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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Moms: Eat This... Baby's IQ Will Increase |
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| Kathy |
| 01/09/03 at 18:52:14 |
| [code] The nannies of yesteryear may have been on to something. Pregnant and breast-feeding women who supplement their diets with cod liver oil may boost their children's intelligence, Reuters reports of new research from Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo, Norway. The theory was this: Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a type of omega-3 fatty acid that is found in cod liver oil, is crucial for the development of the central nervous system. If a pregnant and nursing mother consumed DHA in the third trimester of pregnancy and during the first three months of the baby's life when the brain is growing by leaps and bounds, then that might improve the child's intelligence. So the Norwegian researchers gave more than 300 women either cod liver oil or corn oil supplements in their 18th week of pregnancy. They took the supplements every day until the baby was 3 months old. Eighty-four children born to mothers who took the cod liver oil scored higher on intelligence tests measuring problem solving and information processing at 4 years of age. But before you start gulping down cod liver oil, note this: The Washington, D.C.-based Public Citizen's Health Research Group says the study was too flawed for such magnanimous conclusions since 40 percent of the parents in the study refused to have their children's intelligence tested. In addition, the PCHR says the results were not statistically significant for three of the four measures of intelligence that the researchers used. Still, the Norwegian study will continue with researchers testing the participants' IQs again when they are 7 years old. The study is published in the January online issue of Pediatrics. [/code] |
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