By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none, researchers said on Thursday in findings they called surprising.
The study, sure to be controversial, sought to assess whether it is wise, as some experts and the U.S. government have recommended, for pregnant women to limit their seafood intake to avoid mercury, a toxin that can harm the nervous system of developing foetuses.
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a U.S. National Institutes of Health researcher who led the study in The Lancet medical journal, said seafood is a key source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for fetal brain development.
The researchers said limiting pregnant women's weekly intake to 340 grams (12 ounces) of fish and seafood, as advised by the U.S. government, did not protect their children from developmental problems. Women who avoid seafood, they said, may actually be harming their babies by depriving them of essential nutrients needed for the developing fetal brain.
"It was very surprising," Hibbeln said in a telephone interview. "We did not expect such clear-cut results of the harm of low seafood consumption." The study looked at the children of more than 8,000 British women tracked by the University of Bristol to determine how kids fared if their mothers ate more than 12 ounces -- about two average meals.
These children, compared to those whose mothers ate lesser amounts, were more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication and social skills as toddlers, behaved better at age 7, and earned higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, the study found. The differences were striking when looking at kids whose mothers ate no seafood. They were 48 percent more likely to have a relatively low verbal IQ score at age 8 compared to children whose mothers ate the higher amount of seafood
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Children of mothers who ate more fish and other seafood while pregnant are smarter and have better developmental skills than kids of women who ate less or none, researchers said on Thursday in findings they called surprising.
The study, sure to be controversial, sought to assess whether it is wise, as some experts and the U.S. government have recommended, for pregnant women to limit their seafood intake to avoid mercury, a toxin that can harm the nervous system of developing foetuses.
Dr. Joseph Hibbeln, a U.S. National Institutes of Health researcher who led the study in The Lancet medical journal, said seafood is a key source of omega-3 fatty acids, important for fetal brain development.
The researchers said limiting pregnant women's weekly intake to 340 grams (12 ounces) of fish and seafood, as advised by the U.S. government, did not protect their children from developmental problems. Women who avoid seafood, they said, may actually be harming their babies by depriving them of essential nutrients needed for the developing fetal brain.
"It was very surprising," Hibbeln said in a telephone interview. "We did not expect such clear-cut results of the harm of low seafood consumption." The study looked at the children of more than 8,000 British women tracked by the University of Bristol to determine how kids fared if their mothers ate more than 12 ounces -- about two average meals.
These children, compared to those whose mothers ate lesser amounts, were more advanced in developmental tests measuring fine motor, communication and social skills as toddlers, behaved better at age 7, and earned higher verbal IQ scores at age 8, the study found. The differences were striking when looking at kids whose mothers ate no seafood. They were 48 percent more likely to have a relatively low verbal IQ score at age 8 compared to children whose mothers ate the higher amount of seafood
Via
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