to zinc ( 30 mg daily ) or placebo ( cellulose ) from 4 months ' gestation to delivery . The effect of zinc supplementation on pregnancy outcome and on infant growth and morbidity in the first 6 months was assessed . We then r and omly selected a sub sample of 168 infants from 383 who completed the study at 6 months . When babies in this sub sample reached age 13 months , we assessed mental development with Bayley scales of infant development-II , rated behaviour on a modified version of Wolke 's scales , and measured weight and height . FINDINGS When we controlled for differences between tested and non-tested participants , infants in the placebo group had higher scores on mental development index ( regression coefficient=3.3 , SE 1.6 , 95 % CI 0.2 - 6.5 , p=0.04 ) and psychomotor development index ( 5.1 , 2.4 , 0.2 - 9.9 , p=0.04 ) than those in the zinc-supplemented group . Zinc supplementation had no significant effect on behaviour or growth . The children 's nutritional status was poor , and weight-for-age at testing was strongly related to developmental levels , which accounted for some of the treatment effect . INTERPRETATION Prenatal supplementation with zinc alone in poor women from Bangladesh does not seem to confer benefit on infants ' mental development . Such treatment should be considered with caution OBJECTIVE . We investigated the benefits of maternal multimicronutrient supplementation during gestation on the mental and psychomotor development  of infants . METHODS . In a double-blind , r and omized , controlled trial , pregnant women ( N = 5828 ) in 2 rural counties in western China were assigned r and omly to receive multimicronutrient ( 5 minerals and 10 vitamins at levels approximating the recommended daily allowance ) , folic acid plus iron , or folic acid supplementation daily from ∼14 weeks of gestation until delivery . We assessed a subset of the newborns ( N = 1305 ) from the 3 supplementation groups by measuring their mental and psychomotor development with the Bayley Scales of Infant Development , at 3 , 6 , and 12 months of age . Multilevel analyses were used to compare the mental development and psychomotor development raw scores at 3 , 6 , and 12 months . RESULTS . Multimicronutrient supplementation was associated with mean increases in mental development raw scores for infants at 1 year of age of 1.00 and 1.22 points , compared with folic acid only and folic acid plus iron supplementation , respectively . However , supplementation did not increase significantly the psychomotor development raw scores up to 1 year of age . CONCLUSION . Compared with iron and folic acid supplementation , the administration of multimicronutrients to pregnant women  improved the mental development of their children at 1 year of age The effect of maternal nutritional supplementation during pregnancy and lactation on the mental and motor development of infants was studied in a rural population in Taiwan . Women were r and omly assigned to 2 treatment groups : 1 received a high-calorie and protein supplement ( " supplement " group ) ; the other received a placebo ( " control " group ) . Infants received no direct supplementation . At approximately 8 months of age , the mental and motor development of the infants was assessed using a research to maternal supplementation in either scale , nor were the mental scale scores of infants of supplement mothers significantly higher than infants of control mothers . However , the motor scores of supplement infants were higher than those of control infants , which is consistent with the findings of 2 other large-scale nutritional supplementation studies Aim : To test the hypothesis that maternal docosahexaenoic acid ( DHA ) supplementation during pregnancy enhances maturation of the visual evoked potential ( VEP ) in healthy term infants . Methods : One hundred women were supplemented with either fish oil capsules rich in DHA ( n = 50 ) or placebo capsules ( n = 50 ) from week 15 of pregnancy until delivery . Total fatty acids in red blood cells and plasma were measured at weeks 15 , 28 , and 40 of pregnancy and at delivery in umbilical cord blood . Infant visual pathway development was assessed using VEPs recorded to flash stimuli shortly after birth and to both flash and pattern-reversal stimuli at 50 and 66 weeks post-conceptional age ( PCA ) . Results : Maternal supplementation did not significantly elevate the level of DHA in umbilical cord blood . Moreover , there were no significant differences in any of the VEP measures observed between supplementation groups . However , maturity of the pattern-reversal VEP at 50 and 66 weeks PCA was associated with DHA status of the infants at birth . Infants with higher DHA status , both as a concentration and as a percentage of total fatty acids , showed shorter P100 peak latencies of the pattern-reversal VEP than those with lower DHA status . Conclusions : Maternal DHA supplementation during pregnancy did not enhance VEP maturation in healthy term infants . However , these results show an association between the DHA status of infants at term and early postnatal development of the pattern-reversal VEP , suggesting that DHA status itself may influence maturation of the central visual pathways OBJECTIVES . Arachidonic acid ( 20:4n-6 ) and docosahexaenoic acid ( 22:6n-3 ) are essential for brain growth and cognitive development . We have reported that supplementing pregnant and lactating women with n-3 very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids promotes higher IQ scores at 4 years of age as compared with maternal supplementation with n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids . In our present study , the children were examined at 7 years of age with the same cognitive tests as at 4 years of age . We also examined the relation between plasma fatty acid pattern and BMI in children , because an association between arachidonic acid and adipose tissue size has been suggested . METHODS . The study was r and omized and double-blinded . The mothers took 10 mL of cod liver oil or corn oil from week 18 of pregnancy until 3 months after delivery . Their children were tested with the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children at 7 years of age , and their height and weight were measured . RESULTS . We did not find any significant differences in scores on the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children test at 7 years of age between children whose mothers had taken cod liver oil ( n = 82 ) or corn oil ( n = 61 ) . We observed , however , that maternal plasma phospholipid concentrations of α-linolenic acid ( 18:3n-3 ) and docosahexaenoic acid during pregnancy were correlated to sequential processing at 7 years of age . We observed no correlation between fatty acid status at birth or during the first 3 months of life and BMI at 7 years of age . CONCLUSION . This study suggests that maternal concentration of n-3 very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids during pregnancy might be of importance for later cognitive function , such as sequential processing , although we observed no significant effect of n-3 fatty acid intervention on global IQs . Neonatal fatty acid status had no influence on BMI at 7 years of age The CONSORT statement is used worldwide to improve the reporting of r and omised controlled trials . Kenneth Schulz and colleagues describe the latest version , CONSORT 2010 , which up date s the reporting guideline based on new method ological evidence and accumulating experience . To encourage dissemination of the CONSORT 2010 Statement , this article is freely accessible on bmj.com and will also be published in the Lancet , Obstetrics and Gynecology , PLoS Medicine , Annals of Internal Medicine , Open Medicine , Journal of Clinical Epidemiology , BMC Medicine , and Trials
Background Although maternal nutrient status influences all aspects of fetal development including the brain , the impact of micronutrient supplementation on the baby 's mental function is a topic of debate .
This systematic review assesses the effect of single and multiple micronutrient supplementation during pregnancy on offspring mental development .